Sunday, March 31, 2024
Flopcast 621: Superchick Deep Dive Part 1 - We Like to Be Downtown
With Kornflake away on special assignment, Kevin and the Mayor of Chickentown are free to obsess over The Krofft Supershow, a wild 1970s Saturday morning TV anthology series from Sid and Marty Krofft. Specifically we're looking at the career of musician and actress Debra Clinger, who played Superchick in The Krofft Supershow's house band, Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. Pre-Superchick, Debra and her sisters formed the Clingers, one of the very first all-girl rock bands! She was also in the Rock Flowers, a music group created to tie in with a line of Mattel fashion dolls! So it was quite a path to becoming a Kong, and along the way our conversation covers the Osmonds, the Smothers Brothers, Dick Clark, Casey Kasem, Hanna Barbera's Catanooga Cats, and much more. We also run through the Krofft Supershow first season segments: Wonderbug, Dr. Shrinker, Lost Saucer, and (our favorite) Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. And we look at the other members of Kaptain Kool and the Kongs too. (One member became a sitcom star, one was in Three Dog Night, and one performed at Woodstock!) And we're only halfway through this Superchick deep dive; part two is coming soon. So take a trip with us today, and we will lead you through a land of dreams. Weird Krofft dreams..
Show Notes
If you can't wait for Part 2, check out the recent interview with Debra Clinger on Pop Culture Retro!
- The young Clinger Sisters performing with Danny Kaye (audio only)
- The Clinger Sisters as teenagers, performing "Shoop Shoop De Doop..."
- The Clingers rock out with "Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight"
- Commercial for The Rock Flowers dolls, narrated by Casey Kasem and featuring Fake Jan (Geri Reischl)
- What's So Good About Goodbye, a Rock Flowers song written by Peggy Clinger and Johnny Cymbal (audio only)
- Season 1 intro for The Krofft Supershow
- Introducing Kaptain Kool and the Kongs
- Dick Clark interviews the band on American Bandstand
- Theme song to ElectraWoman and DynaGirl
There is a full documentary about the Clingers on YouTube, with many clips of their early appearances on television. It also has low production values and some questionable talking heads, but overall it is worth watching.