Ted V. Mikels is one of America’s foremost independent cult filmmakers whose career has spanned over a half a century. His films have broken records for raising the bar high in camp, but also, in the early 1960’s, he was in the forefront of artists raising the social and national consciousness to the racial inequalities in American society. His 1966 film “The Black Klansman” was instrumental is putting one of the first cracks in that social injustice.
Ted has worked with such cinematic icons as John Carradine, Wendell Corey and the wonderful character actor William Bagdad.
Some of Ted’s other cult films include “The Astro Zombies,” co-written with a very young Wayne Rogers of “M*A*S*H” fame, the very campy cult favorite “Corpse Grinders” and “Bloody Orgy of the She Devils.” Michael Ansara, best known by sci-fi fans as the Klingon Captain Kang from the original Star Trek series and years later on Deep Space Nine and Voyager, worked with Ted on his movie “The Doll Squad” which dealt with an elite army of female assassins.
Ted talks about his famous one-time home, the Glendale Castle, what it takes in the way of personal and financial sacrifice to put together an independent cult film and that many times, the payback isn’t monetary but the satisfaction of seeing your creations well received and still being talked about over 40 years later.
Our interview with Ted went so well that we just couldn’t stop talking with this giant of indie filmmaking, so after this program, Ted will return for Part 2 on a future Slice of SciFi show.
We have the wonderful Ted V. Mikels, great news from all across the genre and a whole cast of characters in the studio, so come join us for the Slice of SciFi Show #102 ready for download this Wednesday, March 28, 2007 and airing on XM Satellite Radio, The Sonic Channel, one week later. We’ll see you then.
