Following a 1996 pilot movie,The Vanishing Man finally made it to British TV screens for an inane six-part series starring the irritating Neil Morrissey as undercover agent Nick Cameron, who turned invisible whenever he came into contact with water. Even worse was the BBC Scotland and Sci-Fi Channel-produced Invasion: Earth, which was shown in six fifty-minute episodes (each costing a reported $1.2 million). Written by Jed Mercurio, this tale of aliens from another dimension invading a remote Scottish village was one of the most ludicrously inept science fiction shows ever broadcast in the UK.
Having apparently lost the title they wanted (see above), Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks SKG produced the anime-style cartoon Invasion America in three hour-long segments. Despite a cast of well-known voices (including Leonard Nimoy), old ideas and poor animation didn’t help. DreamWorks and Spielberg had more success with Toonsylvania, featuring the gruesome comedy cartoon adventures of Igor (Wayne Knight), Dr Frankenstein (David Warner) and his dumb Monster Phil, along with the zombie family of Night of the Living Fred.
The Simpsons Halloween Special IX was also fun as Homer’s new hairpiece was possessed by the revenge-seeking spirit of an executed criminal, Bart and Lisa were sucked into an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon on TV, and Maggie turned out to be the offspring of alien commander Kang. Even better was The Angry Beavers episode “The Day the World Got Really Screwed Up!”, an hilarious Halloween special narrated by Peter Graves in which beavers Daggett and Norbert ended up at the home of “B” movie actor Oxnard Montalvo where they battled monsters controlled by an evil vampiric alien intelligence from another dimension. Guest voices included Adrienne Barbeau, William Schallert and Jonathan Haze.
Van-pires was a syndicated live action and computer-animated series in which a group of teens attempted to stop parasites from sapping the Earth of all its natural gases. The Fox Saturday morning cartoon Godzilla: The Series was a vast improvement over the flashy movie it was based on, and Saban’s cartoon Monster Farm was set on a rural farm full of monsters, including vampiric rooster Cluckula, Jekyll and Hyde sheep Dr. Woolly, monster pig Frankenswine, living-dead bull Zombeef and Egyptian mummy Cowapatra.
A quartet of transforming mummies with superhuman powers (“With the strength of Ra!”) and their sacred cat protected a twelve year-old San Francisco skateboarder, who was the reincarnation of an Egyptian prince in the cartoon Mummies Alive! The inevitable action toys followed.
Goggle Watch: The Horror of the House of Goggle Part 13 was a daily half-hour children’s series featuring the Goggle Family who decided to turn their guest house into a themed hotel, “Goggle House of Horror”. Even more infantile was the BBC’s Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, in which a schoolgirl (Olivia Hallinan) periodically transformed into a hairy giant monster.
A juvenile spin-off from the Kevin Sorbo show Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Young Hercules involved the teenage son (Ryan Gosling) of Zeus and his friends battling the fanged followers of the evil god Bacchus over several half-hour episodes.
Based on the short-lived 1991–92 series,Eerie Indiana “The Other Dimension” involved Mitchell Taylor (Bill Switzer) and his friend Stanley (Daniel Clark), who discovered that weirdness was spilling into their world via an inter-dimensional television signal.
The New Addams Family was an unfunny half-hour comedy series based upon the creepy characters created by Charles Addams. At least it included a welcome guest appearance by John Astin (the original Gomez from the 1964–66 series) and the excellent Nicole Fugere as Wednesday.
Inspired by the 1989 hit film and characters created by Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna and co-executive producer Ed Naha, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids followed the usually-bizarre exploits of scientist Wayne Szalinski (Peter Scolari) and his family.
The title of Kevin Brownlow’s slightly disappointing cable TV documentary, Universal Horror, was something of a misnomer as it also included material from several other studios. The History Channel’s In Search of History series featured two well-researched documentaries based around genre themes: Legends of the Werewolves looked at lycanthropes both real and fictional, while The Real Dracula investigated the life of Dracula author Bram Stoker and the historical facts behind the character. However, E! Entertainment’s Mysteries & Scandals: Bela Lugosi was a sleazy, tabloid-style expose of “the tormented life” of the actor that simply rehashed rumour, innuendo and myths as it concentrated on the end of Lugosi’s career as an alcoholic and drug addict.
For computer-users, The Learning Company/Red Orb, a division of Mindscape, released Blackstone Chronicles: An Adventure in Terror, a game for the PC that was based on John Saul’s series of books set in and around a haunted asylum.
The 8th World Horror Convention was held in Phoenix, Arizona, over the weekend of 7–10 May. Guests of honour were Brian Lumley, Bernie Wrightson and publisher Tom Doherty, with John Steakley as Toastmaster. The Media Guest, Tom Savini, failed to show up.
The Bram Stoker Awards were presented by the Horror Writers Association at a banquet on 6 June in New York City, with Douglas E. Winter as the Keynote Speaker and Edward Bryant as Toastmaster. The winners were Children of the Dusk by HWA President Janet Berliner and George Guthridge in the Novel category; Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis for First Novel; “The Big Blow” by Joe R. Lansdale (from Revelations/ Millennium) for Long Fiction/Novelette; “Rat Food” by Edo van Belkom and David Nickle (from On. Spec magazine) for Short Story; Karl Edward Wagner’s Exorcisms and Ecstasies edited by Stephen Jones for Collection, and Stanley Wiater’s Dark Thoughts: On Writing for Non-Fiction. Both William Peter Blatty and Jack Williamson were presented with Life Achievement Awards, a Specialty Press Award was given to Richard Chizmar for Cemetery Dance magazine and CD Books, while Sheldon Jaffery received the Board of Trustees’s 1998 Hammer Award for his service to the HWA.
Winners of the International Horror Guild Award were announced at the Dragon*Con Awards Banquet on Friday 5 September in Atlanta, Georgia. The Lifetime Achievement award went to Hugh B. Cave; Ramsey Campbell’s Nazareth Hill was voted Best Novel; The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton won in the Collection category; the Best Anthology award went to Revelations/Millennium edited by Douglas E. Winter; Drawn to the Grave by Mary Ann Mitchell won First Novel; “Coppola’s Dracula” by Kim Newman (from The Mammoth Book of Dracula) won in Short Form; “Cram” by John Shirley (from Wet-bones 2) was Best Short Story; Stephen R. Bissette was Best Artist; Best Graphic Story went to Preacher: Proud Americans by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, and Best Publication was Necrofile edited by Dziemianowicz, Joshi and Morrison. Although nominations were made in the film category, judges Edward Bryant, Hank Wagner and Fiona Webster abstained from presenting an award.
The 1998 British Fantasy Awards were presented at Fantasy-Con XXII in Birmingham, England, on Sunday 13 September. Voted for by members of the British Fantasy Society and FantasyCon, the winners were announced at the Awards Banquet by Master of Ceremonies Ramsey Campbell and Guests of Honour Freda Warrington and Jane Yolen. Light Errant by Chaz Brenchley won the Best Novel award (The August Derleth Fantasy Award); Best Short Story was Christopher Fowler’s “Wage-slaves” (from Destination Unknown/Secret City: Strange Tales of London); Dark Terrors 3: The Gollancz Book of Horror edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton was voted Best Anthology; Jim Burns was Best Artist; the Best Small Press Award went to Interzone edited by David Pringle; D. F. Lewis was presented with the Special Karl Edward Wagner Award, and a Special Convention Award was announced for past BFS President Kenneth Bulmer.