The Hilarious House of Frightenstein | |
---|---|
Created by | Ted Barris, Ross Perigoe |
Starring | Billy Van Fishka Rais Guy Big Mitch Markowitz Vincent Price Julius Sumner Miller |
Theme music composer | Jean-Jacques Perrey, Harry Breuer, Gary Carol and Pat Prilly |
Opening theme | "March of the Martians" |
Country of origin | Canada |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 130 |
Production | |
Producer | Rafael "Riff" Markowitz |
Camera setup | Single camera |
Running time | ~48 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | CHCH-TV |
Release | 1971 |
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein is a Canadian children's television series, which was produced by Hamilton, Ontario's independent station CHCH-TV in 1971. [1] It was syndicated both in Canada and internationally, [2] and occasionally still appears in some television markets. In Canada, the series has not aired on broadcast TV for several years, and used to be available on the streaming service Crave. 100 episodes are now available on the free streaming service Tubi (2021), and Pluto TV (2024).
A quirky sketch comedy series that included some educational content amid its zany humour, the show's cast included Billy Van, Fishka Rais, Guy Big, Mitch Markowitz, Vincent Price, and Julius Sumner Miller. [2] Van played most of the characters on the show. [2] All 130 episodes were made in a nine-month span starting in 1971; the scenes with Miller were all filmed within one summer, and Price taped all of his scenes in four days. [3] [4]
In 2018, Headspinner Productions, the production firm of Ken Cuperus and Michelle Melanson, announced that it had acquired licensing and merchandising rights to the series, and was exploring the possibility of creating a new reboot. [5] In 2021, the company announced an animated version for preschoolers, titled Happy House of Frightenstein . [6]
In 2019, spoken word label Bleak December Inc completed a brand new full-cast audio production, Return to Frightenstein. The audio drama is a licensed production featuring Malcolm McDowell standing in for Vincent Price as host, Canadian actor Anthony D.P. Mann voicing several of the characters (including The Count, The Librarian, The Oracle and Dr. Pet Vet), Steven Spencer as Igor, and original series actor and co-producer Mitch Markowitz returning as Super Hippy. Other voice actors include Nikolas Yuen as The Wolf, Man!, Terry Wade as Bwana Clyde Batty, comedian Dave Hudson as Harvey Wallbanger, and Anne-Marie Bergman as Grizelda. The album has been announced for release in quarter three of 2019. [7]
In 2024, Lev Gleason's New Friday announced a continuation of the series as a one shot digest comic. [8]
The production started with Riff Markowitz envisioning the concept and then inviting a room full of creative friends to a spaghetti and champagne 'brainstorming' dinner party in his double suite at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto.
CHCH had broadcast two other Markowitz shows: The Randy Dandy Show for children, starring Rafael Markowitz as Randy Dandy; and The Ed Allen Show , an exercise program. CHCH approved the production of Frightenstein to take advantage of the station's new ability to reach into the Toronto market for advertising money.
Horror icon Vincent Price starred in introductions for the show's various segments. [9] Price, who was attracted to the project because he wanted to do something for kids, filmed all of his nearly 400 segments in four days for a fee of $13,000. [10] Julius Sumner Miller, an American scientist and TV personality, appeared in every episode; although he put on a "mad scientist" persona, his segments featured straightforward science lessons and experiments.
On Canadian television stations, the show generally aired as a children's show in an after-school or weekend morning time slot. In the United States, however, many stations aired it in a late night slot aimed primarily at college students. In an interview with film critic Richard Crouse on CFRB in the 2010s, Markowitz's brother Mitch Markowitz — also an associate producer and bit-part performer on the show — acknowledged that while he and his brother always recognized the show had kid appeal because of the zany monster characters and lowbrow humour, it was always intended to also appeal to a young adult audience of alternative comedy fans. [11] In some American markets, the show drew higher ratings than The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson among that demographic. [11]
Writers of the series included Markowitz, Paul K. Willis and Michael Boncoeur. [12]
Although each episode was nominally structured around the basic narrative premise of Count Frightenstein's efforts to revive Brucie J. Monster, a Frankenstein-like monster, [2] only some sketches (including the first sketch of each episode) directly addressed the premise itself, while most sketches depicted unrelated goings-on around the castle. Only the two main characters appeared in the "plot" sketches, although they could also appear in other sketches as well, while the supplementary characters generally only appeared in their own standalone sketches and were not part of the core "plot" sketches. This was primarily due to Van playing most featured character; Van never appeared opposite Miller or Price on screen.
Supporting characters were played by Billy Van, except where specified.
Puppet characters were performed by puppeteer Joe Torbay. [2]
On October 18, 2005, Empire Pictures released a single DVD featuring a handful of half-hour U.S.-syndicated episodes. The most significant change for these episodes as broadcast (apart from the length) was the addition of a laugh track.
On October 17, 2006, Alliance Atlantis Home Video in Canada released a three-disc box set of 13 full-length episodes, with restored Wolfman segments. The shows are not in chronological order, as only episodes that had thus far obtained music clearances for the Wolfman dance segments were included. The Wolfman theme, Sly & the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher", had not yet been cleared, so the opening was altered with new music by the Tijuana Bibles from Toronto, and Van's voice was redubbed by another Toronto voice actor, as Van himself had died in 2003. For recent airings in Canada on the cable networks Drive-In Classics and Space, the main Frightenstein theme is also a re-recording, because of licensing restrictions by Morning Music, Ltd.
Critical Mass Releasing Inc. of Toronto released the series in 2006 for broadcast on CHUM Television stations.
A second set of nine episodes was released by Critical Mass in late 2008.
On July 19, 2019, the entire series, without the Wolfman segments, became available to stream on Crave in Canada. [14]
The popularity of the series led co-creator/original cast member Mitch Markowitz to create a digest comic that serves as a continuation of the original series. Published by Lev Gleason's New Friday and written by Carson Demmans with art by Jason Sylvestre. [15]
The Hilarious House of Frightenstein was referenced in the first episode of the Ed the Sock program This Movie Sucks! , which is another program produced and broadcast by CHCH. In the episode the hosts refer to them being in a studio that has produced many classic television shows, and Ed comments that they have the coffee maker from The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, along with the original coffee.
Comedian Mike Myers acknowledged the show as an important formative influence on his comedy in his 2016 book Mike Myers' Canada.
James "Jimbo" Insell, a Canadian drag queen most noted for competing on the first season of Canada's Drag Race , cited The Hilarious House of Frightenstein as one of the models for House of Jimbo, a comedy/variety series he plans to produce. [16]
Return to Frightenstein, a full-cast audio play produced by Bleak December was released on streaming platforms in September, 2019. [17]
Happy House of Frightenstein , an animated reboot which follows the adventures of Count Jr., Igor, Griselda, the Wolfman and Gronk as children, premiered on Family Jr. in 2021. [18]
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