THE GOODS: Bob McFadden

Monday, October 22, 2012

MONSTER-MONTH: A COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 23)

(Click to Frankensize)

“It’s thrilling and chilling,

and oh so shock filling,

The Milton the Monster Show;

It’s daring and scaring,

you’ll find yourself staring,

at Milton the Monster’s Show;

Your flesh will creep,

your heart will thump,

the sites will paralyze;

But then you’ll see the strangest things

that ever met your eyes!

It’s loony and goony,

and practicallyswoony;

You’ll shake and you’ll quake,

at the sights that they make,

on The Milton the Monster Show!

Introducing the star of the show, Milton the Monster.

He blows his stack

when he flips his lid;

Although he’s a monster

he’s just a big kid;

And now he’s ready to go,

on The Milton the Monster Show.”

(Hear it here: http://www.cartoonscrapbook.com/_sounds/The_Milton_the_Monster_Show_-_1965.wav )

The Milton the Monster Show is an animated television series that ran on ABC-TV from October of 1965 to September of 1968 and was produced and directed by Hal Seeger, who also created Batfink.

Some felt that Hal Seeger’s Milton was an attempt to capitalize on the 1964 horror/comedy craze which included The Munsters and The Addams Family TV series. However, Milton the Monster had been in production long before those two series aired and it was slated to debut in the fall of ’64 until production delays pushed it back until October 1965.

(Click to Frankensize)

The series starred Milton the Monster, a Frankenstein-looking monster with a flat-topped head which seemed to emit white steam or smoke based on his mood or the situation. Milton was created by Professor Montgomery Weirdo and his assistant Count Kook who live on Horror Hill in a haunted house.

Milton has a pleasant disposition due to an error in the Professor’s work in creating him--he used too much “tincture of tenderness” to temper his potential to do harm to his creator. Milton was created through a process that combined liquids such as “essence of terror” and “sinister sauce” in a Milton-shaped mold.

(Click to Frankensize)

Bob McFadden provided the voice for Milton, which owed much to Grady Sutton’s Og Ogglby character from W.C. Fields’ film THE BANK DICK. McFadden also voiced Professor Weirdo and his resident monsters Heebie, a skull-faced top hat-wearing zombie with a Peter Lorre voice, and Jeebie, a dumb one-eyed hairy green creature with one sharp tooth.

Professor Weirdo’s enemy was Professor Fruitcake, another mad scientist who lived in a castle on an opposite hill. Fruitcake’s creation was Zelda the Zombie. Other characters in the series include Fangenstein, a biker monster inspired by Marlon Brando, his sidekick, Ambercrombie the Zombie and Professor Weirdo’s aunt, the witchy Aunt Hagatha.

(Click to Frankensize)

Watch MIlTON THE MONSTER for FREE at HULU:

http://www.hulu.com/milton-the-monster

Check out the series at these sites:

http://www.cartoonscrapbook.com/M/milton-the-monster-show-1965.htm

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058826/

http://www.tv.com/shows/milton-the-monster/

http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/1548/milton.html&date=2009-10-25+08:05:13

http://www.toontracker.com/milton/milton.htm

http://www.davemackey.com/animation/seeger/milton/index.htm

On TCM:

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

2AM - CHARLY (1968)

And finally:

Friday, October 12, 2012

MONSTER-MONTH: COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEN (Day 12)

Let’s talk breakfast tonight on the Countdown to Halloween, or more precisely, breakfast cereal. And, specifically, that strawberry flavored, marshmallowed General Mills product known by the name of FRANKEN BERRY!

In October of 1971, Count Chocula and Franken Berry cereals were the first of, eventually, five monster-themed cereals to be introduced by General Mills.

Franken Berry is a strawberry-flavored cereal with marshmallows and is represented by a pink Frankenstein Monster who talks with a very Boris Karloff voice. He seems to be a steampunk Monster as he feaures a gauge and a steam whistle out of each side of his head. He has bolts over where his ears should be and a pair of goggles that seem to be rivited to his face. The only thing not pink in his attire are the chains that he wears as suspenders.

(Click to Frankensize)

By February of ’72, Franken Berry cereal had turned some children’s feces pink due to an inability to break down the heavily dyed cereal. The symptom came to be referred to as “Frankenberry Stool”. Thank goodness I don’t have any photos of this phenomenon.

Boo Berry, known to be the first blueberry-flavored cereal, was released in 1973 and featured a ghost with a voice very much like Peter Lorre, and Fruit Brute the following year. Fruit Brute was discontinued in 1983 and replaced in 1987 by Fruity Yummy Mummy, which also had a short life as it was discontinued in the ‘90s.

Beginning in 2010, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chockula cereals will be manufactured and sold only for a few months during the fall/Halloween season.

FRANKENBERRY REDUX from Chris Romano on Vimeo.

Robert “Bob” McFadden was an American singer, impressionist and voice-over actor best known for his work on many animated cartoons.

His most popular television cartoon characters included Milton the Monster from the ABC series, The Milton The Monster Show, Cool McCool from the NBC series, Cool McCool; and Snarf from the syndicated series, ThunderCats.

McFadden was also the voice of numerous radio and tv commercial parts including Franken Berry in the animated commercials for General Mills’ Franken Berry cereal as well as the pet parrot who cackled “ring around the collar” in TV commercials for Wisk laundry detergent.

While in the United States Navy during World War II, he began performing as a singer and impressionist. After the war, he went on to work at a steel mill in Pittsburgh and continued performing nights as an opening act for such artists as Harry Belafonte. McFadden eventually moved to New York where he obtained extensive voice-over work in both commercials and animation.

In 1959, he appeared as a singer folk music artist, Rod McKuen, on the Brunswick Records album entitled Songs Our Mummy Taught Us which inclued two tracks, “The Mummy” and “The Beat Generation”, also released as a single.

And this is where you can find it...

BongosFlutesGuitars

In 1963, McFadden released the Audio Fidelity Records parody album entitled Fast, Fast Relief From TV Commercials followed by the 1967 Columbia Records spoken-word album, The Medium Is The Message. In 1977, McFadden voiced the character, Chugs, in the animated TV Easter special, The Bunny Is Comin’ To Town.