It's October, which means I'm somehow obligated to do something horror themed for this blog. And while there are a lot of horror themed cartoons that did have brief enough a run to count, I'm going back to the 90s and Saturday Morning for this month's pick. This month, we'll go with our spirit and chillingly cheer it for Gravedale High. Airing September 8th, 1990 for NBC, and created by Hanna-Barbera, this is another one of those infamous "celebritoons", like so many I covered for Tooncrap back in the day. But unlike stuff like Pro Stars or New Kids on the Block, or other shows that technically could count for this blog, this one actually stars the actor being billed.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Toronto born Rick Moranis is a comedic actor who cut his teeth in the legendary Second City. Finding his first bit of success through SCTV, particularly as part of the "Bob and Doug McKenzie character with Dave Thomas. Those characters were popular enough for their own film Strange Brew in 1983. Following that, Moranis became more famous for landing iconic 80s roles such as Louis Tully in Ghostbusters, Dark Helmet in Spaceballs, Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors, and Wayne Szalinski in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids film series. So, after a good decade of roles, it's easy to see how Hanna-Barbera would see him as a marquee name for their upcoming animated series Gravedale High.
The series starred Moranis as Maxwell Schneider, a human who works as a teacher for Gravedale High, a school for monsters. Schneider teaches a class of wacky creatures including Vinnie Stoker, a greaser vampire, nerdy mummy Cleofatra, even nerdier werewolf Reggie Moonshroud, black lagoon surfer Gil Waterman, and many more. Max tries to teach the monsters important lessons, while also having to deal with your average scare-filled hijinx. Of course this is far from Hanna-Barbera's first take on a school of monsters, as there was the movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School in 1988, but there does feel like a bit more variety within Gravedale High to make it stand out. Does that equal an underrated series? Let's dive in.
Episode 1: A Long Day's Gurney Into Night. It's our big pilot episode as we get introduced to all our central characters. We particularly get introduced to Mr. Schneider who is the only teacher available to teach the school's assortment of the worst students imaginable. Headmistress Crone tells Schneider that if it wasn't for him agreeing to teach them, she would have just had them expelled. And we see why as all of the students are quite obnoxious. Particularly Sid, the invisible kid whose shtick is doing impressions (and rapping in a very 90s cringe manner). When Sid gets sick, Schneider is forced to take him to a human hospital. But when he asks if his classmates want to visit, they're all against it, until Schneider slips and almost drowns in a pool.
Concerned that their teacher is going to just be another stiff, they decide to take him to the human hospital, despite their early reservations. But t'was all a ruse by Schneider to get them to visit Sid, who is trying to escape the hospital for fear of having his tonsils removed. Ultimately the monster students cause mayhem all over the hospital and the episode ends with Sid getting his tonsils removed, while also making fans of all the sick kids.
For a pilot episode, it's okay at best. It doesn't really have much of a story as over half of the episode feels more devoted towards giving us the gist of all the characters gimmicks with the hospital stuff really only moving forward by the last few minutes. There's a somewhat underlying sense of racism in this world, not just from the humans who are scared of the monsters, but even the monsters themselves seem to have a dislike for humans. It's an interesting dynamic that's used well enough for a comedy series. You get to learn each character's basic gimmicks, from Cleofatra eating all the time (her gimmick is she's fat, get it?), to Frankentyke being a brat, to Blanche the Zombie being a gold digger whose obsessed with shopping and being rich. I do wish we got more time with these characters, but it is the first episode, so we should get enough time to build on these character building blocks.
Next up is Episode 2: Do The Rad Thing. While teaching Frankentyke how to surf, Gil runs into Kahuna Bob, a legendary surfer who takes Gil under his wing to help him become a pro. However, this comes with some ramifications. Not only does he ignore Frankentyke, but he also begins to come to class later and later, much to the annoyance of Mr. Schneider. When Gil believes he's a shoe-in to win the big surf competition, he ultimately decides to quit school forever. With the rest of the class missing Gil, Schneider brings the class to the beach to convince him to return, to no avail. Schneider learns that Kahuna Bob never really succeeded in much due to dropping out school, but he never convinced Gil to do it himself. Kahuna Bob tries to tell Gil to go back to school, but the fame's gotten his head too inflated. Ultimately Kahuna Bob defeats Gil in the surf contest to set him straight. And the episode ends with not just Gil returning to school, but Kahuna Bob as well.
This episode had a particularly good moral about staying in school and how it doesn't always turn out well for everyone. In terms of the story, it's okay at best. It starts strong, getting the plot moving right from the get go, but it does feel like it peters out at the mid-point, at least until we get to the big ending with the surf contest. They did manage to make Frankentyke more likable in this episode, but the rest of the class is just there to be honest. All of them were kind of expendable. And Gil's character is painfully one note to the point that the surfer dude stuff gets stale fast. Other than that, it was a decent episode at best.
Episode 3: Cleo's Pen Pal. Cleo becomes obsessed with a soap opera named Trudy and the Beast, particularly in it's lead actor, Billy Headstone. But with it getting in the way of her studies (to the point she hides a portable television to watch it), it becomes suggested that maybe Cleo could write to him, to see if he could get the time slot changed. Instead, Billy becomes infatuated with her through her letter and wants a picture of Cleo. Fearing she won't look good enough for Billy, she sends a picture of Duzer (the medusa girl who I haven't talked much about yet) instead. Insert your classic sitcom tropes here, as Billy is coming to see Cleo, or in this case, Duzer.
Cleo gets Duzer to pretend to be her while the rest of the class head to the amusement park. At least until Mr. Schneider begins to figure out what's going on and heads back to school to find out. But shocker of shockers, it doesn't take long for Duzer to try and bag Billy for herself. Cleo follows the duo to the Dead End Club and gets into a brawl with Duzer while Billy gets mobbed by adoring fans. Ultimately everything converges at the amusement park where the rest of the class are causing mayhem as usual. In the end, Cleo finally comes clean to Billy about the whole situation and the two hit it off. And the episode ends with Billy giving Cleo her own VCR so she can never miss an episode.
I liked this episode. It's plot flowed much better than the other two, it gave Cleo a lot more character besides just being "the fat joke", Duzer provided a good antagonist to Cleo, and doesn't really learn her lesson, and while the rest of the class didn't have much to do, the stuff at the amusement park, while brief, also was entertaining. But you know why this is my favorite episode? Billy Headstone was voiced by Phil Hartman, and it's hard for me to hate anything that man was in. Overall, decent episode, suffered a bit of animation errors and a bit of stalling in some places, but nothing to really complain about.
Episode 4: Monster Gumbo. The entire school is getting involved in a charity drive to aid the United Monster Front, with the winning class earning a trophy for whoever can raise the most money. Of course, Schneider's class is expected to fail, since they're so out of control. Schneider suggests that the class work together to sell something that will appeal to everyone. Nobody has any good ideas as to what, until they learn of Blanche's special monster gumbo recipe. So, they all band together to make that and sell it in cans. They sell it to the humans who all enjoy it. With business booming and Blanche herself becoming a celebrity, the gumbo attracts the attention of another gumbo maker named Big Daddy, who tries to buy Blanche's secret recipe, only to be turned down. So, being the episode's villain, Big Daddy seeks to get the secret recipe through more nefarious means.
Ultimately things get too overwhelming with all the demand for the gumbo, making Blanche a real slave driver. The monsters quit on her, and she decides to quit as well, realizing that it's all gotten out of hand. Big Daddy tries to steal the secret ingredient, but in the end, decides to just buy it instead. He didn't figure however that the ingredients are stuff that humans shouldn't be eating. But he instead chooses to sell it to monsters at his restaurant which makes business boom. In the end, Schneider's class wins the trophy and Blanche says that she's always depended on the kindness of monsters.
Another decent episode. The show is starting to feel a lot more well contained with each episode, with far less filler in between. The story flowed just fine and it had a good moral of not getting yourself in way over your head with something. It also gave Blanche a bit more character than just being the southern belle zombie that likes to shop and is played up to be a gold digger to J.P, the Peter Lorre monster whose only character trait is that he's rich, which is why Blanche even stays around him. After a couple weak episodes to start, the show is starting to find its groove and this episode is no exception.
Episode 5: The Dress Up Mess Up. The class all pitch in to get a birthday present for Mr. Schneider. Well, except for Duzer, who's so self absorbed that she just spends all her money on herself instead. When the rest of the class chip in to give Scheider a fancy dinner at a swanky restaurant, Duzer wants in, so naturally she just takes the money to buy an outfit that can help her win a fashion show, which will give her the money, then she can refund the outfit to get everyone else's money back. Boy, that doesn't at all sound convoluted contrived. When Duzer competes in the fashion show, one of the contestant's mongoose outfit scares her snakes, causing the dress to get destroyed in the panic. Now with no other way to get the money back, and little time left, Duzer tries to find ways to make the money before the big dinner is expected to go down. She ends up working in a western themed restaurant while the monsters cause mayhem in the fancy restaurant. In the end, Duzer tells them that she'll be staying at the restaurant and promises to pay them back.
This was kind of a bland episode. The plot didn't really feel like it flowed as well as other episodes did. In fact we got a lot more gags with the monsters scaring humans with their mischief than any real focus on the story, which also doesn't feel like it ever flows to any entertaining points. Duzer is kind of unlikable, but I think that's also the point. She's mean to be the self absorbed valley girl that needs to learn her lesson by the end, but just barely seems to learn it and is just as unlikable by the next one. Other than that, there really wasn't anything worth recalling or talking on, so let's just move on with this one.
Episode 6: The Grave Intruder. Oh boy, another Duzer episode already. When Doozer shows little interest in the Gravedale Gazette, Headmistress Crone puts her in charge of the paper, which also serves as the class project. However, Duzer doesn't want just regular old stories about the school, and instead wants to base the paper off the dirt rags in grocery stores. She changes the title to the Gravedale Intruder and sends the rest of the class out to tell a bunch of fake stories. Oh god, they just created Breitbart. Sure enough, all the fake stories begin to rile the rest of the school up. They go after everyone but Duzer, who is still just concerned with getting the best stories. Ultimately she fires the rest of the class and takes over the entire Gravedale Intruder job herself.
There's a whole subplot caused by the Intruder that says that Headmistress Crone wants a honeymoon with Schneider, and it's actually kind of true as we see that she does have feelings for him, but they sure the hell ain't mutual. Schneider wants Duzer to write a retraction, which she instead changes to make it seem like he's insulting Crone, which sends her on the warpath. Not wanting their teacher to be dead meat, the rest of the class give Duzer a taste of her own medicine, by writing up embarrassing fake news about her. She stops them before they can hand it out to the rest of the school, and changes the story to help save Mr. Schneider. Duzer is fired, and continues on, barely learning her lesson.
This episode is okay at best. It's a good plot about the power of spreading false stories and the damage it can cause, and the whole plot with Schneider and Crone is entertaining. But the episode is bogged down by a lot of filler, and not really progressing that much until the end. That, and Duzer is still kind of unlikable, but I think that's kind of the point of the character. Not horrible, just not one of the more memborable ones.
Episode 7: Fear of Flying. It's midterm science project time and Vinnie has chosen not to make one. After Reggie suggests helping him out with his project, Vinnie easily agrees since it could mean easy grades. Reggie's project is a pair of wings that will allow him to fly like his favorite super hero, Spacerat. But when Reggie accidentally runs afoul of a gargoyle football player named Nardo, Vinnie comes to his aid. Nardo challenges Vinnie to a game of "Fly or Splat", Vinnie agrees. However, after a freak lightning storm hits Vinnie, he suddenly develops a fear of flight. The rest of the class try to help him out by finding alternative methods in helping him get his mojo back, but nothing works.
The big challenge from Nardo goes down after school regardless, and Vinnie goes along with it. That is until Reggie shows up in his Space Rat outfit to challenge Nardo in Vinnie's place. Schneider tries to stop it, but is accosted by Coach Cadaver, who wants to see this go down. Reggie flies up, but his apparatus explodes, so Vinnie comes to his aid, fighting off his fear of flight. Vinnie wins the challenge, and Schneider tells them both that they were dumb to try to settle issues with dangerous challenges.
I liked this one. Probably the show's best episode since Monster Gumbo at least. I like the friendship between Vinnie and Reggie as it does actually feel genuine, despite both characters being so vastly different. The whole plot with Vinnie's fear of flying actually works for some fun scenes with him being examined by doctors and even the class being involved for a good chunk of the episode. Overall, the pacing didn't feel like a mess in this one as everything flowed well with the story and there didn't feel like a lot of wasted space. As we've now halfway through, we're back on track with the show quality. Let's see how long that lasts.
Episode 8: He Ain't Scary, He's My Brother. Frankentyke gets a visit from his older brother Big Frankie, who used to be the big hero on campus. Frankentyke hopes that this visit can mean he can spend time with his brother, but Big Frankie is more focused on scoring points with all the girls at school, so his attention is constantly being taken by Duzer, Cleo and Blanche. When Big Frankie takes Duzer to the drive in, Frankentyke is finally tired of being the third wheel, but Schneider takes him with him to see if they can settle this whole issue. On their way, they end up getting accosted by a group of street thugs and it all culminates at the drive in. Before the two are destroyed however, Big Frankie shows up to save them. Big Frankie promises from there on in to finally spend time with just Frankentyke.
This episode was kinda there. Not boring or anything, just not exactly one of the show's stronger ones. Big Frankie is a bland character, just given a Jack Nicholson voice and a wild libido. Other that that, the plot flowed okay with decent enough pacing, but only really felt interesting in the last four minutes or son. Not the worst episode, but ultimately nothing worth really talking about.
Episode 9: Frankenjockey. Yep, it's another Frankentyke episode. The class go on a nature hike through Thin Peaks Park (ha), much to the chagrin of Frankentyke, because it seems that every animal alive wants him dead. After getting his ass handed to him by everything from crows, beavers and porcupines. The only creature that seems to like him at all is a runaway horse. The horse follows Frankentyke to school and despite Schneider's best efforts to get it out of the classroom, the horse is staying, and despite his reservations, Frankentyke soon gets along with it. Schneider finds the horse's owner, Colonel Saddlesore and the horse's trainer Liverpool. It turns out the horse is a race horse named Hoover, but it's never won a race. Liverpool is more interested in turning the horse to glue, mainly because he's secretly working for the colonel's rival, Red.
When it turns out that Hoover races well with Frankentyke as his jockey, it may be the one chance the horse has left. Schneider agrees to let Frankentyke ride as long as Hoover gets to be put in a safe stable if he wins. The big race day goes down, and Red and Liverpool try to kidnap Frankentyke to keep him from racing. However, Hoover comes to his aid and the two race. Liverpool tries to stop them, and even wins in a photo finish, but then gets disqualified for changing jockeys in a race, so Hoover gets to live his life in a safe stable.
This one was actually pretty good. Definitely Frankentyke's best showing so far. You get a nice bit of kinship between him and Hoover, and it helps pace the story along really well. Add in a decent bit of intrigue and a fun race scene with plenty of gags and you have yourself a fun half hour of television. It's definitely an episode that felt like it had more thought put into it than others at the very least and it shows.
Episode 10: Save Our School. A hotel mogul intends to build her newest hotel over Gravedale High. Meanwhile, after Vinnie shows a lack of interest in politics, Schneider suggests that he should run for school president in exchange for a good grade. Reggie and the rest of the class join in to help him run. However, Vinnie doesn't actually want to win the election, so he tells Reggie to calm down on the hype machine. However, despite his reservations, Vinnie winds up winning the election. Meanwhile, the hotel mogul is unable to buy Gravedale, so she sends a health inspector who is none too happy with the shape of the school, and threatens to condemn it if they don't clean the place up. This becomes Vinnie's first actual job as president, which is to get the rest of the school to help clean up the place. But it ultimately doesn't work as the health inspector still condemns them. Schneider tries to rally support at city hall, but that doesn't work either. Ultimately Vinnie gets the support of the rest of the school to scare the humans off and save the school. He learns his lesson about politics and being a president, and of course resigns after all of that.
I liked this episode. A good use of the characters, the plot flowed well enough, and while a bit cliche, the whole stuff involving politics and saving the school worked pretty well. I like the concept of Vinnie not being that enthused with the job of being president, yet still showing initiative when the going got tough, which fits his whole slacker character quite well. In the end, this episode was one of the show's better episodes.
Episode 11: Night Of The Living Dad. It's time for the Gravedale talent show, and all of Schneider's class are involved, several of which are in a band. This also means that the parents of the students will all be showing up. With seemingly the only exception being Frankentyke's dad. Mainly because he didn't invite his dad, due to being embarrassed by him. So instead he decides to build a new dad instead. However, in the midst of adding a genius brain, they end up breaking it, but have to use a brain of a talent agent. It all works, and Frankentyke's new "dad" Marty winds up being an extremely obnoxious agent, who tries to give the rest of the kids bad talent advice. He does try to boost Frankentyke's ego, saying that he could be a real star.
The day of the talent show arrives and, as expected, Frankentyke's ego has been so inflated that he thinks he's the real star of the band, forcing the others to quit. Frankentyke crashes and burns on his own, but does get the support of his real father, who, shocker of shockers, is a human (I mean, that does make sense). Marty makes his exit while Frankentyke learns his lesson about not being embarrassed by his family and not trying to replace them.
Overall, this was a pretty good episode. Not Frankentyke's best episode, that still feels like it belongs to Frankenjockey, but it's a close second. I like that we get to see the families of the students, even if we don't really get much time with them for any to make an impact, but the twist of Frankentyke's dad being a human (with a Karloff voice at that) works well enough. As for Marty, he works well as an antagonist, being your stock sleazy talent agent character. Although his outfit is infuriating with how much the pattern changes throughout each scene. Definitely an ambitious design, but not one that works as intended.
Episode 12: Goodbye Gravedale. It's penultimate episode time, and we got a title that feels more like it was meant for the finale. Maybe a scheduling thing, I don't know, but here we are anyway. Schneider gives the class a project to film Gravedale, which the class are eager to accept. However, he soon learns from Headmistress Crone that he's been given a letter saying he's going to transfer to another school called Midtown Prep. Schneider's far too happy at Gravedale, so he doesn't have any plans to leave. However, when he accidentally drops the letter, the class sees it and fears that he's actually planning on leaving Gravedale. Thinking he's abandoning them, they all start to rebel against him. Feeling hurt that he's lost their respect, Max calls Midtown Prep and offers to take up the job.
It turns out that things for both the class and Schneider take a turn for the worst without each other. Schneider's job requires teaching a spoiled yuppie, while the Gravedale class have to contend with some authoritarian substitute teachers. Reggie tries to convince Schneider to come back, but it seems to work. The class gets one more substitute named Mr. Creepers, who seems to do a lot of things similar to what Mr. Schneider did. When the class finally reveals why they drove Schneider away, Mr. Creepers makes his big reveal that it was all Schneider all along. He reveals that he's back to teach for good, and that they should have just told him about the letter since he thought they trusted him better. And we end on the class video, which is just clips from the episode.
A really good episode with a decent moral about trust. I do like how the class and Mr. Schneider have bonded more since the first episode, where it feels more genuine. The first act does kind of drag with the movie stuff, and the plot doesn't really progress until halfway through the first act. But I do like the bits with the substitutes and there are some good gags. This does feel more like a final episode, which really makes it being the second-to-last one feel a bit odd. But that doesn't deter what is still a great episode of the show.
Episode 13: Monster On Trial. And here we are at last, the final episode. The class are learning how to drive in this episode. The only one with reservations is Reggie, who is kind of a maniac behind the wheel. Particularly when he almost kills Schneider. So, Schneider takes on the role of the driving teacher to help out. However, when Reggie mildly bumps into an old lady's car, she claims to have whiplash and sues Schneider for a million dollars. Bad news continues to pile up for him as well as he can't get insurance, nor will any lawyer represent him. So, Schneider has to defend himself in court. Reggie also discovers that the old lady has a history of taking advantage of the court system. And it ends up working here as Schneider easily loses the lawsuit. The class tries to defend him, but they end up arrested with him. All but Frankentyke and Reggie who discover that the old lady is perfectly healthy. They give chase until she crashes into the car of the judge, who reverses the decision and lets Schneider and the class go. Everyone gets their licenses and we end Gravedale High on a happy note.
For a final episode, it wasn't a very definitive ending, but for most cartoons that's to be expected. As an episode itself, it was pretty good. Lots of great bits involving the driving stuff, Schneider trying to find a way to defend himself, and the car chase at the end was entertaining. It was also a good character focus for Reggie, who I enjoy as a character. Other than that, the pacing worked, and the story flowed quite well. Definitely a case of the show improving as it went along. Good stuff all around. Although this episode certainly threw the word bimbo around a lot.
BEST EPISODE: FEAR OF FLYING
WORST EPISODE: THE DRESS-UP MESS UP
DOES THIS SHOW HOLD UP?: NOT REALLY
DID IT DESERVE A LONGER RUN?: YES
FINAL THOUGHTS
FINAL RATING: B-
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