FRANK & DRAC (1987-1988) – Frank & Drac was this Movie Host show’s title, and Frank & Drac were the stars. Frankenstein’s Monster was played by Allen Christopher while Dracula was played by Robert Kokai. This show aired on WOIO in Cleveland, Ohio from October 1987 to June 1988. Kokai and Allen had the potential to be among the biggest Movie Hosts ever but clashes with station management over budget issues ended with their show getting shut down.
Elvira’s syndicated show Movie Macabre had technically aired its final episode in November of 1986 but several channels across the U.S. continued airing reruns for years. During 1987 the ratings for the Elvira reruns were bottoming out in Cleveland, so WOIO decided to give its own home-grown Movie Host show a try in Movie Macabre’s former time slot on Saturday nights.
A pair of Cleveland natives – Allen Christopher and Robert Kokai (using the alias Basil Grimsby) – had crossed paths out on the West Coast trying to make it big and had recently returned to Cleveland to try local broadcasting. They beat out all the other applicants by having several pages of comedy material prepared and ready when they auditioned.
And comedy was one of the strong suits of Frank & Drac. The other was the show’s conceit that the hosts were the actual Frankenstein Monster and Dracula, airing “biographical” movies about themselves and other Universal Studios monsters.
Kokai and Christopher presented the Universal Monster cycle in order of their original releases from Dracula onward, while still finding slots for more recent schlockers like The Fog, Willard, Hatchet for a Honeymoon and Return of the Living Dead.
And speaking of more recent flicks, the opening of Frank & Drac would feature a POV tracking shot like in the original Evil Dead entering the WOIO building after dark and making its way from floor to floor on its way to the studio where the two hosts were about to go on the air. Voice-overs regarding the night’s movie and any guests were heard while the camera drew closer and closer.
Frank & Drac soon improved on the Movie Macabre rerun ratings by a full third on the strength of its comedy material, written by Robert Kokai and Allen Christopher. Among the sketches that kept Clevelanders tuning in were film parodies like Bat on a Hot Tin Roof and tv show send-ups like The Monster’s Court, with Frank as a constant defendant facing plaintiffs whose property or persons had suffered at the monster’s hands.
For the vampire co-host there was a show called Drac’s Bedtime Stories, and given Robert Kokai’s resemblance to Desi Arnaz the parody sitcom I Loathe Lucy was a natural, with Dick Mulligan as a horny, full-grown Little Ricky. The Action Monster News was another highlight, with Drac as the anchorman and Frank doing sports and weather.
Though not a smooth talker like Drac, this show’s Frank was much more articulate than most depictions of the character which were limited to just “Fire bad!” or such. In addition, Allen Christopher’s Frank was less Boris Karloff and more the mashed potato-faced Frankenstein Monster from Al Adamson’s Golden Turkey Dracula vs Frankenstein.
My favorite aspect of Allen’s Frank was the way he wore all those buttons in homage to Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson), Cleveland’s iconic 1960s Movie Host whose program Chris had grown up on.
Kokai was very entertaining as Drac, but WOIO demanded some female vampires in slinky outfits be added to some sketches to retain a little of Elvira’s cheesecake appeal. “Vampettes” called Amber, Boom-Boom, Bambi and Thumper were added to the cast. (What, no tricked-out Bride for Frank?)
Another gimmick was the addition of talking bat puppets to Frank & Drac. More effective were interviews with celebrities like director Wes Craven in January 1988, plus a few appearances by radio starlet Roberta Gale (above left).
As for the fatal clash with station management over the show’s budget, Kokai and Christopher cut expenses to the bone and even wrangled friends and family to work for the show for free. Tempers supposedly flared and what could have been never came to be as the WOIO bosses pulled the plug.
Frank and Drac were inducted into the Horror Host Hall of Fame in 2019. Robert Kokai returned to Movie Hosting in 2019 with the show Transylvania Tonight on The Monster Channel. His co-host was Countess Carita, played by Stephanie Yates-Kokai, Robert’s real-life romantic partner and – as of 2022 – his wife.
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