The Monster Squad (1976)
Keeping with our Halloween theme I thought I would dust up this obscurity that has long since been forgotten by all but the very hardcore Generation X fans of Saturday morning TV.
No, this entry is not about the classic 1986 kids horror-comedy THE MONSTER SQUAD. This entry is about the long forgotten 1970's television show of the same name. The program debuted in September of 1976 and only lasted a mere 15 episodes before being canceled. The show returned to the air in 1980 for a second Saturday afternoon run and that is when I watched this very fun and cool Batman inspired live action program that takes Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman and makes them SUPERHEROES who battle cheese ball villains to atone for their past monster villainy. If this program had debuted in 1966, it may have been a hit. The "monster boom" started in the late 1950's with the syndication of old Universal Horror programs to UHF stations and this led to a major fad where millions of enthralled kids fell in love with those creepy and classic horror films that now aired on their UHF stations usually accompanied by a creepy local horror host. The horror movie fad survived well into the late 1960's, but began to die off in the early 1970's. However, there were still sufficient numbers of kids who loved watching monster films that toys, merchandise and reruns were still common place although by the early 1980's, the fad would die off. I remember horror films being a TV staple on UHF up until 1982 and then they basically stopped for several years and when they did come back it was all "color" films and the reruns of the Black and White classics were ultra rare. Anyway. THE MONSTER SQUAD was an attempt to bring a live action show to Saturday Morning ala SHAZAM! and ISIS and it was a very entertaining program that featured the classic horror monsters in new adventures. Unfortunately, the audience of kids who loved monsters had dwindled tremendously and the program was (sadly) short lived. Thanks to the joys of the internet here is a VERY RARE clip of the intro to the show that must be from a VHS of one of the early broadcasts. (And, yes, that is Gopher from the LOVE BOAT as the sidekick.)
On a side note, I used to have a tie in board game from this show when I was a kid!
No, this entry is not about the classic 1986 kids horror-comedy THE MONSTER SQUAD. This entry is about the long forgotten 1970's television show of the same name. The program debuted in September of 1976 and only lasted a mere 15 episodes before being canceled. The show returned to the air in 1980 for a second Saturday afternoon run and that is when I watched this very fun and cool Batman inspired live action program that takes Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman and makes them SUPERHEROES who battle cheese ball villains to atone for their past monster villainy. If this program had debuted in 1966, it may have been a hit. The "monster boom" started in the late 1950's with the syndication of old Universal Horror programs to UHF stations and this led to a major fad where millions of enthralled kids fell in love with those creepy and classic horror films that now aired on their UHF stations usually accompanied by a creepy local horror host. The horror movie fad survived well into the late 1960's, but began to die off in the early 1970's. However, there were still sufficient numbers of kids who loved watching monster films that toys, merchandise and reruns were still common place although by the early 1980's, the fad would die off. I remember horror films being a TV staple on UHF up until 1982 and then they basically stopped for several years and when they did come back it was all "color" films and the reruns of the Black and White classics were ultra rare. Anyway. THE MONSTER SQUAD was an attempt to bring a live action show to Saturday Morning ala SHAZAM! and ISIS and it was a very entertaining program that featured the classic horror monsters in new adventures. Unfortunately, the audience of kids who loved monsters had dwindled tremendously and the program was (sadly) short lived. Thanks to the joys of the internet here is a VERY RARE clip of the intro to the show that must be from a VHS of one of the early broadcasts. (And, yes, that is Gopher from the LOVE BOAT as the sidekick.)
On a side note, I used to have a tie in board game from this show when I was a kid!
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