Dr. Shrinker

This is one of those shows that came out when the Krofft brothers were the hottest producers of children's shows around. As most people know, this was one of the elements that made up the Krofft Supershow and it was probably the least popular of the three elements. When I looked at this show I couldn't help but think that I saw this before, and I did. This show is almost an exact copy of Land of the Giants, but instead of crash landing on another planet, the three heroes crash land on an island inhabited by a creepy scientist and his dwarf assistant who shrink them down from their normal height to a height of about six inches. The rest of the show featured the kids trying to get back to their normal heights before being caught by the doctor. Jay Robinson was perfectly cast as Doctor Shrinker and Billy Barty was his usual funny self as his assistant Hugo. Too bad the same can't be said for the three younger members of this cast.

This was a series of only 16 total episodes that ran September through December in 1976. The episodes were only 15 minutes long. It succeeds wonderfully as silly Saturday-morning entertainment ! Yes,it was low budget.

Yes,the storylines were somewhat monotonous. On the other hand,all of the cast really put their hearts into this,they are all having fun with their parts and they are obviously enjoying themselves while they all ham it up and act silly during the making of this cool show. Lighthearted and sweetly silly. 85/100.

As a small part (get it?) of "The Krofft Supershow", "Dr. Shrinker" was one of the group of live-action cartoon-like shows they would show between scenes of music group Kaptain Kool and the Kongs singing and cutting up.

In it, the good doctor (Robinson, always good for a sinister chuckle) plays it like a latter-day Vincent Price as he shrinks three unsuspecting teens who happen onto his island lair, while his accomplice Hugo (the great Billy Barty) had his own evil agenda.

Every week, the "Shrink-ees" would fight against the "Dr." as well as island storms, marauding monsters (like ants and mice and such), and even such man-made disasters as a miniature robot (placed by the good doctor), that tried to disrupt their idyllic existence.

It was cute but, as were all of the Krofft series, repetitive. Not much changed and that made goings-on not very intriguing.

Who knows; they remade "Land of the Lost", didn't they?

Four stars for "Dr. Shrinker", mostly for small returns (ha ha).

As an adult, I can see that Dr. Shrinker didn't have a great deal to offer older viewers in terms of significant plot developments. These were great "shorts", along with the other two "shorts": "Wonder Bug" and "Elektra Woman and Dyna Girl".

I really enjoyed Dr. Shrinker at the age of 8. Each week, the theme song escorted me into that week's story line of near doom and gloom! As a youngster, I could always picture myself as a Shrinkie (after all, I wasn't much bigger than they were) just vying for the chance to turn the tables on Dr. Shrinker and coming to the rescue of my friends (and myself, of course).

What's frightening is that I can still sing most of the Theme Song! I was pleased to find out that The Osmonds recorded this piece.

While this might not have appealed to everyone, I loved Dr. Shrinker--sandwiched in between "Wonder Bug" and "Elektra (sp?) Woman and Dyna Girl", each with its own memorable theme song.

My 8-year-old mind looked forward to these Krofft productions where the good guys usually won and the bad guys paid for their misdeeds! I miss those 8-year-old times of my life.

Sincerely, Jon