H.R. Pufnstuf

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H.R. Pufnstuf
Format	Children's television series
Starring	Jack Wild Billie Hayes Sharon Baird Joy Campbell Van Snowden Buddy Douglas
Voices of	Lennie Weinrib Joan Gerber Walker Edmiston
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	17
Production
Producer(s)	Sid and Marty Krofft
Running time	0:25 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 6, 1969 – September 4, 1971

H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet, program.^[1] There were seventeen episodes of the show originally broadcast from September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971. It was so successful that NBC kept it on the Saturday morning schedule for a full three seasons until August 1972, when it was cancelled. The show was shot in Paramount Studios and its opening was shot in Big Bear Lake, California.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Plot 3 Production 4 Theme song 5 Episodes 6 Cast 6.1 Voice cast 7 Film 8 Tours 9 In popular culture 9.1 Claims of drug references 9.2 Parodies and tributes 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Origins

The H.R. Pufnstuf character was originally created for the HemisFair '68 world's fair in 1968, where the Kroffts produced a show called Kaleidescope for the Coca-Cola pavilion. The character's name was Luther and he became the symbol of the fair.^[2]

[edit] Plot

H.R. Pufnstuf introduced the Kroffts' most-used plot scenario; their fairy tale of good versus evil.^[3] The show centered on a shipwrecked boy named Jimmy (played by Jack Wild). He is 11 years old when he arrives on the island and turns 12 in the episode called "The Birthday Party". Jimmy takes a ride on a mysterious boat to kooky Living Island, home of dancing trees and singing frogs. The Mayor of Living Island was a friendly and helpful dragon named H.R. Pufnstuf (voiced by the show's writer Lennie Weinrib with the costume worn by property master Albert F. Bentley). Jimmy had been lured to the island with his friend, a talking flute named Freddy, by a magic boat which promised adventures across the sea. The boat was actually owned and controlled by a wicked witch named Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo (played by Billie Hayes) who rode on a broomstick-like vehicle called the Vroom Broom.

Jimmy was taken in by Pufnstuf, who was able to protect him from Witchiepoo, as the cave where he lived was the only place her magic had no effect. Apart from Jimmy and Witchiepoo, all of the characters on Living Island were realized via large, cumbersome costumes or puppetry. Since everything on Living Island was alive (namely houses, castles, boats, grandfather clocks, candles, books, trees, mushrooms), virtually any part of the Living Island sets could become a character, usually voiced in a parody of a famous film star, such as Mae West, Edward G. Robinson or most notably John Wayne as "The West Wind". A frequent plot device involves Witchiepoo and her henchmen Orson Vulture, Seymour Spider, and Stupid Bat trying unsuccessfully to steal Freddy. Another concerns Jimmy and Freddy's efforts to return home from Living Island, with the same lack of success.

[edit] Production

After creating costumes for characters in the live-action portion of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Sid and Marty Krofft were asked to develop their own Saturday morning children's series for NBC. The plot was recycled from Kaleidescope, a live puppet show the Kroffts had staged in the Coca-Cola pavilion of the HemisFair '68 world's fair in 1968, including several key characters from this show, such as Luther the dragon and a silly witch^[4]. Other ideas were cultivated from Sid's life. As a child, he'd charged friends buttons, not pennies, to view puppet shows in his back yard^[4]; buttons were standard currency on Living Island. Sid and Marty had toured with their puppets as the opening act for Judy Garland, and they based Judy Frog on her.^[4] Ludicrous Lion bears more than a passing resemblance to Irving, the titular lion in a pilot they had made in 1957 called Here's Irving.

Sid's friend, Lionel Bart, asked him to view a rough cut of the movie adaptation of Oliver. Sid took notice of young actor Jack Wild and immediately decided that was the kid he wanted to play the lead in his television series.^[5] Only two actresses auditioned to play Witchiepoo. The first was an unknown named Penny Marshall^[6], but it was felt that she wasn't right for the part. Stage veteran Billie Hayes came in next, set into a maniacal cackle and hopped up on a desk. She was given the part on the spot.^[4]

For Marty Krofft, the production was a particular headache. Marty accepted guardianship of Jack Wild while the teenage boy was in America filming the show.^[4] He later described bringing Wild into his home as a mistake.^[4]

[edit] Theme song

The show’s theme song, titled H.R. Pufnstuf, was written by Les Szarvas.

A cover of the show’s theme song, performed by The Murmurs, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.

[edit] Episodes

1. The Magic Path - Jimmy and H.R. Pufnstuf infiltrate Witchiepoo's castle to rescue Judy Frog.
2. The Wheely Bird - Jimmy and Pufnstuf use a bird-shaped "Trojan Horse" as a ruse to enter Witchipoo's castle and recover the Golden Flute from Witchiepoo.
3. Show Biz Witch - When shyster Ludicrous Lion convinces Jimmy that he has a super-duper pogo stick for sale that could bounce him home, Pufnstuf and Jimmy conduct a talent show to raise the money. Jimmy may be the star, but it's Witchiepoo who steals the show.
4. The Mechanical Boy - Witchiepoo turns Jimmy into a mechanical boy and commands him to acquire Freddy, the Talking Flute for her.
5. The Stand In - Witchiepoo captures Freddy, so Pufnstuf gets the flute away from her castle by having Director Max Von Toadenoff cast her as a stand-in for his "new picture."
6. The Golden Key - When Jimmy buys a map to the location of the Golden Key, which unlocks the Golden Door, a secret way off of Living Island, Witchiepoo captures Pufnstuf in her dungeon, diverting Jimmy from his escape.
7. The Birthday Party - Witchiepoo invites herself to Jimmy's surprise birthday party and steals the flute by rendering the partygoers helpless with laughing gas.
8. The Box Kite Kaper - Jimmy and Freddy the Golden Flute attempt to fly from Living Island in a giant box kite during a kite-flying contest.
9. You Can't Have Your Cake - A pre-Michael Jackson Moonwalk dance sweeps Living Island. Witchiepoo hides in a giant cake and grabs Freddy the Golden Flute at an opportune moment. While Judy the Frog distract the skeleton castle guards with the Moonwalk, Pufnstuf and Jimmy recover the flute...
10. Horse with the Golden Throat - A polka-dotted horse mistakes Freddy the Golden Flute for a carrot and swallows him. The problem is first getting flute out of the horse then keeping it away from Witchiepoo.
11. Dinner for Two - Jimmy and Freddy both age 70 years when the clock family's time machine malfunctions. Witchiepoo finds old Jimmy and decides he's her Prince Charming and plans to marry him. Pufnstuf rescues Jimmy, gets Jimmy and Freddy back to their correct age, and ...
12. Book, Flute and Candle - Jimmy finds Freddie the flute was turned into a mushroom by the touch of Witchiepoo's evil mushrooms. The cure can only be found in an evil book in Witchiepoo's castle. The good guys plan to get the page from the book and restore Freddie to a normal jeweled flute.
13. Tooth for a Tooth - Witchiepoo disguised as a little girl visits Dr. Blinky about a bad tooth. But it hurts so bad the witch flies into a rage, so Dr. Blinky blasts her with love potion. The witch throws a party and Jimmy & Freddy try to escape on the Vroom Broom.
14. The Visiting Witch - Witchiepoo receives a message from headquarters that the Head Witch is coming over to Living Island for an inspection. Witchiepoo devises an evil plan that will impress the Head Witch.
15. The Almost Election of Witchiepoo - Witchiepoo runs for Mayor of Living Island challenging HR Pufnstuf. She resorts to a "Love Witchiepoo" potion, but Dr. Blinky undoes it at the last minute.
16. Whaddya Mean the Horse Gets the Girl? - HR Pufnstuf's sister Shirley stars in a movie to raise money for Living Island's anti-witch fund.
17. Jimmy Who? - Jimmy comes down with a case of amnesia that Dr. Blinky and Witchiepoo take turns trying to cure with flashback after flashback. Fortunately a second conk on the head restores Jimmy's memory just seconds from the end of the show. (Whew!!!)

[edit] Cast

• Jack Wild - Jimmy
• Billie Hayes - Wilhemina W. Witchiepoo

[edit] Voice cast

• Lennie Weinrib - H.R. Pufnstuf, Bela Lugosi Tree, Dr. Blinky's Talking Book, Orson Vulture, Polka Dotted Horse, Stupid Bat, West Wind
• Walker Edmiston - Boris Karloff Tree, Dr. Blinky, Dr. Blinky's Candle, East Wind, Grandfather Clock, Ludicrous Lion, North Wind, Redwood, Seymour Spider
• Joan Gerber - Freddy the Flute, Grandmother Clock, Judy Frog, South Wind, Miles Vandusen
• Andrew Dowsey - Freddy the Flute (1 episode)

[edit] Film

While the television series was still in production, the Kroffts were approached to do a film adaptation^[7]. A joint venture between Universal Pictures and the show's sponsor, Kellogg's Cereal^[8], the film retained most of the cast and crew from the series and featured guest appearances by Cass Elliott and Martha Raye. The movie was finally released on VHS in 2001 by Universal Home Video as part of their Universal Treasures Collection, and on DVD on May 19, 2009.^[9]

The Kroffts have long had plans for a new H.R. Pufnstuf film.

Marty Krofft revealed on June 3, 2009 that Sony has agreed to develop and produce a feature film.

[edit] Tours

A number of USA stage show tours were run starring the same characters from the show.

[edit] In popular culture

The show was the subject of a successful lawsuit brought by the Kroffts against the fast food restaurant McDonald's, whose McDonaldland characters were found to have infringed the show's copyright. (Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions, Inc. v. McDonald's Corp., 562 F.2d 1157, decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1977.)^[10]

Billie Hayes reprised her role of Witchiepoo in the Lidsville episode "Have I Got a Girl for Hoodoo," and she later starred as the proprietor of the Horror Hotel in The Krofft Superstar Hour. Hayes also appeared as Witchiepoo in The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (alongside Margaret Hamilton, who reprised The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz). Additionally, Witchiepoo was featured in The World of Sid and Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl, a live stage show that was filmed and aired on television, but the character was played by Louise DuArt (who went on to star as Nashville in The Krofft Supershow) -- however, the scene with Witchiepoo was completely omitted from the truncated 30-minute version of the special that aired multiple times on Nick at Nite in the '90s.

An episode of CHiPs featured H.R. Pufnstuf being stopped by the CHP.

[edit] Claims of drug references

The Krofft brothers have responded in several interviews to popular beliefs that subtle drug references existed in the show.^[11][12][13] For example, the title character's name "Pufnstuf" has been interpreted as a reference to smoking hand-rolled (H.R.) marijuana (puffin' stuff)^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]} — Marty Krofft has said the initials "H.R." actually stand for "Royal Highness" backwards^[15][16] — and the show's theme-song lyric "he can't do a little, 'cause he can't do enough" has been read as referring to the addictive nature of drugs. Pufnstuf has quotes like "Whoa dude!" and other "hippie" slang words. Lennie Weinrib, the show's head writer and the voice of Pufnstuf, has said, "I think fans gave it a kind of mysterious code-like meaning, like ‘Ah, was Pufnstuf puffing stuff? Like grass?’ Was it psychedelic? Was it drug oriented? Not to us, it wasn’t."^[17][18] In one 2000 interview, Marty Krofft answered the question by saying, "The Krofft look has a lot of color, but there were no drug connotations in the show," and he addressed the topic at length in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2004, in response to the question, "OK, let's get this right out in the open. Is 'H.R. Pufnstuf' just one giant drug reference?":

“	We've heard that for 35 years. We did not intentionally do anything related to drugs in the story. People thought we were on drugs. You can't do good television while on drugs. People never believe you when you say that, but you can't. The shows were very bright and spacey looking. They may have lent themselves to that culture at the time, but we didn't ascribe that meaning to them, and I can't speak to what adults were doing when they were watching the shows. We just set out to make a quality children's program.	”
—Marty Krofft, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 17, 2004[15]

Authors of books on the show and its contemporaries, however, have not always accepted the Kroffts' alternative explanations for apparent references to drugs. David Martindale, author of Pufnstuf & Other Stuff, maintains that the Kroffts' need to attract an audience that are now parents of impressionable children forces them at least to downplay the double entendres: "But to deny it, the shows lose some of their mystique. The Kroffts prefer to remain playfully vague."^[11] Martindale said in another interview that he fully believes Marty Krofft's insistence that he did not use drugs, especially given that Marty's focus was that of a businessman, but Martindale describes Sid Krofft as "a big kid" and "a hippy," saying, "His comment when I told him we were going to do this book was - and I quote - 'Oh, far out.' He says these shows didn't come from smoking just a little pot, and you could say, 'Oh, yeah. It comes from smoking a lot of pot.' But I think he was very deliberately doing double meanings so the show could amuse people on different levels."^[19] Kevin Burke, co-author of Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up with Cartoon Culture, argues that the "consistency of thought" in the rumors of drug references has a basis, although his co-author and brother Timothy Burke, a history professor at Swarthmore College, insists "human beings are capable of achieving hallucinatory heights without chemical assistance."^[11] Contradicting his own position, Marty Krofft has either admitted or hinted in occasional interviews that the references were made knowingly; in one case, a writer reported that when pressed as to the connotation of "lids" in the title Lidsville, "Well, maybe we just had a good sense of humor," Krofft said, laughing."^[16] His comments to another interviewer were more direct; in a Times Union profile whose author observed, "Watching the shows today, it's hard to imagine a show with more wink-and-nod allusions to pot culture, short of something featuring characters named Spliffy and Bong-O," Krofft conceded that the show's title had been an intentional marijuana reference, as had Lidsville, but "that was just a prank to see if they could get them past clueless NBC executives" (author's words).^[20]

[edit] Parodies and tributes

One of the most notable parodies of H.R. Pufnstuf was "The Altered State of Druggachusetts", a segment on the HBO comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David. The sketch consists of a failed pilot for a kids' show introduced by "Sam and Criminy Crafft" (Bob Odenkirk and David Cross). The show itself is similar to H.R. Pufnstuf, with drug references made humorously overt. Instead of a talking flute, the boy carries a talking bong, and all of the residents in Druggachusetts take or are living incarnations of various narcotics.^[21][22]

Nike made a skateboarding shoe for their SB Dunk line named after the show, with the colors of the shoe resembling those of Pufnstuf.^[23]

Excerpts from the show can often be seen playing on the TV in the hotel room Earl and his brother share in My Name Is Earl, and the October 18, 2007, episode features an extended scene with H.R. Pufnstuf as a super-crimefighter working alongside the title-character's brother in a fantasy creative-writing exercise.^{[citation needed]}

H.R. Pufnstuf appeared in the South Park episode "Imaginationland." And gets decapitated.That episode also aired on the same week of his appearance on My Name Is Earl.^{[citation needed]}

In the "Happy Birthdays" episode of George Lopez, it is said that H.R. Pufnstuf was one of George's childhood heroes, and a man in a Pufnstuf costume appears at Max's birthday party. Later on, George dances to the Pufnstuf theme with the man in the costume. And throughout the series there is a HR Pufnstuf doll on the shelf in George's living room.^{[citation needed]}

The rock band Everclear's music video for "AM Radio," a tribute to the 1960s and 1970s, features a short clip from the show.^{[citation needed]}

The first season CHiPs episode, "Green Thumb Burglar" featured H.R. Pufnstuf pulled over driving a car. Ponch and Jon make him get out of the car and walk, as the costume obstructs the driving view of the road.

In Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, when Ace is roughly shoved against a car, he says, "Hey! What are you? H. R. Shovenstuf?", an obvious reference.

On the NBC television show Will & Grace in episode 1-09 "The Truth About Will & Dogs", Will becomes obsessed with a new puppy Grace has adopted. While having an argument about the way Grace is treating the puppy, he accuses her of giving the puppy the "Witchiepoo Finger" when the puppy does something wrong. This is a reference to the character Witchiepoo and her trademark point.

In the sci-fi series Farscape, the character Utu-Noranti Pralatong is nicknamed "Witchiepoo" by the series' protagonist, John Crichton.

In recent internet culture, some consider H.R. Pufnstuf to be a close relative to the Pillsbury Doughboy, who is sometimes known as Pop'N'Fresh. ^[24]

In one of the features of the extended DVD version of "The Lord of the Rings" dealing with the task of designing the orcs and their individual identities, director Peter Jackson notes there are to be "no Witchiepoo noses".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 70s Live Action Kid Vid
• Retro Junk
• Jump The Shark
• The Straight Dope Was McDonaldland plagiarized from the old "H. R. Pufnstuf" kids' TV show?
• Nike SB Dunk Pufnstuf Edition
• CoolCopyright.com full text of the Kroffts vs McDonald's court case
• DVD Verdict - Region 1 DVD Review
• DVD Times - Region 0 DVD Review
• Todd Kauffman's H.R. Pufnstuf based Blog
• H.R. Pufnstuf at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Sid and Marty Krofft Television shows H.R. Pufnstuf (1969) · The Bugaloos (1970) · Lidsville (1971) · Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973) · Land of the Lost (1974) · Far Out Space Nuts (1975) · The Lost Saucer (1975) · Donny & Marie (1976) · The Krofft Supershow (1976) · The Brady Bunch Hour (1977)  · The Krofft Superstar Hour (1978) · Pink Lady and Jeff (1980)  · Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters (1980)  · Pryor's Place (1984) · D.C. Follies (1987)  · Land of the Lost (1991)  · Family Affair (2002) Krofft Supershow Segments Dr. Shrinker (1976)  · Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (1976)  · Kaptain Kool and the Kongs (1976)  · Wonderbug (1976)  · Magic Mongo (1977)  · Bigfoot and Wildboy (1977)  · Krofft Puppets appeared in The Dean Martin Show (1965)  · The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968)  · The Great Space Coaster (1981) Pilots and TV specials Here's Irving (1957)  · Fol-de-Rol (1972)  · The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl (1973)  · Really Raquel (1974)  · Jimmy Osmond Presents ABC's Saturday Sneak Peek (1976)  · The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)  · The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976)  · Kaptain Kool and the Kongs Present ABC All-Star Saturday (1977)  · The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars (1978)  · The Krofft Komedy Hour (1978)  · Bobby Vinton's Rock 'n' Rollers (1978)  · Anson & Lorrie (1981)  · Saturday's the Place (1984)  · The Cracker Brothers (1985)  · Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular (1985)  · The Patti LaBelle Show (1985)  · Sid & Marty Krofft's Red Eye Express (1988)  · Krofft Late Night (1991)  · Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (2001) Films Pufnstuf (1970)  · Harry Tracy, Desperado (1980)  · Middle Age Crazy (1980)  · Side Show (1981)  · Land of the Lost (2009) Theme park The World of Sid and Marty Krofft Live shows Les Poupées de Paris (1961)  · Circus (1966)  · Funny World (1966)  · Kaleidescope (1968)  · Fol-de-Rol (1968)  · Comedy Kings (1988)