37 years ago today: KISS meets the Phantom of the Park

[palitoy]

It blew my mind as a kid, not so much as a teenager. I may not be in love with KISS but this movie, it's got a place in my heart.....

[Mikey]

.....easy Catman they are serious

[johnnystorm]

Omg...as a kid I freaked out that this was on tv! Like you said, not so much now, but then...
Still, Anthony Zerbe is underrated as an actor , he was solid in all his roles, maybe not stellar, but consistant.
I do remember being weirded out by their voices. Ace Frehley's voice and accent, "Right Curley?", in particular. As the Celestial I always thought he'd talk like all deep and mystical like , instead he was kinda high school. Wonder why they didnt try some voice over stuff for them.

[cjefferys]

37 years ago, wow I feel old. My whole life revolved around Star Wars and KISS at that point, but the double punch of disappointment with this and the Star Wars Holiday Special that showed up a few weeks later still hurts a bit.

Ace Frehley's voice and accent, "Right Curley?", in particular. As the Celestial I always thought he'd talk like all deep and mystical like , instead he was kinda high school. Wonder why they didnt try some voice over stuff for them.

They overdubbed Peter's voice completely. I love Ace's voice (and laugh), it's a big part of his charm, I'm glad they left him alone.

[Blue Meanie]

Still not available on DVD by itself. It was in one of the Kiss Box Sets a few years back. I have a VHS copy of it and unfortunately all of the VHS copies I've seen are in LP speed. That's how the Video Company produced them here in the US. I've watched it and it is a "B" verging on "D" film. It does bring back early fall TV though. 2 Movies you could rely on back then was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Kiss Meets The Phantom of The Park EVERY fall on channel 5 here in NY. There is a Laser Disc of the movie which I find funny.

[palitoy]

I find it pretty funny that Peter is overdubbed by Zan from the Superfriends....

[Hector]

As one you tuber wrote...

"This almost looks like a scene from a Dirk Diggler movie"

God, that was bloody awful...but charming nevertheless...

[boss]

I remember being less disappointed finding out the truth about Santa.

[Werewolf]

You can't really say it has aged poorly because it was always pretty cringe worthy.

[Hector]

....

[EmergencyIan]

I dug it. Then again, I was 4 years old. Though, I think that it's still fun!

- Ian

[CrimsonGhost]

I prefer the European version "Attack of the Phantoms" to "Phantom of the Park". The edit is tighter and includes scenes not in the TV version that help the story make more sense...a little bit anyway. It also does away with the awful 70's cheap action movie soundtrack and uses songs from the solo albums instead and it works so much better. They cut a lot of Ace's lines however.

[palitoy]

I prefer the European version "Attack of the Phantoms" to "Phantom of the Park". The edit is tighter and includes scenes not in the TV version that help the story make more sense...a little bit anyway. It also does away with the awful 70's cheap action movie soundtrack and uses songs from the solo albums instead and it works so much better. They cut a lot of Ace's lines however.

I was just watching that, this print on youtube is nice and the soundtrack is way better. Paul Stanley's powers still appear to be doing "Blue Steel" from Zoolander though....

[cjefferys]

The "Attack of the Phantoms" theatrical cut is the version that appeared on one of the KISSology DVD sets, that's why it's easy to find nice prints of that one floating around compared to the TV version. The music is much better, the only downside IMO is less Ace.

[ZMOQ]

I prefer the European version "Attack of the Phantoms" to "Phantom of the Park". The edit is tighter and includes scenes not in the TV version that help the story make more sense...a little bit anyway. It also does away with the awful 70's cheap action movie soundtrack and uses songs from the solo albums instead and it works so much better. They cut a lot of Ace's lines however.

I did a lot of research a few years ago about the differences between the 2 versions of "Kiss Meets the Phantom". I used to have whole notebook pages of the sequence of the scenes, until I wrote a formal webpage on it. I also edited a version that combines both versions into a reasonably coherent narrative. If you're interested in a DVD of the combined versions, PM me.

http://http://home.netcom.com/~zmoq/...issPhantom.htm


I still have the magazine and the newspaper clippings. You can still see the date (Oct 28, 1978) on the TV guide clipping. When did "Attack of the Phantoms" hit the theaters? before or after?