‘Dead and Buried Treasures’ receives Greater Pittsburgh Community Media Award
Erik Sprowls as Captain Calico Drake poses with his animatronic co-host Jack for a promotional photo for “Dead and Buried Treasures.”
Submitted
Erik Sprowls, the host/creator of the show “Dead and Buried Treasures” stands with his 2020 Greater Pittsburgh Community Media Award, which is given to the best television show produced in the Pittsburgh area by Pittsburgh Community Television.
Submitted
Erik Sprowls (left) films a scene with co-star Dana Messino Cange, who plays the role of Professor Gurdy on the show “Dead and Buried Treasures.”
Submitted
The Texas fan club for the locally-produced show “Dead and Buried Treasures” created a Captain Calico Drake statue and decoder for the growing number of fans of the show.
A regional horror host has received a television award and an uprising of fans for his show, “Dead and Buried Treasures.”
“A lot of things have changed since last year,” said Erik Sprowls, the creator/star of the show that presents classic and sometimes forgotten (and sometimes forgotten for good reasons) horror and science-fiction films in the public domain.
Sprowls stars as host Captain Calico Drake, and also plays “Dirty Gertie,” “Davie Bones” and “Jack,” his co-host cockatoo who is the first officer of the hosting ship.
Those characters interact in skits before, during and following the movie.
Sprowls, a Washington native and college professor for television and film production, said the show recently won the 2020 Greater Pittsburgh Community Media Award, which is given to the best television show produced in the Pittsburgh area by Pittsburgh Community Television.
“I thought that was nice, and was pretty humbled by that,” Sprowls said. “I didn’t even know I was nominated.”
Sprowls said his producer had him sit down to film some promotional spots and snuck in copy that “Dead and Buried Treasures” won the award.
Because of COVID-19, the awards show was virtual, and the clip of Sprowls’ reaction to learning he received the award was his acceptance video.
Over the past year, “Dead and Buried Treasures” wound up having much mutual love that it has a fan club and a quarterly newsletter out of Texas at Phoenix Comics and Toys. The comic shop also created a Calico Drake statue and decoder ring.
“We’ve really taken off like gangbusters since last year,” he said. “It’s like a real enterprise.”
Dana Messino Cange plays the role of Professor Gurdy on the show, and Cange said Gurdy is a cross between a pirate and a scientist.
“As we began filming, Gurdy took on a personality of her own with her modern jokes and love for wine,” Cange said.
She said it’s truly an exciting time for the show, not only because it won an award, but also because viewers are getting to know and love the characters they’ve created.
“I’m looking forward to reaching more viewers with the upcoming episodes,” Cange said. “It is a great show to enjoy with family and friends, and we look forward to the future.”
Cange’s husband Rich Cange films her scenes at their home and sends the footage to Sprowls. Rich Cange also hosts the pre-show, “Walk the Plank” where he and Sprowls take phone calls, read Facebook messages and talk about the show.
The “Dead and Buried Treasures” Facebook page also has watch parties on different days of the week, and their YouTube channel has all the previous episodes available to view.
One of the show’s greatest mysteries, for fans anyway, is the real-life identity of the voice actress who portrays The Siren, a sultry voice that appears from a bottle and helps guide the captain through his adventures.
Sprowls said fans always ask, but he never tells.
“The fun of that character is we never reveal her name,” Sprowls said.
The Siren actress said it’s a bit of a reversal of roles for how women are typically treated in the horror genre.
“I know a lot of these horror host shows always show women for sex appeal, and that’s okay, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one where you never see the woman and only hear some type of sexy voice – especially coming out of a bottle,” she said, adding that she’s glad to see the showing getting deserved recognition.
“The theme of the show is it’s the only show where it’s Halloween all year long,” Sprowls said. “So, when Halloween really does come around, we get more phone calls and more emails and more texts from people.”
Along with winning the award, Sprowls said his phone has been ringing off the hook and his email inbox is flooded, which is a good problem for him to have.
“Because that means people are watching,” he said.
While the show brings Sprowls and the cast and crew great enjoyment, he said he sees it as his way of giving back to the community, especially in more dire times with COVID-19 and a divisiveness in the country.
“I like to have one shining star out there so we can laugh a bit, watch some stupid movies and have it be family themed,” Sprowls said.
“Dead and Buried Treasures” can be seen on several network affiliates in and around Pittsburgh, like Channel 77 in Uniontown, on Friday nights. The show also plays on various national networks, streams on The Monster Channel and Vortex through platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire TV Stick, and also on the “Dead and Buried Treasures” YouTube channel.