The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys (1992)
The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys premiered on the CBS network on September 19, 1992, and ran until November 28, 1992. This show was the brainchild of Howie Mandel, after being inspired by his daughter’s desire to raise Sea-Monkeys, just like he did as a child. With the addition of Chiodo Brothers’ vision and expertise in special effects, this show became a reality.
The show’s premise consists of three Sea-Monkeys: Dave, Bill, and Aquarius, who were enlarged to human size by The Professor. Through the show, we follow this trio and all their peculiar encounters they find themselves in, most of which take place in the lighthouse in which they reside. Given the number of Sea-Monkeys and the slapstick comedy, it is somewhat reminiscent of the Three Stooges.
The show only had one season, consisting of eleven episodes. This show has not received a home media release to date, but bootleg recordings have surfaced online, allowing those curious enough to experience this show.
In 2022, for the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere, we reached out to the Chiodo Brothers in hopes of receiving some tidbit about the show. From them, we learned that the original concept of the show was called “The Shrimpsons”, and it was about a family of Sea Monkeys: a dad, a mom, and a big baby living in a fish bowl community, the format would be akin to “The Honeymooners.” All this eventually got scrapped as “The show with Howie was a better concept.”
Get Street Smart: A Kid's Guide To Stranger Dangers (1995)
This educational film, produced in 1995 to teach children about personal safety on the streets and avoiding strangers who might kidnap them, features an alien exchange student called Capricorn whose design is a very close copy of the Sea-Monkey characters seen in the 1992 show.
This film was directed & produced by Sean McNamara, who had previously directed two episodes of the Sea-Monkeys show, under the credit name Sean Mack. In this film, the Chiodo Brothers are credited with the design of the alien character. The film showed a teaser about future installments featuring this character, but it appears they never came into fruition.
Given the prosthetics used for the character and the undeniable connection with the CBS show, we found it to be worthy enough to give it a section here.