If You Missed Svengoolie Last Saturday, Here’s Why

Lauren Novak October 20, 3:17 pm

Svengoolie with machine — Jeff Hinkle/WCIU-TV

Jeff Hinkle/WCIU-TV

What To Know

Many Svengoolie fans missed the scheduled double feature of Young Frankenstein and Frankenstein last Saturday, due to local MeTV stations choosing not to delay their newscasts or airing alternate programming.
Svengoolie addressed the confusion on Facebook, explaining that local stations’ decisions to prioritize news or sports led to different movies or shows being broadcast in various regions.
Fans expressed disappointment on social media and Reddit, but some shared alternative ways to watch missed episodes, such as online archives and real-time streaming sites.

This past Saturday night, some Svengoolie fans were left wanting when his show did not appear on MeTV as usual. Svengoolie is currently in his most beloved time of year, showcasing the most spooky movies in honor of October, the month of Halloween. Fans were supposed to see a double feature of Mel Brooks‘ Young Frankenstein and then 1931’s iconic Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, however, some were confused as to why House on a Haunted Hill or even another film was showing instead.

Svengoolie cleared up the confusion when he posted on Facebook: “To answer the many questions- if you saw “House on Haunted Hill” or a different movie last night- it’s because your local MeTV station did not want to delay their newscast to accommodate our expanded show.”

Credit: MeTV

While promoting the movie weekend, Svengoolie had shared that Chicago residents may see something different as well. He said on MeTV, “Our local Chicago viewers can get antsy with the encore performance of “THEM!” at 11 am on WMEU- the UToo- due to sports on WCIU the U.”

A look at Svengoolie’s Reddit page confirmed that some fans were disappointed with the swaps. Someone shared that on the Baltimore channel, Stooges was showing instead of Young Frankenstein while others said that the TV recordings were not recording correctly or at all. Some fans commented and pointed out that there are some Svengoolie archives on the Internet that are generally uploaded a few days after release for those who missed the films.

Another person commented, “Baltimore station. We got a football game, then the Stooges, and only then House of Svengoolie. I managed to get most of “Young Frankenstein” on the tvgarden streaming site on the computer; they run ME-TV in real time. (It’s free!) This is something like the 3rd or 4th time this has happened this year!”