Letters to the Editor
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Marshall, Will and Holly
I lived next door for three years to the guy who played Chaka, and when he disclosed over a glass of wine with me and my wife that he had been the furry little dude, the evening turned into a great reminiscence of Land of the Lost and all the shows of that era. He's a great guy, by the way.
I agree with the other poster who slammed Dora, Little Einsteins and all the rest. I have a 3-year-old who can't get enough of The Magic Schoolbus, but at least that's educational. Most children's TV today is pablum trash designed to sell merchandise. So is Sesame Street, but at least it's still got soul.
My remedy: read, and share the great shows of my childhood with my daughters. Next in line are the DVDs of The Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock.
Sing it with me: "I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill..."
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@ Gordon Wagner
I'm in my mid 30s, and there's plenty of room in my heart (and Netflix queue) for BOTH the works of Sid & Marty and Pee Wee!
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Some echoing...
The Kroft shows also affected my subconscious as a 70s youth: I vividly remember VERY bad dreams about the opening sequence of Lidsville (falling into a dark, bottomless hat) and the Sleestaks of "Land of the Lost". Those huge black eyes were scarier than most things that passed for horror in the years following.
I also have to agree with other parents about the state of childrens shows today - at least the Pre-K stuff. I mean, give the kid(s) a break! The whole Blue/Dora/Diego/(new)Pooh/(new)Mickey type of show where the kids are "engaged" to help in solving some sort of problem/mystery just grates on me after a while. My kid seems to like it, but like some other poster mentioned, he never laughs at it!
I thank Boomerang and Tom & Jerry for my first experience of hearing my kid laugh while watching cartoons! I mean - they're kids! They need to laugh - not to be constantly "learning"!
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Coming from a guy who dances around in Lederhosen
Pretending he's Hitler, that is pretty fucking funny, G.
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(Catchy theme-songs, gotta give 'em that, too...)
@Peter:
It must have depended on your local tv stations. I was born in '68, but the local stations in Philadelphia certainly played the Krofft shows... or maybe it was the "Krofft Hour"? Sigmund and Land of the Lost, I remember vividly, along with the Bugaloos and the Banana Splits; HR Pufnstuff a little less so. Problem is, though I remember them being on, I didn't *watch* them -- they scared the *crap* out of me, every one. (Also, the character of Holly on LotL irritated me, esp. since I shared her name, which was rare in the 70s.)
@Biff:
Now, that disappoints me greatly: to hear that a LotL movie *is* being done, but, to judge from the casting of Will Ferrell, it's going to be a spoof. *sigh* Coincidentally, a group of us were discussing "Jurassic Park" this weekend, and we said in all seriousness that a LotL movie done with today's special effects might actually be awesome. But we weren't thinking "spoof".
@playajackal:
"...to the intense creepiness of the lizard-men Sleestaks - anyone else get goosebumps at the sound of their hissing as the characters ran through the tunnels?"
Good lord, yes! Exactly -- the Sleestak, above all else, terrified me.
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Anyone remember THE BANANA SPLITS???
Don't know if they were Sid and Marty Krofft but I LOVED The Banana Splits, still remember their terrific theme song.
The first season of LAND OF THE LOST was actually pretty good, then it just got sillier and sillier.
And damn, I miss that Puf'n'stuff! Jack Wild died a couple of years ago in his 40s. Still the most memorable Artful Dodger.
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Best Sleestak BBall Player
I read several months ago that Bill Laimbeer, HOF center for the Detroit Pistons, played a Sleestak for a year (or a season) back when he was just out of college & needed a job (or he might have still been in college).
Another Laimbeer memory: He was invited to the 1980 Olympic basketball tryouts that were held at the University of Kentucky. All the initial workouts/drills were held in the old Memorial Coliseum. I was able to get in & I saw most of them. Anyway, Laimbeer was just out of Notre Dame & was awful. He was overweight & was quickly cut.
I still marvel at how much better he made himself in the intervening years (of course, as a Celtic fan I still hated his guts).
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Sarah! Bless your psychedelic heart for this article!
And Peter--I was born in 1964, and yes, Krofft shows are like a secret handshake for our age-ilk...Do you think that when we're in our nineties, we'll be reminiscing about Jack Wild's bell-bottoms and that creepy passive-aggressive flute? "Oranges Smoranges"?
Okay, you early Gen-Xers...admit it. When you saw Mitt Romney, you thought of Jimmy being "a Mechanical Boy"!..
All good things must come to an end, and when Sid and Marty did the Brady Bunch variety show, you knew the Lucky-Charms/Land of the Lost high was over...sorta like when the immensely talented Paul Williams wrote the "Love Boat" theme song and John Sebastian wrote songs for that noxious Strawberry Shortcake...
Trivia--Margaret Hamilton was also on "Sigmund". Played Mary Wickes' best pal.
Pee-Wee had some creative stuff, but Pee-Wee was nasty, hard-edged *80's. I'm surprised Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump didn't make guest appearances! I hate Paul Rubens almost as much as Wilford Brimley!
Before I regress any further...Does anyone think Barack can get more votes using the Secret Handshake? Maybe referring to the GOP as SLeestaks...
(Yes, that Charles Nelson-Reilly as bunny-in-drag thing is something you just had to be there to understand...And THAT perverted scene was STILL more wholesome fare than Pee-Wee's Play-With-Myself-HOuse!)
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Lidsville vs. Magic Roundabout
My wife, who's British, sometimes reminisces about a few wacked out kid's TV show from her childhood like Magic Roundabout and Clangers - all very early '70: psychedelic, trippy and full of oblique drug references, etc. They were cute, but when I turned her onto to the oevure of Sid & Marty Kroft she was astonished - and couldn't believe that those shows were made for kids. America: 1 England: 0