I was born in 1977, so I was born a little late for most Krofft shows, except in reruns on cable eventually, but my brother was a lot older than me and I inherited his Sigmund and the Sea Monsters lunchbox. I wondered what that show was like for years. Sadly, I should have kept wondering.
RIP Marty. If nothing else, you gave the world the nightmare that is Lidsville.
Surprising that he stuck it out for this long. Well, rest in peace.
On a related note, anyone remember Pryor's Place? Kind of a Krofft attempt at Sesame Street, with puppets and about a half dozen characters, all played by Richard Pryor. (Yes, THAT Richard Pryor. Hey, George Carlin hosted the US version of Thomas the Tank Engine!)
The show was a little more, um, challenging than Sesame Street, with one kid being caught in the middle of a divorce. Instead of choosing to live with his mother or father, he asked to be raised by his grandmother. As a child of divorced parents myself, my reaction was "Uh, what? The kid doesn't get to CHOOSE his family arrangement in this situation. The court doesn't let him make ANY decisions. I can believe that half the cast all bear a striking resemblance to Richard Pryor and that these rotty-looking puppets are alive, but what you're showing now is straight up fantasy."
The Kroffts actually started as puppeteers. From memory, the older one started as a professional puppeteer as a child, they both operated puppets on The Jack Benny Show back in the 1950's, and they had a highly successful live show called Les Poupées de Paris - that one had adult themes, so things like Pryor's Place was just them returning to their roots.
I fondly remember Land of the Lost as being one of my earliest introductions to a series with serious worldbuilding behind it. I spent a lot of time in my youth trying to "figure out" how the setting worked. I even bought a copy of the "series bible" that David Gerrold wrote for the never-produced sequel series when it became available (sadly, after reading it I think it's probably for the best that it was never produced).
Because he died I feel compelled to tell strangers in the fediverse that there’s a cabinet in my bathroom that reminds me of HR Pufnstuff first thing in the morning when my brain isn’t on yet. The light is directly above so the handles cast angled shadows that remind me of the bags under Mayor Pufnstuf’s eyes.
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