A treat for Morlock fans was when two of the stars of the original film, Jonny M. and Jesse Merlin, appeared as panelists on "Match Game" at the nadir of their careers. |
After the debacle of “The Ghost of Professor Morlock,” the Morlock merchandising gravy train appeared to have ground to a halt. Only the career of Mara Marini, star of the original “Morlock,” continued on like an unstoppable juggernaut. Jesse Merlin eked out a living as a celebrity guest on daytime game shows and starring in an embarrassing stage production called “Professor Morlock Live” that he did at kiddie matinees of old “Morlock” movies. Amy Ball dropped out of show business and went to work for a coffee company. Jonny M. became a superstar in the golden age of porn. And Tom Ackerman descended into the reefer addiction which made him unemployable as anything other than Morlock’s evil assistant Ruprecht.
But the fans’ letter-writing campaign and subsequent Morlock conventions made the studio give the Morlock franchise another look and cautiously released a few Morlock baubles to gauge popular interest. The first was this Professor Morlock game produced by Milton Bradley in which the players tried to keep the evil professor from achieving his dream of transplanting an ape’s brain into ace investigative reporter Janet Lawton. So passionate were the fans about bringing Morlock back that the game became the fourth highest selling in history, behind Monopoly, Clue, Candyland, and Winter Olympics Trivial Pursuit.
The game pieces were icons from the Morlock series: the professor’s test tube, an evil skull, an ape’s brain, the globe that caused Amanda Globe to vaguely remember her former identity after Morlock enslaved her and erased her memory, a tesla coil, and Winston the pug. The last piece got the studio into trouble because they didn’t have contractual permission to use Winston’s likeness and, unlike the other actors from the Morlock series, he had very deep pockets from successfully investing in real estate and could fight his former bosses in court. The studio had to pay the pug a hefty settlement and remove the Winston piece from the game, replacing it with the bra that Janet Lawton was always wearing when she was tied up.
Professor Morlock games containing the Winston piece sell on eBay for up to $2500.
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