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Shrinking Machine -
Miniaturization device featured on the children's series
DR. SHRINKER/ABC/1977 (a segment of the KROFFT SUPERSHOW/ABC/1976-77).
The evil Dr. Shrinker (Jay Robinson) and his little
assistant (Billy Barty) used a four-foot long, multicolor
barrel device stored in his laboratory to shrink his victims,
namely six unsuspecting teens.
The same machine would reverse the process.
TRIVIA NOTE: - Other examples
of movies and series with shrinking devices included:
- Dr. Cyclops (1940), a sci-fi film starring Albert Dekker as a crazed scientist who
shrunk humans via radiation.
- THE WORLD OF GIANTS/SYN/1959 told the
story of undercover agent Mel Hunter (Marshall Thompson) who
had been scientifically reduced to the height of six-inches.
With the aid of his full-size partner, Bill Winters (Arthur
Franz) they infiltrated and busted crime organizations. Mel
usually traveled in Bill Winters briefcase.
- TOM OF T.H.U.M.B./ABC/1966-69, a component series on THE
KING KONG SHOW/ABC/1966-69
featured a janitor who was shrunk by a shrinking laser radar
beam. He fought crime working for
T.H.U.M.B. (Tiny Human Underground Military
Bureau).
- FANTASTIC VOYAGE/ABC/1968-70, based on the movie of the
same name, featured the Combined Miniature Defense
Force, the secret government project that shrunk its agents
to microscopic size so they could carry out top-secret
assignments.
- DR. WHO/BBC/1963-89, a British sci-fi series,
featured an evil Timelord
known as The Master (Anthony Ainley) who used a deadly device
called a "Tissue Compression Eliminator" to subdue his
victims. The TCE is a short black rod capable of crushing a
living human body into a twisted corpse the size of a doll.
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