When I was small, my family had a weekly tradition we'd look forward to. After a long week of work and in my case school, my family and I would always sit down and watch whatever episode (new or rerun) of Saturday Night Live that was being played. Obviously I didn't understand many of the jokes because I was young and the show clearly appeals to an older demographic, I mainly just enjoyed it because it gave me an opportunity to stay up late and hang out with the people I love. Not to mention, I also remember absolutely adoring some of the musical guests as well.
But then one night when I was about 9 or 10 years old, my dad announced that he found an airing of the first ever episode of SNL. I was quite excited to see how far the show I was familiar with had evolved and my parents were looking forward to the nostalgia factor of the episode (they grew up with the originals back in the 70s).
I was fine with everything in the episode until a certain sketch came on that absolutely terrified me. It was The Land of Gorch.
First things first, JUST LOOK AT THESE CREEPY MUPPETS!
Those things just stepped straight out of the uncanny valley.
Also the bizarre atmosphere of the Gorch planet and the fact that there were no live humans interacting with the Muppets only added to the bizarre, otherworldly, alien-esque, feel the sketch had.
Also if I recall there may have been creepy background music playing as well. Maybe I'm thinking of something else so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I remember taking a blanket on the couch and hiding under it until the sketch ended and the regular SNL show presumed as normal.
Of course, we continued our weekly tradition of watching SNL despite that negative experience but my parents made sure to promise me that if we ever came across another Land of Gorch segment they will be sure to fast forward through that part right away.
I thought for years that The Land of Gorch was just some weird, realistic fever dream I had (most likely because the dreamlike quality of the segments, how they were vastly different than any other SNL sketch, and because it's so ridiculously obscure).
Until one day, I was doing a school project about the history of SNL and as soon as I saw that name "The Land of Gorch" on one of the pages. All those horrific memories started flooding back to me.