A WALK  DOWN  MEMORY  LANE

In 1970/71 Mitch was involved in conceiving and then acting in the capacity of associate producer/head writer on the iconic, Hilarious House of Frightenstein. 

This  wildly successful children's television program was produced in Hamilton, Ontario's independently owned and operated CHCH studios. The Markowitz team announced their coup in signing internationally famous horror legend, Vincent Price as the program's host/segment interlocutor making headlines in the media and guaranteeing the shows sale to Channel 11 and future syndication. Mr. Price was, and still is known internationally as one of, if not the most famous movie stars in the world associated with the horror genre. This multi faceted program included key segments with educational values featuring another internationally famous personality/educator, Professor Julius Sumner Miller and Grammar Slammer a 'super-sized' well educated puppets.  

Animal related segments featuring videos of wild animals hosted by B'wana Clyde Batty, story time with the very scary Librarian, rock &  roll DJ The Wolfman, an introduction to various potential house pets by Dr. Pet Vet with insights into astrology by The Oracle were also very popular segments on the daily hour long program as well as various other puppets characters, cameo appearances and of course the 'stars' of the show, Count Frightenstein, his oversized assistant Igor (both painted green) and their Frankenstein like, monster Brucie who albeit they tried on a daily basis utilizing all types of potions, electrical equipment, pep talks etc etc never did come to life. One of the program's most popular characters was Grizelda The Witch with her smoking oversized cauldron, vast array of weird and disgusting ingredients and hanging utensils which she inevitably banged her head on every day. Grizelda was an 'homage' to Julia Child and a precursor to today's endless array of cooking/food shows prepared a horrible meal daily finishing the segment by doing a taste test. Mitch co- produced 130 hour long episodes of The  Hilarious  House of Frightenstein in record time by shooting multiple segments of each individual character's  'piece of the pie' and then editing the show(s) together in 'post production' once all of the material had been taped. 

This program incorporated many state of the art production values maximizing the use of chroma-key, today referred to as green screen or CGI (computer generated information).

Mitch also appeared a number of times in each episode in a 'cameo' as a character called, Super Hippy dressed in a Superman costume sporting a long blonde afro wig. Super Hippy appeared  through the miracle of modern technology (CGI)  flying in the sky, sitting on hydro lines or on the  rooftop  of neighbouring hi-rise buildings reciting one liner profundities.  

Due to his 'slight' stature at the time, this (skinny Superman) image alone created an instant  'sight gag' in addition to the comedic audio component.  

Frightenstein endured the 'test of time' running in syndication on various television stations across Canada and the United States from 1971 through 2011. The Hilarious House of Frightenstein has the honour of being the longest running kids' TV show in Canadian history. 

The program was further immortalized with Canadian indie rock band, The Sadies including  a tribute to Frightenstein's, The Wolfman video component on their latest album and at least one other rock band in western Canada calling themselves, Frightenstein. 

Frightenstein also inspired the likes of Hollywood superstar and Canada's 2003 Walk of fame inductee Mike Myers who incorporated Maxi Me & Mini me into his Austin Powers blockbuster films crediting The Hilarious House of Frightenstein's Count Frightenstein and the Mini Count. Myers grew up watching religiously every day after school. As did Canada's  contemporary acerbic television  puppet / long time TV host, Ed the Sock and children's entertainer  Academy Award winner, Sir Jerry (Levitan) of, I Met The Walrus best selling hardcover book and an animated short film of the same name.  I met The Walrus detailed Jerry meeting  and interviewing John Lennon and Yoko Ono when he was fourteen years old.

Sir Jerry a long time fan of The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein also incorporated a 'super sized' sidekick accompanied by a mini associate crediting his fond memories of Frightenstein  as the inspiration .  

Production of the show lasted approximately 9 to 12 months.  It was shot completely out of sequence, and all segments were shot together. So, Billy spent a few weeks as Grizelda, a few weeks as the Librarian, even a few days as the ape getting hit in the head with tennis balls. The tennis balls in these segments were thrown by Mitch's younger brother Cary. This explains why there are no running themes throughout any of the episodes. The shows were then assembled from the bits and pieces and all follow the same basic pattern of sketches. Vincent Price’s involvement was the same as everybody else — a few intense days recording mountains of material. "Vincent Price will always be my favourite, as a result of this show. We shot about four hundred bits with him over a four day session. He accepted the gig because he loved kids and saw the innovation in this vehicle". He allegedly worked for around $13,000 in total when that was commonly his daily appearance rate. He would read the script to himself, put his head down for a few seconds and do a single take read on-camera. Next! At one point the crew was exausted by his pace and he suddenly disappeared. Everyone thought he MUST have gone to collapse somewhere. He had hailed a cab, gone to the local beer store and brought a couple of two-fours into the station. We all sat cross-legged in the studio and listened to his stories of Hollywood and Cecil B. DeMille. The next break we took, he had his picture taken with each crew member in the make-up room. One of the guys blew them up to 8x10’s that night and he wrote a personal note to each of us on it.

To this day  42 years after the first episode aired locally the program has an ongoing tribute page on the internet, Frightenstein conventions held by long time fans where most of them attend in costume mimicking their favourite Frightenstein characters, Frightenstein promo material available for sale on line with complete shows readily available on DVD  as well as a huge fan club lovingly referred to as, 'The Hilarious House of Frightenstein Fiend club'.  

With Vincent Price (the host/segment interlocutor), Professor Julius Sumner Miller (the Professor), Fishka Rais (Igor), Guy Big ( Mini  Count),  Joseph Torbay (puppeteer) and Billy Van (Count Frightenstein & all the other characters on the show not previously mentioned) having passed on, Mitch Markowitz is the last remaining cast member of The Hilarious  House of Frightenstein, sometimes referred to as, "a gem in the crown of Canadian television history."  

With a second career spanning almost 40 years in the new home industry focusing on the sales and marketing of affordable housing utilizing and applying his show business background to his marketing campaigns, as well as personally recording numerous voice over and on camera commercials for his own new home projects, Mitch again found himself drawn back into the, Frightenstein/Horror TV genre spotlight.

Having been invited to make a 'special appearance' at the 2011 Festival of Fear at the Toronto Convention Centre to help celebrate, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein's 40th anniversary and had he lived, Vincent Price's 100th birthday, Mitch appeared with Mr. Price's daughter Victoria meeting, greeting and signing autographs for a huge segment of the nearly 60,000 people attending the show over the course of the 3 day weekend.