“Forgotten Hollywood”- On the Fritz…

Posted on May 15, 2020 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

“`It was the Summer of 1967. A local show on KHJ Channel 9 in Los Angeles was about to debut four nights a week, right after the Million Dollar Movie. Shrimpenstein was a Soupy Sales-like puppet program that featured slapstick comedy skits and horror movie clips.

“`The hosts were Gene Moss  (Dr. Von Schtick with a very bad Boris Karloff accent) and Jim Thurman. Shrimpenstein was a miniature Frankenstein’s monster  (a ventriloquist dummy). Wilfred the Weenie Wolf did the spots for Hormel Wieners, one of the program sponsors. He lived in a box like Thing from The Addams Family. Also featured, the Tijuana Bats that lip-synched popular songs.

“`The descriptions I just provided are from others who were fans of the program.  I personally never saw the show.  The weekend before its debut on Channel 9, our television went on the fritz. My dad promised us a new color television, but we did not get it for three months. June… July… August… Summer without a television was absolutely cruel. I was only ten years of age.

“`A transistor radio became my constant companion. KHJ and KRLA churned out Top 40 hits and The Real Don Steele and Humble Harv were my pals. Some of my personal favorite tunes were introduced to me during that fateful Summer… Windy, Light My Fire, Penny Lane, Ode to Billy Joe, Happy Together. My relationship with radio would never end.

“`I was thrilled when my dad finally delivered on that color television in September. However, Shrimpenstein had been cancelled the week before. And so it goes…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2020 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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