H.R. Pufnstuf

Cafe Society
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IMDB Link

Someone started a thread a while ago about things that creeped you out as a child and this was my entry. It’s streamable on Netflix so I watched a few episodes this weekend.

I wasn’t born when it debuted, although I was born a few weeks later :slight_smile: It was in reruns on Saturday mornings I think through about 1974. When the witch came on in the intro, I went into paroxysms of fear, running through the house screaming. Pure abject terror!

So I never watched the actual show. It was kinda interesting to watch it now. Unless you were a certain age in the early 1970s, I can’t imagine you’d have the same experience with it. I wonder what a small child would think of it now?

First, I think Sid and Marty Krofft should be brought up on charges for impersonating entertainment creators. But there is something about this show I really like.

First, I love how sincerely nice H. R. is. He genuinely wants to help Jimmy get back home. And while he’s no genius, he’s definitely not portrayed as idiotic or doltish. Any character like him today on a kids show would be incredibly stupid and that’s where all the humor from the show would come from.

I also like how he’s described in the theme song: “Who’s your friend when things get rough?” He’s such a great friend to Jimmy.

Jack Wild as Jimmy was a great choice. Too bad I never made it past the intro. I’m certain at age four I’d never heard a British accent and I wonder what I would have thought. He does a great job with what he had to work with. I can’t imagine it would have been easy to act with the “puppets.” There are horrible times of lag when H. R. is supposed to say a line and the puppet just sits there. I’m guessing his dialogue was dubbed?

There are some things about the show that are awful. I can’t believe they used a laugh track. I’m so glad that laugh tracks are becoming more rare now. It just doesn’t fit the show at all, and the show really isn’t even that funny. And Witchiepoo is a bit much. I’m not familiar with Billy Hayes, (other than reading about her on IMDB) but her character is pretty overdone (I can’t believe I just typed that about a show that looks like The Wizard of Oz meets The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test…)

I’m sure after a dozen and a half episodes the cancellation was a mercy killing, but considering what absolute shit qualified as children’s programming in the early 70s, it could have been a lot worse.

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Even as a kid I never liked “H.R. Pufnstuf”. I found it grating and annoying and the voice of that talking flute I swear was the inspiration for Mr. Bill’s “Oh noooooooo” on SNL a few years later.

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No work! More Candy! No work! More Candy!

H.R. Pufnstuf was charming and innocent, as near as I can remember.

What still gives me the willies is the Kroffts’ less-popular and more incomprehensibly psychotic Lidsville, which perfectly simulated your Saturday morning cereal being laced with entirely too much PCP for a six-year-old.

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Appropo of nothing: My memories of my trip to the World of Sid and Marty Kroft are one of the few things that made it past my childhood. :slight_smile:

I distinctly remember the merry-go-round and pinball themed ride: http://www.mocedades.com/temp/kmap101.jpg

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That’s because the Krofft brothers were probably on PCP. Or some bizarre combination of LSD and cocaine. Even when I watch this shit now, as an adult capable of discerning fantasy from reality, it comes across as a drug trip more than anything else, like someone dropped acid and somehow recorded everything that happened. When the trip was over, the notes were turned into a script and what kids saw was a bizarre world inspired by hallucinogens that left an entire generation traumatized and more than willing to leave the stuff alone. That’s the only explanation I can think of for this.

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I could still sing the theme song by heart. In fact, it will probably be stuck in my head the rest of the day.

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One of the classic TV channels had the movie version, Pufnstuff which at least didn’t have the soundtrack. It was two hours long!

We recorded it and played it back for our daughter, who obviously had never seen anything like it. She just stared at it and all she said was, “What in the world is this??!?”

She’s 25 years old.

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Good God, I vaguely remember this. I think I was getting a bit too old for this type of show, but I definitely remember the opening and Charles Nelson Reilly.

I watched more than a few episodes of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, because the weird sponge-rubber outfits fascinated me for some reason, as well as the Archie Bunker-like dad sea monster.

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Can anybody link to a picture of Billie Hayes from the early 70’s in which she is not in her Witchie-Poo make-up? The only pic I can find is recent and I suspect she might actually have been hot.

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Obligatory link to this H.R. Pufnstuf parody.

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It was only around 20 episodes? I remember watching it lots, though the only details I can remember are Witchipoo and Pufnstuff and…some giant clock? I think I liked it, but yeah, I thought it was along the lines of Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz at the time.

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The obvious question being: just what kind of stuff were those guys puffin’?

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Sid and Marty Krofft have a lot to answer for.

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How about 1955?

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I’m of an age to remember watching H.R. Pufnstuf when it was first on, and a lot of us kids really liked it. It was kind of freaky and different. The best part was the theme song, though.

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Thank you for the memories.

I watched both HR Pufnstuf and Lidsville as a kid.

It all makes sense now.

I also didn’t realize that Butch Patrick was the kid in Lidsville. Huh.

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She also played Mammy Yokum in Lil Abner.

Here, upper left. She looks like she has a wicked good sense of humor.

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The stuff they got in Lidsville.

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About 15 years ago, there was a day-long “Puffapalooza” (I think it was on TV Land), and all my born-in-the-late-60’s/early-70’s friends and I sat down for a day of drinking and nostalgia.

Wow, Pufnstuf sucked. Hard.

I mean, yeah, I loved it to death when I was a kid, but it did not stand the test of time. Don’t get me wrong…a lot of the Krofft’s work that they showed that day was still awesome (mmmmm…Dynagirl…), but Pufnstuf was just horrible to revisit.

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Everything was psychedelic in those days. It didn’t seem all that out of place at the time. My little brother watched it and loved it. Compare it to Power Rangers. Things didn’t change all that much over time.