Struck by Lightning

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING was a fairly amusing premise that was never fully explored before it got yanked by CBS-TV. Jack Elam as Frank, caretaker of a New England inn who was in actually the Frankenstein Monster, was genius casting. Jeffrey Kramer as Ted Stein, a high school science teacher and the last living descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, was actually pretty funny. Stein was trying to discover the secret formula to the elixir that keeps Frank alive & must be administered every 75 years, or the monster starts to disintergrate. "You see my eyes?" Frank asks Ted. "In five more years, I'll look like a catfish!" The inn is actually Castle Frankenstein, brought over from Germany by Ted's late grandfather, who went senile and died before passing along the formula for Frank's elixir. In one episode, Ted leases the castle to a company filming a horror movie. Seeing the actor playing Count Dracula in full costume and make-up, Frank attempts to attack him, telling Ted, "He still owes me $20!" Seeing the green-skinned, flat-headed, neck-bolted Monster, Frank laments, "You have ONE bad hair day ...!" In another episode, a doctor examining an ill Frank is shocked to find stitches completely encircling his neck. "These look like railroad tracks!" the doctor exclaims. Ted tries to pass them off as scars from a tonsilectomy, but the doctor points out that tonsils are removed from the INSIDE, and asks who performed the surgery. "Um, YOU did," Frank says, and the doctor quickly tries to change the subject, alluding to his "drinking days." The show's title refers to the way Frank proves to Ted that he really IS The Monster. Raising his arms in front of a window and growling, a bolt of lighning crashes through and strikes his back. Turning around to show the smoking hole in his coat, Frank comments, "I HATE doing that!" I'm not sure if any more episodes were made besides the three that aired, but a nice DVD collection of whatever aired would be a great novelty! Alas, much like Lon Chaney's LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, I fear this series is lost forever.

Another one hit wonder from the late '70s, it's amazing how desperate the networks were for new show ideas. Especially if they have to rip off Mary Shelley for sitcom ideas.

"Struck by Lightning" may bring a smile to the lips of Frankenstein aficionados, but it obviously didn't do much for anyone else, as this series detailed how a descendant (Kramer) of the late doctor discovers his heritage, thanks to the caretaker (Elam) of the inn he's inherited. By the way, did I mention the caretaker was actually Frankenstein's Monster??

Of course, if you're going to cast Frankenstein's monster in a sitcom, (*)Elam has the face for it as well as the comic timing. And I do remember a few moments when I actually got a laugh from this one-timer series (all due, in large, to Elam). But this is just another example of a one-idea show stretched out too long to make a good series.

By and large, "Struck by Lightning" will never make you forget "The Addams Family".

One star, for Elam.

(*) = Sorry about that face remark, Jack. But It IS why they hired you, you know.

I can't believe I never heard of this show, as I LOVE obscure and canceled sitcom shows. It's not really a preference, as such, but just so happens that everything I like ALWAYS gets canceled. Never fails. But I never even knew this existed until I happened across the pilot episode on You Tube. And now i HAVE to find the other episodes!!!!!!! I sure hope they become available to purchase or just watch, as it's such a fun and extremely underrated comedy show.

I remember this show! I thought it was great and so funny ! What I'd like to know is how can shows as crappy as the Morphin Rangers can drag on forever when shows like this one can vanish without a warning after just three episodes. Jack Elam had an hysterical role in this series as Frankenstein's Monster trying to live down his past and forget the novels and the movies and just live a normal life. Maybe it was just too funny and too good and the idiot network execs wanted to pull it before the creators ran out of ideas. If that was the case, then they should have risked it. Elam deserved one good memorable role before he leaves this plane of existence.

I remember seeing the commercial for this show when I was a little kid.

I remember something like this: Jack Elam is standing there with smoke coming out of him, when someone asks him, "What happened?" He replies, "I was, uh, struck by lightning," real deadpan-like.

Am I just making that up? Or did it really happen?

So here you go...the guidelines say you have to have ten lines of text. How can you do that for a show that only lasted three episodes and doesn't ever even make it onto those "Worst TV shows of all time" lists? I've already said everything I remember about this show that everyone on earth seems to have forgotten.