Being raised in Oklahoma City instead of New York City, I’d never heard of the FRIGHT NIGHT film showcase that brightened the tube for roughly two decades worth of Saturday nights on WOR-TV. Turns out, such knowledge isn’t needed to enjoy James Arena’s book FRIGHT NIGHT ON CHANNEL 9. As long as you fondly recall battling bedtime to catch a scary movie in the days, you’re going to fine Arena’s ecstatic vibe infectious.

In this paperback, he offers a history and appreciation of said show before digging into the real nitty gritty of an episode guide. Taking up the majority of the 216 pages, this allows Arena to offer capsule reviews on the horror, mystery and sci-fi flicks he consumed.

As he readily admits, many of them sucked. But seeing them at all was part of the fun, because back then — before VHS, DVD or the Internet brought instant gratification — choice was not an option. You took what you were given, and you liked it.

Is there much history behind the program? No, but it does allow Arena to branch off into interviewing producer Sam Sherman, who provided many a package of films for FRIGHT NIGHT, and telling his story (told better with visuals in the excellent new documentary MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED).

Vintage ad mats, lobby cards and stills throughout help sell the nostalgia concept, to the point that I devoured the book as quickly as time allowed. I tired only of reading “Looks like FRIGHT NIGHT was pre-empted for a telethon” way too many times in the date-specific episode guide, but embraced everything else and, to no surprise, came away with a list of two dozen movies I can’t wait to track down. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.