MONSTER MASHUPS #136

 

I was working on some notations and just wanted something uninvolving on the TV screen to supply background, so I put on the 1978-79 THE BAY CITY ROLLERS. I expected it to be a skit-show with musical numbers by the Rollers, which it was. I didn't know that it started as THE KROFFT SUPERSTAR HOUR, which was a retooled version of the 1976-78 KROFFT SUPERSHOW. I'd watched some segments of the first show but must have overlooked/avoided SUPERSTAR HOUR for whatever reasons. The original one-hour SUPERSTARS show had the Rollers introduce three separare comedy-segments, "Horror Hotel," "The Lost Island," and "Magic Mondo." The first eight episodes must not have scored well, for the show was cut back to half an hour, and all of the shows under the ROLLERS rubric featured only the musicians doing skits and songs and the "Horror Hotel" segment. Those segments are the only ones on streaming, which is a shame because now I'm vaguely curious about the "Lost Island" with its wacky crossover of several Krofft characters. 

I didn't watch PUFNSTUF, except for the movie version, but I'd still would tend to label that version of Witchiepoo more "villain" than "monster." In "Horror Hotel," an altered version of Witchiepoo runs the hotel of the title and doesn't do anything villainous. I can see labeling this version of the character sort of a "mischief-monster." However, all her suitmation assistants are IMO just anthropomorphized animal goofballs with no monster-aspects. If one does deem Witchiepoo a funny monster-- and one can certainly make a case for some witches being monsters, despite Samantha and Sabrina-- then "Horror Hotel" would be a monster-mashup only whenever a "guest monster" appeared. This short list included a mummy, a weird creature from a painting, a black-robed ghost, a Dracula (played by Jay Robinson), and a flat-out copy of the Universal Frankenstein Monster, though the name "Frankenstein" is never used.     

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

In youth I watched some of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action shows but avoided most of the producers' "suitmation" episodes of the decade. So I was unaware as to how often those shows-- H.R. PUFNSTUF, SIGMUND AND THE SEA MONSTERS, and LIDSVILLE-- played host to crossovers between those franchises.  Probably the most notable one took place on LIDSVILLE. Though actress Billie Hayes had a regular role on that show, she also guested as her PUFNSTUF character Witchiepoo, wherein she had a romantic relationship with LIDSVILLE's comic villain Hoodoo. The two characters later showed up in "Horror Hotel," a segment of the 1978-79, but in a non-romantic context. "Hotel" also played host to comical versions of Dracula and an unnamed Frankenstein Monster.

     In 1972, when ABC was still seeking to publicize both PUFNSTUF and LIDSVILLE, the station aired THE BRADY BUNCH MEETS ABC'S SATURDAY SUPERSTARS. I've no idea if I saw the hour-long special in The Day, but at present only a brief clip appears on YouTube. This hype-special seems to have more of a narrative than most such specials, in which actors would most frequently just introduce clips from the TV shows being hyped. Apparently for the whole hour of SUPERSTARS, all six of the Brady Kids get zapped into a television set, meet both Witchiepoo and Hoodoo, and presumably watch clips of shows that needed hyping before getting returned to what passed for "Brady reality."     

MONSTER MASHUPS #135

 Samson faces THE FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON. (Some humans claim it belongs to a group called "Smoke Monsters," but only one is seen.)

 And then there's THE WIDE-MOUTH MONSTER.

MONSTER MASHUPS #134

 In this post I linked to my short review of the short-lived monster-mash title HOWLING COMMANDOS OF SHIELD, but I can't even muster a short review of its predecessor, the mostly incoherent six-issue series NICK FURY'S HOWLING COMMANDOS, written by Keith Giffen and penciled by three different artists.

The main members of the "Creature Corral" (yes, they're called that once) are mostly new variations on standard monster-types: vampire Nina Price, werewolf "Warwolf," a clone of the Frankenstein Monster, and a zombie with no ID, "John Doe." The other three members may or may not be continuous with earlier Marvel monsters known respectively as "The Glob," "The Living Mummy," and "The Gorilla-Man." Despite the title, Nick Fury makes only a token appearance, and his subordinate Clay Quartermain is actually in charge of ramrodding the mutinous monsters. 

 A few non-monster guest-stars with occult associations, such as Brother Voodoo and the Son of Satan, make appearances, but most of the other subordinate characters are literal monsters: Lilith the Daughter of Dracula, Goom, Grogg, Groot (not yet confined to one word), and Dragoom. Wiki claims that the Werewolf By Night and the Manphibian are in there but I didn't see them. An old Giant-Man foe, the Living Eraser, is name-checked only, and some old Hulk villains, the Lords of the Living Lightning, appear briefly. The Mole Man shows up for two panels toward the end. Some guy named Merlin is the villain but he seems unlikely to be continuous with any previous version. The series is pretty much a mess, and the art's ugly.  

MONSTER MASHUPS #133

 THE DART-TONGUED BEAST.

This one's called both THE CHOKE-FOAM MONSTER and THE SOAP-BUBBLE MONSTER.

THE CAVE-CENTIPEDE.

 

MONSTER MASHUPS #132

 In GORGO #5, Gorgo's Mother-- who I'll bet never gets a name of her own-- finally contends with another monster of the deep, billed on the cover as "The Sea Beast."

 Then in #10 both Gorgo and his mom fight a race of colossal Venusians.

MONSTER MASHUPS #131

 THE CLAWED SQUID.

THE THREE-HEADED LIZARD.

 For the first time, Samson's co-feature "Tom Morrow" gets in on the mashup action with THE LARIAT BEAST and THE GIANT FLOATING JELLYFISH, as well as a few garden-variety revived dinosaurs. Oddly, though I don't think the two future-worlds have anything in common (except possibly their writer), a big Jellyfish also appeared one issue previous in SAMSON.