THE PROFESSOR'S SF & HORROR HOST TOME

GRAMPA PRESENTS
GRAMPA'S MONSTER MOVIES
GRAMPA'S MORE SILLY SCARIES
GRAMPA'S SCI-FI HITS
GRAMPA'S SILLY SCARIES
SUPER SCARY SATURDAY

AL LEWIS - "GRAMPA"
(AKA "ALBERT EINSTEIN GRAMPA")
KEITH WILLIAMS - "IGOR"
ZEVI WOLMARK - "GRANDSON TIM"

Al Lewis, born 30 April 1932 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA and passed away on 3 February 2006 in New York City, New York.

From IMDB:
In the late 1920's, Lewis worked as a circus performer, but ultimately decided on college, earning a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University. He taught school and wrote two children's books. In 1949, at the suggestion of a friend, Lewis turned to acting and joined the Paul Mann Actor's Workshop in New York. Lewis worked in burlesque and vaudeville theaters across the country, which eventually led to Broadway. By the 1950's, television was booming, and Lewis took advantage of the work appearing on almost every live show out of his home base of New York City. His most famous regular television roles were Officer Leo Schnauser in "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961) and Grandpa in "The Munsters" (1964). When these shows ended, he opened a restaurant in New York called "Grampa's" in Greenwich Village. He has since produced a home video for children and appeared on WTBS in a series of Saturday morning programs for children.

It is from his role as "Grandpa" in "The Munsters" that would launch his career as a horror host.

This is a commercial that Al Lewis did for the Paper Warehouse as "Grandpa" / "Grampy". Not wanting to infringe copyright, he changed the character name from Grandpa to "Grampa".

Grampa - Paper Warehouse Commercial (Al Lewis) from The Professor on Vimeo.

SUPER SCARY SATURDAY
(1987-1989)

"Super Scary Saturday" would see Al Lewis back reprising his role as Grandpa (Munster), but this time as Grampa to host a series of horror movies every Saturday on TBS Superstation. Grampa introduces each episode with information about the featured monsters for the week's particular movie. Some of the WCW wrestlers also make cameo appearances promoting their favorite monster from the featured movie as well. Zevi Wolmark would also appear as Grandson Tim. Grampa's full name was also revealed - Albert Einstein Grampa.

Super Scary Saturday - hosted by Grampa (clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

1988-1989 would also see a series of direct to video releases, which would also introduce unseen "Igor", voiced by Keith Williams.

GRAMPA'S MONSTER MOVIES
(1988)

"Grampa's Monster Movies" saw Grampa introducing a collection of horror and science fiction movie clips of some of Hollywood's most classic horror and science fiction movies.

Grampa's Monster Movies (clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

GRAMPA'S SILLY SCARIES
(1988)

"Grampa's Silly Scaries" has Grampa presenting seven silly scary cartoons from yesteryear. The cartoons presented on the DVD release were:
"A Haunting We Will Go" with Casper the friendly ghost
"The Cobweb Hotel"
"A Cartoon Travesty"
"Hollywood Capers"
"Mummies Boys" episode 105 from The New 3 Stooges
"Fright to the Finish" with Popeye
"The Pincushion Man".
The cartoons presented on the video release were:
"A Haunting We Will Go" with Casper the friendly ghost
"The Cobweb Hotel"
"Mad Doctor"
"The Impatient Patient"
"Hollywood Capers"
"Mummies Boys" episode 105 from The New 3 Stooges
"Fright to the Finish" with Popeye
"The Pincushion Man".
Grampa starts the video with a short introduction and then presents each cartoon in turn.

Grampa's Silly Scaries (clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

GRAMPA PRESENTS (1988)

"Grampa Presents" Amvest Video released a large number of public domain classic horror and science fiction movies on videos. Each movie was introduced by Al Lewis as Grampa.

The movies reported to have been released or due to be released included:
"Alice Sweet Alice"
"Battle of the Worlds"
"Bride of the Gorilla"
"Carnival of Souls"
"Climax" / "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"
"Corpse Vanishes"
"Creature from the Haunted Sea"
"Death Race 2000"
"Dementia 13"
"Devil Bat"
"First Spaceship on Venus"
"Frankenstein's Daughter"
"Ghosts on the Loose"
"Giant from the Unknown"
"Godzilla Vs. Megalon"
"Horror Hotel"
"Human Monster"
"Immediate Disaster" (aka "Stranger from Venus")"
"Indestructible Man"
"Invisible Ghost"
"Killers from Space"
"Little Shop of Horrors"
"Mars Attacks the World"
"Mesa of Lost Women"
"Missile to the Moon"
"Monster from Green Hell"
"Night of the Living Dead"
"Nightmare Castle"
"Nosferatu"
"Phantom from Space"
"Phantom of the Opera"
"Radar Men from the Moon" (Part I)
"Radar Men from the Moon" (Part II)
"Satan's Satellites" (aka "Zombies of the Stratosphere")
"Scared to Death"
"She Demons"
"Snow Creature"
"Spider Baby"
"Spooks Run Wild"
"The Ape"
"The Ape Man"
"The Crawling Eye"
"The Death Kiss"
"The House of Exorcism"
"The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant"
"The Island Monster"
"The Last Woman on Earth"
"The Living Head"
"The Phantom Creeps"
"The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy"
"The Terror"
"Vampire Bat"
"Vampyr"
"White Zombie"
"Who Killed Doc Robin"
"Wild Women of Wongo"
"Witches Curse"
"Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy"
"Yog Monster from Space" (aka "Space Amoeba").

Grampa Presents (clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

GRAMPA'S MORE SILLY SCARIES (1989)

"Grampa's More Silly Scaries" was a sequel to the 1988 "Grampa's Silly Scaries", hosted by Al Lewis as Grampa, in which he presents six scary cartoons in this direct to video release.

The cartoons featured were:
"I Don't Scare" (1956) starring Popeye, Bluto and Olive on Friday the 13th "The Friendly Ghost" (1935) starring Casper. "Magic Mummy" (1933) starring Tom and Jerry (not the cat and mouse). "The Raven" (1942) based on Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem. "Gypped In Egypt" (1930) starring Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog. "Is My Palm Read?" (1933) starring Betty Boop.

Grampa's More Silly Scaries (Clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

GRAMPA'S SCI-FI HITS (1989)

"Grampa's Sci-Fi Hits" was a compilation of trailers and previews from various horror and science fiction films, hosted by Al Lewis in his character of Grampa.

Grampa's 28 Original Coming Attractions were:
"30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock"
"Alien"
"Atragon"
"Barbarella"
"Battle Of The Worlds"
"Buck Rogers"
"Creation Of The Humanoids"
"Destroy All Monsters"
"Dr. Goldfoot And His Girl Bombs"
"Earth vs. The Flying Saucers"
"Farenheit 451"
"Flash Gordon" (1936)
"Flash Gordon" (1980)
"Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars"
"Ghidra, The Three Headed Monster"
"Godzilla vs. Megalon"
"Godzilla"
"King Kong"
"Lost World".
"Omega Man"
"Reptilicus"
"Rocky Horror Picture Show"
"The Amazing Colossal Man"
"The Blob"
"The Day The Earth Stood Still"
"This Island Earth"
"Varan, The Unbelieveable"
"Village Of The Giants".

Grampa's Sci-Fi Hits (Clips) from The Professor on Vimeo.

In 1990, the movie "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" was released. There was a character in the movie "Grandpa Fred" who was a television horror host, played by Robert Prosky. "Grandpa Fred" was based on Al Lewis' "Grandpa" from the television series "The Munsters". For more information on "Grandpa Fred", use the below link:

Portraits of "Grampa/Grandpa" by Dave Dunlap.

Portrait of "Grampa" by Bradley Beard.
"Grampa" - biography (taken from Bradley Beard's Facebook page)

Everybody loves him. Tonight I present Grandpa, host of Super Scary Saturday on Cable Superstation WTBS which aired on Saturdays at noon. Al Lewis basically reprised his role as Grandpa from the 1960's TV show The Munsters, however, he was only referred to as Grandpa and The Munsters were never mentioned, obviously due to legal issues. The show featured his zany antics and his pun filled sense of humor. Unlike other hosts who generally appear before and after commercial breaks, Grandpa's sequences appeared at the beginning, middle, and end of the movie. From my recollection, the show seemed to feature mostly Japanese monster movies. During the screening of King Kong vs. Godzilla, Grandpa featured a Tale of the Tape segment which sized up the monsters, loosely presenting it as a WCW wrestling match. Lewis seemed to have fun being Grandpa and wanted everyone to have fun with him.

In 2014, Al Lewis - "Grampa" for "Super Scary Saturday", was inducted into "The Official Horror Host Hall of Fame".

Don Post (mask maker) with Al Lewis (Grandpa).
(Modern Monsters - April 1966)