Godzilla on TV
Godzilla starred in four television series over the course of his career, starting in 1972 with a now-obscure Japanese series called “Zone Fighter.” “Zone Fighter” was actually a giant robot TV series that was conceived by Toho to compete with other superhero giant robot series that were immensely popular in Japan at the time. “Ultraman,” “Kamen Rider,” and the like. The legacy of these series are still being expressed in America with the various “Power Rangers” spinoffs. “Zone Fighter” was about a family of benevolent human-looking aliens hiding out on Earth after the destruction of their planet. The kids in the family could transform into robot superheroes and fight evil invaders from Garoga. Godzilla, King Ghidorah, and Gigan all made cameo appearances on the show, sometimes as threats and sometimes as heroes. Executives from Toho have established that “Zone Fighter” is indeed in keeping with the Godzilla canon, and that it takes place in between Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. “Zone Fighter” is awesome if you’re 9. Actually, it has the same streak of bonkers fun that many of the better movies had, just with a smaller budget and far less logic. It ran for 26 episodes.
In 1978, Toho teamed up with Hanna-Barbera’s TV animation studio to make “Godzilla,” an English-language TV show, wherein brave and boring humans would have various adventures involving Godzilla. It’s been many years since I’ve seen this show, but I recall it with no fondness. “Godzilla” is really, really awful. Perhaps most notably for the invention of Godzooky, the Scrappy-Doo of the Godzilla universe. Godzooky is a walking, talking dragon imp that befriends a young boy, and falls down a lot. Godzooky is so obnoxious, I would rather see a four-hour epic about Minilla. Godzooky was played by Don Messick who also played Papa Smurf, Scooby Doo, and Hamton J. Pig. “Godzilla” ran for 26 episodes under various titles for several years, including “The Godzilla Power Hour.” I don’t think anyone, even the staunchest of Godzilla fans, consider this show to be canon.
Starting in 1997, and running for a towering 256 episodes, was “Godzilla Island,” a series of 3-minute vignettes that ran on Japanese TV, using Bandai toys as the central monsters. I know nothing about this show, although it sounds like it was more a commercial to tie into the various movies being made in the 1990s, distilled into a series of mini cliffhangers. There was an enormous toy push with the show, of course. I rarely say this, but if you want to know more, you may have to go to the Wikipedia. I have little of insight into “Godzilla Island.”
The fourth TV show about Godzilla was a direct spinoff of the American 1998 film, and was called “Godzilla: The Series,” which ran for 40 episodes. Made by the same animation studio that made the Men in Black animated series, it features the iguana-like beast seen in Roland Emmerich’s film, and introduced some new Godzilla monsters for Godzilla to fight, including giant bees, giant shrews, giant fungus, something called Komoditrhax, and even The Loch Ness Monster. Often considered a pretty good cartoon, as far as tie-in SatAM spinoffs go, “Godzilla: The Series” is always regarded positively by the small segment of the population who has seen it.
Thank you for joining me on this little intermission. Next week, we’ll be back on course with the beginning of the Heisei era, and full coverage of both versions of The Return of Godzilla. Until then, my little monsters, have a grand old time looking up episodes of the shows listed above, and pondering your own contribution to MOVIE.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and co-star of The Trailer Hitch. You can read his weekly articles B-Movies Extended, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind. If you want to buy him a gift (and I know you do), you can visit his Amazon Wish List.
