The Late, Late Show

The original War of the Worlds is on T.V. tonight. It's one of my favorite movies for a lot of reasons. It's good Sci-Fi, was well made and is considered a classic. I've been watching it at home with my wife, Wendy, and she keeps talking about how scary a movie it is.

She asked me when I first saw it and it reminded me of the primary reason it's one of my favorite movies.

It was 42 years ago when I was about seven years old. I was sound asleep and my father snuck into my room and woke me up. I didn't know what was going on but he told me to be very, very quiet so I didn't wake up my mother. I kept my mouth shut in great anticipation as we quietly went down the stairs. I didn't know what was so mysterious that I was roused in the middle of the night and had to skulk down the stairs behind my father but I was extremely curious.

I had no idea what was going on but when we got to the family room he pointed to the T.V. and told me that I was about to see a great movie. I had no idea what it was but I remember sitting on the sofa for the next couple of hours eating graham crackers and watching that movie with my dad.

I was supposed to be in bed asleep. I wasn't supposed to be eating graham crackers. I wasn't supposed to be watching late-night T.V. But, there I was sitting on the sofa with my dad in my pajamas watching a wonderfully terrifying story unfold on our old black and white television.

That experience made the original War of the Worlds one of my favorite movies.