October 9, 1959 - December 25, 1959 &
April 8, 1960 - July 1, 1960
John Zacherley, who became famous introducing horror films,and satirizing them on SHOCK THEATER / ZACHERLEY AT LARGE, on WABC TV, found a new home at WOR TV in October of 1959 and hosted "Zacherley at 12:00," a series initially lasting a little more than two months, totaling 12 broadcasts from October 9 - December 25, 1959, and then returning for another 13 broadcasts in the Spring of 1960.
These WOR TV channel 9 ninety minute programs were presented on Friday Nights at Midnight, re-run (video tape) Saturday at noon, and re-run again, Saturday Night at Midnight, thru November 28, 1959.
At his new WOR Ch. 9 berth, Zacherley remained a suave ghoulish monster from Cloud Transylvania, adding offbeat crazy humor to old "B" films which were edited to 60 minutes running time. The remaining 30 minutes of broadcast time was pure Zacherley.
On this classic show Zacherley and the symphonic orchestra and Gypsy Band perform the opera "All Quiet On The Balkan Front." It celebrates the Victory of Transylvania over Bohemia in 1332. In tongue and cheek fashion, Zacherley sings and explains the story as it progresses in six minute segments, between commercials and the showing of the 1944 feature film, "Cry of the Warewolf," presented that evening. Songs include: "Transylvania We Do Or Die," "A Passivist I Will Always Be," "Oh Where Oh Where Has My Hairy Friend Gone?," "I Am A Vampire Now," and "You Are The One Dear For Me Dear."
No video tapes and only a handful of excerpt kinescope clips from this WOR TV series of 25 programs survive (total of 12 & 1/2 hours of Zacherley 30 minute sketches broadcast), making this audio presentation a very rare retrospective, as well as other air checks, from this series, preserved in the Archival Television Audio collection.