The Wonderful World of Sid & Marty Krofft

[marknyc]

I grew up on Sid & Marty Krofft's television shows. They shaped the way I would see the world. Here is a sampling of many of the opening credit sequences. They are astounding.

To kick it off, here is the opening to my favorite tv series of all time: The Bugaloos. Watching it was perhaps the most formative experience of my life.

The Bugaloos
The premise is that a British band of four nice boys, a pretty girl and a bee live in Tranquility Forest where they are forced to do battle with the evil Benita Bizarre who both owns the only record company and the only radio station. At one time, it was announced that N*Sync were going to remake The Bugaloos as their feature film debut. I had trouble breathing for several hours. Now the entire series has just been released in a box set on dvd, fulfilling a life-long wish.

Enjoy!

[marknyc]

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters

Poor Sigmund is a sea monster who lives with an abusive family. One day they kick him out of the house because he is clearly retarded. He is taken home by some surfer kids. Hijinks aplenty!

[marknyc]

Lidsville

This one was creepy: "The show involved a teenage boy named Mark (Butch Patrick) who fell into the hat of Merlo the Magician and arrived in Lidsville, a land of living hats. The hats on the show are depicted as having the same occupations as the humans who would normally wear them. For example, a cowboy hat would act like a cowboy. The character's houses were also hat-shaped.

The villain of the show was a magician named Horatio J. HooDoo (Charles Nelson Reilly). Among other notable characters were Raunchy Rabbit (Sharon Baird in mascot), Weenie the Genie (Billie Hayes, who also reprised her H.R. Pufnstuf role, Witchiepoo, in one episode), and Rah-Rah the football helmet (Jerry Maren).

The vain but somewhat naive HooDoo flew around on his Hatamaran and kept the good citizens of Lidsville in fear, demanding that they pay him their Hat Checks. Mark helped the good hats resist, as he attempted to find a way back home. HooDoo, trying to reclaim control of the androgynous Weenie from Mark, often enlisted the services of four Bad Hats. In his high hat home, HooDoo was besieged by the taunting music of the Hat Band. The show had an endless array of puns such as these."

[marknyc]

H.R. Pufnstuf

This one is the staple of the Sid & Marty Krofft empire. It is ok, especially Witchy-Poo (played by Mama Cass in the film version), but I wasn't into drugs as a kid. This was for the teens and college students, I think. I wanted a magical flute, though. This was made back in the days when it was still considered ok for kids to hop in strange magical boats. The star was a kid actor named Jack Wild!

[marknyc]

Wonderbug

He was so much better than Herbie.

[marknyc]

Dr. Shrinker

Old people are mean and scary! They shrink kids and then spend all their time chasing them around and calling them 'The Shrinkies'. "I chase the Shrinkies. I catch the Shrinkies. The Shrinkies escape. It's a vicious cycle and it's driving me mad!" He has a midget companion, too. Argh!

[marknyc]

Land Of The Lost

My brother loved this one, so I naturally didn't think it was very good. A plain looking family trapped in the time of dinosaurs and aliens.

[marknyc]

Magic Mongo

This one is awful, awful. It totally primed kids to be paedo bait.

[marknyc]

Electrawoman and Dynagirl

This was AMAZING! Starring Deidre Hall from Days Of Our Lives and Never Say Never: The Deidre Hall Story! There were villians named 'Glitter Rock', 'Miss Dazzle' and 'Side Man'.

[marknyc]

Bigfoot and Wildboy

My first phobias as a child were Mary Ingall's blindness and Bigfoot. But I grew up in Minnesota where this stuff was REAL. Still, I loved this series. There was something so sweet about it.