Saturday, May 12, 2012

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Wonderbug (1976)

Wonderbug was the only regular feature, aside from Kaptain Kool & the Kongs, to appear on The Krofft Supershow throughout its 2-season run (1976-78). Seems to me, given the production values, that some folks might've still been getting the sleep out of their eyes when this video-enhanced trick car came into view.

Schlepcar was just that, a junk heap that a trio of teens rescued from a junkyard. One of them found a horn that they thought would look cool as part of the remodeling process. It was more than that. It enabled the wreck to become Wonderbug, which, unlike its animated counterpart, Speed Buggy, didn't talk. Maybe it's just as well.

One of the three human leads, John Anthony Bailey, caught the attention of the producers after a guest appearance on Happy Days, but hasn't gotten much since. Oh, by the way, only one season's worth of Wonderbug was produced, and replayed ad nauseum. Like, they ditched Electra Woman & Dynagirl in favor of a four-wheeled trick machine? Yep. The Kroffts have paid for that mistake ever since.

Just to spice things up, baseball pitcher Don Sutton, then with the Dodgers, guest-starred as himself in one episode. Not sure that he'd keep that on his resume today.

I know we've shown the open before, when we reviewed Supershow, but, here it is again.



Rating: C.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

That's the trouble with the Kroffts. They came up with cool costumes for the Banana Splits, then started taking acid, creating shows like this, and never looked back!

hobbyfan said...

What makes you think they actually were tokin' all that time?

Look, the production quality wasn't the best. Beginning with Bigfoot & Wildboy, things began to change for the better, but by then the bloom was off the rose, and the Kroffts would begin their night experiments......