BOWMAN BODY'S COBWEB THEATRE FILMOGRAPHY!
After the Bill Bowman left WXEX-TV in Petersburg, he was off the air for less than a year when WVIR 29 in Charlottesville invited him to reprise the role for a new production . . . Cobweb Theater.
At the time, Mr. Bowman had been working for an independent production company doing all sorts of location programming including sports and wrestling, but a few years earlier (1973, to be exact) he had taken a temporary position to help WVIR get off the ground. In fact, one of the first local programs to originate in the area was Slime Theatre, hosted by Howard Meagle, that Bill inspired. So, when both Shock and Slime ended at about the same time, the WVIR VP Harold Wright approached Bill about reviving his show in Charlottesville, where it ran for two more years under the name of Cobweb Theatre. (For more about that, click here.)
1977: Saturday@ 6:00 PM/7:00 PM
9-10-77
9-17-77
9-24-77
10-01-77
10-08-77
10-15-77
10-22-77
10-29-77
11-05-77
11-12-77
11-19-77
11-26-77
12-03-77
12-10-77
12-17-77
12-24-77
12-31-77
NO INFO AVAILABLE
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
THE PROJECTED MAN
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO AVAILABLE INFO
PERILOUS VOYAGE
NO AVAILABLE INFO
NO AVAILABLE INFO
NO MOVIE-MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS TELETHON
WAR GODS OF THE DEEP
ANGRY RED PLANET (7 PM)
NO MOVIE-"CHRISTMAS LOST AND FOUND"
THE CAT PEOPLE
"What d'ya mean, no info, no movie?"
In places where you see, "NO INFO AVAILABLE," it simply means that Cobweb Theatre was listed in the paper but there was no movie info listed for the date. The Staunton News Leader offered movie details for prime time listings, but other movie info was put into a separate column . . . which was not always complete. This was especially true when Cob Theatre was new.
Special programming occasionally took over the airwaves, so where you see "NO MOVIE," it indicates seasonal or national programming substituted for that week. Also, sometimes Cobweb Theatre was listed as a 6:30 or 7 PM program, but this is almost certainly an error since NBC national programming began at 8 PM.
As an example of how unreliable a paper's listings can be, consider this listing of the NBC national broadcast of Christmas in Connecticut for Dec. 24, 1977. For a brief moment, fans might have hoped for Bowman Body to host the flick!
1-7-78
1-14-78
1-21-78
1-28-78
2-4-78
2-11-78
2-18-78
2-25-78
3-4-78
3-11-78
3-18-78
3-25-78
4-01-78
4-08-78
4-15-78
4-22-78
4-29-78
5-6-78
5-13-78
5-20-78
5-27-78
6-3-78
6-10-78
6-17-78
6-24-78
7-1-78
7-8-78
7-15-78
7-22-78
7-27-78
8-5-78
8-12-78
8-19-78
8-26-78
9-2-78
9-9-78
9-16-78
9-23-78
9-30-78
10-7-78
10-14-78
10-21-78
10-28-78
11-4-78
11-11-78
11-18-78
11-25-78
12-2-78
12-9-78
12-16-78
12-23-78
12-30-78
1978: Saturday@ 6:00
JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN
NO INFO AVAILABLE
RED PLANET MARS
RED PLANET MARS (re-list = likely error)
NO INFO AVAILABLE
DONOVAN'S BRAIN (6:30)
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA
NO INFO AVAILABLE
THE PHARAOH'S CURSE
MISSION STAR DUST
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE
THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
YONGARY: MONSTER FROM THE DEEP
NO INFO AVAILABLE
SPY IN YOUR EYE
VOYAGE INTO SPACE
BEDLAM
DESTROY ALL PLANETS
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
WARNING FROM SPACE
THE CREEPING UNKNOWN
THE NEANDERTHAL MAN
GAMERA VS MONSTER X
ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE
THE CONQUEROR WORM
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (re-list = likely error)
NO INFO AVAILABLE
RED PLANET MARS
MASTER OF THE WORLD
MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
THE BODY SNATCHER
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
BLACK SABBATH
MAGIC SERPENT
TERROR IN THE CRYPT
ZONTAR: THE THING FROM VENUS
HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD
THE CURSE OF DRACULA
DONOVAN'S BRAIN
PLANET OF BLOOD
NO MOVIE-MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS TELETHON
REPTILICUS
THE BLACK SLEEP (erroneously listed as The Black Sheep
NO INFO AVAILABLE
NO INFO AVAILABLE
The filmography below was compiled from listings in the weekly TV guides from the Staunton News Leader between Sept. 11, 1977 and Dec. 24, 1978--though there is a final entry from 1979 when the Bowman Body returned to host a Halloween special featuring Boris Karloff in Bedlam. The show originally aired at 6:00 PM on Saturdays but moved slightly to 6:30 and again to 7:00 to accommodate national programming changes. TV listings are fairly accurate, but rarely 100% and depended in part on how seriously both the station and the paper took the task. If you have additional information, please contact us.
