Saturday Morning with Sid and Marty Kroft is a nostalgic disc that contains pilot episodes from their most memorable television productions.
It beings with a very cute menu sequence of a small girl climbing out of bed and making herself a bowl of cereal before continuing to turn on the TV. It immediately carried me back to that time in my life when kids programming wasn’t available twenty-four seven on several cable channels, but only on Saturday mornings.
With all of the shows contained herein, you have to remember the time they originally aired, and not try and compare them to what is rampant on television today. Production values would fail dreadfully in contrast.
H.R. Pufnstuf is a lovable show and one that was so firmly burnt in my memory from the early seventies.
The show revolved around a young English boy named Jimmy and Freddie, his magic talking golden flute. The pair find themselves trapped on the Enchanted Living Island and pursued by Witchiepoo. The witch is determined to have the magical flute for herself. H.R. Pufnstuf, a lovable yellow dragon in cowboy attire and mayor of the island, is just as determined to help Jimmy escape and find his way home.
When you try to revisit anything in you past, the actuality usually doesn’t live up to the memory. Whether we lose our innocence as we age, or as adults we see that the writing wasn’t as innocent and pure as our child like minds saw, the result is the same. The slang, clothing and humor, is so rooted in the 70’s I can’t say they hold the test of time as much as carry you back to that time in your life.
The Bugaloos is one of the three episodes on the disc that I was watching for the first time. The show is centered around four teenage singing bugs living in the Tranquility Forest. The villain, Benita Bizarre (played by Martha Raye), is out to catch the bugaloos and steal their talent to make herself a star. It also had the star power of Billy Barty playing Sparky, a clumsy fire fly who was afraid to fly.
Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
Wow...
2 - Connie Phillips
hmm. . .I hope that is a good wow.
3 - Seventies Kid
Where the hell did the past 30 years go? Feels like I was watching those shows just yesterday. Those shows were better than the crap that's on today.