Morgus the Magnificent - Bumbling, egotistical mad scientist (played by former WWL radio deejay Sid Noel) who hosted House of Shock on WWL-TV in New Orleans from 1959-1962. Sporting disheveled hair, protruding teeth, and a filthy lab coat with a red handprint on the back, the slightly stooped Morgus the Magnificent (full name: Dr. Momus Alexander Morgus, Esq.) hosted horror movies from his laboratory located in an abandoned ice house in the French Quarter. His assistants were Chopsley (played by Tommy George), a hooded executioner who took all the blame for Morgus' failed experiments; and Eric, an ass-kissing skull who opened and closed the program amidst the strains of eerie music (Eric's voice provided by Ed Hoerner).

The popularity of the Morgus character inspired a record entitled "Morgus the Magnificent" (1959) by Morgus and the Ghouls (a.k.a. "Frankie Ford and Mac Rebennack"), as well as his own movie The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus (1961). Sid Noel left the show for New York in 1962.

In 1964 he reprised his character on "Morgus Presents" at WJBK-TV in Detroit. From 1965-67 he returned Morgus to New Orleans on WWL-TV and on WDSU-TV from 1970-71 until he quit the show. In the 1980s devotees of Morgus organized a fan club known as MORGUS (Morgusian Order to Revive a Glorious Understanding of Science).

A renewed interest in Morgus spawned the return of Morgus in the fall of 1986 on Channel 26, WGNO-TV in New Orleans under the familiar title Morgus Presents. The program was briefly syndicated through July 1989 in the cities of Albany, Atlanta, Baltimore, Little Rock, New York and Wichita.