Disasterpiece Theatre

Disasterpiece Theatre was a comedy television program that aired in the early 1980s on XETV, a station in Tijuana, Mexico owned by Mexican media company Grupo Televisa which broadcasts in English across the border to neighboring San Diego, California. The show's title is both a play on the long-running PBS anthology program Masterpiece Theatre and a reference to the low-budget, campy science fiction and horror films that were lampooned each week. At the time of Disasterpiece Theatre's run, XETV was an independent station; today it serves as the San Diego affiliate of The CW network. The premise of the show was simple: show the worst movies ever made and make fun of them. Among the films shown were Shriek of the Mutilated, Monster on Campus, The Thing That Couldn't Die, The Mummy's Hand, Born to Speed, Big Boy Rides Again, First Spaceship on Venus and Curse of the Undead. Comments would be written as subtitles during the movie; for example, in Track of the Moonbeast a character says, "I'm somewhat of an... an adventurer," and the word "IDIOT" appeared on screen during the pause in the middle of the sentence. Sometimes music would be added and, in some cases, redubbing by the writers would occur. On a showing of First Spaceship on Venus, the soundtrack was replaced by the writers' voices arguing about which television show they are going to watch, similar to the overdubbing idea in What's Up, Tiger Lily?