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Wow, it’s a good thing parents let their kids watch Saturday morning television unsupervised
There are some that blame the decline of Saturday morning television on the rise in popularity of live action series such as “Saved By The Bell” – those people are very much wrong. I remember watching “H.R. Pufnstuf” on Saturday morning when I was young. As a matter of fact, it is one of the first Saturday morning series I remember watching. After working on “Banana Splits” Sid & Marty Krofft got a deal to create a series, and came up with the idea of a boy trapped in a magical land. So magical, in fact, everything could talk (Still think Pee Wee Herman is original?). Only two of the actors were actual people, with all the other characters brought to life through the use of puppetry or big costumes. The show was such a hit Sid & Marty Krofft created a string of television series that would wind up ruling 70s Saturday mornings (“Sigmund and the Sea Monsters”, “Land of the Lost” and so much more). And so we get the whole of the series that really started it all for Sid & Marty Krofft, “H.R. Pufnstuf”. It is, however, not where they started in television (having produced a few...
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Sid & Marty Krofft’s H.R. Pufnstuf Celebrates 40 Years
Links to Purchase: H.R. Pufnstuf: Complete Series Collector's Edition H.R. Pufnstuf: Complete Series _______ As H. R. Pufnstuf marks 40 years since the series ended its trailblazing run on Saturday mornings, Vivendi Entertainment honors the iconic Sid and Marty Krofft creation with H. R. PUFNSTUF: THE COMPLETE SERIES. This three-DVD collection features all 17 episodes, which were originally broadcast between 1969 and 1971. Presented in standard and collector’s editions, both versions include the entire series accompanied by downloadable vintage coloring sheets, and – for the first time ever on DVD – the rare series episode, “Horror Hotel.” In addition, the Collector’s Edition comes with an exclusive H.R. Pufnstuf bobblehead. Each will be available April 12 at all retail outlets for a suggested list price of $24.99 (standard) and $34.97 (collector’s). Four decades have past since H. R. Pufnstuf left NBC airwaves, but the colorful series remains popular, not only among those reliving their childhood, but also with others discovering the whimsical world of Living Island for the first time. As a testament to the series’ longevity, Los Angeles based KCET, the largest independent public television station in the country, recently added H. R. Pufnstuf to its weekend line-up of children’s programming. H. R. PUFNSTUF: THE COMPLETE SERIES...
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Critic’s Notebook: Ernie Kovacs and ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ added surreal twist to TV
The comic actor's shows and Sid and Marty Krofft's series, being released on video box sets this month, remind us that mad genius and wild creativity can work on TV. At any given time, most things on television resemble other things on television, sharing narrative conventions and visual conceptions, techniques and technologies, even ways of treating and reflecting their audience. But there are always a few black sheep about, horses of a different color – artists who work against the system even as they operate within it and out of whatever combination of intention or helplessness create their own unaccountable realities. Two such other worlds get box-set video releases this month: "The Ernie Kovacs Collection" (Shout Factory, due April 19), a well-chosen, six-disc overview of what survives of Kovacs' TV career, from his early '50s NBC morning show to his early '60s ABC specials, and "H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series" (Vivendi, April 12), Sid and Marty Krofft's dawn-of-the-'70s Saturday-morning musical-fantasy sitcom about a boy, a witch and a dragon. Even in his short lifetime — he was killed in an automobile accident in 1962, days before his 43rd birthday — Kovacs was hailed as a...
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Bios
Many of the most colorful and fondly remembered children's series of the 1970s and 1980s sprang from the imaginations of Sid and Marty Krofft. Their groundbreaking, live-action fantasy shows were...
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Music City News
Barbara Mandrell, Program of the Year, 1981
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Action for Children’s Television
Pryor’s Place for Achievement in Children’s Television, 1985
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Youth In Film
Lifetime Achievement Award, 1992
History
It all started when Sid & Marty Krofft's father Peter Krofft, discovered seven-year-old Sid (born July 30, 1929) had puppeteering talent and auditioned him in his own production of “Snow...
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