Clownhouse Productions Shannon Norman, left, Mark Menold, Doug Appel and Eric Forrester will be on hand to lend commentary to horror movies shown during "It's Alive" and provide the show's music. Click photo for larger image. 'It's Alive' When:11 p.m. Saturday on WBGN

It's a TV show.

It's a rock band.

"It's Alive."

Actually, its format hasn't slithered through Pittsburgh since Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille's "Chiller Theater" signed off in 1983 after 21 years on WPXI.

Low-power independent broadcaster WBGN will bring the late-night horror hosting format back from the dead with the new locally produced program "It's Alive." Airing at 11 p.m. Saturdays, the taped segments will include sketch comedy by creepy characters, music by a costumed progressive heavy metal band, Halloweeny puppets, off-beat cooking recipes and horror film trivia. The humorously spooky cast will introduce and comment on a series of classic horror films including "Night of the Living Dead," "Nosferatu," "Attack of the Giant Leeches," "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

In all, says WBGN president Ron Bruno, the station has committed to 26 episodes of "It's Alive." To make room on the Saturday late-night time slot, "U.S. Bounty Hunters" and "Eye for an Eye" will be shown earlier.

WBGN broadcasts from Green Tree and is carried by Comcast, Adelphia and other cable-TV channels.

"I'm an independent station, so I can do these kinds of things," says Bruno. "I'm not committed to any network sponsor. Some of these movies are so old, cheesy and awful that you can't not watch them, and when [the characters] come in with the band, it's just fun."

Despite the bizarre appearance and behavior of the cast, Bruno says they steer clear of four-letter words and anything disrespectful.

"We're not showing blood-and-guts gore," he says. "We want comedy gore -- people coming out of the grave, chasing each other around, Halloweeny stuff that's more general family humor. It's not meant to be offensive. It's a little on the sophomoric side. The end goal is to make you laugh."

"It's Alive" was born last year with two episodes on a public access station.

"You know, one of those cable channels that just has colored bars on it all the time," says producer Mark Menold. He also plays the show's host, Emcee Square, a mad scientist with anger-management issues. "I went to [the cable channels] to pitch a cooking show, and they said no. On the spot I said, 'How about something like 'Chiller Theater,' and they said sure."

This year, Menold took his pilot to WBGN. If he could sell enough advertising to support it, he was told, the station would commit to 13 episodes of "It's Alive."

Bruno says he doubled his commitment to the show after seeing the response to ad sales and the quality of Menold's campy comedy.

"Thirteen weeks is the norm," says Bruno, "but because we've had so much time to work on it and it's going well, we decided that 26 weeks is the number. We have local sponsors lined up. I think this kind of show appeals to 18- to 25-year-old males first, and maybe an older audience second. We'd really like to give this a chance."

In a previous public life, Menold was the lead guitarist of the defunct Pittsburgh metal band 313. He and the rest of the "It's Alive" cast -- Doug Appel, Shannon Norman and Eric Forrester -- perform all of the show's music. The entire crew includes less than 10 people who write the skits, perform the stunts, apply the makeup, operate the puppets, run the sound and shoot the video tape.

"It's a lot of fun," says Menold, "but we're taking it pretty seriously. Even the cooking segments. They're shot straight and very professional, like Martha Stewart would have done if she were a clone with a third eye."