Here’s a glorious little piece of horror history that feels almost impossible to imagine happening today. Back in March 1996, […]
Here’s a glorious little piece of horror history that feels almost impossible to imagine happening today.
Back in March 1996, USA Network promoted a television broadcast of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth on USA Up All Night by getting Doug Bradley into full Pinhead makeup and chaining him to Gilbert Gottfried for an original comedy segment.
Yes, that really is Bradley. And yes, Gilbert gets his hands on the Lament Configuration (or is that a Rubik’s Cube?!), because apparently chaining Gilbert Gottfried to Pinhead wasn’t dangerous enough.
Even cooler, surviving footage dates the broadcast to March 1996, the same month Hellraiser: Bloodline opened theatrically on March 8. So while audiences were about to meet Pinhead again on the big screen, Bradley was simultaneously screwing around with Gilbert Gottfried on late-night cable television.
It’s silly. It’s incredibly ’90s. And it’s a perfect little time capsule from an era when networks would shoot bizarre original material just to promote a movie airing on TV.
Watch this rare piece of Hellraiser history below.
And RIP Gilbert. Cable television was a hell of a lot more fun with him around.
