Halloween TV Havoc!: THE MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW

The Monster Boom of the 1960’s saw kids of all ages craving their horror fix, and television supplied us with a steady stream of Monstermania. There were creepy comedies (THE MUNSTERS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY), anthologies (THRILLER, THE OUTER LIMITS), and monsters galore lurking on LOST IN SPACE and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. Even Saturday mornings cartoons weren’t safe, as ABC-TV began running THE MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW in 1965.

MILTON THE MONSTER was a limited-animation series about a man-made monster (ala Frankenstein) created in vat by Professor Weirdo and his sidekick Count Kook. Weirdo accidentally spills too much “tincture of tenderness” into the mix, resulting in a too-gentle monster who sounded a lot like Gomer Pyle. Milton’s fellow monsters were Heebie & Jeebie, the former a top-hatted skeleton who talked like Peter Lorre, the latter a hairy, one-eyed, snaggle-toothed goofball. Professor Fruitcake was their rival, the mad scientist next door always at odds with Weirdo and company.

The show featured two other cartoon segments.  “Fearless Fly” was an insect superhero, and “Fluky Luke” a clumsy cowboy sleuth who got by on sheer luck. All the voices were done by talented Bob McFadden, who also voiced the cartoon spy spoof COOL MCCOOL, and was the Snarf in THUNDERCATS, as well as the original voice in the ads for the monstrous breakfast cereal Frankenberry.

And now it’s cartoon time, with Milton the Monster and friends in “Zelda the Zombie”:

And just for kicks, here’s an episode of Fearless Fly as he battles arch-enemy Dr. Goo-Fee and his invisible assistant Gung-Ho: