WPIX Revenge of the Creature in 3D

The television event of 1982 in Horrorscope 3D.

In the summer of 1982, a local TV station in my area, WPIX, promised a 3D television event to thrill and amaze: "Revenge of the Creature." While 3D technology had been around for a while, in the early eighties, it was making a bit of a comeback. To capitalize on this, TV stations decided to try something that hadn't been done before: broadcasting 3D to a home audience. I couldn't wait.

They advertised the broadcast on TV and in newspapers, and they were even discussing it on the news. That's how my mother and I found out about it. She had grown up during the original heyday of 3D films and would often regale me with tales of full theaters of people with red and blue glasses ducking and jumping in reaction to what they saw on screen. This showing on a local TV station was an opportunity for us to witness 3D and to watch a classic horror film that she had seen in the theater when she was a kid.

First, though, we needed to get our 3D glasses. This was easy enough; they were available at Burger King. So one Friday evening, we went to get cheeseburgers and picked up enough glasses for the entire family. Then we planned the evening. We were going to make this movie an experience with a party-like atmosphere. We went to the Acme Supermarket and loaded up on Pizza Rolls, Cocktail Franks, Chips & Dip, and three types of soda.

For the month leading up to the broadcast, it's all I could think about. Our neighbors, who had kids my age, also planned to watch it, and we talked at length about our expectations for the movie and the 3D experience. How realistic would it be? Was this the start of a new TV-watching paradigm?

On the day of the broadcast, July 26th, we started preparing the food when my mom unexpectedly got sick. She went to bed early, leaving my sisters and me to enjoy the film and snacks. My sisters were significantly older than me, and when they realized they could spend time with their friends, they quietly bailed on the event, leaving me alone to watch the film.

I watched it, enjoying the wackiness of the experience, but I was ultimately left disappointed. Was it the poor-quality 3D? Was it not watching it with my family? It was probably a combination of both. The next day, when my neighbors asked me how the experience was, I lied and said I had a great time. I'm not sure why I did that.

Whatever the reason, the whole thing has stuck with me, and I have wanted for years to redo this experience. Sadly, I just couldn't get my hands on the broadcast. That was until last month, when I was not only able to obtain a copy of the film in 3D, but also the entire WPIX broadcast from that night. This includes promos, commercials, and everything else I saw that evening all those years ago. Now I just needed to grab my trusty Burger King 3D glasses and rewatch it.

I decided that if I was going to do this, I wanted to relive and maybe redeem my memory of watching. So I tried to get some of the same foods I ate that day. Luckily, all the foods I had that day were still available and straightforward. With my plates full of Totino's Pizza Rolls, mini hot dogs, chips, and some ice-cold Coca-Cola, I sat down to watch it.

It's remarkable how things come back to you. Quickly, I remembered all the details that had faded over the years: the mediocre quality of the 3D, the commercials, the bumpers with Harry Anderson, and especially the 3D glasses' color calibrations.

The segments with Harry and the calibration weren't produced for this airing. Instead, they were pulled from a short video called "This Is 3D TV." The 3D Video Corp. created this brief video in 1982 for broadcasting on channels that were featuring anaglyphic presentations of 3-D films. Fortunately, this video has been posted online.

The quality of the 3D in the film isn't great. That can probably be explained by the process they used to convert it to 3D for broadcast. The movie was originally exhibited in cinemas using the polarized light technique and observed using glasses equipped with gray polarizing filters. This version has been converted by 3D Video Corp. to use the red-and-blue-glasses anaglyph form of 3D. Of course, it also didn't help that I was watching a home video recording. Still, while some parts were a bit blurry, at times I could perceive some depth, and the more modern "This Is 3D TV" bumpers had very clear effects.

I'm not going to comment on the quality of the film. Many people are critical of it, but I enjoy it and the other two "Creature" movies. It has fun underwater photography, a menacing monster in a suit, and the first screen appearance of Hollywood Legend, Clint Eastwood. What more could you want in a film?

Advertising is one of those things that only gets better with age, and this broadcast has some great ones. Watching them was a great cross-section of the commercials that have been etched into my brain. From food to video games and everything in between, I quickly found myself singing along to jingles I hadn't heard in decades. I have seen "Revenge of the Creature" a few times in my life and was familiar with the plot. But some of these ads, I hadn't seen in years. Naturally, this had me looking forward to commercial breaks.

In my childhood, this TV event loomed large because of the hype, but I always felt a sense of being let down. I wanted a copy so that I could process those feelings. Is it possible to recreate an event to try to recapture something you think you lost? Not exactly.

Sometimes, it's the disappointments that shape us. Nothing will change that or erase my older memories. But with this rewatch, I was able to create some new memories, very positive ones. To start, I didn’t have to watch it alone this time. Furthermore, I could appreciate things like the 3D technology, the broadcast's history, and the movie's details in ways I couldn't as a kid. So I am happy to report that this was satisfying enough that in a decade or so, when I think about this film, it's this viewing that I will remember.