Monday, December 05, 2005

Shrimpenstein

Another stunner of a kids variety show (that I only recently unearthed-- shame on me!) is Los Angeles' own Shrimpenstein!... perhaps the only program weirder and wackier than my beloved Hilarious House Of Frightenstein. Everything I know about the show is covered here at TV Party, which has, as far as I know, the only clips available anywhere (any freaks out there with bootlegs of this monsterpiece?). Shrimpy was on KHJ channel 9 in LA from 1966 to 1968, hosted by the borderline lunatic Gene Moss (Dr. Von Schtick) and Jim Thurman (other voices), both of whom had just come off of writing and doing voices for the wonderful Roger Ramjet cartoon. Shrimpenstein was a miniature Frankenstein monster (a ventriloquist dummy, operated by Moss, who wasn't a ventriloquist... the voice was provided offscreen by Thurman) who was "created" when jellybeans were thrown into the Monster Machine. No kidding. This kookfest has to be seen to be believed! The puppet was actually made by special effects maestro Wah Ming Chang, best known for his legendary Star Trek work on such famous monsters as the Tribbles, the Gorn, Balock, and (pictured here) the Salt Vampire. An amazing pedigree for such a irreverent and, well, shrimpy little show.