My occasional employers Sid and Marty Krofft have put a number of video goodies on the web. This is the first episode of the show that put them into the kidvid business — H.R. Pufnstuf. I remember when this show debuted on September 6, 1969, it was one of those "I've never seen anything like this on television" moments. Some of the characters vaguely resembled the stars of Hanna-Barbera's The Banana Splits Adventure Hour which had debuted a year earlier, also on Saturday morning. But I didn't know then that the Kroffts had built those costumes and then gone into the producing business for themselves.
I became an instant fan of it and the many other Krofft shows that followed it. I didn't always understand what was going on and years later when I said that to Sid Krofft, he replied, "Neither did we sometimes" and he wasn't kidding. But he and Marty were well aware that their shows were always fascinating and that they were doing things that no one had ever done on television before. This was at a time when most producers — especially of programming aimed towards kids — were trying very hard to only do things that had been done on television before.
The first show I wrote on for Krofft Entertainment used Pufnstuf, Witchiepoo and many of the supporting players from this series, mostly voiced and played by the original performers. And I think one of the reasons I got the job was that, alone among the many writers they interviewed for the position, I was the only one who knew all the characters.
I watched this episode when it first aired. Here's your chance to watch it now…