Super Scary Saturday KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963)

2 months ago
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Super Scary Saturdays with Grandpa. Grandpa Munster ruled Saturday morning in the 80's. Just like any other kid in the 80's, Saturday morning was an unofficial holiday. After staying up on Friday night to watch the late night TV you were deprived of during the week(most notably USA's Up All Night), and playing Nintendo. You would wake up Saturday morning and pour yourself a big bowl of cereal. Then sit down in front of the TV to watch cartoons.
For me, however, and others in my area the fun didn't end at noon. No, because at 12:05 (TBS always started their shows five minutes after everybody else back then)
Super Scary Saturday hosted by non other than Grandpa Munster would proceed to rock our faces off with classic monster mayhem.
My favorite episode was for the movie "King Kong vs. Godzilla", in which Grandpa had guests from WCW help him promote the movie as a wrestling match. The whole episode was very funny and featured blow up toys of the monsters wearing ring gear doing wrestling promos. I really wish I had video of this to screen cap as the vision of King Kong with sunglasses and neon tights is one to behold.
From 1963, here is King Kong vs Godzilla
King Kong vs. Godzilla (Japanese: キングコング対ゴジラ, Hepburn: Kingu Kongu tai Gojira) is a 1962 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd, it is the third film in both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises, as well as the first Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. It is also the first time that each character appeared on film in color and widescreen. The film stars Shoichi Hirose as King Kong and Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla with Shoichi Hirose, Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yū Fujiki, Ichirō Arishima, and Mie Hama playing other prominent roles. In the film, Godzilla is reawakened by an American submarine and a pharmaceutical company captures King Kong for promotional uses, culminating in a battle on Mount Fuji.
The project began with a story outline devised by King Kong stop motion animator Willis O'Brien around 1960, in which Kong battles a giant Frankenstein's monster; O'Brien gave the outline to producer John Beck for development. Behind O'Brien's back and without his knowledge, Beck gave the project to Toho to produce the film, replacing the giant Frankenstein's monster with Godzilla and scrapping O'Brien's original story.
King Kong vs. Godzilla was released theatrically in Japan on August 11, 1962, and grossed ¥352 million, making it the second-highest-grossing Japanese film in history upon its release. The film remains the most attended Godzilla film in Japan to date, and is credited with encouraging Toho to prioritize the continuation of the Godzilla series after seven years of dormancy. A heavily re-edited "Americanized" version of the film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal International Inc. on June 26, 1963 as Universal's first King Kong film, the second being King Kong Escapes on June 19, 1968.

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