Shark Bytes

Ohmigod, did Sid and Marty Kroft ever suck ass. I know everyone loves nostalgia, but if you watch an episode today - oh, brother. A dumb, dumb show.

It was a pretty much a re-run of 'HR Pufnstuf', only without Pufnstuf. An improvement there, and Hoodoo was a fair enough comic villain, but Butch Patrick was conspicuously too old for the role (so was Jack Wild, but he had that upbeat 'cheeky chappie Artful Dodger' quality, while Patrick was slightly wooden), and there an alarming upsurge in all-round cutesy-ness. Moreover, we also have the same old 'Johnny one-plot' problem (boy, taken to strange place, tries to get back home in various ways). As to jumping the shark, those first few Krofft shows were cartoonishly zany enough to hold attention for most of a season, but this one seemed to have the least charm, perhaps because of its late-teen lead. Let's therefore call the JTS moment at five shows into the first season.

I MISS THE OLD WORLD OF SID AND MARTY KROFT AMUSEMENT PARK. IT WAS INDOORS IN THE OMNI BUILDING IN ATLANTA. IT HAD TO BE THE WORLDS FIRST INDOOR AMUSEMENT PARK BACK IN THE 70'S. I GOT TO GO THERE 2 TIMES AS A KID AND I LOVEED IT.

Loved ya, Chuck.

Okay, I must agree with many of the previous posters that Lidsville lent itself to weirding me out. But even as a young child during the 70's when this was on nothing but nothing compared to the creep factor Syd & Marty churned out on The Bugaloos.

Now THAT my friends was one wild psychadelic trip that to this day still sends me to tripping when I think about it. Thankfully, I don't remember all that much about it other than the fact that I tuned in (no pun intended) each week in the hopes that some - any - explanation would be provided as to what the heck was going on. I'm still wondering to this day ... but not too much, my mind can't keep dwelling on it much longer.

P.S. Syd & Marty, I need your address to forward my psychiatric bills to.

Charles Nelson Reilly... what a character. I liked his depiction of Hoo-doo more than anything else in Lidsville. He was always foiled, but you had imagine him having a blast zipping around in the Hatamaran.

None of the characters was very well-fleshed out, but they were enough for a real twelve-year old. And even though he was playing an evil character, even though he was unhappy with the makeup and the producers, I always got the impression that Hoo Doo, at least, knew where he was coming from and that bad guys always have more fun!

Steve

Horatio J Hoodoo - RIP

The Krofft brothers did way too many drugs. All their shows freak me out.

There is only one reasonable explanation for this show- LSD. I think even the office cat had taken one to many catnip trips.

Another piece of garbage served up by Sid & Marty Krofft, and probably their worst kiddie show. (But in all fairness, Lidsville WAS better than their atrocity The Brady Bunch Hour variety show....which still ain't sayin much!) This one had all the corny and shoddy touches the Kroffts were famous for, but added a weird "psychedelic" feel to the stupid proceedings. As suggested by previous posters, maybe the Kroffts WERE dropping acid -- maybe when they realized they had absolutely no talent.

Gonzo freaky show for a nine-year-old... I loved it. But then came the episode where Mark found a giant beanstalk bean... planted it... watched it grow up, up, up into the sky.... He climbed it and emerged at the top of the giant hat, still inverted in the same magician's back room as used in the opening scene (and episode). And where were the L.A. cops who were looking for this missing child, you ask? Probably in training to beat Rodney King a few years later, but that's another story. Anyhow, just as Mark reaches for the hat's lid --- and freedom! --- the evil Hoodoo arrives and shakes the giant beanstalk, dislodging Mark's fragile grip and and dumping him back down into Lidsville. And even as a nine-year-old, I understood that I'd just been manipulated by a too-convenient plot, sort of like "Time Tunnel" where they could never get the damn machine's settings quite right. Weird acid trip or not (whatever "acid" was, I had yet to learn), Lidsville was just too cruel to be trusted.

Despite this becoming a Sid and Marty Krofft produced show, Lidsville unfortunately JTS for two reasons. First, neither Butch Patrick (Mark), nor Charles Nelson Reilly (Hoo-Doo) were happy during production for the acid-trip series. Butch really didn't feel comfortable playing the role of a 12-year old boy (he was 18 at the time) and felt screwed because of it and CNR really hated wearing green facial makeup. It probably ran a point when he took time off from work only to return the following day chanting, "How did you like my HOO-DOO holiday?!" ticking off the Krofft brothers also. Second, CNR was too all-that in his lines. In other words, he wants to do all the talking and always talks back at times, especially at Mark and Weenie the Genie from the same lady that gave us Witchiepoo. Rumor has it that at one time, CNR and Butch got into a physical argument between tapings! Anyways, CNR would end up finding greater success as a regular celebrity paneling on "Match Game'73-'82" always next door to Brett Somers. As for Butch Patrick, he feel into a period of heavy drug use, experimenting with cocaine and possibly heroin after powerful feelings of failure from his experience during "Lidsville". He is currently sober now and has been for the last decade or so. Neither him or CNR wants to talk about Lidsville anymore. Although Sid and Marty did a brilliant job on "Lidsville" as always, it was those leading role actors that through the show over.

It would be hard for this show to jump because it was filmed in segments. According to Charles Nelson Reilly while appearing on Jon Favreau's show "Dinner for Five", Sid and Marty Kroft had all the scripts completed before production began. In order to save money, all of the shots inside Hoodoos Big Hat for every episode were filmed during the same shooting run. Likewise, all shots needed of the Lidsville town were all shot at once. Reilly said this made it difficult to get any real feel for what the episode was about because they only were given a couple of lines just for that particular scene.

Sid and Marty Kroft shows are the ultimate shows you like for some inexplicable reason when you're a kid, but if you watch them again after you've grown up, you wonder what the hell you ever liked about them. Now Lidsville looks like the result of an acid trip, while I'm sure the Super Kroft Bros. intended nothing but whimsical kiddy fun. And I'm not one to waste my time reading sexual subtext into a kids show, but did they really have to name the genie "Weeny?" I guess the 70's were just a more innocent time, and this kind of show wasn't freaky back then. Anybody remember that episode where the magician goes on a blind date and hooks up with the witch from Puffnstuff?

This show never jumped. If Charles Nelson Reilly is scary?, you folks were even more gay than he is LOL! As I read the other comments, I can't help but think someone forgot to teach you kids this was just a TV show. Even though the "Genie" was named "Weenie" I don't think Sid & Marty were trying to suggest anything nasty hahahaha My God some people are so disturbed. This is like one of those psych test where people are asked to describe what they see, which tells a lot about their personality. Anyway this show was a ton o' fun. Without Sid & Marty the 70's as a kid would have completely sucked.