Frankenstein in Popular Culture - Television Derivatives

Television Derivatives

The Frankenstein story and its elements have been adapted many times for television:

• The anthology series Tales of Tomorrow (1951–1953) featured a half-hour adaptation starring Lon Chaney Jr. as an atomically-animated monster.
• Boris Karloff reprised his role wearing the Frankenstein monster makeup in a 1962 episode of Route 66 entitled Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing for Halloween. Also appearing in the episode were Lon Chaney, Jr. as both the Wolf Man and The Mummy and Peter Lorre.
• Universal produced a television sitcom from 1964 to 1966 for CBS entitled The Munsters with Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, a character physically resembling the Universal's cinematic depiction of Frankenstein's monster, who was the patriarch of a family of kindly monsters. The rest of the family included a grandfather resembling the Universal Dracula (who may actually be Dracula), a wife that resembles "The Bride of Frankenstein", and a werewolf son. The Munsters' house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane can still be seen on the Universal Studios' backlot tour at Universal Studios in Universal City, California.
• In the 1960s series The Addams Family, the family butler was Lurch, who looked and behaved very much like the creature. His vocabulary was limited, much like Boris Karloff's creature, but he became iconic for the catchphrase, "You rang?"
• The 1965 Doctor Who serial The Chase features a sequence set in what appears to be a mysterious old house where various horror film monsters, including Frankenstein's monster, menace first the Doctor and his companions and later the Daleks. The house is subsequently revealed to be a Haunted House exhibit at an event entitled the "Festival of Ghana, 1996"
• Milton the Monster (1965–1967) was a cartoon character developed shortly after The Munsters about a kind-hearted Frankenstein monster who famously "flipped his lid" (emitted steam like a whale's blowhole) when angered, and who was constantly nearly kicked out of the lab by his scheming creator.
• The Gothic TV drama Dark Shadows featured a plotline running from April 1968 until December 1968 in which an artificial man named Adam is stitched together from corpses and reanimated using the life force of vampire Barnabas Collins.
• The 1968 BBC-TV series Mystery and Imagination featured an adaptation starring Ian Holm as both Frankenstein and his creation.
• A 1973 Universal production, Frankenstein: The True Story was more an amalgamation of various concepts from previous films than a direct adaptation of the novel. It starred Leonard Whiting as Frankenstein and Michael Sarrazin as the Creature, with a star supporting cast including James Mason, David McCallum, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Agnes Moorehead, and Jane Seymour.
• Dan Curtis' 1973 adaptation had Robert Foxworth as Frankenstein and Bo Svenson as the Creature.
• In an episode of Fantasy Island, Dr. Anne Frankenstein, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, visits the island to try to find out about her ancestor. A being created by the elder scientist appears, and Anne is determined to take the being with her, naively believing it will be treated with proper care in the 1980s.
• A 1976 Doctor Who serial, The Brain of Morbius, has a Time Lord criminal body brought back to life by a mad scientist, using the Time Lord's brain and a body composed of various alien races who had crashed onto the planet where Morbius' brain had been stored since his defeat.
• A 1979 series starring Jack Elam as a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein called "Struck by Lightning."
• In an episode of The World's Greatest Superfriends, the Superfriends battle Dr. Victor Frankenstein and three of his monsters, one with all of the powers of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
• A 1984 BBC version starring Robert Powell as Victor, David Warner as his creature, and Carrie Fisher as the doomed Elizabeth.
• A 1992 production for the American TNT cable network, with Patrick Bergin as Victor and Randy Quaid as his hapless creation.
• A 1994-98 TV series called Weird Science was inspired by the Frankenstein storyline (just as the 1985 film of the same name). The series follows the adventures of two high school students who design their "perfect" woman simulation by filling their computer with various forms of data and images, which is accidentally turned into life after a freak lightning storm.
• "Frankenbone", a 1996 episode of the children's show Wishbone had an adaptation of the Shelley story with the canine star in the role of Victor and Matthew Tompkins as the Monster.
• The 1996-98 Fox Kids series Big Bad Beetleborgs (later Beetleborgs Metallix) featured a "hulking stitched-up" character named Frankenbeans, "brought to life" by David Fletcher. The zany character owes a great debt to Herman Munster and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein. Strangely, the character is celebrated every year on the Thursday before the last Friday of October on a day called Frankenbeans Thursday.
• A 2004 production titled Frankenstein for the American USA Network starred Thomas Kretschmann as Victor and Vincent Pérez as his original creature, named "Deucalion" (because he was the "son" of the "Modern Prometheus". It was not a direct adaptation but a postmodern gothic reinvention set in present-day New Orleans.
• As played by Phil Hartman, The Monster was also a popular recurring comedic character on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, often delivering the line, "Fire bad!"
• The Monster was a recurring character on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (played by Brian Stack,) mainly in the segment "Frankenstein Wastes a Minute of Our Time" and as a Jewish character.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer has also faced "Frankensteinian" creations. In the season two episode "Some Assembly Required, the creation was Darryl Epps, a reanimated high school jock whose brother reanimated him after an accident, but after his brother refused to complete a project to create a bride for him as the rapid decay rate of brain tissue would have required him to actually kill someone, Darryl allowed himself to die in a fire rather than have to live alone. The season four Big Bad was Adam, a conglomeration of robot, human, and demon parts created by a government scientist in charge of a demon research facility who rebelled against his creator and tried to create a new society of creatures like him before he was destroyed.
• A season five episode of The X-Files, "The Post-Modern Prometheus", retold the Frankenstein legend updated with genetic engineering technology. The episode, the only one of the series filmed exclusively in black and white, was inspired by the film adaptations of the legend; the creature, shunned by the mad scientist who created him, seeks a mate in a small town.
• The Animaniacs episode Phranken-Runt, featuring Rita and Runt parodied both the overall Frankenstein plot and elements of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• In the Histeria! episode "Super Writers", at the end of a sketch about Edgar Allan Poe publishing "The Raven", Mary Shelley appears (portrayed by Charity Bazaar dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein) to pitch the book to Sammy Melman.
• The Cartoon Network show Robot Chicken featured a Frankenstein parody character called "Frank Enstein".
• Frankenstein's monster was one of the monster trio from various skits on The Electric Company, portrayed by Skip Hinnant.
• "Dr. What's-his-name", an episode of the 1975 live-action series The Ghost Busters, features a long-suffering Doctor Frankenstein whose goal is to make his gigantic, childlike Creature more obedient with the brain of "the world's most gullible fool". Spenser (Larry Storch), of course, is the world's most gullible fool...
• In the 1994 animated television series Monster Force, Frankenstein's monster alias "Frankenstein" or "the Monster" becomes humanity's ally in a desperate fight against evil Creatures of the Night.
• The children's animated series Arthur has an episode depicting a reenactment of the night the novel was created. Titled Fernkenstein's Monster, it was described as: "Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Fern tells a tale so scary that Arthur and the gang become afraid of her. Can Fern prove her skills as a writer and create a different story that's fun instead of frightening?"
• The 2000 anime television series Argento Soma draws a large amount of inspiration from Frankenstein. The show's plotline revolves around an ambitious scientist assembling a giant silver creature from scattered components. The giant (aptly nicknamed "Frank") possesses a tender and compassionate nature but has a bizarre and hideous exterior and the potential to inflict death and destruction.
• The Duck Dodgers episode "Castle High" revolved around the main character explaining to I.Q. High what had happened to his castle, the flashback based on the story.
• One of Arale's classmates in Dr. Slump was named Monsuta (aka Frank).
• In Dragonball, young Goku befriends a cyborg named Number 8 (whom he nicknames Ha-chan) who was similar in appearance to Frankenstein's monster.
• An episode of Goof Troop had a spoof called "Frankengoof"; despite the title, the monster is a mirror image of Black Pete.
• An episode of Darkwing Duck had a spoof called "Steerminator" in which dead supervillian Taurus Bulba is rebuilt into a cyborg.
• An episode of The Catillac Cats has Riff Raf as a mad scientist about to be beaten up by Mungo/Frankenstein
• The Moosylvania episode of Rocky and His Friends showed Boris and Natasha attempting to pass off some small Western town as Washington, D.C....and the Capitol Building is topped off with a statue of the Frankenstein Monster!
• In the Scooby-Doo television movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy-Doo meet the daughters of several monsters at "Miss Grimwood's School for Girls". One of the 'girl ghouls' (as they are called in the movie) is named Elsa Frankenteen, her father being Frankenteen Sr. Frankenteen Sr. is the best representation of Boris Karloff's creature, with his daughter more closely resembling Elsa Lanchester's interpretation of the Bride of Frankenstein. 'Frankenteen' is also a portmanteau of 'Frankenstein' and 'teen' because Elsa is a teenager.
• There were two instances where the concept of Frankenstein's monster was used in the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series. In Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the monster Dora Frank was an obvious nod to the monster, as well as its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers counterpart, which was simply referred to as the "Frankenstein Monster". Then in Mahou Sentai Magiranger one of the main villains, Victory General Branken, was inspired by Frankenstein's Monster. Branken's Power Rangers: Mystic Force counterpart was Morticon.
• In the series Kamen Rider Kiva, Dogga's race, the Franken, are an obvious nod to the monster, along with Kiva's Dogga form.
• An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants called "Frankendoodle" involves SpongeBob using a human artist's "magic pencil" to create a living, evil doodle of himself.
• In the Halloween special of another Nickelodeon series, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Jimmy's father, Hugh, mistakes an invention for a game he calls "Name that Monster" and is transformed into a Frankenstein's monster-like being.
• In The Simpsons 2003 installment of the Treehouse of Horror series, Treehouse of Horror XIV, there is a segment entitled "Frinkenstein", whereby Professor Frink uses his universal multi-tool to resurrect his dead father, who then goes on a rampage stealing organs from others until his son is forced to kill him.In Treehouse of Horror XVIII, Bart wears a costume resembling the monster.In Treehouse of Horror XX he appears as one of the monsters at Homer and Marge`s Halloween party and in Treehouse of Horror XXI as the monster Frink created in his lab. Also in Treehouse of Horror III Lewis is wearing a Halloween costume of the monster at the Halloween party with Bart and Lisa.
• A villainous alien from Ben 10 named Doctor Vicktor resembles the Frankenstein's monster, as well as the copy of him in the Omnitrix
• In the original Transformers episode "Autobot Spike", Sparkplug Witwicky creates an Autobot using mismatched robot parts that he names Autobot X, but the robot is a mindless monster and goes berserk. Later, Spike Witwicky is injured and his consciousness is transferred to the giant robot body. Spike makes several direct references to the invention as a "robot Frankenstein monster".
• Also, the character of Rampage in the Transformers: Beast Wars series has a great many similarities to Frankenstein's monster, especially his origins as a product of science gone horribly wrong; the main differences are his status as an irredeemable psychopath and that his body wasn't created by piecing others together. In a later episode, Megatron's cloning of Dinobot bears a strong resemblance to the creation of the monster.
• In an episode of Time Warp Trio entitled Nightmare on Joe's Street, Mary Shelley accidentally draws her first impression of the monster in The Book, causing her dream to become a reality. Unlike typical versions of the creature, which have one-colored complexions, this render of the monster is seen with patchwork-colored skin, signifying his construction from various corpse parts.
• In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "Koopenstein", Bowser (under the guise of Dr. Koopenstein) plans to use Mario and Luigi's brains for a robotic Koopa Troopa he has made, but through the result of a horrific accident, he mutates into a Frankenstein's Monster-esque version of himself and proceeds to rampage through a nearby village. A live action segment from another episode features Mario and Luigi meeting Dr. Frankenstein (played by Jim Ward) and his monster, where a laboratory mishap causes Mario's brain to be switched with the monster's.
• In a 15-minute episode of Sonic the Hedgehog, Rotor the Walrus, assisted by Antione, creates a robot named Ro-Becca. Antoine accidentally activates Ro-Becca and she falls in love with him.
• Two segments from Braingames showed Frankenstein. One was "Splatnarnt", in which two scientists assembling a Frankenstein-like monster using interior body parts whose names were scrambled; the idea was for the viewer to unscramble the names. The other was "Whosamawhatchamacallits", in which Frankenstein was the last character portrayed in the game.
• An animated segment on Sesame Street showed a mad doctor bringing to life a Frankenstein-like monster that was actually a capital letter H.
• The regeneration sequence of the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, into the eighth incarnation, Paul McGann, in the 1996 TV movie Doctor Who is set in a hospital morgue. The night attendant at the morgue is watching the 1931 Frankenstein in the next room, and scenes in which the monster is brought to life are intercut with images of the Doctor's "resurrection", his appearance out of the storage room then causing the attendant to pass out.
• Dr. Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster appeared in Mad Monster Party and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein. Frankenstein's Monster appeared in Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Monster Mash, and Waxwork.
• An ITV modern adaptation simply titled Frankenstein was aired on 24 October 2007, where a mother uses lab equipment to try to create a "body of organs" for her dying eight year old son.
• The fifth season episode of Highlander: The Series titled The Modern Prometheus has Mary Shelley draw her inspiration from two immortals battling during the long winter in the Swiss Alps. Upon seeing Byron (in the series secretly an Immortal) restored to life by lightning, she asks Methos why her child rots in her grave while Byron simply gets up and walks away. Methos admonishes her to pity their kind, for life can go on when it should not. The isolation he describes enables Shelley to write her classic.
• Two animated segments from Sesame Street teaching basic geography were hosted by Dr. Geo and his Frankenstein-like unnamed assistant who would mimic everything Geo said behind his back. One segment talked about the concept of a globe and the other about mountains.
• In a season 3 episode of the NBC TV series Chuck, Chuck refers to John Casey as "Trank-enstein", due to the NSA colonel's love of weaponry (in this case, tranquilizer darts) and typical brutish mannerisms.
• In the Adult Swim animated series Minoriteam, the title characters frequently fought an opponent named Racist Frankenstein.
• In the animated series "Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles" a boy scientist Buzz Conroy and his father Professor Conroy fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic robot named "Frankenstein Jr." who is like a mix between "Gigantor" and Frankenstein.
• Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein are the father and mother of Frankie Stein in Monster High.
• Frankenstein's Wedding was a live television adaptation broadcast on BBC Three on 19 March 2011.
• In an episode of the cartoon series The Venture Bros., entitled ¡Viva los Muertos!, Dr Veture reanimates the corpse of a Monarch henchman killed by Brock Samson, naming the creature "Venturestein".
• In the television show "Once Upon a Time", David Anders plays the mysterious Dr. Whale who is revealed to be the "real life" counterpart of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in season two, trapped in the modern-day town of Storybrooke, Maine with cursed fairytale characters. So far, he is the only non-fairytale character revealed to live in the town. As Dr. Frankenstein, he transformed his deceased brother into his monster. In Storybrooke, he succeeded in rising a dead man who turned into a violent monster, despite being a very gentle and loving man during his life. He is looking to do the same again and bring his brother, who has apparently been killed again, back to life in the new world.