While any musical performances from this Kaptain Kool & The Kongs appearance on American Bandstand might be on separate videos, host Dick Clark talks to the band, acknowledging their true identities. I'm thinking Debra Clinger (Super Chick) and Bert Sommer (Flatbush) had been on the show previously, the latter as a solo act, the former with the Clinger Sisters.
As previously documented, Albany product Sommer left the band and Krofft Supershow after one season, which left Clinger and Mickey McMeel (Turkey) as the only actual musicians left in the group. Michael Lembeck (Kaptain Kool) even acknowledges McMeel had been with Three Dog Night a year earlier.
I don't know if Clark had been at Woodstock, where Sommer had his first fling with fame. As we know, the glam and makeup were gone a year later, allowing Clinger & Louise DuArt (Nashville) to ditch the wigs and let their natural hair shine.
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I've gotta say it: I dug Kaptain Kool & the Kongs when I was a kid, but they lost some of those brownie points with me when season 2 hit. I get that Bret Sommer left the gig for what he thought was greener pastures, and I respect that, but without Flatbush it just wasn't the same. The Kroffts could have easily replaced Sommer with another Flatbush, but for whatever reason they chose to leave his spot vacant. Not good news for kid me, since Flatbush was my favorite member of the gang.
Plus, I preferred the glam look the band sported in the first season; by season 2 they all more or less dressed alike, the glam costumes and character-specific colors were more distinctive and gave the band members more personality IMHO.
My final girpe about the change was that the in the show's second season the group performed on stage in front of a studio audience rather than the Krofft park they used in the first season, as a result the Kongs lost their "powers" (i.e., they couldn't use any video tricks and effects in the skits like they could when they completely on tape). So yeah, Krofft Supershow season 2 was kind of a letdown for me overall.
In addition to what Silverstar said, there was also no 2nd season of Wonderbug, which was my favorite segment from season 1. I get that the producers wanted to bring in new segments to keep the series fresh, but we could have at least gotten two seasons of the popular ones. We couldn't a few more episodes of Wonderbug but we get The Lost Island in season 3?
"Season 3" technically being the Krofft Superstar Hour over on NBC. As noted, the Kongs were split up, as Michael Lembeck & Debra Clinger landed primetime gigs, and thus the band would only appear occasionally before the change-over to the Bay City Rollers Show.
Shifting the locale from Atlanta to LA was for one reason----saving money. Apparently, the Krofft park in Hotlanta tanked......
I didn't know one of the Clinger Sisters was part of this group.
Her big sister Patty wrote the tunes sung by The Impossibles - or so I've been told by someone in the know.
'Tis true.
In a way, the Kongs were the Kroffts' answer to the Monkees, except this was a co-ed band, and they started with three experienced musicians. Sommer's departure reduced the number to two.
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