As America celebrates its 250th birthday this weekend, we mark another anniversary: the 48th of Son of Svengoolie, patron saint of rubber monsters, bad puns, and grade‑Z cinema lovers across the country.
And if there is anyone qualified to preside over this milestone, it’s our favorite film critic, actor, and director (after ourselves, of course): Matthew Socey, host of Film Soceyology and Blues House Party on WFYI.
Socey didn’t just study film in a classroom; he learned it the old-fashioned Midwestern way—on a couch, in front of a flickering TV, while a guy in spooky makeup interrupted “serious” horror movies with terrible jokes and even worse props. Growing up in Flint, Michigan, Socey had Sir Graves Ghastly on Channel 2, syndicated Son of Svengoolie, Elvira, and even Cleveland’s Big Chuck and Little John. If you were a kid without a driver’s license and a taste for weird movies, this was your golden age.
One of the first Svengoolie airings Socey and I bonded over was “In the Year 2889,” a post‑apocalyptic epic that looked like it was shot one exit off a Southern California freeway. The “monster” was a rubber-suited veteran of “Lost in Space,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” and even “Star Trek.” The plot suggested humanity might repopulate the earth, but simple biology suggested otherwise. It was, in the highest compliment of this genre, so bad it was great.
What made Rich Koz’s Son of Svengoolie special—Socey is quick to point out—was the mix of local color and low-budget genius. Koz customized jokes for each city that carried the show, slipping in gags about local politicians, TV personalities, and, yes, even carpet companies. Between scenes, he launched into song parodies like “Angry at the Smurfs” (to Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”) and the legendary “Berwyn” bits that became Chicago in-jokes.
Fast‑forward to today: while the rest of the world argues over the latest blockbuster or The Mandalorian, Socey is happily championing smaller, stranger films—a Peter Asher documentary here, a much-maligned Frankenstein riff like The Bride there. The man will go to bat for movies Twitter declares “the worst ever,” which tells you he’s seen far, far worse.
And because that’s not enough stage time, this summer Socey is stepping into American history himself, playing Samuel Chase of Maryland in Richmond Civic Theatre’s production of 1776—the Mad (and madly tuneful) musical about the making of the Constitution—running the middle two weekends in August at Richmond Civic Theatre in Indiana.
So as the fireworks go off and we toast 250 years of the republic, save a little appreciation for the other founding figures of our imaginations: Son of Svengoolie and his cinematic offspring like Matthew Socey, who taught us that democracy is nice—but democracy with bad horror movies, song parodies, and local TV weirdos is even better.
