ABC Weekend Special Horror Part Two

HENRY HAMILTON GRADUATE GHOST

(1984)

Dir - Noam Pitlik
Overall: MEH

 

Season eight of the ABC Weekend Special series kicked off with Henry Hamilton Graduate Ghost based on the 1982 book of the same name by Marilyn Redmond.  Though the presentation is borderline embarrassing in its cheapness and the whole thing is about as cinimatically spectacular as a box of Raisin Brand, the story itself concerns a Confederate soldier returned from the grave who is tasked with scaring a suburban family out of their home in order to graduate from ghost school, plus there is an amusing side arc where an African American, supernatural fanboy neighbor conducts a spell to exorcise him.  Naturally, all real life Civil War atrocities are glossed-over and aside from several questionable moments where a grown man-specter kisses children that are not his own, it has a harmless, dopey agenda with one or two clever laughs present for those who can stomach the syrup.

THE ADVENTURES OF A TWO-MINUTE WEREWOLF

(1985)

Dir - Pamela Pettler

Overall: MEH

 

Coincidentally released the same year as the Michal J. Fox comedy Teen Wolf, The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf utilizes an almost identical premise, exploring the themes of male adolescence via lycanthropy.  It even throws in the angle of such coming-of-age transformations being hereditary in their literal hairiness, though the tone is appropriately more suited for pre-teens than high schoolers, with it being a children's program and all.  Continuing in the tradition established by Joe Dante whereas a werewolf movie most have werewolf movies playing in the background, little Knowl Johnson and his buddy Julia Reardon watch Universal's The Wolf Man in a movie theater and one or two other Easter eggs are scattered about as well.  The source material by Gene DeWeese is tame stuff by any standards since the most ferocious thing that Johnson's character does while wolfed-out is partake of some spontaneous gymnastic practice and sit on top of a bully while playfully making gruff noises until the police arrive.

CAP'N O.G. READMORE MEETS DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

(1986)

Dir - Rick Reinert

Overall: MEH

 

Season ten of the ABC Weekend Special opened with the second full episode to feature the series' master of ceremonies Cap'n O.G. Readmore with the accurately titled Cap'n O.G. Readmore Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Besides hosting the show since 1984, the character had been primarily featured in the previous year's Cap'n O. G. Readmore's Jack and the Beanstalk and would go on to get three more such appearances where he enters into the novel chosen for his all-feline Friday Night Book Club.  Naturally they jump into the Robert Louis Stevenson classic here, interfering with the story to the point where Stevenson himself has to appear to set things right.  As one could guess, the horrific exploits of Mr. Hyde are neutered to the point of unrecognizablity as the most fiendish of his acts is throwing a bunch of cabbages around and interrupting a play with his horrendous singing, which is all fine for the kiddos of course as not to scare them with prostitute tormenting and murder.

THE MONSTER BED

(1989)

Dir - Carole Beers/Andy Kim/Ray Lee

Overall: MEH

 

A reworked adaptation of Jeanne Willis and Susan Varley's hit children's book of the same name that is not to be confused with the similarly premised, Fred Savage/Howie Mandel vehicle Little Monsters from the same year, The Monster Bed closed out the twelfth season of ABC Weekend Special in typical lighthearted fashion.  Both this and the aforementioned source material were aimed at four year olds and played off of the "there's a monster under my bed" cliche of nighttime anxieties, so the lack of any nods or winks towards adults means that any viewers from preschool on up will find little to latch onto here.  This is not helped by three cutesy musical numbers in about twenty-five minutes, one of which is rap-adjacent for extra datedness.  There are some clever gags where a human boy ventures into a monster dimension and drive-in B-movies with titles like People from the Blue Lagoon are meant to be scary, but this is otherwise forgettable stuff.

MONSTER IN MY POCKET: THE BIG SCREAM

(1992)

Dir - Don Lusk/Ray Patterson
Overall: GOOD

 

This Hanna-Barbara produced television pilot found its home in the fifteenth season of the ABC Weekend Special and was a tie-in to the briefly popular Monster in My Pocket toy-line from Matchbox.  Airing on Halloween in 1992 and appropriately titled Monster in My Pocket: The Big Scream, it has a proper English Invisible Man, a Rastafarian Werewolf, a dim-witted Frankenstein monster, and a mummy squaring-off as the good guys against a vampire with a ponytail, Medusa, and a swamp monster who represent the villains.  All parties involved have been shrunken to one inch size due to a spell gone wrong and now they run around trying to get back to their normal form with the help of a famous horror novel writer's daughter and a scream queen actor respectfully.  There is hardly enough here to hinge an entire series on hence it being a one-off, but the animation is solid, the voice cast seem to be enjoying themselves, and it makes for an amusing addition to the largely forgotten franchise as well as some fun holiday view for now-grown 90s kids.