On this day in… 1971 | Vincent Price's Cooking Price-Wise makes its UK TV debut

Yes, it was on this day back in 1971 that the ghoulish gourmand Vincent Price hosted his first in a six-part British TV series, Cooking Price-Wise, for Thames Television, which went out at 11.15pm on ITV and featuring dishes from New York, Savoy and Holland.

Read food blogger Jenny Hammerton's post about this landmark series on the Vincent Price Legacy UK website

When Vincent Price met Jimmy Stewart at the Easy Valley Festival of Art

'God bess Vincent Price'
On 13 February 1972, Vincent Price played a parody of himself as 'one of Hollywood’s most ardent appreciators of fine arts' who also 'makes the best scary pictures in the world' when he guest starred in The Jimmy Stewart Show. 

Price Is Right 
This episode honored Vincent's real-life appreciation of the arts as it finds him tracking down a portrait of Jimmy's granddad by a notoriously witty Victorian artist, Sir Murdock Mackenzie, and ends up becoming the special judge of the Easy Valley Festival of Art. Meanwhile, 8-year-old Jake seizes on the chance to capitalise on Vincent's popularity...

It's a terrific episode which perfectlty captures Vincent's fun side. It was also one of those TV shows (like Batman and The Brady Bunch) which introduced me to Vincent Price (when I too was just 8). Watch it in full below.     

 

The Jimmy Stewart Show - Price Is Right (with... by DemonPreyer1

Vincent Price TV Gold | Playing it for laughs on The Carol Burnett Show (1974)

On the big screen Vincent Price may have been the Merchant of Menace, but when it came to the small screen, the horror movie icon couldn’t resist showing off his comic side in a variety of US TV shows from the 1950s to the 1970s.

His guest stints on The Carol Burnett Show in 1974 are a real hoot, and he gets the play a number of crazy characters in skits alongside Burnett and show regulars Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner – and Joan Rivers. My favourite has to be The Walnuts, a spoof on The Waltons. But I also love the way he game for a laugh alongside Burnett’s obnoxious girl scout, Alice. Check them out here.