odzilla was a
300-foot tall, fire-breathing lizard, mutated by Man’s folly
of repeated atomic experiments. The creature, known as Gojira
in Japan, has been around since the 50’s, when Japan’s Toho
Studios seemingly cranked out a Godzilla film every month or
so. Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. King Kong, Godzilla vs.
Frankenstein's Daughter; if it was big, rubbery, and around in
the 50’s and 60’s, Godzilla fought it. The movies served as a
faint inspiration for this series, which made its debut in
1978.
The series had Godzilla assisting Captain Carl Majors and
his crew - Dr. Quinn Darien, her excitable nephew Pete, and
Brock, who was Carl’s first mate - in battling a large array
of huge mutant creatures and alien monsters that threatened
the earth. When the team wound up in a scrape, they could
summon Godzilla from the ocean floor via a hand-buzzer
controlled by Capt. Majors. Along for the ride was Godzooky,
Godzilla’s winged nephew, who provided comic relief. How a
radioactively mutated lizard came to have an entire 'Zilla
family was never fully explained on the show.
Godzilla teamed up with numerous other shows during the
course of its run. In its first season, Godzilla made up
one-half of The Godzilla Power Hour, the second half of the
show being comprised of Jana of the Jungle episodes. The show
lasted two months in this incarnation, stretching to ninety
minutes by adding Jonny Quest reruns and changing its name to
Godzilla Super 90.
In September of '79, the show shrank to one half hour and
aired under the title of Godzilla, which was just fine with
Godzilla. He'd been a loner his entire career, and didn't need
help from anyone, least of all from a kid secret agent or some
blonde with a traveling petting zoo.
NBC thought otherwise, however, and after a month the Big G
was paired up with reruns of The Super Globetrotters under the
title of The Godzilla/Globetrotters Adventure Hour. This ran
the rest of the '79 season, actually airing two times per
Saturday from 4/12/80 to 9/20/80.
The show gained new rerun buddies on 9/27/80, and ran as
The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom until
sometime in November 1980, when it metamorphosed into The
Godzilla/Hong Kong Phooey Hour, which ran until 5/15/81.
Godzilla came full circle on 5/23/81, headlining his own
half-hour show until finally being cancelled on 9/5/81.
