Sid Krofft

Many of the most colorful and fondly remembered children’s series of the 1970s and 1980s sprang from the imaginations of Sid and Marty Krofft. Their groundbreaking, live-action fantasy shows were mainstays of the Saturday morning airwaves, which had previously been the exclusive domain of cartoons.

The Kroffts had developed a remarkable puppet, costume and set-building shop. Hanna Barbara approached the Kroffts to build the “Banana Splits” walk-around costumes for their NBC show. In 1969 the Kroffts were approached by NBC to create their own Saturday Morning Children’s Series. They picked HR Pufnstuf, by far the fans’ favorite character from their live shows. Its success spawned a feature film produced with Universal Pictures as a partner and distributor.

Their second television series was The Bugaloos for NBC, followed by Lidsville for ABC in 1971. Sigmund & The Sea Monsters became an NBC series and then came Land of the Lost for NBC.

They created Far Out Space Nuts for CBS, Lost Saucer for ABC, The Krofft Supershow for ABC, The Krofft Supershow Hour for NBC, The Bay City Rollers Show for NBC, Wonderbug and Bigfoot & Wildboy for ABC. The Kroffts then created and produced the first two years of the Donny & Marie Show, the Brady Bunch Variety Hour for ABC, Bobby Vinton’s Rock ’n’ Rollers for CBS, the variety series Pink Lady & Jeff, Anson & Lorrie and The Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters series for NBC.