Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (TV series)

Lore & Background

The series picks up five years after The Great Tomato War, where tomatoes are banned. Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen, an angry scientist, creates killer tomatoes for world domination. His experiment Tara Boumdeay, a tomato turned human, escapes with her furry companion F.T. and befriends Chad Finletter, who helps them oppose Gangreen. The first season follows their battles, while the second season sees Gangreen conquer Earth, only to be overthrown by his own tomato Zoltan and forced to ally with the heroes.

Reader's Guide

The series originated from a Muppet Babies segment that parodied the original film, leading New World Pictures to fund a sequel and later an animated series. It debuted as one of the first Saturday morning cartoons on the Fox Children's Network in fall 1990. The show is known for inside jokes to popular television series and movies, often poking fun at itself or its low-budget film origins. Its second season made history as the first computer-animated Saturday Morning cartoon. Ownership passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, including Marvel Productions.

Did You Know?

• The second season was not the first Saturday Morning cartoon series to be computer-animated; that distinction belongs to 'ReBoot' (1994).
• The claim that a character named 'Tomato Guy' existed in the series is unsubstantiated; no such character appears in established canon.

Production & the Helicopter Disaster

The 1978 production of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was shot across Oceanside and broader San Diego County, with specific locations including Balboa Park and the University of California, San Diego campus. Working with a budget under one hundred thousand dollars, the crew rented a Hiller Aircraft UH-12E helicopter valued at sixty thousand dollars for a scene in which law enforcement officers fire their weapons at tomatoes in a field. The aircraft was supposed to land safely behind the officers in the tomato patch. Instead, during its descent the tail rotor struck the ground, sending the helicopter spinning out of control near the surface. It rolled over and burst into flames. The pilot escaped without serious injury, but the cameras were rolling at the time, capturing the entire crash. Rather than discarding the footage, the filmmakers incorporated the real disaster into the finished film, adding dialogue that frames the incident as a "kamikaze tomato" striking the helicopter. This accidental sequence became one of the most memorable and talked-about moments in the entire series, a genuine catastrophe repurposed as comedy.

Narrative Structure & B-Movie Parody

The screenplay by Costa Dillon, J. Stephen Peace, and John DeBello is a loving send-up of low-budget monster films. It opens with a scroll referencing The Birds, then a pre-credits sequence shows a tomato emerging from a garbage disposal and dragging a woman to her death. Police find the red substance on her body is tomato juice, not blood. The film escalates through attacks: a man dying from contaminated juice, a boy gobbled up, and a Jaws-inspired sequence where tomatoes prey on swimmers. The President assembles a team under Mason Dixon, including a disguise expert whose costumes range from George Washington to Adolf Hitler, a scuba diver, an Olympic swimmer, and a parachute-carrying soldier. The disguise expert infiltrates a tomato campfire but blows his cover asking for ketchup. The plot darkens when the press secretary is revealed as the true villain, having discovered how to control the tomatoes. A soldier stabs him with a sword, and Dixon realizes the tomatoes retreat at the sound of "Puberty Love." The climax unfolds in a stadium where the song shrinks the tomatoes for a crowd to stomp, while Dixon saves a reporter from a giant tomato wearing earmuffs by showing it the sheet music. The film closes with a carrot emerging from the soil, declaring the humans are gone.

Cast & Production Details

The film stars David Miller, George Wilson, Sharon Taylor, and Jack Riley in its principal roles. Produced by J. Stephen Peace and John DeBello, with DeBello also directing, the project originated from an idea by Costa Dillon, who co-wrote the screenplay alongside Peace and DeBello. The entire production was completed on a budget of less than one hundred thousand dollars, a constraint that shaped every aspect of the filmmaking. Shooting took place across Oceanside and other parts of San Diego County, with recognizable locations including Balboa Park and the University of California, San Diego campus. One of the most notable casting facts from the film is that it contains the first screen appearance of Dana Ashbrook, who was then only ten or eleven years old. He played the uncredited role of "Boy on Boat," a small part that marked the beginning of what would become a long career in film and television. For a production of this scale and budget, the decision to include a young, unknown performer in even a minor role speaks to the scrappy, inclusive spirit of the project.

Legacy & the Sequel Franchise

Despite receiving mostly negative critical reviews, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes found genuine audience appeal at the box office, a success that directly spawned three sequels. All three follow-up films were co-written by the same trio of Costa Dillon, J. Stephen Peace, and John DeBello, with DeBello returning to the director's chair for each installment. This continuity of creative control ensured the franchise maintained its distinctive voice and comedic sensibility throughout its run. Central to the series' identity is the theme song, written by DeBello himself. The lyrics narrate the tomatoes' rampages across the world, describing how they killed a man named Herman Farbage while he was taking out the garbage, how the mayor fled to vacation to avoid dealing with them, how they scared off the National Guard, and how they even devoured the narrator's own sister. The song is deployed in different variations across the series, evolving from what sounds like the score of an old monster movie with lyrics into a more fully realized musical element. This musical through-line, combined with the consistent creative team, gave the franchise a cohesive identity that resonated with audiences far beyond what its modest budget might have suggested.

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