Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known for her roles in Lassie and Lost in Space, she also starred as
Martha Day in These Are the Days; Millicent Trueblood in Pound Puppies (1986); and Vesta in Wildfire (1986). She also provided voices for Casper (1996) and Lloyd in Space.
MONSTER HIGH (2022) (Nickelodeon, October
6, 2022-October 24, 2024) Mattel Television,
Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Monster
High is a fashion doll and media franchise produced by Mattel, who first trademarked the name in 2007.
The line was
developed by toy designer Garrett
Sander and his twin brother, Darren,
and featured the teenaged children of monsters and other mythical creatures
attending the titular
school in the fictional town of New Salem. While
shopping with young girls, the Sander brothers noticed they were into goth
fashion. That inspired the idea for a toy with a dark aesthetic, further
influenced by monster movies, Tim Burton
films, and Lady Gaga (who would go
on to partner
with the line in support of her Born
This Way Foundation). The line officially launched in 2010, with the first
dolls consisting of patchwork monster and central character Frankie Stein,
vegetarian vampire Draculaura,
werewolf Clawdeen
Wolf, blue-skinned sea monster Lagoona Blue,
mummy princess Cleo
de Nile, and laid-back gorgon Deuce Gorgon. They
were joined a few months later by brilliant and mute zombie Ghoulia Yelps,
and Holt Hyde,
a descendent of Mr. Hyde who had a human alter ego of Jackson Jekyll
and some fire elemental traits. Other monsters would follow, resulting in over 750 different dolls
being produced for the line. These were bolstered by a full multi-media
campaign that included a web series
on YouTube, a series of television films
on Nickelodeon, video games, books and music releases.
The original dolls: Clawdeen Wolf, Lagoona Blue, Cleo de Nile, Deuce Gorgon, Frankie Stein, and Draculaura.
The line proved a
massive success, thanks to its edgier
appeal and messaging of anti-bullying, personal acceptance and diversity. They
racked up $500 million in annual sales and sold so quickly the dolls were often
hard to find in stores. Monster High eventually
diminished Mattel’s Barbie
line sales, although not quite surpassing it. However, sales began
to decline in 2014 as the brand aged and other companies tried to produce
their own competing toys. When they reached their lowest point in 2016, the
line underwent a
reboot to appeal to a younger age group. The ploy ultimately failed and the
line was discontinued in 2018. Special collector
dolls were released in 2020 and 2021 and did well
enough to warrant a second
reboot in 2022; targeting general consumers and collectors that came up
with the franchise. While still drawing on the familiar characters they
created, changes were made to their designs and backgrounds to help spark new
interest and further increase diversity. To bolster this reboot, a live-action musical film and a new computer-animated series entered production, both in
partnership with and slated to air on Nickelodeon.
Meet the new class: Deuce Gorgon, Toralei Stripe, Heath Burns, Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, Frankie Stein, Lagoona Blue and Cleo de Nile.
Monster High debuted on the
network on October 6, 2022. It followed the lives and antics of the students of
Monster
High, a boarding school built over a wellspring of magical power and hidden
from humans by a magical barrier. Clawdeen Wolf
(Gabrielle Nevaeh Green), now
the Afro-Latina daughter of a werewolf mother and human father who grew up in
the human world, was sent to Monster High with a necklace that allowed her to
access her wolf abilities. She was made the new central character and shown to
be on a quest to embrace her monster side and discover what happened to her
mother. She was the leader of the Boo Crew, which featured Frankie Stein
(Iris Menas), now the
non-binary kid of mad scientists Dr. Mary (Debra Wilson) and Dr. Victor Stein
(Vishesh Chachra); Draculaura (Courtney Lin), now
half-Taiwanese, vegan instead of vegetarian, and who fed off the energy from
success and feeling good about herself along with apassion for the forbidden practice of
witchcraft; Lagoona
Blue (Valeria Rodriguez),
originally a blue-skinned Australian sea monster now depicted as a pink-skinned
Honduran who grew up in a sunken castle with little knowledge of the outside
world and a love of telenovelas; and Cleo de Nile (Kausar Mohammed), depicted as a
bit kinder than previous portrayals, but was still prideful and standoffish
given her royal status and always desired to be #1. Other characters included Deuce Gorgon (Tony Revolori), son of Medusa and a barista
in the local hangout, the Coffin Bean
Café; Toralei
Stripe (Alexa Kahn), who
was initially antagonistic of Clawdeen and led a band called The Hissfits; Heath Burns (Alexander Polinsky), the son of
fire elementals and passionate environmentalist; and Headless
Headmistress Bloodgood (Wilson), daughter of the Headless Horseman who
oversaw the school.
The 2022 relaunch dolls.
The animated series ran for 2
seasons and 50 episodes. While developer and showrunner Shea Fontana shared fans’ hopes for a third season,
the production has yet to receive an order for more episodes. After the series’
initial run, it continued to be aired on the network in reruns; even finding
its way to their Saturday morning schedule.
Real
Scary Stories was a documentary-style series that saw a different group of
teenagers from around the country set out to confront an unusual occurrence in
their area; from haunted mansions and firehouses to urban legends. The viewers
would then follow along as the teens trapsed around spooky locations, being
terrified by various sounds or near-encounters.
Exploring the U.S.S. Hornet.
Created,
produced and co-directed by Don
Wells through his production company, Highland
Entertainment, the series relied on the submissions of real teenagers who
have had ghostly encounters or knew of a local legend. Once the production
selected the story they wanted to follow, they organized an expedition to bring
those teens into a direct encounter with whatever entity was involved; most
commonly by having them spend the night in a haunted location or an
investigation of an affected area after sunset. Of course, since the
supernatural really doesn’t appear on camera on demand, these adventures were
often sweetened by clever sound design, specific editing cuts, and intentional
camera angles. Supplementing the main action and were interviews with other
locals and relatives to add more details to the phenomenon. After the encounter,
the teens would gather for a recap of what they just experienced.
Spending the night in a haunted firehouse.
Real
Scary Stories debuted on FOX Family (now Freeform)
on October 21, 2000; renamed Scary…But True for international airings.
Depending on length, two or three different story segments aired per half-hour episode.
Hollie Ralph and Patrick Russell served as the monotone narrators; introducing
the scenario and the players involved. The two would alternate turns, generally
marked by briefly overlapping and reading the same line together as one faded
in and the other faded out in order to create an eerie, otherworldly effect
with their voices. Each episode would end with a P.O. Box address that viewers
could send submissions to potentially wind up as a future segment. The series
was written by Wells along with Michael
Koegel, Christopher Manahl
and Helen Demeranville. Music was composed by Shuki Levy, Haim Saban (as Kussa
Mahchi), John Majkut and Barry Kolsky.
Strange emanations appear in photographs of Diane.
After 13
irregularly scheduled episodes, the series ultimately ended up being cancelled
in favor of the very similar Scariest Places on Earth, which debuted on
the network two days later and featured star power in the form of The Exorcist’s Linda Blair and Poltergeist’s Zelda Rubinstein. Real
would remain on the network for a while as a schedule-filler, even after it was
taken over by Disney and renamed ABC
Family. It last aired during 2002’s 13 Nights of Halloween
programming block, but would return for one more time in 2010 on the
now-defunct channel Chiller
TV under its Scary title. In the years since, almost every episode
has found its way to YouTube through fan
uploads.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Rest in Peace / Haunted Home Video / Green Man Tunnel”
(10/21/00) – After buying a new bed from an antique shop, Jason feels a
presence in his room. / Heather discovers a ghost on her family’s Christmas
tape. / An antisocial figure haunts the train tunnels in a Pennsylvania town.
“Cell Block Four / Seacoast Theater Poltergeist” (10/28/00)
– Danny explores Eastern State Penitentiary with a team of ghost hunters. / A
poltergeist haunts a local theater and causes havoc during the final
performances of shows.
“Jersey Devil / The Grey Ghost / Ray the Banisher”
(11/18/00) – The 13th generational descendant of the Jersey Devil
decides it’s time that they meet. / Four teens investigate the possible
haunting of the USS Hornet. / Ray is your average teenager—except he’s
able to communicate with the dead.
“Bachelor’s Grove / The Vortex” (11/25/00) – Mark and his
classmates investigate the hauntings at Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery. / Ray and
his friends see if ghosts remain at the ruins of an exploded munitions factory.
“The Haunted Lighthouse / The Altamaha Sea Monster / Martha”
(12/2/00) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Anges, Are You There? / Room 347 / Bodie’s Curse”
(11/16/00) – Erin attempts to communicate with the ghost of the woman entombed
in her school’s walls. / C.J. returns to the hotel where he once befriended a
ghost girl. / Two girls investigate the curse of bad luck that befalls anyone
that removes something from the ghost town of Bodie.
“Virginia City Dare / 13 Curves” (1/20/01) – Jaena and Chris
dare each other to stay in Virgina City’s two most haunted houses until
midnight. / Joe sets out to make a documentary about a dangerous stretch of
road, complete with a séance led by a psychic.
“Gurdon’s Light / Condie’s Ghost” (1/27/01) – Teens
investigate the railroad tracks where a railroad foreman was murdered and his
headless ghost now roams. / While visiting her friend at college, Sarah
discovers that her dormitory is haunted.
“McPike Mansion / The Search for Bigfoot / The Haunting of
Diane” (2/3/01) – Drew and his friends investigate the ruins of the most
haunted mansion in town. / Richie leads an expedition into the woods to try and
discover if Bigfoot is really out there. / Diane looks into why strange objects
appear around her whenever she’s photographed.
“The Lady in Gray / The Deacon” (2/10/01) – Zach plots to
make a ghost angry enough to manifest in the library she haunts. / Local kids
investigate a ghost known as The Deacon that supposedly watches over the
Depreciation Lands Museum.
“Lemp Mansion / The Haunted Firehouse / The Winchester
Mansion” (2/24/01) – Teens investigate the abandoned home of a family driven to
extinction by madness. / Kurt plans to spend a night in the firehouse where a
heartbroken fireman killed himself. / Three teens investigate the mansion of
Sarah Winchester, designed to keep her safe from the spirits of those killed by
Winchester rifles.
“The Myrtle Plantation / Manresa Castle” (3/3/01) – Erin and
Shalita plan to spend the night at a haunted plantation. / Joey and Kasey spend
the night in a castle haunted by the ghost of a priest that committed suicide.
“Mansfield Prison / The Ghost of the Inyos” (3/10/01) – Rob
and his friends investigate the most haunted prison in the country. / Chareen
and Felicia see if the ghost of mass murderer Antoine Benoit is still haunting
the Inyo Mountains where he died.
Little
Dracula is a British series
of children’s books that centered on the daily adventures of Dracula’s son, nicknamed
Little D. Along with his father, Little D lived in Castle Dracula in Transylvania with his
mother, Mrs. Dracula, little sister, Millicent, and his Granny. Other residents
included Igor, Dracula’s all-purpose servant who had a removable eye; Slave, a
zombie servant that was frequently used and abused by everyone, especially
Igor; Handy, a disembodied sentient hand; and their pets, Cat, Batty and later
Rover, a werewolf cub. During the day, the nearby villagers were out and about,
but at sunset they would retreat to their homes and the night belonged to the
Draculas.
One of the series' two-page spreads.
The books were written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Joseph
Wright. They took some inspiration from Charles Addams’The
Addams Family strips and its adaptations by blending macabre imagery
with humor and enough silliness to be kid-friendly. For instance: liberal use
of blood as beverages or condiments; skulls doubling as bowling or croquet
balls; emptying the contents of a severed human head into a frying pan for
breakfast; eating a sandwich made from a severed human leg; getting blood
delivered like bottles of milk; Little D sawing his sister in half and later
gluing her back together; an iron maiden complete with skeletal occupant as a
Christmas gift, etc. All of this was conveyed through Wright’s highly-detailed artwork,
infusing safe-yet-grotesque sight gags into every picture. Each book would open
with a two-page spread of the Dracula castle grounds showcasing the occupants
and other beings doing various activities within and without. A number next to some
characters would correspond to a list identifying who each character was;
including random characters that played no part in the actual story such as a
werewolf and Frankenstein’s monster.
The first Little Dracula book.
The first book in the series, Little
Dracula’s First Bite, debuted in 1986 and was published by Walker Books. Seven books followed through
1992; however, the Fiendishly
Funny Joke Book was done by the different creative team of Alan Durant and Paul Tempest. Candlewick Press would pick up the
international rights to the series and release the books in North America, and
four of the books would see reissues as late as 2001.
Little D with Igor, Deadwod, Dracula, Millicent, Mrs. Dracula, Werebunny, Batty and Granny.
In the 1990s, it was decided to
adapt Little Dracula into an animated series. Produced by Steven Hahn Productions in
association with Sachs Family Entertainment, the cartoon took deep inspiration
from the books. However, since the books were very short, didn’t have too much
depth to their stories, and weren’t many of them, some liberties were taken to
flesh them out further in order to fill an entire season of television episodes.
Little D (Edan Gross) still lived in the caste with Big Dracula (Joe Flaherty,
as a nod to his Count
Floyd character from SCTV), Mrs. Dracula
(Kath Soucie), Millicent (also Soucie), and his Granny (Jonahtan Winters,
sounding fairly close to his Maude Frickert
character). On his birthday, Little D was gifted the Scepter of the Draculas,
which could create a doorway to anywhere or open any locked door, an amulet
that would allow him to communicate with anyone, and a hat that would allow him
to go out into the sunlight unharmed. Little D combated his difficulty with
flying by designing a flying car, the Dracster (a vampire-themed play on
dragster).
Igor presenting the Draculas with his Santa-catching trap.
Igor (also Winters), on top of
being Dracula’s servant and Little D’s keeper, was also the live-in mad
scientist who cooked up bizarre inventions for the Draculas. That included a
special top hat that allowed Little D to go outside in the daytime. Slave was
renamed Deadwood (Melvyn Hayes), likely to avoid the controversy of the Draculas
being slave-owners. He was often Igor’s guinea pig or tool. He would often make
sarcastic comments about situations or predicaments, but nobody ever seemed to
hear him clearly. Handy helped out around the castle and was excellent at
sleight-of-hand magic. Along with their established pets Battie and Wolfie
(renamed from Rover), Cat was replaced by a fuzzy spider.
Little D taking Werebunny for a ride in the Dracster.
Newly-created for the series was
Little D’s best friend, Werebunny (Joey Camen); a blue-furred half werewolf,
half bunny with a single eye. There was also Twin-Beaks (a play on “Twin Peaks”,
voiced by Danny Mann), a two-headed vulture that often hung out in the dead
trees by the castle and whose heads tended to bicker with each other. Both
attended the same Ghoul School as Little D…in Twin Beaks’ case because their
right head was held back for 17 years. As Little D was unable to fly just yet,
he turned his car, the Dracster, into a flying car to compensate for it.
The sinister Garlic Man.
Other new
characters were antagonists for the show. Dracula’s sworn enemy was Garlic Man
(Brian Cummings), who wanted nothing more than to destroy him (since vampires
hated garlic, after all). He had a garlic head and a stench to match. Whenever
he was defeated, Garlic Man would be reduced to a garlic clove, but be could be
resurrected via a ceremony of planting it and reciting a chant. He was served
by two lackies: the aptly-named No Eyes (Mann), who also had an interchangeable
mechanical hand, and the boil-covered Maggot (Neil Ross).
The Man With No Eyes and Maggot saluting their boss (while dealing with his stench).
Little
Dracula had an interesting run. It aired from Tuesday through Saturday its
debut week, and was then replaced by Beetlejuice
on weekdays and Bill
& Ted’s Excellent Adventures on Saturday. The next episode wouldn’t
air until Halloween that year. The remaining seven episodes wouldn’t run until
the series was rerun on Fox Family Channel (now Freeform) in 1999. Although it was never
seen in North America again, second season of 13 episodes was commissioned overseas
by Fance’s M6 network. Co-produced in France
and Germany by IDDHand Renaissance-Atlantic
Films, it aired exclusively in Europe under the title Draculito, Mon Saigneur.
An equally short-lived
toyline was co-produced by DreamWorks,
who handled the North American release, and Bandai,
who handled other territories. Two versions of Little D, Deadwood, Garlic Man,
Igor, Maggot, The Man With No Eyes, Twin Beaks and Werebunny were released,
along with the Dracster, the Garlicmobile, the Drac-Moto and the Coffin Car.
Additionally, Little D’s scepter and amulet were offered as roleplay toys. Harvey Comics published
a 3-issue mini-series seeing
Little D on the trail of whoever staked his parents so that they can remove the
stakes and bring his parents back to un-death. Like the books, the first issue
featured a two-page introduction spread of Dracula’s castle. The comic was done
by Michael
Gallagher, Dave Manak, Jorge Pacheco, and In Color.
The Harvey Comics version of the two-page introduction spread.
EPISODE GUIDE: “The Curse of the Ghastly Minimum Wage” (9/3/91) – Little D
unwittingly becomes an employee for a new burger joint in town created solely
to get rid of Dracula. “Little D’s First Bite / Ghoul Days” (9/4/91) – It’s Little
D’s first day of school, and Garlic Man enrolls Maggot in order to steal the
Scepter of the Dracula’s from him. “Little D’s Surprise” (9/5/91) – It’s Little Dracula’s
birthday, and he’s finally of age to embrace his heritage—if he can master the
flying that he’s neglected practicing. “The Bite Before Christmas” (9/6/91) – While the Draculas
anticipate the arrival of Santa, Garlic Man decides to disguise himself as
Santa in order to infiltrate their castle. “Little ‘D’ Goes Hawaiian” (9/7/91) – Sick of the
Transylvanian weather, Dracula decides to take everyone on a vacation to
Hawaii. “Little D’s Halloween” (10/31/91) – The Draculas dress as
ordinary people to accompany Little D on his first time trick-or-treating in
the village with Garlic Man in hot pursuit. “Bat Boys” (9/12/99) – Little D battles Garlic Man and his
minions in a game of baseball with his schoolmates. “Easy Biters” (9/14/99) – Igor changes Little D’s bike into
a motorcycle, leading to him and his friends crossing paths with a bad
motorcycle gang looking for a challenge. “Deadwood’s Complaint” (9/17/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. “The Chamber of Unspeakable Terror” (9/17/99) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE. “The Bite at the Ghoul Schol Corral” (10/3/99) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE. “Midnight Madness” (10/11/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. “Deadly Screentest” (10/13/99) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
