If you lived close enough to Chicago in the 70's and 80's, you could dial in Channel 32 and could get spooked out by watching Svengooli, Son of Svengooli, and Creature Features on the weekends, In Rockford, we were treated to Uncle Don. If you had a taste to cheesy horror movies with a humorous local host, Uncle Don was the man. Uncle Don's real name is Matt Swan.

The show aired at 10:30 pm on Saturday Nights on Channel 39 (WQRF-TV) and was originally called Uncle Don's Terror Theater and would later become "Uncle Don's Theater".

Some of the cheesy horror movies we were treated to included:

  • War Of The Worlds
  • Food Of The Gods
  • The Dunwich Horror
  • A Bucket of Blood
  • Count Yorga
  • The Leach Woman
  • King Kong
  • Mighty Joe Young
  • Godzilla
  • Creature From the Black Lagoon
  • The Invisible Man
  • Dracula, Frankenstein
  • Wolfman
  • Pit And The Pendulum
  • The Black Cat
  • Murders In The Rue Morgue

Though if you are like most people, you didn't watch these movies for their cinematic qualities,  you wached the show for the humorous antics of the goofy host, Uncle Don.

As we get close to Halloween, let's travel back in time and recall some of Uncle Don's wacky bits.

Just for fun, have a few laughs as Uncle Don parodies Casey Kasem

Where is Uncle Don now? He Lives in DeKalb and is a Communications Professor at NIU

Matthew Swan / Uncle Don
Matthew Swan  / NIU Photo
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He wasn't exactly Elvira, but he was sure a treat to watch on Rockford TV. I sure miss those old days!

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