USA Up All Night, or Why I Watch B-Movies

Even before I knew I was a film buff, I watched USA Up All Night, which ran from 1989 to 1998 for over 900 episodes on USA Network, learning more about B Movies than I probably ever needed to know as a teenager. I would enthusiastically tune in most Friday and Saturday nights to watch Rhonda Shear or Gilbert Gottfried screen a particular doozy of a b-movie. Before commercial breaks and between the films, they provided humorous commentary on the films and performed in skits. A notable one with Gilbert Gottfried involved him contending for the position of the fifth Ramone.

The films on the show varied in quality and classic status, but many of them were movies that would not have had so prominent a platform on other networks during the time period. Many became cult classics. These films included much of the Troma catalog, including The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Class of Nuke 'Em High (1989). Both of these movies blew my mind as I was unprepared for the low budget film making, levels of gore, and audacious storylines. Of course, there were softcore or sexploitation offerings because these films were cheap to option like The Bikini Carwash Company (1992) and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1998). The show also featured more traditional horror and slasher fare, including the Friday the 13th and Psycho franchises. Thus, the show introduced American audiences to many films that may have been only shown sparingly on other networks in late-night slots or on HBO or Cinemax in uncut versions.

I fondly remember tuning in and watching because I knew that I would be in for an interesting viewing experience to say the least. The skits and commentary held the whole thing together, even when the show was screening a particularly boring or poorly made film. However, I quickly learned how to look for the merits in any film, and most of these were fun to watch, despite their limitations. I actually think that watching these films prepared me to write about film later in life. I never fell into the rut of analyzing a film based on special effects or budget. Undeniably, I was naturally attracted to films with intriguing narratives and characters or presented bold inversions of these ideas.

USA Up All Night was canceled when new management decided that the channel needed to reach out to a more general audience, but the show's title was still used around commercial breaks even when the network started airing more mainstream movies in the time slot. I remember tuning in one night and finding the hosts gone and a blockbuster film in rotation. Then, I had to start looking for these films in other places; I had become addicted.