Of Fred Grandy and “Monster Squad”

No one would ask or expect you to love a world in which Fred Grandy (b. 1948) were a right-wing Congressman from Iowa (1987-1995), a pundit, and talk radio host. But it gets better when you factor in that previously he played Gopher on The Love Boat (1977-86). And it becomes downright irresistible when you include the fact that prior to that, he starred on the Saturday morning children’s series Monster Squad (1976-77). (N.B. This is the original Monster Squad. There were several later films and tv series that used the same title. That said, the show also has more than a little in common with such then existing things like The Groovie Goolies and The Mad Monster Party).

Monster Squad was created by Stanley Ralph Ross, who wrote for such shows as Batman,Wonder Woman, and The Monkees (and a different guy from beloved character actor Stan Ross, an approximate contemporary). The show’s premise certainly reflects the sensibilities of the shows he had written for — with perhaps a little Abbott and Costello thrown in. (Unaccountably, he didn’t write the “Monstrous Monkee Mash” episode of The Monkees— that was the work, at least in part, of Paul Mazursky!) Grandy plays a young science nerd in the Billy Batson/Jimmy Olson vein who works as a night security guard at a wax museum. For some reason (one that seems more like magic than like science) the supercomputer he builds sends out a vibration that brings to life several wax figures of Universal monsters. (The premise made it all the way air without solving one of several logical holes in the premise. The three monsters, as wax figures, should be tabulae rasae. Instead, they seem to be more like re-animated versions of the monsters themselves, with memories and backstories all in place. They are also not made of wax, but monster flesh. Just what does this computer DO?) At any rate, Grandy enlists the three monsters to help him fight crime — a set-up that is also reminiscent of Charlie’s Angels. The trio that make up the squad are an oddly long-haired Frank N. Stein (pro wrestler Tarzan Mike Lane), the Wolf Man (pro wrestler Buck Kartalian, from Myra Breckinridge) who more resembles a creature from Island of Lost Souls, and Dracula (Henry Polic II, who played The Sheriff of Nottingham on When Things Were Rotten).

Like a lot of the live action Saturday morning kid’s shows of the time, the show had tons of well-known character actors as guest stars. Most of them on this show played Batman style supervillains. Marty Allen played one named Lorenzo Musica (a clear nod to the real life Lorenzo Music). Little person Billy Curtis was The Ringmaster. Vito Scotti was a He/She named Albert/Alberta. Avery Shreiber was the Weather Man; Jonathan Harris, The Astrologer; Julie Newmar, Ultra-Witch; Alice Ghostley, the Queen Bee; Geoffrey Lewis, the Skull. Others who made appearances included Edward Andrews, Frank Cady, H.B. Haggerty,Sid Haig, Hamilton Camp, Ivor Francis, and many others.

It’s a delightfully cheap-o production, made on studio sets that look like local television. The make-up on the actors’ faces stops well short of looking like anything but…well, make-up on actors. But the writing is wonderfully silly and hokey in the spirit of many shows we loved from the time, such as the original 1975 Ghostbusters and Far Out Space Nuts.

Prior to Monster Squad and Love Boat, Grandy had recurring roles on Maude and Doc, and guest shots on Love American Style,The Mary Tyler Moore Show,Phyllis,Quincy,Welcome Back Kotterand Fernwood 2 Night. He was also in Joan Rivers’ TV movie The Girl Most Likely To (1973), Paul Bartel’s Death Race 2000 (1975), and Sunn Classic Pictures’ The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977).

Prior to that Grandy attended Harvard and George Washington University. And before that, Philips Exeter Academy, where he was David Eisenhower’s roommate. This led to Grandy being the best man at the wedding of Eisenhower to Julie Nixon. A decade later he was in the TV mini-series based on John Dean’s memoir, Blind Ambitions, making Grandy one of the few people who had something to do with the Nixon administration who actually appeared in a movie about Watergate.

You don’t have to like him, but he never stops being fascinating. He’s certainly the only low comedian who has worked at a national security think tank, or been the hands-on administrator (not just a figurehead) at a major charity organization (Goodwill, where he was President and CEO from 1995 to 2000).

Over the past decade, Grandy returned to acting. He had a recurring role on The Mindy Project, where his son Charlie Grandy was a writer, and has guested on several other TV shows, most recently in 2021. As for Monster Squad — yep, it’s on Youtube!