Marty Krofft, Colorful Producer of ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ ‘Land of the Lost,’ Dies at 86
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Marty Krofft, who with his brother Sid produced memorable kids shows “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost” — as well as the 2009 feature based on the latter — has died. He was 86.
Krofft died of kidney failure Saturday in Los Angeles, Calif., a family representative told Variety.
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Often referred to as the King of Saturday Mornings, Krofft and his brother also produced a number of primetime variety shows, including “Donny and Marie” and “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.”
Sid and Marty Krofft began their careers producing children’s television with “H.R. Pufnstuf,” a live-action program about a boy (played by British actor Jack Wild) in a fantastic land with a dragon for a friend (H.R. Pufnstuf, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) and a witch — Witchiepoo, played by Billie Hayes — for an enemy; as conceptualized, the show followed the interactions between human actors; actors in colorful, oversized costumes; and life-size puppets with enormous heads.
The Kroffts were proudly independent producers of children’s shows that were uniquely stylish and creative. From the early 1960s through their heyday, the brothers operated a production outpost in the San Fernando Valley where they built sets, props and designed costumes for their shows as well as others, including some sets used during the first two seasons of CBS’ “All in the Family.”
The brothers made the most of the low budgets had they usually had to work with by repurposing characters for other spinoff series and creating shows that hewed to a similar formula. The exceptionally vivid colors that were a hallmark of their designs led some to wonder whether the Kroffts were influenced by the use of LSD, but Marty Krofft repeatedly denied such speculation.
In 2007 TV Guide named “H.R. Pufnstuf” No. 27 on its list of the top cult shows ever.
Only 17 episodes of the series were produced; they originally aired in 1969-70 but proved successful enough to warrant reairing on NBC’s Saturday morning schedule through August 1972. The show and others from the Krofft canon such as “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” and “The Bugaloos” are lovingly recalled as cheesy afternoon TV fun by many who grew up at the time and Gen-Xers who discovered the show in syndicated reruns by the mid-1970s.
ABC aired reruns of “H.R. Pufnstuf” on Saturday mornings from September 1972 to September 1973, and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 1973 to September 1974. It was syndicated by itself from 1974-78 and in a package with six other Krofft series under the banner “Krofft Superstars” from 1978-85.
In 1970 the Kroffts produced a feature adaptation of the show called “Pufnstuf,” which included some material that would appeal to the parents along for the ride.
As owners of their shows, the Kroffts have largely maintained control of their key franchises. As recently as June, the brothers teamed with Cineverse to launch an ad-supported FAST channel devoted to their work, dubbed the Sid and Marty Krofft Channel.
Certainly the Kroffts’ most successful series as measured by episodes produced (to say nothing of the feature remake decades later) was “Land of the Lost.” The series focused on a human family, the Marshalls, who travel accidentally to an alternate Earth ruled by dinosaurs as well as the primate-like people called Pakuni and the Sleestak — devolved, hissing, aggressive creatures who are part humanoid and part lizard.
The series ran on NBC from 1974-76, then aired in syndication in the early 1980s as part of the “Krofft Superstars” package. It returned to late Saturday mornings on CBS in 1985 as a replacement for the Kroffts’ “Pryor’s Place,” which had been canceled. In the 1990s the show, by now a cult classic, aired in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel.
A Kroffts remake of the series aired on ABC in 1991-92 and starred actor Timothy Bottoms.
The 2009 feature adaptation starred Will Ferrell and unsurprisingly had a comedic tone, but it failed at the box office, taking in $69 million worldwide on a $100 million production budget. A Los Angeles Times article published ahead of the release spoke of the killing the brothers would make from their percentage of profits plus licensing deals, but alas, there were no profits and probably not much licensing money.
After “H.R. Pufnstuf,” the brothers created the series “Lidsville,” involving hat people and starring Charles Nelson Reilly, and “The Bugaloos,” about winged bug people in a rock ‘n’ roll band in a magical forest who must contend with an enemy, Benita Bizarre, played by character actress Martha Raye.
Another show in the classic Krofft style was 1973’s “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” which starred child actors Johnny Whitaker and Scott Kolden and featured oversized puppets. Sigmund, played by little person Billy Barty (who’d been in “The Bugaloos”), was a sea monster who didn’t want to scare anybody, causing great embarrassment to his family; the two kids hid him in their clubhouse but had to worry that his family would kidnap or that someone else would find out about him.
The show ran for 13 episodes on NBC in 1973-75 and made a significant impression.
In February 2015, the Kroffts signed a deal with Amazon Studios to develop a reimagined pilot for “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.” Amazon released the seven-episode first season of the live-action series revival the following year.
“The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl” (1973) was a TV special capturing an attempt by the Kroffts to bring their creations into the live arena (the Brady Brunch kids were involved too), but it was a rather haphazardly produced affair.
In 1974 the Kroffts served as executive producers for a variety special starring Raquel Welch.
The brief series “The Lost Saucer,” starring Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi, and “Far Out Space Nuts,” starring Bob Denver and Chuck McCann, followed. The former series brought aliens to Earth; the latter followed two janitors accidentally launched into space.
“Electra Woman and Dyna Girl” (1976) progressively featured a female superhero (played by Deidre Hall) and her female sidekick (Judy Strangis).
By the mid-’70s the Kroffts seemed to be moving away from the puppet-based children’s content that had been their trademark and into variety shows.
While “Wonderbug,” about a dune buggy that could turn into a superhero car, ran for a season on ABC, 1978’s “The Bay City Rollers Show” combined a variety format with puppet elements, and “Donny and Marie,” starring the Osmond siblings, was a pure variety show and a big hit for ABC that ran for 63 episodes from 1976-78. (After some legal wrangling, however, the Osmonds wrested control of the show from the Kroffts in 1977, after which the series was shot in the family’s native state of Utah.) There was also “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” which ran for nine episodes on ABC in 1976-77 (even Ann B. Davis, who played the maid Alice, was drafted for this musical effort).
After a series of other variety specials, most intended as pilots for series, the Kroffts produced “Pryor’s Place,” a kids shows starring comedian Richard Pryor (and including some puppets) that lasted 10 episodes on CBS before cancellation in 1985. The show was recognized by the Daytime Emmys with wins for art direction and costume design (always a strength for the Kroffts) as well as two nominations for outstanding performer (Pryor and Lily Tomlin), a nomination for writing and two others in technical categories.
Returning to puppets, but this time for adults, the Kroffts produced “D.C. Follies,” a syndicated series in which Fred Willard played the bartender in a tavern where political figures in caricatured puppet form would wander in and interact. Persons thus satirized included presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon, as well as newsmen Dan Rather and Ted Koppel. The series ran from 1987-89.
After the “Land of the Lost” remake in 1992, they returned with a remake of the classic ’60s series “Family Affair” in 2002, with Gary Cole in the Brian Keith role and Tim Curry playing the butler Mr. French once portrayed by Sebastian Cabot. The show aired for a single season on the WB Network.
Most recently, in 2015 the Kroffts created “Mutt & Stuff,” a Nickelodeon series starring “Dog Whisperer’s” Cesar Millan, his son Calvin, a bunch of real dogs and some puppets, including a talking fire hydrant and two cats.
Marty Krofft was born in Montreal to parents of Russian descent. His father moved the family to Providence, R.I., and then New York City. Krofft’s brother Sid began puppeteering when he was young, becoming a professional who displayed his talents in vaudeville and joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the age of 15. In the 1940s Sid created “The Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft,” a one-man puppet show he performed throughout the world. Back in New York, Marty began staging performances with his older brother’s puppets in order to earn money.
During the 1950s, Sid was touring as the opening act for celebrities including Judy Garland, Liberace, Cyd Charisse and Tony Martin; when he found himself needing another puppeteer when he opened for Garland at the Flamingo Hotel, he asked Marty to assist.
In 1957 the Krofft brothers developed “Les Poupées de Paris,” a puppet show sporting mature themes.
A 2008 article in the Los Angeles Times described the brothers’ dynamic this way: “Marty had joined the act by the late 1950s, and from then on the two puppeteers were locked in a contest to prove who was really pulling the strings. Sid was the creative force, but Marty was the one who made sure the act actually made it to the stage.”
In 1968 the Kroffts created a character called Luther for the Coca Cola company that served as the basis for Pufnstuf.
The Kroffts began their Hollywood career by designing the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera live-action series “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour,” which ran on NBC from 1968-70.
In 1976 the Kroffts were asked to develop an amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was one of the world’s first indoor amusement parks, but attendance was poor and it closed after six months. The building that contained the park was renamed the CNN Center when the site was converted to the current headquarters of CNN.
In 2008 the Kroffts admitted to the Los Angeles Times that much of their family history as reported was the fictional product of a publicist in the 1940s. Part of this imaginary history was that they were fifth-generation puppeteers.
Krofft was married to Christa Rogalski (Christa Speck), a former Playboy Playmate, from 1965 until her death in 2013.
In addition to his 94-year-old brother Sid, Marty Krofft’s survivors include a brother, Harry; three daughters, Deanna Krofft-Pope, Kristina Krofft and Kendra Krofft; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
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