Scary On CBS

Way before David Letterman brought his late-night show to CBS--heck, even before LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN was on NBC--the network filled the hours after the late local news with something called THE CBS LATE MOVIE. Often THE CBS LATE MOVIE was no movie at all, but rather reruns of old shows playing under that banner.

But sometimes a movie was involved, as you can see in this CBS LATE MOVIE opening from sometime in 1980. In keeping with the season, this episode had some spooky stuff. First, a 1974 episode of KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER starring Darren McGavin as a sardonic spookchaser. Then, one of the scariest TV-movies ever made, Tom Gries' 1976 chiller HELTER SKELTER, a shuddering docudrama of the Charles Manson murder trial.