TEI #28 Solved - "Shrimpi-mobile" by George Barris for the TV show "Shrimpenstein" (1966-68)

[Otto Puzzell]

OK - let me re-phrase that: why would Capitol Records back a single of a local TV show's theme, including the commissioning of this car? The only angle I can see is possibly tapping that same slice of the record-buying public that dug The Monster Mash. A limited market, at best.

It's neither here nor there; just curious.

[WayneB]

the modifications to the Camaro don't look like much beyond paint, side pipes, custom wheels and the velocity stacks on the hood. Still, I wonder if it turned out to be a good investment?

Did anyone else notice the larger "shrimpenstein" that is behind a smaller windsheild and structure in the passenger side of the car?

It looks like it may have been set up appear to be "driven" by a puppet seated behind a console of sorts.

[WayneB]

OK - let me re-phrase that: why would Capitol Records back a single of a local TV show's theme, including the commissioning of this car? The only angle I can see is possibly tapping that same slice of the record-buying public that dug The Monster Mash. A limited market, at best.

It's neither here nor there; just curious.

The car may have also done the car show circuit,  George Barris made good money supplying cars to show promoters back then.

[fyreline]

Did anyone else notice the larger "shrimpenstein" that is behind a smaller windsheild and structure in the passenger side of the car? It looks like it may have been set up appear to be "driven" by a puppet seated behind a console of sorts.

Yes, I did notice that. I suspect that you're correct, and they could make it look like the puppet was actually driving. And you're also correct, the whole Camaro project does seem like an awful lot of trouble to go to for what had to be a very limited return on investment. Are any of our members familiar at all with the show? As has been said, it appears to have been a west-coast-only production.  Was it all that popular?

[RayTheRat]

If the show ran from 66 to 68...well, that's a 68 Camaro.  They didn't get a lot of mileage out of it.  (Bad pun.)

[Tom_I]

As I have already said, almost no information came with the picture.

I suspect that Fred Rice was reasonably influential. He had produced a number of television specials and a lot of records. While at Capitol he suggested to two guys called Mike Dormer and Lee Teacher that they think up some cute monster characters for merchandising, and when he saw the Shrimpenstein prototype, he thought it would make a TV show. The idea was sold to KHJ Television, where Dormer and Teacher were already doing some promotional work, so had contacts. Rice had previously worked with Gene Moss (Dr Von Schtick) and Jim Thurman, who did the voice for the puppet, and recruited them as actors.

They had a certain pedigree, as they had written the scripts for all 156 episodes of Roger Ramjet, which was phenomenally successful, and syndicated all over the place (it was shown on BBC television in the UK for about 15 years from 1979 on, when it was already around 15 years old).

So maybe Rice convinced the KHJ bosses that Shrimpenstein would be more successful than it eventually turned out to be. Maybe it was too anarchic. Maybe the sponsors and producers of the cartoons that were shown didn't like their creations being ridiculed on the show, which was usually the case. I have read that Moss and Thurman were taken off the show and replaced by a KHJ announcer, but that didn't really work, and the show folded soon after.