Yes, this is the crazy crap I used to watch on Saturday mornings when I was a kid.
DR. SHRINKER was one segment of the weekly KROFFT SUPERSHOW, which was produced by Sid & Marty Krofft (LAND OF THE LOST). It was hosted by a fake rock group called Kaptain Kool and the Kongs (actors Michael Lembeck and Debra Clinger played two of the band members) and was comprised of several different series that played in segments of around ten minutes. ELECTRA WOMAN AND DYNA GIRL is probably the most fondly remembered, because it starred Deidre Hall and Judy Strangis in skintight superhero costumes.
But then there was DR. SHRINKER, which had a simple premise. Jay Robinson (THE ROBE), always a deliciously fey ham, played the title role of a mad scientist who shrank three teenagers to a few inches in height. He kept trying to capture them for study, while they tried to figure out how to get back to their regular height. Billy Barty played Shrinker's Igor, and Jeff MacKay, later on MAGNUM, P.I. and TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY, was one of the kids.
Brings back a lot of memories. I remember seeing Lembeck join the cast of ONE DAY AT A TIME a couple of years later and thinking, 'Hey, he was in the Kongs!"
ReplyDeleteWONDERBUG stuck in my mind too, but nothing like Diedre Hall did.
i particularly liked Dr. Shrinker's theme song -- "Dr Shrinker! Dr Shrinker! He's a madman with an evil mind!" Subtle.
ReplyDeleteBut with a name like Dr. Shrinker, did he ever have a choice BUT to invent a shrink ray?
"Dr. Shrinker! Dr. Shrinker!"
ReplyDeleteOh man, Marty, once again you have pulled something from the recesses of my mind. I remember this now.