Tuesday, October 12, 2021

1979 Struck By Lightning

Struck by Lightning is an American TV sitcom about Frankenstein's monster, which aired on CBS from September 19 until October 3, 1979. The show was cancelled after three out of 11 episodes were aired in the United States, although all 11 completed episodes did end up being shown in the United Kingdom on ITV in 1980 and six out of the 11 episodes were screened on ATN-7 Sydney in Australia from December 26, 1980 to March 1, 1981. As of this writing, Struck by Lightning has not been released on home video. The video below is the pilot episode WOC (With Original Commercials) that aired on Sept. 19th, 1979. It was uploaded by the YouTube channel The W/O/C Archive. The premise of the show is explained below.

Ted Stein (Jeffrey Kramer) is a science teacher who inherits a spooky old New England inn inhabited by its hulking, good-naturedly homicidal caretaker Frank (Jack Elam). It turns out that Ted is the descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein and Frank is the Monster who needs a special serum every 50 years to stay alive, and he wants Ted to recreate it for him ("If you don't, I'll die," he explains, "Let me put it another way, if you don't, you'll die"). Ted agrees to stay and continue his ancestor's experiments while keeping Frank's identity a secret. Elam claimed in an interview in Variety that he accepted the role of Frank after being told by the producers that he would not have to wear monster make-up because his naturally gnarled and bulgy-eyed appearance was already perfect for the part.



3 comments:

  1. Never saw the pilot before, I don't think. Unless I did see it when I was a kid back then. Corny, but a lot of shows were. Cool premise. Elam was always fun.

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    Replies
    1. Very cool premise. The pilot was good even though it was corny.

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  2. This website belongs in a museum to be preserved forever!

    ReplyDelete

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