The Crawling Eye Plus - A Super-teen Extraordinaire

Ok, so, cards on the table. The Crawling Eye did not make me think of anything philosophical, after goal, or otherwise intellectually stimulating. My primary thought while watching the movie was, "this reminds me of an episode of Freakazoid!" A little research showed me I was right to think that. The second season episode of Freakazoid! entitled "The Cloud" was a whole plot reference to this movie, with Freakazoid! in the Forrest Tucker role. All proud of myself for having spotted this connection, I want to write about Freakazoid! now!

 For you impoverished masses not in the know, Freakazoid! was the fourth collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Warner Animation. It was envisioned as a comedic superhero show originally, possibly based loosely on the DC Comics character the Creeper, who made a couple of appearances on Batman: the Animated Series. It was even headed up by Bruce Timm, of BTAS fame. However, the tone became increasingly zany, for lack of a better word, and Timm backed out. In his place were John McCann and Paul Rugg as show runner and head writer, respectively. You may not recognize these names, but Paul Rugg, if you watched Animaniacs, was the voice of the Jerry Lewis-style characters. Essentially what was originally supposed to be a blend between the DC Animated Universe and the Tiny Toons/Animaniacs school of animation turned out to be its own creature, a postmodern exercise in frivolity and navel gazing.

The very first episode presents us with a standard superhero scenario, only to resolve it with barely a fight scene in which Freakazoid spouts rabbinical-sounding gibberish, talks to the girls who turned down his alter ego for a date, and otherwise entertains himself while the confused villain practically defeats himself. The second has him practically write the TVTropes page on what TVTropes eventually called a Gilligan Cut, only using F-Troop (which starred Forrest Tucker!) instead of Gilligan's Island in the middle of another supervillain encounter, which our hero only wins in the prologue. In fact, the only non-ironic superhero battle in the show's entire run may have been the finale, in which Freakazoid! battles of a number of his nemeses alongside surprise badass Norm Abrams. Yes, Bob Vila's partner from This Old House.

In short, the show was something unlike anything I'd ever seen on television before, and I would argue that it is a spiritual successor to the lineup of Adult Swim, both because of its content (perfectly suited to the 18-35 demographic, despite being marketed towards children), and because it spent quite a long time in Cartoon Network's overnight slot. Thus, like our beloved puppet show, it couldn't last, and ended after its second season.

Recently, Bob Chipman did a very thought provoking video on the subject, which I recommend you watch. I discovered Freakazoid! before I discovered MST3k, and it holds a similar place in my heart. Anything I can do to introduce more people to it is, in my estimation, a good thing. Remind me to tell you about another one of my canceled-too-soon favorites, Greg the Bunny, another time. Maybe that'll come up before this project is done. I mean, MST3k IS a puppet show, after all.