In "Jekyll and Hyde: Together for the
First Time,” the ghosts of Dr. Jekyll (Severn Darden) and Mr. Hyde (Joe E.
Ross) materialize in the local cemetery and begin their search for someone
without a real personality.
That person, they have learned, can be
attached to “Hyde,” freeing Jekyll from his alter ego permanently.
The person
they choose for this honor: Spenser (Larry Storch).
The Ghost Busters retrieve their newest
assignment from Zero (Lou Scheimer), and learn they must stop the villainous
duo.
But Jekyll and Hyde require just one personal item from Spenser before
they can make their supernatural transfer...
The characters of Jekyll and Hyde -- straight
from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel -- get a strange update indeed in this
episode of Filmation’s wonky live-action series The Ghost Busters (1975).
Dr. Jekyll is portrayed as the real villain of the duo, rather than as a proper
gentleman whose dark side is manifested. And Hyde is quite oddly portrayed as a
bumbling cave-man rather than as a legitimate figure of evil, a repository for
all human vices and dark impulses
Severn Darden plays Jekyll. Of course, he
is a familiar presence to fans of Conquest of Planet of the Apes and Battle
for the Planet of the Apes, wherein he played the villain, Kolp.
Joe.
E. Ross may not be as well known to today’s audiences, but he (infamously)
portrayed a cave-man named Gronk in the sitcom It’s About Time
(1966-1967) from Gilligan’s Island creator Sherwood Schwartz. Ross resurrects his cave-man act for The
Ghost Busters, and is similarly garbed as well.
I suppose the creators of the program
decided that Hyde could not be too menacing, and so made him a primitive
counterpart for Jekyll, rather than an evil one.
One big question about this episode
involves the writer’s description of Spenser as lacking a personality. This is
a guy who always wears a zoot suit, essentially, works hand-in-hand with a
gorilla, and demonstrates outright terror at the drop of a hat.
I wouldn’t exactly describe him as lacking a
personality. Love him or hate him, I’d
say that Spenser is pretty unforgettable.
Next week: “Only Ghosts Have Wings.”
Severn Darden, in his goatee, tophat and black coat looks remarkably like Anthony Hopkins in The Elephant Man!
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