Boomers Go Back to Basics With Kroffts

If you’re between the ages of 25 and 38, you can probably sing the title tune to at least one of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Saturday morning kids’ shows from the ‘70s.

Now, thanks to Rhino Home Video, you can relive your childhood with the three-tape box set “The World of Sid & Marty Krofft” ($30), which features one episode from all 13 of their kids’ shows: “H.R. Pufnstuf,” “The Bugaloos,” “Lidsville,” “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” “Land of the Lost,” “Far Out Space Nuts,” “Lost Saucer,” “Electra-Woman and the DynaGirl,” “Dr. Shrinker,” “Wonderbug,” “Magic Mongo,” “Bigfoot and Wildboy” and “Pryor’s Place” with Richard Pryor.

Sort of a precursor to “Barney” and “The Teletubbies,” these series featured large, colorful puppets and live-action comedy and music.

Marty Krofft says that in one year alone, he and his brother produced and created four shows. “If we sold one more we would have been bankrupt,” he says, laughing.

In fact, “Pufnstuf,” which premiered on NBC in the fall of 1969, was so expensive that only 17 episodes were made. “They gave us $1 million to do them and it cost us $2 million to do them.” Rather than lose more money, production was stopped.

“But those 17 were on the air for 5 1/2 years on two networks every Saturday morning, doing ratings that would equal prime-time ratings today,” Krofft says.

Krofft is surprised that the shows still have such a fan base among baby boomers. “I look at it this way: There are three kinds of fans,” he says. “There are ‘Star Trek’ fans who became Trekkies. There are Disney fans and there are Krofft fans, which I now call Kroffties. They are just as crazy as ‘Star Trek’ fans.”

The Internet, in fact, boasts countless Web sites devoted to Krofft TV series. Jack Wild, who starred in “Pufnstuf,” even has his own official Web page. And cable’s TV Land is showing “Pufnstuf” and “Sigmund” on Saturday mornings.

Besides Wild, the Krofft series featured everybody from Johnny Whitaker to Butch Patrick to Martha Raye to Charles Nelson Reilly. Billy Barty worked several of the puppets and starred as Sigmund.

Though the special effects on the series seem positively prehistoric by today’s standards, back in the ‘70s, Krofft says, “we were creating stuff that nobody else was doing at the time.”

Rhino plans to release Krofft product every 90 days. On July 20, the company is scheduled to unveil individual volumes of “Pufnstuf,” “Sigmund,” “Land of the Lost,” “Bugaloos” and “Far Out Space Nuts.” Later in the year, there will be gift sets featuring every episode of “Pufnstuf” and “Sigmund.”

“During the ‘70s, Sid and MartyKrofft owned television, especially Saturday morning,” says Arny Schorr, Rhino’s senior vice president. “In Atlanta, where there is now the CNN Center, it used to be the Sid and Marty Krofft World. It was sort of an amusement park. They impacted on the culture of the ‘70s, and in some cases they helped define the culture of the ‘70s.”

Schorr recalls the enthusiastic reaction from adults to the three-volume set at a recent Blockbuster convention. “What I found really interesting is that we were showing them how the box art looked, [and the appeal] crossed gender and racial lines,” he says. “I mean, there were people in their 20s and into their 40s who were singing the theme songs. A 40-year-old black man came over and said he used to pretend to be H.R. Pufnstuf.”

Krofft got the same reaction from adults when he introduced a line of Krofft beanie toys at a convention in Pennsylvania. “We got groupies,” he says, laughing. “I signed close to 1,000 autographs in just one day.”