Al Lewis best known for his role as Grandpa Munster (aka Sam Dracula) in the 1964-1966 TV Show The Munsters and along with his returning rolls in Munster, Go Home 1966 & The Munsters' Revenge 1981 as well as Officer Leo Schnauser in the TV show Car 54 Where Are You
What many don't know is Al Lewis also picked up another Grandpa moniker as "Albert Einstein GRAMPA" on the show Super Scary Saturday which aired from 1987-1989 on TBS.
Super Scary Saturday was a series of horror & sci-fi movies every Saturday on TBS Superstation Hosted By "GRAMPA" as Al Lewis provided entertainment between commercial breaks. Skits usually consisted of the classic Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster) smoking a cigar, talking with friends who were off camera, and spending time talking to the kids at home just like a real life Zombo.
Occasionally he would dress in costume and act out skits that would represent the movie being shown. One of those great episodes and skits was with the film "King Kong vs. Godzilla". During one of the skits we see Grampa showing the stats of both giants and then shooting over to the WCW as at this time Ted Turner owned both TBS & WCW. So of course the 90's cheese along with the many crossovers would happen. Corporate cheese everywhere.
The entire episode was hilarious and fueled with blow up monsters in wrestling attire, doing so so wrestling promos. All in all it was a good time for the 90's for Pro Wrestling and seems like a ton of fun for Al Lewis.
Unfortunately for our childhood and the world of comedy and horror Super Scary Saturday only lasted 2 years. If you were able to have seen any of it in your youth you were definitely in for a good time and in the lucky number of people who had the opportunity. As for the show now, it seems not much of it exists anymore, other than segments taken from old VHS tapes floating around the internet.
I did come across the fact that most of the segments from Super Scary Saturday are within public domain. With the much smaller number of horror host shows on TV now at the moment we would love to see someone find these and put them out as a compilation dvd. Remembering the public domain factor we could also see a service like Shudder possibly find the segments and rehash it, if they are able to obtain the licensing on the actual films.
All this said and done, we must always remember to appreciate the love Al Lewis had for the character of playing Grandpa & even Grampa. Truly a great man I would have loved to sit down and talk to in regards to his career and his manifestations of continuing on the roll of a Vampire post The Munsters.
All in all thank you AL, I really do yearn for someone to search down all of these old segments and compile them as a DVD/Bluray. The idea of doing so is just too good to not put the time and energy into doing.
