If you are of my generation, it’d be a good bet that you know the names Sid and Marty Krofft. From The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and their infectious theme that probably influenced my songwriting more than Bruce Springsteen or Pete Townshend ever could, to H.R. Pufnstuf (which the Beatles liked so much they requested tapes of the show be sent to the UK) and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, to name but a few shows, puppeteer Sid, who died this week at the ripe old age of 96, and his younger brother Marty (who died three years ago) enlivened Saturday morning kid’s programming in a unprecedented way.
Surely their shows’ psychedelic sets and their wild character’s costumes (not to mention a too-phallic-for-its-own-good talking flute) led to rumors of their being a decidedly more ‘trippy’ intent or creation behind-the-scenes. But the brothers denied any drug-taking connected with their prodigious output, an output that also included, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost, (yes, the abysmal 2009 Will Ferrell movie was based on this wonderful show).
The duo also produced various live-action variety shows, which I had no idea they had a hand in: The Brady Bunch Hour, The Donny & Marie Show, The Bay City Rollers Show and Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters. And they even produced a show hosted by Richard Pryor. Their pair’s puppets even toured with such icons as Judy Garland, Liberace and Frank Sinatra.
Wacky minds like Sid and Marty’s don’t come along that often. I am thrilled to recall the daze of sitting watching Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky, being gob smacked over how just all-out-goofy H.R. Pufnstuf was and thrilled to see Charles Nelson Reilly (who I loved so much in the Ghost & Mrs. Muir TV show and would come to adore across his many appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show) on The Bugaloos, playing “Benita Bizarre.”
Man, it’s good to remember. And it was good to have Sid and Marty with us when we did.
