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Remember When, Chattanooga? Dr. Shock was the king of Saturday night television.

Archive photo from Chattanooga News-Free Press / Dr. Shock (a.k.a. Tommy Reynolds) was a fixture on late-night television here in the 1960s and 1970s.
Archive photo from Chattanooga News-Free Press / Dr. Shock (a.k.a. Tommy Reynolds) was a fixture on late-night television here in the 1960s and 1970s. Archive photo from Chattanooga News-Free Press / Dr. Shock (a.k.a. Tommy Reynolds) was a fixture on late-night television here in the 1960s and 1970s.

By Mark Kennedy 3 min read

Baby boomers will remember this scary-looking guy.

Dr. Shock (also known as Tommy Reynolds) was a pop culture icon here in the 1960s and 1970s as host of a weekly late-night showing of B-Grade horror films on WTVC NewsChannel 9.

Dr. Shock and his side-kicks Dingbat (a puppet voiced by Dan East) and Nurse Goodbody (Patricia Abney) provided commentary during commercial breaks on the Saturday night program called “Shock Theater.”

(READ MORE: Remember When, Chattanooga? The Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill was a major employer)

The commentary was often a riff on Chattanooga society news, and a mention on the show was highly coveted in some circles. A report in the Chattanooga News-Free Press in the 1970s noted: “As one socialite put it, ‘I knew I had arrived in this town when I was mentioned by Dr. Shock.'”