Reflecting back on 2011

 

As we move into the New Year I thought I’d take a moment to reflect back upon 2011. It was a real year of ups and downs for me. Professionally it was one of my most successful seasons to date, with some of my biggest achievements realized this year:

 2011 saw the DVD release of THE DREADFUL HALLOWGREEN SPECIAL through Alpha Video. This was collaboration with fellow horror host Penny Dreadful and her werewolf cohost/hubby Garou. It was a really neat project that began as a simple email question to Penny one day - “How would you feel about doing some kind of joint venture, a co-hosting project of some sort?” She liked the idea, we bounced ideas back and forth and took turns writing the script – I would write a segment, then send it to her, she’d write a segment then send it back, etc., until we had it finished. The finished project turned out to be something really special, and is available through ALPHA VIDEO here: http://www.oldies.com/product-view/1067D.html

We also had another successful Wonderfest appearance and screened The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special live Saturday night there. It was really neat seeing it in a group setting and the crowd really seemed to like it and “got” all the jokes. Cameron McCasland (my director and partner on the show) and I headed to Louisville and had a blast. Especially cool was the fact that we were able to incorporate my good friend Bob Burns into the live show once again, thanks in large part to my buddy J. Sorrels, who built the amazing Bob-Bot, a robot sidekick with a front plate on it that looked suspiciously like an ipad skyping Bob from his house in Los Angeles!  We’ve been doing these live shows since 2004 and it just wouldn’t be the same without Bob, so I was thrilled to include him and the crowd loved it.

We filmed another batch of PSAs this season, which turned out great. This year’s batch included one with the Wolf man talking about pet leash safety, one with the Frankenstein monster talking about recycling plastic bottles, and one with the Frankenstein monster and the Creature from the Nashville Lagoon talking about littering and proper trash disposal. They’ve gotten a lot of airplay on Nashville’s CW58 and best of all they were nominated for TWO Emmy’s – one in the PSA category and one for Cameron in  the writing category! AND speaking of Emmys, we were also nominated for a third Emmy for the Dreadful Hallowgreen Special in the entertainment category! We will find out in March if we win, so we’re all keeping our fingers crossed.

One of the most unique and amazing things that has happened since I started this horror host adventure occurred in 2011 when Dr. Gangrene appeared in the Dick Tracy comic strip (as Dr. Mean Green – name changed slightly for copyright reasons)! This was something I definitely never foresaw when I started this venture and it’s a real bucket-list type event for sure. I still kind of can’t believe it happened and thank writer Mike Curtis for including me in this historic strip!

Dr. Gangrene became a cover-boy this year when the Nashville Scene put me on the front of their magazine for their Halloween issue! I have wanted to get on the cover of that paper for years, and it was a real surprise when they asked me to do it. This was one of my goals I wanted to achieve but was never able to until now – Sir Cecil Creape, the Nashville host from the 70s, was on the cover of the SHOWCASE, a section of the Tennessean newspaper that was formatted similarly (square-bound with a color photo on the front). That section of the paper has been retired, and the closest thing that exists in Nashville nowadays is the Scene. PLUS the Scene is the hip Nashville paper that all the cool kids read, and they cover all the cool events in town, so any chance for some coverage there is always welcome. It was an honor to be featured on the cover and the shot they chose – me eating the pumpkin guts – definitely wasn’t the one I thought they’d choose from that photo shoot. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least!

In conjunction with the Nashville Scene appearance I hosted a 12-hour film festival at the historic Belcourt Theater called 12 Hours of Terror featuring Night of the Creeps, Abby, Squirm, Lady Terminator, Zombie, and Return of the Living Dead. Definitely one of the coolest lineups of films ever assembled, and I was there the whole day hosting the event. Good times!!  (Zombie on the big screen was a religious experience).

I also hosted the movie THE BURBS at the Nashville library this Halloween season. It was a great time and a good turnout. I also made appearances at the Nashville Zoo at Halloween to kick off their Ghouls at Grassmere event and the Nashville Horror and Comics Convention earlier in the month, too.

 This was by far my most prolific blogging year ever. I wrote 239 blog posts last year, including 100 posts on Vincent Price in celebration of the Vincentennial (Vincent’s 100^th birthday).

I also wrote a regular column for Scary Monsters Magazine, and this year I ran articles/interviews on:

·       Interview with Vincent Price collector Robert Taylor - issue #81

·       Hammer Films and Frankenstein - issue #80

·       Interview with the Count of Five (former Nashville horror host) - issue #79

·       Interview with Arch Hall Jr. talking about THE SADIST - issue #78

·       Interview with Count Basil (former Memphis horror host) - issue #77
   (technically Winter 2010 but it came out in 2011)

·       Interview with Dr. Creep – Scary Monsters Yearbook 2011

This year’s Horror Hootenanny was one of the best yet. We went back to a zombie theme this year and worked in conjunction with the Nashville zombie walk. We had a terrific turnout and great music all night from The Coffin Bangers, Alucard, Spookhand, The Creeping Cruds and my new favorites, Dead Dick Hammer and the TBA! We also had a ton of sponsors onboard this year who provided some fantastic giveaways – Unholy Apparel, Rue Morgue Magazine, Scary Monsters Magazine, Evil Pumpkins, Wicked Witch Productions, Terra Fossil Wines, Lone Wolf Body Art, the Coffee Pirate, and Unkle Pigors. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible, as it takes a lot of work to pull it off - and special thanks to Jeano and Tanya Roid for everything they've done over the years to support Dr. Gangrene - the Horror Hootenanny was originally Jeano's idea, as a fundraiser for my show, and it's grown over the past 8 years to THE horror rock event in Nashville.

My band, Spookhand, also had a big year, and played quite a few shows including one in Dayton Oh with my good buddy A. Ghastlee Ghoul and his band SPLATTERTUDE. Thanks for all the hospitality, Ghastlee - that was some good chili! We also recorded a second EP this year (still gotta get that full length done some time) which we distributed at the Hootenanny. So it was a busy year for us! BTW - Special thanks to my good friend Mark Greenbaum for all his help throughout the year - he played along good-naturedly as the victim at the Spookhand shows, hopping onstage uninvited only to have a limb lopped off and spray the crowd with blood. Mark designed and built the fake hand/arm props, and also played a transvestite in The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special - now that's a multi-talented guy!!

I also did several interviews throughout the year including HORROR SOCIETY,  RESEARCH MY TRASH,  and the MONSTERS FROM THE BASEMENT podcast . I also appeared on Nashville’s local NPR radio talking about my predecessor Sir Cecil Creape, in a piece written by my good buddy and fellow Creape fanatic, Randy Fox.

Most importantly of all starting in September we got back on the Nashville scarewaves with a new weekly show called Dr. Gangrene Presents. It airs Saturday nights at 1am (Sun morning) - I’m really enjoying the new format (half-hour) and this has been the most fun I’ve had producing the show to date. I am fortunate to work with Cameron, and the shoots are effortless and fun. This is the closest to what I envisioned when I first started the show, and we’ve aired 14 shows to date. Sometime this month we plan to announce a new time change to a better slot – details TBA.

On the personal side things were a bit shakier last year. My favorite uncle passed away at age 54 from cancer. That is way too young. I also found out my father (biological father – I was raised by my stepdad but over the past couple of decades reconnected with my real father) has cancer and probably has less than a year to live, too. My wife had two family members pass away last year, too. Death visited way too often in 2011. I also saw several close friends who had marriages and relationships fall apart over the past year, which is always a sad event. And to top it all off my doctor informed me just before New Year that I have high cholesterol and he wants me to have a heart scan and I probably need to start watching my diet. Gotta love aging – but hey, it beats the alternative!

 So it was an up and down year for lots of reasons, as they all are – but this year the highs seemed just a bit higher and the lows a bit lower. Here’s hoping 2012 is a bit more even keeled, or at least has a few less lows and I don’t have to attend any funerals.

Dr. Gangrene Scares Up Three Emmy Nominations

NASHVILLE, TN (11.20.2011) The Nashville/Midsouth Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences  announced their Midsouth Regional EMMY Award nominations on Friday, November 18, at a party hosted by Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) on Nashville’s legendary Music Row. Among the nominations were three for the creative minds behind television horror host, Dr. Gangrene.

Larry Underwood & Cameron McCasland picked up an EMMY nomination in the Entertainment category for the made for television movie “The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special” as well as two more nominations for Best PSA Campaign, and Best Short Form Writer for the “Go Green With Dr. Gangrene” series.

The good doctor said of the nomination, “This is a huge honor and it's great to see all our hard work appreciated. A big thanks to all the cast and crew who helped make these projects possible. We had a lot of fun with them and look forward to more horrific projects and collaborations in the future."
The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special pairs TV horror hosts Penny Dreadful & Dr. Gangrene together. The duo finds themselves readying for the upcoming Halloween season when suddenly all things go awry. It’s up to the physician of fright, Dr. Gangrene, and the eerie enchantress, Penny Dreadful, to set things right and save Halloween for everyone in this half hour special. Narrated by Washington DC’s legendary horror host Count Gore De Vol, this Halloween treat is packed with fright.

The “Go Green With Dr. Gangrene” series is a continuing collaboration between Underwood and McCasland and provides ways to make a safer, cleaner planet while using a horror theme as their backdrop. The 2011 installment featured Frankensteins monster, The Werewolf of Nashville, and The Creature from the Nashville Lagoon. The three newest shorts entitled, “Wolfbite”, “Creature Cooler”, and “Heating Up” provide tips on conserving the planet by cutting down on excessive waste, littering, and keeping tabs on pets. All three were filmed in and around Nashville landmarks, and are shot in glorious black & white as a loving nod to the classic monster films of yesteryear. McCasland was previously nominated for an EMMY in the Best Short Form Writer category for his work on “Go Green With Dr. Gangrene” in both 2008 and 2009.

Larry Underwood & Cameron McCasland

McCasland said of the nomination, “We’re just so happy that people like our show. Dreadful Hallowgreen was such a blast to make, and I'm not sure if we could ever pull something like that off again. Go Green has been a great joy for me to work on, and this past year even more so, as I got to bring in a lot of people who I had worked with in the past to play small parts. We’re just out there with rubber monster masks, and people seem to love it.”

The Dreadful Hallowgreen Special is distributed in the U.S. on home video and DVD by Alpha New Cinema. It premiered locally in Nashville on WNAB CW58 during Halloween weekend 2010, and was syndicated around the country. The made for television movie is a co-production of Shackle Island Studios and Peculiar Productions.

The 26th Annual Midsouth Emmy Awards will be announced during a live telecast in Nashville on March 17, 2012 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. For a full list of this year’s nominees please visit http://nashville.emmyonline.org/

Jennifer Lane of Decosimo Vaden. CPAs, who tabulated the ballots, announced that the 700 entries for the Midsouth Emmy Awards were judged by the Chicago/Midwest Chapter, the Mid-America Chapter based in St. Louis, the Mid-Atlantic Chapter based in Philadelphia, and the New York Chapter. She said Sixty-five television stations, production companies, and independent producers are named on the list of nominations.

Larry Underwood is an award winning writer and television producer. Outside of his role of Dr. Gangrene , he writes a regular column for Scary Monsters Magazine and daily musings in his Tales From The Lab Blog at drgangrene.com. Recently he was featured on the cover of Nashville Scene Magazine and in four color ink solving crimes alongside Dick Tracy in the classic comic strip.

Cameron McCasland is an Emmy nominated film maker from Edgewood Texas who has called Nashville home since 2001. His work has been seen on MTV, CMT, and film festivals around the globe. His upcoming feature film “The Lashman” is currently in post production.

Founded in 1957 The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a non-profit, professional organization dedicated to fostering excellence in television. The academy has 19 chapters with 15,000 members nationwide.

Dr. Gangrene's Haunted Halloween Recap

Greeting Fright Fans – Doctor Gangrene, your physician of fright here. Hope you all had a frightful and fun Halloween season! I really love how Halloween has become a month long event capped off with a night of trick or treating for young ghouls. It is a magical time of year and an event I look forward to all year long.

This Halloween season was perhaps the busiest I’ve ever had. I made an appearance at the Nashville Zoo to MC the costume contest opening night of their GHOULS AT GRASSMERE event, appeared at the Nashville Public Library to host THE BURBS, we held our 8^th annual Horror Hootenanny shock and roll event on October 8th, I appeared at the Nashville Horror and comic convention, and I hosted the 12 HOURS OF TERROR film festival at the historic BELCOURT theater on October 30th.

  

In the media I was featured in The Nashville Scene magazine in an article about Nashville Horror Hosts through the years (and even appeared on the cover this year). http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/nashevil-from-sir-cecil-creape-to-dr-gangrene-a-history-of-nashville-horror-hosts/Content?oid=2661246 The Scene is Nashville’s free newspaper/magazine that comes out weekly spotlighting all the music, events and news that’s cool.

I was also featured on Nashville’s NPR radio talking about Sir Cecil creape, Nashville’s host with the most from the 1970s. You can hear the interview here: http://wpln.org/?p=31164

In addition I also finally wrapped up my Vincentennial Vincent Price 100 posts countdown here on my blog. 100 posts about Vincent Price, many featuring exclusive photos from collector Robert Taylor’s wonderful Price collection. Good stuff and a huge thanks to Robert Taylor for playing along with me.

In addition to all this madness THE DREADFUL HALLOWGREEN SPECIAL aired on Saturday October 29^th, continuing the tradition of airing it in the Middle TN area. Busy season this year!! 

My new show DR. GANGRENE PRESENTS will continue to air every Sat night/Sun morning in all of Middle TN and Southern KY.Lots of great episodes to come, so keep watching WNAB CH58 (18 Comcast) for new episodes weekly!

To top it all off, THIS week I am going to make an appearance in the DICK TRACY comic strip! Look for me as Dr. Meangreen in the strip on Sat Nov 5^th and Sun Nov 6^th!! Definitely one of the coolest things to ever happen to Doctor Gangrene – immortalized in a comic strip!

Stay tuned for more Gangrene news, and until next time – STAY MAD!!

Wonderfest Weekend!

I'll be at the Wonderfest convention in Louisville, KY this weekend along with my director, Cameron McCasland, and fellow hosts Penny Dreadful and Garou the werewolf. We'll be hosting the Dreadful HallowGreen Special there - come see us if you're in the area. We have some really special surprises in store for the show that you won't want to miss!! We'll also have copies of the special with us, so catch me or Penny to get your copy!! See you there!

Dreadful hallowgreen to show @ wonderfest

Just announced, the Dreadful Hallowgreen Special is going to be shown live @ the wonderfest convention, hosted by yours truly. I'm looking forward to presenting this collaboration with fellow horror host Penny Dreadful to the live audience in Louisville. ' have several surprises lined up for the evening, as usual, and look forward greatly to the event!