Monday, November 21, 2005

Franky Jr.

Steal the premise of a translated Japanese anime show (Gigantor) that premiered a mere nine months earlier, give your main character the voice of the Addams Family's Lurch (Ted Cassidy), name him after a famous Universal Monster, and you've got me as a fan for life. I'm pretty easy that way. Hanna Barbera's Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles ran from 1966-67, and featured segments about a boy (Buzz Conroy), his Dad, and their giant robot, Frankenstein Jr. Check out the nifty model sheets at Animation Meat... Hanna-Barbera at their finest. Though 'Franky Jr.' (as Buzz likes to call him) isn't made of dead flesh, and, in fact, likes to rescue people and save lives, the tone of the show was still creepy enough to qualify as a Monsterama subject, mostly due to the bizarre Rogues' Gallery of sinster spooks. You can see what I mean here... lots of screencaps from a couple of episodes called 'The Living Images' and 'The Shocking Electrical Monster'. (My favourite weirdos to go up against Franky Jr. were 'The Spooktaculars', but I couldn't find any images to post just yet). Writer Eddie Brandt (The Spike Jones Show, Beany and Cecil) kept the scripts pretty basic, but they're still quite fun to watch. More to come on Frankenstein Jr. later...