Saturday, April 26, 2008
TV Rebels: Sid and Marty Krofft
So without further adieu, we bring you the fifth essay of TV Rebels:
Sid and Marty Krofft: Psychedelic Saturday Mornings
by Lou Orfanella
Wacky witches. Talking flutes. Living hats. Land bound sea monsters. Rock and roll insects. Welcome to the world of puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft, a place where Saturday morning children’s programming was more like a bad acid trip than a day with no school, cozy pajamas, sugary cereal, and endless cartoons.
The Krofft brothers first gained television recognition as costume designers for the 1968 NBC Saturday morning series The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. A production from the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, the program combined live action and animated segments, with the live action being a quartet of life-sized "animal" puppets who performed music and skits between the cartoons. A year later the Kroffts would break new Saturday morning ground with the first of a string of children’s shows that turned the genre upside down.
In September of 1969 NBC premiered the initial episode of H.R. Pufnstuf, a live action series with all of the colorful trappings and visually shocking images of an animated show. Dragon H.R. Pufnstuf is the mayor of Living Island. Young Jimmy, played by Jack Wild, fresh from a starring turn as the Artful Dodger in the Academy Award winning musical Oliver!, is whisked to the island in a storm where he, along with his magic talking flute Freddie is pursued by the evil Witchiepoo (Billie Hayes). Similarities to The Wizard of Oz may or may not be intentional, but at the very least, the Kroffts have drawn frequent accusations of embracing the drug culture of their era in their work, though they have denied such implications as often as Peter, Paul and Mary have done so with "Puff the Magic Dragon." Still for some the surreal inhabitants of Living Island conjure images of the opium that might have been derived from the poppy fields of Oz.
Names like Pufnstuf and Lidsville (a Krofft production for ABC in 1971 about a land where the inhabitants were all talking hats) have been pointed at as euphemisms for marijuana use. Addressing the contention, Marty Krofft says, "There might have been some double meanings there, but that's for the audience to figure out. But some people, they hear the name Pufnstuf and they're immediately thinking about pot. In a way, I think that's what they wanted it to be about" (Martindale 6). Add to the brothers' list of hits 1970's The Bugaloos about an insect rock and roll band, and 1973's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (a sea monster befriended in captivity by two young boys) and the substance abuse accusations continued to fly. Sid Krofft adds, "A lot of people ask us if we were on drugs when we made these shows...Sometimes I tell them we were high-high on life-because life is the greatest drug there is. But we never, ever, did anything like that. These shows didn’t just come from smoking a little pot" (Martindale 6).
Largely what the Kroffts did was approach Saturday morning programming from a new creative angle. "What made the Kroffts' shows so unique was Their mix of colorful stage props, mesmerizing stories, enchanting musical scores, and a variety of fascinating live-action characters. Their costume designs that placed characters in full-body suits has been one of their most-recognized accomplishments" (Morgan 74).
Everything from PBS's Barney to the McDonaldland characters to stadium mascots may well have been inspired by the weird and way-out creations of Sid and Marty Krofft. Marty explains, "There were people in walk-around suits before Pufnstuf, before we got on, but I don't think anybody had done a whole shoe like that ever before...We were the first ones who took a live-action show and made like a living cartoon of it. That's what we did first" (Martindale 39).
Works Cited
Martindale, David. Pufnstuf & Other Stuff. Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 1998.
Morgan, Bill and Greg Davis. Krofft-mania: Recapturing the magic of Saturday morning TV. Toy Trader. Feb. 2997: 74-77.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, December 10
Tyler Perry's Assisted Living "Baby Steps" - (BET, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Leah shocks Jeremy with some baby-making trends she wants to incorporate into their daily routine, but he finds them annoying and unnecessary. At the same time, Sandra and Philip take charge when a possible social media ban threatens their status quo.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 9)
Tuesday, December 10
- Monica Barbaro (FUBAR) - Catch Monica on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- John Mulaney (Mulaney) - John is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Linda Cardellini (No Good Deed/Dead to Me/Guys Like Us) - Linda appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project/The Office) - Mindy stops by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters/HouseBroken/Catastrophe) - Sharon appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke/Robbie), Vinny Thomas (Platonic) and Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somehwhere/Nightcap) - Sasheer, Vinny and Jeff are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Christian Slater (Breaking In) - Christian talks about Dexter: Original Sin on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am and on CBS Mornings Plus at 9am.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Crazy Ones) - Sarah talks about Dexter: Original Sin on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
- Fortune Feimster (FUBAR/Kenan/Bless the Harts/Champions) - Fortune is sharing her hilarious take on the hottest headlines of the day and telling Drew about her latest Netflix standup special on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Christina Milian (Grandfathered) - Christina talks about starring in the new series Dexter: Original Sin on Paramount+ with Showtime on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Love Hewitt (Shaky Ground) - Jennifer talks about Lifetime's The Holiday Junkie on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Alexa PenaVega (Ruby & the Rockits) - Alexa talks about Great American Family's Love at the Kettle on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Vanessa Lachey (Truth Be Told/Dads) - Vanessa and Nick Lachey discuss their reality series The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
- Chris Diamantopoulos (The Sticky/Silicon Valley) - Chris discusses his television series The Sticky on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
09/10 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-7
09/10 - The Ropers - The Complete Series (VEI)
09/10 - Ted - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/17 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - Video Scrapbook
09/17 - Top Cat - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
09/24 - Friends - The Complete Series (4K UHD)
09/24 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Seventh Season (DVD) / The Complete Series (DVD) (Blu-ray)
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
10/22 - Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/05 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/12 - The King of Queens - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2024 Release)
11/19 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fourteenth Season
11/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 4 (Blu-ray)
12/03 - Angel (1960-1961) - The Complete Series, Volume 1
12/17 - Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (4K UHD)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
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