
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 19, 1994                   TAG: 9402220002
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MONSTER MASH SET ON TNT THIS WEEK

TNT kicks off its Godzilla festival early Monday with ``Adventure Quest Godzilla-Thon,'' featuring Godzilla-themed cartoons. And you may want to also set your VCR for its ``Godzilla Festival'' of movies later that morning.

Kicking off the nine-hour watchathon (at 10 a.m.) is Godzilla's first film, 1956's ``Godzilla, King of the Monsters.''

The original version, released in Japan in 1954 under the title of ``Gojira,'' is well-respected among sci-fi fans.

The U.S. version, though, eliminated numerous subplots and added a pre-``Perry Mason'' Raymond Burr as an American reporter named Steve Martin. Next up is 1964's ``Godzilla vs. Mothra,'' with Akira Takarada and Yurki Hoshi.

The fourth entry in the series finds the lizard meeting his match in a mutant moth named Mothra.

The 1970 camp classic ``Godzilla vs. Monster Zero'' features Nick Adams and Akira Takarada. This time around, Godzilla and fellow monster Rodan are carried, via flying saucer, to Planet X so they can defend the alien Ghidrah.

Adams plays an astronaut who falls in love with a toy saleswoman who actually is an alien in disguise.

The film also is known as ``Invasion of the Astro-Monsters'' and ``Monster Zero.''

by CNB