Flashback Sunday: Dr. Shrinker

Once upon a time in the 70's, Sid and Marty Krofft owned children's television. Seriously. They made children's television their bee-yatch. And they cranked out a lot of shows, most of them horrible. I spent some time going through them, but I could do Flashbacks on all of them, except Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl, which I missed somehow. What a shame, since they were hot. I decided on Dr. Shrinker, because it seems to be the most obscure.

Literally all I remembered for this show was the theme song, and not even the whole theme song. Just the part where it goes "Dr. Shrinker! Dr. Shrinker!" And some kids running. Turns out it was about these kids who stumble across an island with a mad scientist named Dr. Shrinker.

And with a name like that, he'd better invent a shrinking machine. I mean, imagine Dr. Shrinker going to a science conference and introducing himself as "Dr. Shrinker." "Oh, so you shrink things?" "Well, no, I'm actually a marine biologist. And I'm working on a cure for cancer." "So you shrink tumors?" "No, I'm trying to break them down with ultrasound." "Oh. You should try to shrink things." And imagine the jokes at school. "Hey, there's Weenie. Hey, Weenie Shrinker!" Apparently, the curse of living with the name Dr. Shrinker drove him to madness, but also gave him the burning desire to shrink things. And so he created a shrinking machine.

Bad timing for the kids...the doctor decides to shrink them. Why? I don't know. I guess he was using them as prototypes for his new line of miniature children. "Got problems with your kids? Cost too much to feed and clothe? Use Dr. Shrinker's new Kid Shrinker."

Of course, the kids escape and spend the rest of the series trying to a) get back to normal, b) keep from being captured by Dr. Shrinker, and c) get off the island. To me, all these goals are mutually exclusive. Avoiding being captured just means spending the rest of their lives six inches tall on an island. Getting off the island means spending the rest of their lives six inches tall. Getting back to normal is good, but then the doctor captures and shrinks them again. Probably too many goals for one series.

I actually liked this show, because I wanted to be small. All the giant stuff was cool. Turns out this was a rip-off of Land of the Giants, which I also never saw. Sounds like a better show, too. With all the television I watched in my life, I'm amazed there are still shows I missed.

Links
*The best webpage on Dr. Shrinker, but it's still not much.
*The theme song from a cool website...check out the Disturbing Children Book section, it's hilarious.
Categories: entertainment