[jekylljuice]

I'm curious - does anybody else here remember a Hanna-Barbera cartoon called Monster Tails? I haven't seen a trace of it since the early 90s, but I have fairly vivid memories of this show nonetheless and would positively leap at the opportunity to see it again. I believe that it was originally broadcast as a segment on the early morning variety programme, Wake, Rattle and Roll, alongside Fender Bender 500 (a recycled version of the Wacky Races), but I seem to remember it also being shown independently at one point in the UK. There seems to be very little information available about it online, and I've yet to see anybody post so much a tiny clip from this show over on You Tube. Plus, I'm guessing a DVD release some time in the future would be totally out of the question.

To maybe jog your memories a little, Monster Tails followed the misadventures of a group of domesticated animals who resided in a Transylvanian mansion with Igor's son, Igor Jr, whilst their owners - each a renowned horror icon - were off in Hollywood making movies. Each pet shared in some of the characteristics and monstrous abilities of their masters. Dr. Veenie is obviously my favourite, since he was Dr. Jekyll's dog (and he constantly had to contend with his own psychotic alter ego, Mr. Snyde), and there was also Franken-Mutt, faithful undead companion to Frankenstein's monster (though what very little information there is online seems to be divided as to whether his name was Franken-Mutt or Franken-Hound), Elsa, the Bride of Frankenstein's animal counterpart (who actually consisted of a parrot's brain transplanted into a dog's body, so I'm honestly not certain which species she should be classified as), Catula, Dracula's vampire kitty, high-strung mummified canine Mumfrey, and finally Angel, who was voiced by our own Candi Milo, a phantasmal goldfish belonging to the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I've no doubt whatsoever that if I ever do get to see it again, it'll inevitably turn out to be one of those shows that isn't nearly as good as I remember it being, but then I really don't care either way. In theory the basic concept will always be awesome, and much of the stuff about who each of the animals was modelled upon went completely over my head at that age, and it's only with hindsight that I've been able to piece most things together. On top of which, I believe that the Veenie-Snyde dynamic was my very first introduction to the spell-binding world of Jekyll and Hyde - I owe it to this cartoon to give it my time if I ever come across it again.