THE MONSTER SQUAD (1976-77)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*

From time to time I contemplated the purchase of a DVD collection of this hoary seventies kids' show, if only to see where it fit in the spectrum of the superhero idiom. But the vague memories of MONSTER SQUAD I had suggested that it would be money badly spent. But some generous soul happily downloaded all thirteen episodes onto Youtube, and so I was able to delve into all that seventies silliness without expense.

Most of the episodes of this program-- in which three classic monsters decide to fight the super-villains that constantly menace their city-- were written by former BATMAN '66 scribe Stanley Ralph Ross. The fact that the series is so outrageously dumb indicates that Ross had no appreciation of the camp aesthetic that made BATMAN so successful with both adult and juvenile audiences. Of course, since MONSTER SQUAD aired on Saturday mornings, there's no question that it was conceived as a kid's program. I was rather amused by an online Ross interview, in which he claimed that he was writing for "teenagers." I have no idea why he would deflect from the fact that he was writing corny jokes, with an almost total lack of sex, for an audience of grade-schoolers.

The concept by itself is engagingly stupid. Would-be crime-stopper Walter, a caretaker for a wax museum, builds a "crime computer" whose vibrations somehow bring to life three statues representing classic creatures Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Werewolf (the latter two called "Frank N. Stein" and "Bruce W. Wolf.") The reborn monsters somehow have the memories of their original selves, and they decide to take up crimefighting to atone for past sins. All three actors-- Henry Polic II, Buck Kartalian, and Mike Lane-- are charged with reading all of the silly superhero-schtick with as much gusto as possible-- and in that respect, they're certainly more successful than most actors trying to emulate campy acting.

Each of the thirteen episodes offers a new villain, only a few of whom have encountered the Monster Squad before. Only two of the actors playing the villains appeared on the BATMAN teleseries: the obvious one being Julie "Catwoman" Newmar, while midget Billy Curtis had a supporting role as a henchman to False Face. Surprisingly, even though Ross wrote all of the Catwoman episodes for the 1966 show, Newmar doesn't score all that well as villain "Ultra Witch" on MONSTER SQUAD. Perhaps that's because Ross gave this project so little thought that he decided to recycle a gimmick from the Bat-episode "Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," whose big thing was a ray gun that could turn heroes into flat paper shapes. (Terrible pun alert: Ultra Witch calls her weapon "Ronald Raygun.") Surprisingly, the actors who get the best out of their silly roles are Alice Ghostley (as "Queen Bee") and Geoffrey Lewis (as "The Skull.")

Presumably Ross had nothing to do with the decor of the show, but SQUAD does successfully emulate the day-glo look of BATMAN '66. However, the fight-scenes are kept as tame as possible, as the monster-heroes fight the villains and their henchmen with things like pillows and streamers. But there's just enough minor violence-- Frankenstein making two thugs bonk heads, for instance-- that I can still deem MONSTER SQUAD a combative comedy, even though it's one of the weakest of its breed.