This past week was the 50th anniversary of the debut of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of The Lost. It was hands down one of my favorite shows from childhood. While it originally ran from 1974-1976, I didn’t see it until it was in reruns a few years later. I read a couple of articles last week talking about the show and they got me thinking about all the other Sid and Marty Krofft shows I watched as a child. It would not be an understatement to say that all of their creations are beyond weird. Crazy sets, weird characters, puppets, and horrible horrible special effects even by early 1970s standards. Land of The Lost was probably the most “normal” of all their shows. It was also one of the few that filled a full 30-minute time slot (most of their shows had episodes that were 12-14 minutes long). To my surprise, the more shows I thought of/remembered the more I found streaming online. So…I thought I would list off my top five Krofft shows from my childhood. Here we go!
#5: The Bugaloos
The show takes place in the fantasy setting of Tranquility Forest. The central characters are peace-loving, hippie-like teenage musicians who’ve formed a pop band named the Bugaloos. The foursome are human, mostly, although they have antennae and actual wings. While occasionally seen air-surfing on leaves, they more usually fly unaided. The villain of the show is Benita Bizzare (played by Martha Raye) and her sidekick, Funky Rat. It only had one short 17-episode season that were each 12-14 minutes long. I don’t really remember why I liked this one but I did. You can find it streaming on Tubi. It’s worth watching just for the show intro. Trust me.
#4: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl
The program followed the crime-fighting exploits of caped superhero Electra Woman (played by pre-Days of Our Lives Deidre Hall) and her teen sidekick Dyna Girl, who worked in their normal lives as reporters for Newsmaker Magazine (the two’s surnames were never revealed—just their first names: Lori and Judy, respectively). They drove the “ElectraCar” and used an array of techno gadgets to thwart a wide array of supervillains. They were assisted by Frank Heflin, a scientist who stayed at their “ElectraBase”, operating its highly sophisticated “CrimeScope” computer while keeping in continual contact with the pair through their “ElectraComs”. This was another one-season show and I had a crush on both the main characters. This was actually turned into a movie in 2016. I haven’t seen it and I’m not sure I ever will. This show is also streaming on Tubi.
#3: Dr. Shrinker
Three teenagers crash land their airplane on an island. As they make their way to the only house on the island, they meet Dr. Shrinker – a mad scientist who creates a shrinking ray that can miniaturize anything – and his assistant, Hugo. In an effort to prove that his shrinking ray works, Dr. Shrinker shrinks the three people down to 6 inches tall. The remainder of the series was different efforts by the ‘Shrinkies’ to return to normal size, while Dr. Shrinker and Hugo want to catch the trio so that they will have physical proof that the ray works for whatever world power wants to buy it. There were actually attempts in the early 2000’s to bring this back as a movie but nothing every came of all that. The theme for Land of The Lost not withstanding, this had my favorite theme song and I can still sing it to this day. This is streaming on Tubi as well.
#2: H.R. Pufnstuf
The show centered on a shipwrecked 11 year old boy named Jimmy (although he looks like he’s in his 20’s). Jimmy and a talking flute named Freddy take a ride on a mysterious boat, but the boat is actually owned by a wicked witch named Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo who rides on a broomstick-vehicle called the Vroom Broom. She uses the boat to lure Jimmy and Freddy to her castle on Living Island, where she intends to take Jimmy prisoner and steal Freddy for her own purposes. The Mayor of Living Island is a friendly and helpful anthropomorphic dragon named H.R. Pufnstuf. The dragon rescues Jimmy and protects him from Witchiepoo, as his cave is the only place where her magic has no effect.
All of the characters on Living Island were realized by large, cumbersome costumes or puppetry of anthropomorphic animals and objects. Everything was alive on the island, including houses, boats, clocks, candles, and so forth, usually voiced in a parody of a famous film star such as Mae West, Edward G. Robinson, or John Wayne. It’s often been rumored that H.R. Pufnstuf was a nod to smoking pot but never confirmed. This is another Krofft show that filled a full 30 minute time slot. Probably my second favorite Krofft theme song and I used to sing parts of it to my kids when they were toddlers. As all the others, it’s streaming on Tubi.
#1: Bigfoot and Wildboy
Bigfoot finds a young boy lost in the vast wilderness of the Northwestern United States. Bigfoot raises the boy who becomes known as Wildboy. Now, eight years later, they fight crime and aliens who show up around their forest home. Like many of the other Krofft shows, it began as a part of The Krofft Supershow on Saturday mornings in 1977. Each episode was 15 minutes long, with cliffhanger endings resolved the following week. It became its own series in 1979 with twelve 30-minute episodes.
The series was heavily influenced by the two-part Bigfoot episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, from the super-powered Bigfoot character to “bionic” sound effects used for Bigfoot running and leaping and the use of slow motion photography for action scenes such as throwing a giant object or uprooting a large metal fence post. The Bigfoot episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man were my absolute favorites (they also crossed over with The Bionic Woman). Not only did I have the bionic man and woman action figures, I also had the Sasquatch action figure as well. The short episodes are good but when they started producing the 30 minute episodes I was HOOKED. You can find a couple of these episodes streaming on YouTube.
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