MAD THEATER
SUPE'S ON!
SUPE'S ON WITH THE THREE STOOGES!


MARTY SULLIVAN
- "HENRY BROOKERSTEEN"
- "SUPERHOST"



"Supe's On!" was a hosted short film show with Marty Sullivan as "Superhost" on WUAB-TV, Channel 43 Cleveland from 1969 until 1988, running on Saturdays between 12:00 noon until 1:00pm.

The show was a warm up for the movie show - "Mad Theater" (1969-1987) which ran from 1:00pm until 4:00pm, also hosted by "Superhost" and was incorporated into "Supe's On!" in 1987.

In 1988, "Supe's On!" was reformatted as "Supe's On with the Three Stooges!", hosted by "Superhost"; ending in December 1989.

Marty Sullivan played mild mannered "Henry Brookersteen" who was able to transform into "Superhost" in a baggy Superman outfit.


From Wikipedia:
"Supe's On!" would begin at noon, an hour-long warm-up to the movies, with two "Three Stooges" shorts, and usually a "Laurel and Hardy" short as well. Superhost would appear during commercial breaks, cracking jokes, showing skits, and talking to the TV audience.

Superhost greeted fans with his famous "Hello, dere" (pronounced "dare") and followed with sketches like:
"The Moronic Woman" (a parody of The Bionic Woman) "Caboose Supe" (a Boxcar Willie takeoff) "Fat Whitman" (a spoof of Slim Whitman).

His most famous sketch was a music video based on the popular trucker song "Convoy". He was also known for referring to the movies as "flicks" as in "Let's get back to da flick."

After "Supe's On!, he would host an afternoon of films under the "Mad Theater" banner. Generally two films were shown, going from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. The movies would be old horror films like "Frankenstein" or Japanese monster movies such as "Godzilla".

As the 1980's went along, with WCW Worldwide Wrestling and other more contemporary syndicated weekend programming becoming available, the show began getting trimmed down for time.

First to the "Supe's On!" hour (11:30am to 12:30pm) plus one movie (12:30 to 2 pm) in 1985, then in 1987, the entire show was shortened to one hour under the "Supe's On!" banner, with "Superhost" appearing during commercial breaks during one episode each of "The Munsters" and "Batman" from 11:00am to 12:00 noon.

From 1988 until its finale in December 1989, the show was then changed to an hour of "Three Stooges" shorts (with a cartoon thrown in), and "Superhost" appearing during commercial breaks, all under the "Supe's On with the Three Stooges!" banner from 11am to 12:00 noon (then towards the end moved to 1:00pm to 2:00pm).


Portrait of "Superhost" by Dave Dunlap.




Portrait of "Superhost" by Bradley Beard.
"Superhost" - biography (taken from Bradley Beard's Facebook page)"
As his on-screen alter ego, mild mannered television director, "Henry Brookersteen", uttered the magic word "Sponsor" and became... Today I present Superhost, host of The Superhost Show on WUAB-TV Channel 43 in Cleveland, Ohio, which ran from 1969 to 1989. As part of The Superhost Show on Saturday afternoons, he would host Mad Theatre for 3 hours which featured classic Universal and Toho movies. It's hard to imagine a guy dressed up in a mock Superman outfit with a red clown nose hosting Horror Movies but Superhost, super host that he was, performed the task amazingly well. Like other super heros, Superhost guarded his true secret identity; when he was no longer needed to fight banality in Cleveland TV viewing, he would become TV personality Marty Sullivan. "Look at that, Mad Theatre hosted by what's his name... Who?"



In 2015, Marty Sullivan - "Super Host" for "Super Host Theatre",
was inducted into "The Official Horror Host Hall of Fame".


The following are some clips from the show:

Supe's On!, Mad Theater, Supe's On with the Three Stooges! hosted by Superhost (clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

LINKS


Internet Movie Data Base
"Marty Sullivan"

Wikipedia
"Superhost"

Internet Movie Data Base
"Supe's On with the Three Stooges!"

Facebook: Bradley Beard - Horror Host Artist
"Superhost"

E-gors Chamber of TV Horror Hosts
"Superhost"

Internet Movie Data Base
"Supe's On!"

Internet Movie Data Base
"Mad Theater"

Cleveland.Com
"Marty Sullivan"

Find A Grave
"Marty Sullivan"



Facebook: Dunlap Art
"Horror Host Artwork"



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Last modified: December 2023