RetroFan #17 Preview

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape!

November 2021 No. 17 $9.95

JAWSMANIA

Dark Shadows’

LARA PARKER comes alive in an exclusive interview!

Aurora Monster Model Kits

It’s a

Mad Monster u’re Party and yoin vited!

The Haunting • Drak Pack • George of the Jungle • James Bama • TV Dads’ Jobs & more!

1

82658 00438

5

FEATURING Ernest Farino • Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Michael Eury

Mad Monster Party © 1997 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions. Superman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

38

The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

55

CONTENTS

61

Columns and Special Features

3

Retro Hobbies Aurora Monster Model Kits

7

7 3

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon James Bama: Man of Monsters

15

Retro Interview Lara Parker, Dark Shadows’ Angelique

24

24 15

67 Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning Drak Pack and Monster Squad

Departments

2 Retrotorial

22 RetroFad Jawsmania

37

Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

George of the Jungle

Celebrity Crushes

38

52

Ernest Farino’s Retro Fantasmagoria “Whose Hand Was I Holding…?”

Too Much TV Quiz Theme song lyrics

55

78

Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum TV Dads of the Sixties’ Jobs

RetroFanmail

61

ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover

by Scott Saavedra

Retro Animation Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party?

67

Issue #17 November 2021

80

RetroFan™ #17, November 2021. Published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 Economy US, $103 International, $27 Digital.

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Aurora Frankenstein model photo courtesy of Mark Voger. Mad Monster Party © 1997 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions. Superman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2021 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. ISSN 2576-7224

RETRO HOBBIES

A Horde of…

Monsters in My Bedroom!

by Rod Labbe In November 1963 (not long before President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated), the “Elm Plaza,” a brand-new shopping center, opened on the outskirts of my hometown, Waterville, Maine.

“Oooo,” I blubbered, as we (my parents and two sisters) pulled into its expansive parking lot early one Friday evening.

What an adventure! There’s a Mammoth Mart department store! And W. T. Grant! A book emporium… First National supermarket… Radio Shack… an S&H Green Stamps store… and the biggest bowling alley, ever!

So many choices, but Grants, as we called the W. T. Grant department store chain, intrigued us the most since it had an attached “family restaurant.”

Before settling in for a meal, we ogled the spacious aisles dividing Grants from front to back. You could get anything there! Furniture, clothing, toiletries, shoes, candy, appliances, and toys galore. One-stop shopping, at its very best.

And I saw them… boxed monster model kits by Aurora Plastics, stacked neatly in an eye-catching exhibit: Frankenstein’s Monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, and an about-to-pounce Wolf Man. I had some vague notion about model kits. People built them, right? Usually, boats and airplanes and cars and stuff. But monsters? A bold concept!

I picked up Dracula, felt its heft, studied the atmospheric box-top illustration (painted by James Bama), and checked for a price tag: 98 cents. Within my allowance/budget! Too bad I knew zip about making model kits. Otherwise, I might be taking home a vampire!

Little did I realize that Fate’s wheels were inexorably spinning. One innocuous school day, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Pelletier, stood in front of our classroom blackboard and read from a mimeographed sheet. “Next month, St. Joseph’s

(ABOVE) Aurora monster model kits… the stuff from which nightmares and sticky glue spills were made! Courtesy of Heritage.

All characters © Universal Pictures except for Godzilla © Toho.

RETROFAN

November 2021

3

retro hobbies

is holding its first annual hobby day,” she droned. “Grades five through eight are expected to bring in a hobby. Show us your talents. Show us your [yawn] skills. Use good, old-fashioned American ingenuity and do St. Joseph’s proud. First prize is a 20 dollar savings bond.”

Well, at ten, I didn’t have any hobbies per se, other than watching scary movies, but winning a savings bond instantly attracted me. In order to compete, I needed a tangible hobby, but quick.

Boom! Why not be different and build myself some monsters?

This was a legit academic project, so the folks provided both funds and encouragement. Off we went to Grants again, where they bought me model glue and a gorgeous Creature from the Black Lagoon. We had another tasty meal, too. I could get used to this!

Back home on familiar turf, I bounded upstairs to prepare a suitable working area (bedroom desk with light, newspapers, and an old washcloth).

Slowly, I withdrew the Creature from his paper sack, tore away the cellophane, carefully lifted the lid, and was hit by what would become Creature from the Black Lagoon © Universal Pictures.

Okay, fine, no problem. Thinking cap in place, I retrieved my sister’s old “paint by numbers” set from her closet. Fishy greens and blues swirled onto the brush. A touch of red, a dollop of yellow and brown, and the Creature snarled, stalked, and glistened.

Glistened… because this was oil-based paint. It never dried.

Aargh!

For my second excursion into Aurora horror, I selected the Phantom of the Opera. Mom and Dad threw in several bottles of Testor’s paint, and my artistic abilities flourished. Swish, swish, dab, spill, whoops, spill again, aargh! Paint everywhere! What happened?

The Phantom’s face mouth, eyes, and nose were shapeless blobs. No problem!

I’d just have him wear his handy-dandy mask. Any port in a storm, as they say.

Frankenstein’s monster came next… easier to paint, and no eyeballs to speak of, merely slits. Definitely a plus. The simplicity of this kit made me breathe a bit easier. Just a tombstone, two stone markers, and Frankie himself. It’s still my favorite Aurora monster.

Following an eternity of gluing, painting, and wiping (a supremely messy job), three gruesome monsters emerged, ready to crush, kill, and destroy. Would they impress fellow schoolmates or brand me a laughing stock?

And would I win that precious savings bond? Fingers crossed!

Hobby day arrived. I carefully packed up my terror trio and left for school. St. Joe’s basement auditorium buzzed with activity. Uh-oh. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who collected Aurora Holy Hobbies, Batman! This store ad for monsters. There were Wolf Mans, some of Aurora’s TV- and comic-inspired Mummies, Phantoms, sundry Creatures, model kits drove kids like Rod Labbe wild! lumbering Frankenstein “monstahs,” and Poster courtesy of Heritage. Superman, Batman an army of Draculas. They’d even (gasp) and Robin, Batmobile, Superboy, Wonder Woman painted the eyeballs! © DC Comics. Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk © Cowed, but not defeated, I found Marvel. Lost in Space © Space Productions. Voyage an empty shelf and bravely arranged to the Bottom of the Sea © Irwin Allen Properties, an all-too familiar scent: fresh styrene Frankenstein, “Creech,” and Phantom for LLC/20th Century Studios. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. plastic. maximum effect. © Turner Entertainment Co. and Warner Bros. EnterInside lay pieces of a metallic green Instant response… and instant defeat. tainment, Inc. Zorro © Zorro Productions, Inc. Creature and its directions, complete “Hey, the Phantom ain’t supposeta with origin story. Nirvana! be wearin’ his mask, you stoopid,” Time to get busy. I picked up two sneered an eighth grader, reducing me pieces of an arm and fit them together. Half an hour later, I sat to a mumbling mound of pre-adolescent jelly. “What’s with your back, sighed smugly, and beheld what I’d created: Creature Creature? Yuck! He’s all sticky and covered in dust! Guys, check out extraordinaire! Then, I read the directions more closely, and my this goofy kid’s crappy stuff. It’s a riot! Ha-ha!” euphoria withered like a leaky balloon. Gulp! I was supposed to My ten-year-old ego imploded. Turning tail seemed a viable paint him first? option. Instead, I laughed good-naturedly, while crying buckets How could I have missed such an essential step? Dumb, dumb, on the inside. Sufficiently abused, defeated, and again deflated, dumb. The euphoria I’d been feeling was probably due to sniffing I skulked home and hid my sorry monsters in the closet. I was airplane glue! done.

4

RETROFAN

November 2021

WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON

James Bama Man of

Monsters

by Will Murray

(LEFT) Detail from a familiar sight for many RetroFans: box art for the Frankenstein Aurora model kit as painted by James Bama, shown here in an undated photo. Frankenstein © Universal Pictures. Photo courtesy of Anthony Tollin.

I grew up in an epoch of monsters.

They were everywhere. Popping up on TV. Lumbering through television, films, and even dominating comic books. One of my first clear memories of childhood was in the spring of 1961. A neighborhood kid took me to the local Rialto, where I saw my first Saturday matinee double feature, Mister Roberts and Gorgo. When I wondered about the dark orchestra pit beneath the screen, I was advised, “That’s where the monsters live.” I believed him. I was eight.

I vaguely recall coming out of the theater and spotting a copy of Gorgo comics on the racks. I wouldn’t start buying comic books until year’s end, but before that, I started collecting the Spook Stories bubble-gum cards based on the Universal Monsters, which were all over TV, thanks to the “Creature Features” airing reruns.

When I did start collecting comics, in addition to Superman and Batman, I grabbed things like Marvel’s Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish, which were chock full of giant monsters such as Jack Kirby’s Two-Headed Thing and Steve Ditko’s Hagg, Hunter of Helpless Humans. The Incredible Hulk was born at that time. I loved them all.

The first magazine I ever purchased was Famous Monsters of Filmland. So naturally, I bought the Aurora Plastic Company Universal Monster kits, which began proliferating in 1961 A.D., early in the Monster Craze. Or should I say, Monster Revival, since many of its most memorable monsters had been created a generation before.

RETROFAN

November 2021

7

Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

Back in the early Sixties, monsters were a big deal. In fact, they were stupendous, colossal in their grisly gargantuan grandeur….

Model Citizen

Which brings me to the subject of this column, James Bama (b.

1926), considered the greatest commercial illustrator of the 20th Century.

I didn’t know his name when I first started building the Aurora monster model kits. But Bama was the artist who painted the

The stuff nightmares (and fun times) are made of! Bama’s iconic Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and Dracula portraits, gathered for this Aurora ad that appeared in the October 1962 edition of Boys’ Life magazine. Monsters © Universal Pictures. Courtesy of Heritage.

8

RETROFAN

November 2021

memorable box art. Even as a little kid I thought his work was great. More than great, it was perfect for the subject matter.

Moody, intense, and very realistic––which is what an eight-yearold demands of his monsters.

My younger brother and I used to alternate purchasing the kits. Frankenstein was his first one. I took Dracula. And all down the line over the following four years. Every time Aurora released a new kit, we had to figure out which one of us got to buy it. I felt it was a triumph when I got the Creature from the Black Lagoon kit. To me, that was the best kit Aurora ever manufactured. Modeled from emerald plastic, once assembled, it required only a few touches of paint before it was ready for display.

As a boy growing up in New York City’s Washington Heights section during the Great Depression, Bama caught all of the classic Universal Monster films during their first runs.

“When I was a kid,” he recalls to RetroFan, “that’s when all the monster movies came out. I think I was five years old when I saw Frankenstein.

And they were very traumatic for me. They left a lasting impression. I had to sleep with my mother for three nights after I saw The Mummy. I was afraid to go to bed. And when I was in my thirties, I got to do all the monster kits for Aurora.

Things I was terrified of when I was a little kid!”

Bama recalls that there were five theaters within walking distance in his neighborhood, and a matron in white would police the kids during matinees.

“That was the beginning of all those horror movies. I think my mother started taking me to those movies when I was five years old. They’re still very vivid. And they were good.”

Bama’s favorite? “Probably King Kong, because of my dramatic relationship with it when I was a kid. I was terrified of King Kong. And to this day when he breaks through the stockyard, it scares me. It’s still the best King Kong.”

Despite his natural affinity for to the spooky subject matter, the plum assignment found Jim Bama, not vice versa.

RETRO INTERVIEW

Lara Parker

The Tender Beauty of Angelique

by Rod Labbe

From actress to author, Lara Parker has continued the Dark Shadows canon as a novelist. © Curtis Holdings, LLC.

There are countless interviews that tread all-too-familiar waters, but my challenge as a writer has always been to explore those paths less traveled.

So when I contacted Lara Parker for an epic (and exclusive) RetroFan profile, I proposed we do something a tad different from the usual “tell us how you became an actress” stuff. Lara agreed, and together, we tilled new soil. An adventure lay ahead!

Establishing camaraderie was essential.

Within minutes of our first phone conversation, we were laughing and carrying on like old friends. To be precise, Lara and I had never met, but being a fanboy, I’m familiar with her magnificent work on Dark Shadows, ABC-TV’s “gothic” soap opera (1966–1971), a bonafide cultural sensation. She portrayed Angelique Bouchard, amateur witch, the gorgeous villain everyone loved to hate.

I should add that I’m an original fan of DS, having signed on in late April of 1967. I was 14 then, an unpopular eighth grader, and watching Barnabas (Jonathan Frid) Collins and his sundry relatives, friends, and adversaries go through their supernatural paces brought much-needed fun and escapism into my fractured life.

Conducted in February 2021, the interview began, and together, we stood contemplating two distinct directions: the path less traveled or a road familiar and ultimately unchallenging. Which one to navigate? Rather than touch all the same (ABOVE) Lara Parker as Dark Shadows’ bewitching Angelique. Dark Shadows © Dan Curtis Productions. Courtesy of www.collinsporthistoricalsociety.com.

RETROFAN

November 2021

15

retro interview

“typical” bases, I suggested we discuss Lara’s experiences in the writing field and segue into her acting triumphs. She liked that idea.

Lara has primarily been a novelist since Angelique’s Descent (Harper Collins, now Tor, 1998), an account of her character’s early life and how she became a witch. Its runaway success led to Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch (Tor, 2006), Dark Shadows: Wolf Moon Rising (Tor, 2013), and Dark Shadows: Heiress of Collinwood (Tor, 2016), thus far. And there are more tales bubbling within her cauldron! I honestly cannot think of anyone more qualified to create them than the woman behind daytime’s favorite witch.

Join us now for a special Halloween treat, as the Enchantress speaks!

RetroFan: Watching Angelique weave her spells at Collinwood, I’d no idea that one day, she and I would actually be sitting across from one another and engaging in an amiable chat!

Lara Parker: Life does move mysteriously, doesn’t it? Dark Shadows has brought so many people together over the years, and I especially enjoy talking with original viewers.

RF: I was there at the beginning! Well, heh, almost the beginning. 1967.

LP: Me, too [laughs]!

RF: For this interview, we’ll be examining my favorite Lara Parker novels, Angelique’s Descent and Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch. Up for it?

LP: Oh, yes! I don’t get asked about my writing often, so I welcome the opportunity.

RF: You began with Angelique’s Descent, in 1998. How did that come to be?

LP: Harper-Collins approached me about doing a series of novels based on the show.

I’d been taking screenwriting classes at UCLA but had no idea how to tackle a full-length book. “Just do the best you can,” they said, “and we’ll get a real writer, a ghost writer, to whip it into shape.”

Well, maybe it was presumptuous, but I found the idea of someone rewriting one word of a book I created, imagined, and slaved over insulting. There was some pushback to my writing it myself. People think blonde, blue-eyed actresses are superficial, and maybe I don’t strike people 16

RETROFAN

November 2021

as intellectual. Truth is, I majored Lara Parker as Angelique, from 1970’s “Parallel Time” in Philosophy and have immense storyline on Dark Shadows. The show regularly went through story arcs for several months, and “Paralrespect for education.

lel Time” followed “The Leviathans” when Barnabas discovers a room in Collinwood that shows an alternate timeline with different characters (all played by the same actors). The Angelique plot starts with her being dead, and the portrait had been painted to memorialize her. Later, she returns from the dead, switches places with her twin sister, and wreaks havoc! Dark Shadows ©

RF: Did you know what you were getting into? The scope and breadth of it?

LP: No, and it became a little overwhelming. I read writers I admired and quickly realized their skills were beyond me. Still, Dan Curtis Productions. Courtesy of Jim Pierson.

I forged ahead. I planned to set the novel in Martinique, where LP: What’s more common is for someone Angelique grew up, and did a lot to write his or her first book and not of research on sugar plantations and the be able to do a second. It’s a very small slave revolt. I was also able to draw from percentage of writers who finish their first my own experiences; the idea of the living book. Once you’ve done it, you become a goddess, for instance, came from a trip I much sterner critic. The first time, you’re took to Nepal. I sent my editor the first 50 thinking, Who am I trying to fool? For me, pages, and she was encouraging. The last Angelique’s Descent was an outpouring of 100 sprung directly from the show and passion, my attempt to create as a gothic Angelique’s point of view. writer. I could’ve rewritten and edited endlessly. That’s where a deadline is RF: Seems like everyone talks about blessing. The manuscript has to leave your writing a book, but doing so is something hands, eventually. else entirely.

RETROFAD

Batman warned us. He wisely armed himself with a can of Bat-Shark Repellent in his 1966 theatrical movie and narrowly escaped the jaws of an exploding shark.

And we laughed.

No one was laughing nine summers later when Jaws, a man-versus-maneatingshark shocker that cost a paltry $7 million to Batman TM & © DC Comics. produce but scared up over $470 million at the global box office, frightened people away from sunny beaches (“You’ll never go in the water again,” warned a promo line) and into darkened theaters. No one, that is, but Universal Pictures, theater managers, and the young director Jaws made famous, Steven Spielberg, as folks lined up to see again and again what is now regarded as the first summer blockbuster.

I was there—no, not on the cursed beach of the fictional Amity Island, New York, where waders’ gams became a great white’s yams, but at the Gem Theatre in Kannapolis, North Carolina, for a packed house during Jaws’ opening weekend. To this day, when I re-watch Jaws, I still shut my eyes when (spoiler alert!) the dead guy’s head comes a’bobbin’ from underneath the shark-decimated boat.

That unexpected scare made everybody jump out of their skins, including the frantic woman behind me who screeched “Good Lord-a-mighty!” as she bounded from her seat and flailed her concessions all over this poor schmuck in the seat in front of her.

Like chucking bloody chum into shark-infested waters, two weeks before the film’s release, Universal Studios flooded the airwaves with Jaws commercials, whipping moviegoers into a feeding frenzy. A perfect storm of script, performances, direction, music, and marketing, Jaws was the movie-house equivalent of a roller-coaster ride, one you couldn’t wait to board again as the end credits rolled.

Enthusiastic word of mouth helped Jaws go “viral” long before our current social-media platforms were created.

You couldn’t escape Jaws, even if you didn’t go to the movies. Peter Benchley’s horrifying 1974 novel upon which it was based was a bestseller, enjoying bang-up paperback sales in the summer of ’75. Also available, and officially licensed through Universal Studios, were Jaws T-shirts, beach towels, posters, and a soundtrack album.

Racked alongside Benchley’s novel were the “biting humor” paperbacks 101 Shark Jokes and Jaws Jokes and Other Funny Fish Stories. Receiving radio play was Dickie Goodman’s 1975 comedy single “Mr. Jaws,” a mock “interview” with the shark and other characters from the movie, their “replies” being audio clips from pop songs. Chevy Chase donned a shark head for a “Land Shark” sketch on NBC’s Saturday Night 22

RETROFAN

November 2021

Live. “Bruce” the mechanical shark, the oft-malfunctioning (during filming), 25-foot “star” of the film, became a media darling, the subject of no end of television, magazine, and newspaper reports.

Jaws was such a success as a movie and a cultural phenomenon that theaters were flooded with imitators, making the Seven Seas the deadliest place on Earth: Orca the Killer Whale, Piranha, Alligator, The Jaws of Death, Great White, and an adaptation of another of Benchley’s books, The Deep. Shelley Winters, still waterlogged from The Poseidon Adventure, and the lauded John Huston and Henry Fonda were lured into the embarrassingly bad octopus thriller, Tentacles.

Artist Roger Kastel painted the iconic Jaws image, used on this movie poster and elsewhere in licensed merchandise. Kastel’s painting has been frequently lampooned. Poster courtesy of Heritage. Jaws © Universal Pictures. MAD © EC Publications, Inc. Superman and Action Comics © DC Comics. SpiderMan and Ghost Rider © Marvel.

The Electric Company © The Children’s Television Workshop.

Saturday Night Live © NBC.

by Michael Eury

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

“You Knew the Show Was Dangerous When You Saw It”

George of the Jungle

by Scott Shaw!

Watch out for that… you know. Animation cel of Jay Ward’s loinclothed lamebrain. © Ward Productions, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

I think that Jay Ward Productions’ George of the Jungle was the last truly great Saturday morning cartoon show of the Sixties… maybe ever! Only 17 episodes were made for a single season airing on ABC from 1967 to 1968, but the series was well-received, the characters are still well-known and beloved, and the writing, voiceover cast, designs, and animation are all funny and outstanding.

Of course, I’m kinda biased. I’ve been a big fan of the show since I was 16, which was 50 years ago.

Apparently it was never aired in San Diego, because I never saw a single episode of Crusader Rabbit—a primitive TV cartoon series that was created and produced by Jay Ward and cartoonist Alex Anderson in 1947 as “Television Arts Productions” (although NBC’s Jerry Fairbanks stole the title of “Supervising Producer”). I did have a Crusader Rabbit coloring book, which greatly intrigued me. Who were those characters? They looked pretty cool to me, especially Crusader Rabbit’s uniquely parallel bunny ears.

Moose and Squirrel Save the Day

But I was right there at Ground Zero for the first broadcast of Rocky and His Friends on November 19, 1959, on San Diego’s ABC affiliate, XETV/Channel 6, which broadcast from a studio in Mexico, right after Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. I was mystified by the presence of a laugh track on a cartoon. Rocky and Bullwinkle’s “Jet Fuel Formula” rocked my little world forever, as did the rest of the show. I became an obsessed fan of the series.

Due to the physics of transmission, my folks’ B&W RCA television 24

RETROFAN

November 2021

was capable of receiving signals from Los Angeles television stations in those pre-cable days, at least early every morning.

Rocky and His Friends aired four times every Sunday morning, with a different “Rocky and Bullwinkle” segment’s story arc in all four time slots. I made myself a chart so I could keep track of all of the hilariously convoluted stories. Yeah, I was that hooked.

Like Hanna-Barbera’s The Ruff & Reddy Show (1957) and The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958), Jay Ward’s new funny-animal series was hip and full of modern-day references that kids understood, partially because there were contemporary elements and slang in them that I didn’t need my grandmother to interpret for me. Up to this point in time, kids of my generation had practically memorized every Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer Bros., and Terrytoons cartoon ever broadcast on television, and even though they were indeed classics, we were all getting pretty bored with seeing the same shorts over and over. But finally, the cavalry had arrived to rescue us in the form of Rocky and His Friends.

I loved the series and all of its permutations, including The Bullwinkle Show (1961), The Dudley Do-Right Show (1969), as well as the insanely clever Fractured Flickers (1963), a live-action series consisting of re-dubbed classic silent movies. I’ll never forget the FF makeover of Lon Chaney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, “Dinky Dunstan, Boy Cheerleader.” But when Hoppity Hooper hit the airwaves in 1964, I felt something was missing. I’d just turned 13 and sensed that the series was playing to a younger,

less-hip audience… and indeed, that was the case, a demand of General Mills, the show’s sponsor. I wasn’t as interested in HH but I was nuts about the televised commercials for Quaker Oats’ new cereal, Cap’n Crunch, obviously produced by Jay Ward.

Within a few years, I was knocked out by the TV spots starring Quaker’s latest cereal stars, Quisp and Quake [see RetroFan #11].

I was just as knocked out by a new syndicated series that, in my opinion, looked like a Jay Ward cartoon, was written like a Jay Ward cartoon, was even cheaper than a Jay Ward cartoon, as was as funny as a Jay Ward cartoon… but Ward had nothing to do with it. But Roger Ramjet was produced by Ken Snyder and created by the legendary puppet show Shrimpenstein! cocreators Jim Thurman and Gene Moss. Both of their series still mean a lot to me.

So, where was Jay Ward when we needed him? H-B’s last decent funny-animal characters were in The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series. Yeah, that’s the official name of the show that starred Wally Gator, Touché Turtle, and Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. The studio’s further output was plummeting in quality.

I wasn’t wild about other studios’ Milton the Monster, Courageous Cat, Kimba the White Lion, or older stuff like Clutch Cargo (although I dug its comic-strip style) and the wretched Spunky and Tadpole.

I was watching them but I wasn’t learning much. Other than the

Beatles cartoons and Iwao Takamoto’s designs on H-B’s The Space Kidettes on NBC, there wasn’t much out there to inspire me.

The Super-Hero Invasion

And then, thanks to the overwhelming success of ABC’s Batman in 1966 and its resulting Batmania, the super-hero genre suddenly became the Prime Directive of SatAM network programming. Fall 1966 saw Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman on CBS, and during that season and the next the genre exploded especially on that same network, under the guidance of Fred Silverman. He stocked his 1967 schedule with some fairly good cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, simplistic but visually impressive results for what Bill Hanna called “planned animation.” The shows, almost all designed by Alex Toth, were: Space Ghost (sold as “Batman in space”), The Herculoids (sold as “Tarzan in space”), Shazzan!, Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, and my personal favorite among H-B’s super-hero wave, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles, for its campy scripts, cool character designs, and outstanding layouts (come back next issue for more info!). Silverman finished up the morning with Filmation’s Aquaman [see RetroFan #3] and more Superman, and reruns of H-B’s Jonny Quest [see issue #7].

Meanwhile, NBC was jumping into the super-hero business, with DePatie-Freleng’s Super 6 (another favorite of mine, at least in

Could toonmaster Jay Ward (1920–1989) pull another cartoon hit out of his hat after Rocky and Bullwinkle? Rocky and Bullwinkle © Ward Productions, Inc. and Classic Media. Cel courtesy of Heritage.

RETROFAN

November 2021

25

The Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

terms of design), Al Brodax’s Cool McCool (created by Batman’s Bob Kane), and two tepid super-hero shows from H-B, Birdman and Samson and Goliath. Finally, on the “third network” every Saturday morning and multiple times on holiday weekends, ABC served up H-B’s outstanding adaptation of The Fantastic Four, GrantrayLawrence’s Spider-Man, Rankin-Bass’ King Kong, and Filmation’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was a very diverse line-up from a wide variety of studios. Best of all, ABC picked up another new series, a new show from Jay Ward Productions, George of the Jungle.

Jay’s cavalry was back for a second rescue!

Even though I fully realized that the intended market for the incredibly numerous SatAM super-hero shows had taken over television, I watched most of ’em. (Even TV Guide acknowledged it with an article about the trend, brilliantly illustrated by Wallace Wood.) I’d sit close to the TV screen with a sketch pad and lots of sharpened pencils at hand, and try to teach myself how to draw everything from H-B’s The Flintstones to Format Films’ artsy The Lone Ranger—also on CBS in 1966 [and coming to these pages in issue #20—ed.]—which struck me as an animated version of Marvel’s Western comics that featured cowboy heroes fighting

costumed villains and monsters in a style that very similar to the classic Tarzan cartoonist Jesse Marsh’s. Nice stuff.

A Missed Opportunity

Ward and company poked fun at beefy Elmo Lincoln, Hollywood’s first Tarzan, with George of the Jungle, shown this page and opposite in images from original model sheets created in 1967. Tarzan © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. George of the Jungle © Ward Productions, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage.

26

RETROFAN

November 2021

But George of the Jungle was something special. I knew that from the first day it aired, which was five days after my 16th birthday, September 9, 1967. It was like a late birthday present. And in a few months, I got something else from Jay Ward—a job offer.

Although I’ve worked at Hanna-Barbera Productions and am known for my love of The Flintstones, I’m equally influenced by the cartoons by Jay Ward Productions, although I only worked on the studio’s characters just once, drawing a limited edition collectible cel for Universal, replicating the final shot in Rocky and Bullwinkle’s segment opening in Rocky and His Friends. They were so expensive that even I don’t own one! But it’s impossible to measure how much Jay Ward’s cartoons had a massive influence on my senses of humor, art, and subversion.

My high school counselor didn’t take cartooning seriously, so the only art class I was allowed to take was as a student teacher at the junior high I’d attended. I was assigned to assist the same teacher I had my single art class, Miss Yaekel. Although most of her students were scared of her, we got along fine, because she did respect my passion for drawing funny stuff. She even asked to share my sketchbook—which included “The Interplanetary Drag Race,” a story heavily influenced by the then-new George of the Jungle’s “Tom Slick” segments. Unknown to me, the person she shared it with was another of the school’s art teacher, who was the ex-wife of a director working at Jay Ward Productions named Jim Hiltz. Unknown to me, she sent my sketchbook to Jim, who

ERNEST FARINO’S RETRO FANTASMAGORIA Hill House, a large, eerie mansion with a history of violent death and insanity, is being investigated by Dr. Markway. His research aims to prove the existence of ghosts. With him are the insecure Eleanor, whose psychic abilities make her feel somehow attuned to whatever spirits inhabit the old mansion, the clairvoyant Theodora (“Theo”), and the skeptical young Luke. It becomes clear that they have gotten more than they bargained for as the ghostly presence in the house manifests itself in horrific ways. (Doug Sederberg/IMDb) The following is adapted from the original screenplay by Nelson Gidding: No one can say what suggests evil in the face of a house, yet Hill House is overwhelmingly evil. Enormous and dark, it is so covered with decoration as to appear diseased.

Inside Eleanor’s bedroom—Theo sits up in the big double bed idly leafing through a book. Eleanor locks the door and gets into bed.

Theo burrows under the covers.

Later, in the middle of the night: Shadows and moonlight on a section of wallpaper shift the pattern into the visage of a not-quitehuman face. From behind it comes the steady SOUND OF A VOICE BABBLING, the words too low to be understood.

Eleanor’s face is rigid with fear and as white as the pillow.

ELEANOR

(whispers to Theo) Are you awake? Don’t say a word, Theo.

Don’t let it know you’re in my room.

From behind the “face” in the wallpaper—a small gurgling laugh.

ELEANOR

(lowering her hand) Hold my hand, Theo.

Unseen, below the frame, Theo evidently takes her hand.

The VOICE continues babbling but then, abruptly— absolute SILENCE.

ELEANOR Is it over? Do you think it’s over?

(her eyes flinch with pain) Theo, you’re breaking my hand!

Then– the SOFT CRY OF A CHILD—infinitely sad, heartbreaking.

ELEANOR’S VOICE (her thoughts) This is monstrous. It thinks to scare me. Well, it has. And poor Theo, too. (wincing) I honestly think she must be breaking my hand.

No matter. I will take a lot from this filthy house, but I will not go along with hurting a child. No, I will not. I will, by God, get my mouth to open right now and I will yell—

STOP IT! 38

RETROFAN

November 2021

ELEANOR

A light flashes on. Eleanor bolts up, all alone, now seen to be on the chaise lounge on the far side of the room. She looks in consternation to her hand— held rigidly, clenched around— nothing.

CAMERA PANS across the room to Theo, alone on her side of the big double bed—far away on the other side of the room.

THEO What? What, Nell? What…?

ELEANOR Good God...

Eleanor remains frozen for an instant, then brings her shaking hand in toward her chest and slowly opens her fingers.

“

” ? . . . g n i d l o h I s a w d n a h e s o h W Ernest Farino takes a look at what many consider to be the scariest ghost story ever made…

A Robert Wise Film / Screenplay by Nelson Gidding From the Novel by Shirley Jackson

SPOILER ALERT! Scary scenes described here.

(See the movie, then read the article… )

RETROFAN

November 2021

39

ernest farino’s retro fantasmagoria

Do you want to see something really scary?”

So says Dan Aykroyd to Albert Brooks in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). If I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed he was referring to Robert Wise’s 1963 film The Haunting, based on the novel by Shirley Jackson.

After working professionally on make-up effects for “scary” films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Men in Black 3, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Amityville Horror, Pet Sematary II, Hellboy, 13 episodes of American Horror Story, and over 100 more films, you’d think my make-up artist friend Bart J. Mixon would be numb to the shocks. But as he wrote as recently as October 2020 on Facebook, “The Haunting is the only film to actually frighten me…”

And none other than renowned director Martin Scorsese referred to The Haunting as “absolutely terrifying” in The 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time (The Daily Beast, Oct. 28, 2009).

I saw The Haunting when it premiered on network television in the Sixties. I have been unable to pin down the date of the broadcast, but it would have been in the mid-Sixties on one of the Saturday Night at the Movies-type series. I would have been in my early teens—i.e., still very impressionable—but I remember the whole family was thoroughly creeped out. Turns out we weren’t the only ones…

The Book

Moreso even than The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson is probably even better known for her short story The Lottery. First published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker, the short story generated more mail—estimated at around 300 letters— than any work of fiction the magazine had published up to that time. Remarkably, in 1963 (the year The Haunting film was released), Jackson said of The Lottery, “I hate it. I’ve lived with that thing 15 years. Nobody will ever let me forget it.” But it’s become “psychologically iconic” (to coin a phrase) and has been required reading for decades. Like many, I first read it in high school and was struck by my first exposure to a rather chilling “O. Henry”style surprise ending.

RETROFAN

– Shirley Jackson, The Lottery In 1999 Paula Guran provided insight into the backstory of the book in her essay Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House on the DarkEcho Horror website. Guran wrote that Jackson “decided to write ‘a ghost story’ after reading about a group of nineteenth century ‘psychic researchers’ who studied a house and somberly reported their supposedly scientific findings to the Society for Psychic Research. What Jackson discovered in their ‘dry reports was not the story of a haunted house, it was the story of several earnest, I believe misguided, certainly determined people, with their differing motivations and background.’ Excited by the prospect of creating her own haunted house and the characters to explore it, she launched into research. She later claimed to have found a picture of a California house she

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in hardcover by Viking Press (New York, 1959, 246 pages), at a cover price of $3.95 (about $35.00 today), was a finalist for the National Book Award and is considered one of the best literary ghost stories of the 20th Century.

Shirley Jackson.

40

“Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”

November 2021

believed was suitably haunted-looking in a magazine. She asked her mother, who lived in California, to help find information about the dwelling. According to Jackson, her mother identified the house as one the author’s own great-great-grandfather, an architect who had designed some of San Francisco’s oldest buildings, had built. Jackson also read volume upon volume of traditional ghost stories while preparing to write her own, and said, ‘No one can get into a novel about a haunted house without hitting the subject of reality head-on; either I have to believe in ghosts, which I do, or I have to write another kind of novel altogether.’”

Jackson finally settled on a story of three strangers who are invited to Hill House by Dr. Montague (“Markway” in the

SCOTT SAAVEDRA'S SECRET SANCTUM

Ward Cleaver and TV Dads of the Sixties’ Jobs

by Scott Saavedra Ward Cleaver went to his office job in the morning and came home at the end of the day. Sometimes he would come home early and his wife June would, without fail, say, “You’re home early.” He would wear a sweater around the house and read only magazines and newspapers despite the presence of many books in the home. He would strive to guide his sons to a straight and narrow path because that was his duty.

It was all pretend, though. Ward was father of Wally and Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver and husband to June for 234 half-hour episodes of Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). He wasn’t a real dad or even a real person, but he was a fine example of the Fifties- and Sixties-era father as anyone could ask for.

In real life dads were human, flawed, even weird. Once, I was playing with Army men at a friend’s house when his dad suddenly came in and, deeply unhappy that we were playing with war toys, asked us very aggressively if we’d ever seen a man hit by ordinance. He had. We hadn’t. The military wasn’t recruiting eight-year-olds, so… yeah, no… no, sir. But TV dads of the time had the rough edges smoothed over.

Ward could be stern, but fair as a parent. And as a breadwinner, he did well enough that June could stay at home and raise the boys, make meals, and look well-put-together in her housedress. When I was small my mother also wore housedresses as a stay-at-home mom. Like so many families (on TV and in life),

we were a single-income home. My father worked as a… uh, I really didn’t know at the time. As a kid, very little thought was given to what my—or any—dad did for a living. He went to work and then came home. On Fridays he’d come home with a treat.

Maybe small bags of Planters Peanuts (which I still love) or a package of four Hershey bars for his five children (math, I guess, was not his strong suit). I did know that a grade school friend’s father was a vice president at Mattel Toys. That’s the kind of information that sticks in a kid’s head. Otherwise, I had zero idea about what other dads did for a living.

As such it wasn’t odd in any way if I saw a TV dad who didn’t seem to have a specific job. This was more the case for sitcom dads. Adventure show dads usually had more defined work. Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene, Bonanza, 1959–1973), who outlived three wives (!) and was only 13 years older than his two oldest boys, was a rancher with a cook. Schuyler “Sky” King (Kirby Grant, Sky King, 1951–1962) was a father figure to his niece—life status of parents unknown—and a rancher with a plane. Lucas McCain (Chuck Conners, The Rifleman, 1958–1963) was a widower (another dead spouse, there will be more), single parent, and rancher with a rifle. (Quick family story about Chuck Conners: He winked at my wife Ruth’s namesake, Aunt Ruth, in the Market Basket grocery store in Palm Springs. We still talk about this at family gatherings.)

RETROFAN

November 2021

55

Scott Saavedra's secret sanctum

I used to think that TV sitcom dads of the period worked at largely unspecific jobs. That’s certainly how it seemed to me as a young viewer and pretty much how I remembered it. But in fact decades of reruns pored over by devoted generations of fans and scholars have made it possible to find out what kind of work the best-known TV sitcom dads of the Sixties did. There was one fictional father who was a particularly tough nut to crack—I’m looking at you, Ward—but with millions of eyeballs having watched these shows no fact stays hidden for long. We begin our job search at the top of the heap with America’s favorite TV sitcom dads.

Best Fathers to Know

According to numerous Best TV Dad lists that crop up around every Father’s Day there are three television dads of the Sixties who always make even the shortest, most modern-programmingbiased line-up: Andy Taylor, Mike Brady, and Ward Cleaver.

Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith, The Andy Griffith Show, 1960–1968) was a small-town sheriff, widower, and single dad. He was written to be patient, thoughtful, and competent. He wanted to raise his son to be prepared for life: “I don’t want him to be the kind of boy lookin’ for fights, but I don’t want him to run from one when he’s in the right.” It probably didn’t hurt that his son Opie (Ron Howard) was the best TV son ever. Andy did some of his finest parenting while at the Mayberry Courthouse or out and about during his workday.

Mike Brady (Robert Reed, The Brady Bunch and spin-offs, 1969– 1974 and beyond) was certainly a bit cooler than the other dads, but not by much: “Greg, it may be the hip thing to call parents

Mike Brady (CENTER) is an architect and Andy Taylor (RIGHT) is a sheriff. What does Ward Cleaver (LEFT) do?

56

RETROFAN

November 2021

by their first names, but around here, we’re still Mom and Dad.” Mike was an architect and had an additional office at home. His workplace did appear on camera and we even met his boss.

The premise of The Brady Bunch is well known: a lovely lady and a man named Brady blend their two families together. It’s here that the whole dead spouse thing rears its ugly head again. Mike was a widower and his new wife Carol was originally supposed to be divorced, but that was still not okay for wholesome television family entertainment so her former husband was a corpse, too.

Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont, Leave It to Beaver, 1957–1963) was, quite simply, a classic dad (I would go so far as to say he was the classic Fifties/Sixties dad), spouting classic TV dad advice: “There’s nothing old-fashioned about politeness.” He wore a suit, carried a briefcase, and went to a downtown office to… do… work.

What kind of work was never exactly mentioned beyond maybe a reference to commissions being down or something. Basically, he was tired at the end of the day so we know he worked hard, but beyond that… pfft.

So two out of these three top beloved TV dads had specific jobs and Ward, well, he had his own office in which to do whatever. In an interview for the Television Academy Foundation, the Beaver himself, Jerry Mathers, shared his theory about why we didn’t seem to know what his TV father did for a living. “I think what [the writers] wanted to do was maybe hold it off in case they wanted to write a show where he was an insurance salesman, a real estate salesman, who knows what.”

Ward Cleaver did have a co-worker, Fred Rutherford (Richard Deacon, better known as Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show).

RETRO ANIMATION

Rankin/Bass Productions Historian Examines the Cult Film’s Growing Popularity

by Rick Goldschmidt After writing a 2011 book and multiple magazine articles about Rankin/Bass Productions’ Mad Monster Party? [yes, officially with a question mark—ed.], and after co-producing a few related DVD and one Blu-ray releases, I’ve observed that the monster-bash kid’s film is gaining popularity as time goes on. In case you haven’t yet discovered it, Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party? (MMP) was a 1967 stop-motion movie, originally a theatrical release from Embassy Pictures, that gathered “The Worldwide Organization of Monsters” on the Isle of Evil and featured the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. Karloff played Baron von Frankenstein, joined by take-offs of classic screen monsters: Frankenstein’s Monster, a.k.a. “Fang”; Count Dracula, a.k.a. “Drac”; the Hunchback of Notre Dame, a.k.a. “Quasimodo”; plus the Mummy, the Werewolf, the Creature [from the Black Lagoon], the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the King Kong-like “IT,” and supporting characters Yetch and Skeleton, as well as humans Felix Flanken (the Baron’s nephew) and Francesca.

Turner Classic Movies now shows MMP in primetime, instead of the wee hours of the morning as it originally did. DVD and BluRay sales have picked up over the years. MMP is a Halloween must-see for me (and others) as I hand out candy to neighborhood kids.

In MMP’s initial release, as Rankin/Bass composer/conductor Maury Laws said, “It was snuck out” into theaters beginning on March 8, 1967. It was actually shown over a three-year period in Saturday kiddie matinees through 1967–1969, receiving its official review in the New York Times in early 1969.

An Invitation to the Party

After the premiere of Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer [see RetroFan #12] on the NBC General Electric Fantasy hour on December 6th, 1964, the phone at Rankin/Bass Productions in New York City was ringing off the hook. “People were calling us up saying, ‘Could we have one of those?’ ‘Could you make us similar?,’ etc.,” said producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. The TV special caught the attention of legendary film producer Joseph E. Levine and in May of 1965, a three-motion-picture deal was signed between Rankin/ Bass Productions and Levine’s company Embassy Pictures on New York’s Sixth Avenue in the Time/Life building. Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass, and Maury Laws attended the luncheon/signing. The trio of Levine-produced Rankin/Bass films that would follow were The Daydreamer (1966), a mix of live action and puppets based upon the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen; the traditionally

(ABOVE) Some of the creepy, kooky cast from Rankin/Bass Productions’ 1967 cult classic, Mad Monster Party?, from theater lobby cards. Courtesy of Heritage. © Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

RETROFAN

November 2021

61

retro Animation

animated The Wacky World of Mother Goose The Daydreamer is seeing a BluRay (1967); and the stop-motion monster-bash release from Kino Lorber in 2021 with my Mad Monster Party? (1967). commentary as well as film historian Lee Levine had produced many low-budget Gambin. The film is actually quite good for Mad Monster Party? films prior to this, including Santa Claus many reasons, including a star-studded Voice Cast Conquers the Martians [see RetroFan #12] cast, but one can see what probably ` Boris Karloff: Baron Boris von and some Hercules films. According to disappointed Levine. The main character, Frankenstein Maury Laws, “I know Levine wanted to up Chris Andersen, lets his friends down ` Allen Swift: Felix Flanken, his game and produce something on the repeatedly through the film, which causes Dracula, Fang, Werewolf, level of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. He was the film to not be the happy funfest of the Quasimodo, Invisible Man, Jekyll looking for Rankin/Bass’ The Daydreamer typical Rankin/Bass TV specials or the Walt and Hyde, IT, Yetch, Skeleton, to be that picture. When he saw the Disney films. Visually and creatively, it is Chef Machiavelli, Mr. Kronkite, finished [Daydreamer] film along with The a success, but psychologically, it may have other supporting characters Wacky World of Mother Goose, that sort of been a disappointment. ` Gale Garnett: Francesca soured the deal and Mad Monster Party?

It is too bad that Mad Monster Party? ` Phyllis Diller: The Monster’s Mate didn’t have a chance [to receive Levine’s wasn’t the first of the trio released. enthusiastic and full support].

Previously, Rankin/Bass Productions © Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives. “[The record release of] our had never really made a Halloween TV soundtrack for the film was shelved, special. So much hard work and planning went into this until [Percepto Records’] CD release of film that I am sure they felt they had done all they could it in 1998,” Laws said. “Robert Goulet with monsters. Boris Karloff’s work for the film was actually sang our theme song for The performed October 6th and 7th of 1965. He also appeared Daydreamer on The Ed Sullivan Show. in The Daydreamer. Later he would go on to do an awardThe plan was to release the film winning voice performance for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch directly after that, but Levine was so Stole Christmas. It took years for Karloff’s performance in disappointed, it didn’t happen.”

The soundtrack for Mad Monster Party? was quite a departure for composer Laws and lyricist Bass, a musical journey into the world of jazz, and it stands out as one of the greatest in the Rankin/Bass catalog.

“The movie was sort of a spoof, so for the theme, sung by Ethyl Ennis (also a RCA Victor recording artist), we sort of spoofed James Bond’s Goldfinger for fun,” said Laws.

FA ST FAC TS

(ABOVE) LEFT TO RIGHT: An unidentified Levine associate, Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass, Joseph E. Levine, Maury Laws, and another unidentified Levine associate.

(LEFT) Rankin working on Mad Monster Party? in his New York office in 1965, with the unused Jack Davis poster art on his desk.

(RIGHT) The voice actor behind most of the monsters, Allen Swift. His voice was also familiar to RetroFans in The Howdy Doody Show, as the original Burger King, and in other Rankin/Bass holiday TV specials such as his role of Santa Claus in ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. © 2012 Miser Bros. Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives.

62

RETROFAN

November 2021

ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

Monster Squad

&

drak pack

by Andy Mangels

The concept of history’s greatest monsters walking, creeping, and howling in the shadows of the night… together… may have been mostly a construct of Hollywood, rather than scary folklore or novels and pulp writing, but the topic of monsters mashing together was popular long before the 1962 novelty song “Monster Mash” delighted listeners.

As we face another Halloween, lets open the crypt door and peer through the cobwebs to see how Saturday mornings were invaded yet again by Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man… in Monster Squad and Drak Pack!

Monster Mash-Up History

As first discussed in RetroFan #2’s spotlight on Groovie Goolies (check elsewhere to find how to get back issues), three monsters reigned supreme in the realm of cinema horror. Immortalized onscreen by Universal Studios in feature films between 1931 and 1941, Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man—as portrayed

by Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney, Jr., respectively— thrilled audiences alongside other creatures and spooks such as the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, the Bride of Frankenstein, and more.

RETROFAN

November 2021

67

anDy ManGELs’ REtRo satuRDay MoRnInG

The “creature features” were a huge hit for World War II-era producers at its head were Raymond S. Allen, William P. D’Angelo, and post-war audiences, and Universal soon created a “shared and Harvey Bullock. universe” for sequels and spin-offs. The first team-up out of the Allen had been a writer in Hollywood since 1956, toiling on gate was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942), followed by House scripts for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Andy Griffith Show, The of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), which brought Danny Thomas Show, a 1964 Archie TV film based on the comics, The together into the same film Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, Flintstones, Hogan’s Heroes, and Love, American Style. D’Angelo cut and others. The comedic film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein his teeth in the Sixties as a writer, director, and producer for such (1948) showcased a monster romp, with the monsters facing off series as No Time for Sergeants, Love, American Style, and Room 222, against two of filmdom’s most popular screen comedians. though his biggest success was as an associate producer for the Although Universal moved away from the monster films, mammoth hit series, Batman. Speaking of Gotham City’s superin England, Hammer Films staked their own series of films hero, Harvey Bullock is the name of one of the Gotham P.D.’s most utilizing the same characters, often starring Peter Cushing and famous characters, but it’s also the name of a writer and series Christopher Lee, among others. The Universal features were creator since 1954, who worked on The Real McCoys, Rango, Gomer offered to television stations in a 1957 syndication package from Pyle USMC, and many Screen Gems, and the monsters were now enjoyed by kids, safe in of the same shows that Harvey their homes.

Raymond Allen wrote for.

Bullock.

In August 1962, Bobby “Boris” Pickett released a novelty song As D’Angelo-Bullockcalled “Monster Mash,” in which he mimicked the voices of Boris Allen (DBA) Productions, Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The song quickly shot up to #1 on the the trio produced five Billboard music charts. Monsters were now verging on being both other live-action Saturday kid-friendly and funny, instead of nightmare-inducing. morning shows for NBC From September 1964 to May 1966, CBS aired the sitcom The mornings: Run, Joe, Run Munsters (see RetroFan #2 and 6), which featured a family with a (1974–1975), Westwind Frankenstein-like father, a vampire wife and vampire father-in(1975–1976), McDuff, The law, and a werewolf son. Concurrently with The Munsters, ABC Talking Dog (1976), Big aired a similar macabre sitcom called The Addams Family (1964John, Little John (1976), 1966), though its characters were based on the morbidly funny and The Red Hand Gang humor of cartoonist Charles Addams rather than (1977). Although this horror monster tropes. As detailed elsewhere in output would seem this issue, Embassy Pictures released Mad Monster to rival Filmation and Party?, a stop-motion animated musical feature film Krofft for live-action from Rankin-Bass which featured their own version shows, none of the DBA of almost every major movie creature as part of a Productions shows were “Worldwide Organization of Monsters.” With Aurora terribly popular, and monster modelIF kits being advertised to kids in several didn’t even air all YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, William P. comics and in the pagesTHE of the pun-filled newsstand of their episodes prior to CLICK LINK TO ORDER THIS D’Angelo.

ISSUEMonsters IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! magazine Famous of Filmland (1958–2017), cancellation. horror was now friendly.

The credited creator Filmation Associates created the first Saturday of Monster Squad was morning show to capitalize solely on the idea of the Stanley Ralph Ross, a monsters working together, creating the Groovie talented writer that had Goolies animated series for CBS in September 1970 (see RetroFan #2). In that show, Drac, Frankie, Wolfie, and their Stanley ghoulish family and friends haunted Horrible Hall and had wacky Ralph Ross. slapstick adventures and told groan-inducing “spooky” jokes.

CBS ran Groovie Goolies through Fall 1972, and again, in late 1975 to Spring 1976. Filmation even shot a live-action segment of Drac, Frankie, and Wolfie for the December 16, 1972 ABC special The Saturday Superstar Movie: Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie RETROFAN #17 Goolies. Neither the success of Groovie Goolies—nor the perpetually Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview.

Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Monster Party, syndicated The Munsters and The AddamsMad Family—were lost on Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES NBC, nor withBAMA, a newer production GeorgeSaturday-morning of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak studio…

Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Children of the night…

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 the Creation of Monster Squad (Digital Edition) $4.99

Whatever its suspicious relationship to past monster-mash-up series was, Monster Squad was assembled in 1976 by D’AngeloBullock-Allen Productions, which was a relative newcomer to providing content for Saturday morning television. The trio of https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1608

68

RETROFAN

November 2021