One of the things that I like about watching this show 50 years after it first aired (nearly) is the fact that it shows the two boys, Johnny Whitaker and Scott C. Kolden using their creativity to create fun on their gorgeous beach house and private clubhouse, making the best of the fact that their parents are away constantly. They are being taken care of by the housekeeper Zelda, played by the legendary stage, movie and TV comic Mary Wickes whose career had begun 40 years before and would continue for several decades after this. In some episodes, she's only on for a few minutes, but pair her with nosy neighbor Margaret Hamilton, and she gets a lot better material.
The idea that the boys are hiding the sea monster, Sigmund, from her, dominates the episodes that I watched, and it would be more interesting to see how she would react if she found out he was a real sea monster and how she would deal with him as a friend of her charges. She encounters him in one Halloween episode and think he's a little boy. That's Billy Barty sweating it out in the costume, but the voice coming out did not sound like him. He does nothing really but run and roll around, but Barty is obviously quite limber. The roles of his brothers, father and mother and other various sea monsters who pop in and out are also played by very energetic actors in costumes, and I find the lobster who barks like a dog absolutely adorable.
However, time has worn out a desire to totally recapture everything about this, and after a while I was fast forwarding to see what Wickes would have to say for what type of Gladys Kravitz mischief that Hamilton in her three episodes would get into. The monsters have the best lines actually, referring to their TV as shellovision, and making references to human TV shows as if they were shows for monsters. A separate network that isn't available on human TV's. There is a lot of cleverness, but the rubber costumes at the monsters wear are indeed a bit creepy looking. As a follow-up to HR Pufnstuff, Lidsville, The Boogaloos and others, it's dated but fun, perhaps better viewed in small doses.
The idea that the boys are hiding the sea monster, Sigmund, from her, dominates the episodes that I watched, and it would be more interesting to see how she would react if she found out he was a real sea monster and how she would deal with him as a friend of her charges. She encounters him in one Halloween episode and think he's a little boy. That's Billy Barty sweating it out in the costume, but the voice coming out did not sound like him. He does nothing really but run and roll around, but Barty is obviously quite limber. The roles of his brothers, father and mother and other various sea monsters who pop in and out are also played by very energetic actors in costumes, and I find the lobster who barks like a dog absolutely adorable.
However, time has worn out a desire to totally recapture everything about this, and after a while I was fast forwarding to see what Wickes would have to say for what type of Gladys Kravitz mischief that Hamilton in her three episodes would get into. The monsters have the best lines actually, referring to their TV as shellovision, and making references to human TV shows as if they were shows for monsters. A separate network that isn't available on human TV's. There is a lot of cleverness, but the rubber costumes at the monsters wear are indeed a bit creepy looking. As a follow-up to HR Pufnstuff, Lidsville, The Boogaloos and others, it's dated but fun, perhaps better viewed in small doses.