Krofft Super Star fans

[Ilikemuppets]

Yeah. I like a laugh track on some things. But It not right for everything, though.

 

[Son of Enik]

Krofft Super fan!

I LOVE everything Krofft!
I watched every show from Pufnstuf right up to the new Land Of The Lost in the 90's. I own the boxed sets of Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund & The Sea Monsters (Season 1) All 3 Seasons of Land of The Lost (Original series) plus a 3 DVD set called The Wonderful World of Sid & Marty Krofft, containing one episode of all the aforementioned shows plus Far-Out Space Nuts, Lost Saucer, Electra Woman & Dyna-Girl, Wonderbug, Dr. Shrinker, Magic Mongo, Bigfoot & Wildboy and Pryor's Place (remember that one?) Plus I have a music CD of all the theme songs I bought on Amazon a few years back.
So I guess I would have to say Yes, I remember all things Krofft.

 

[Winslow Leach]

I'm a big fan of Lidsville, starring Butch Patrick (The Munsters) and the great Charles Nelson Reilly as Horatio J. Hoodoo. Also loved H.R. Pufnstuf.

One of my favorite Sid & Marty productions was D.C. Follies, which aired in syndication between 1987 and 1989. It was set in a Washington D.C. bar, and peopled by puppets, who were caracatures of real-life celebs (particularly political bigwigs), such as Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Sylvester Stallone, Hulk Hogan and Tammy Faye Bakker. Fred Willard played the bartender, and special guest stars would frequently stop by. The show was inspired by the British series, Spitting Image. It aired here on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Sid & Marty were also responsible for the notorious The Brady Bunch Hour (1976-1977). At the time, the duo were producing The Donny & Marie Show, starring Donny and Marie Osmond. One episode featured several cast members from the cancelled Brady Bunch, who performed a song.

Trying to strike gold twice with a variety show format, the Kroffts made a special featuring the cast, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, which aired in late 1976. It was successful enough to launch The Brady Bunch Hour (1977). The series was short-lived, however, because Sid & Marty never bothered to get the rights to the Brady characters by series creator Sherwood Schwartz, so the show lasted less than a season.

The Variety Hour was somehow a continuation of The Brady Bunch. All the cast members from that show (except Eve Plumb, a.k.a. "Jan," who refused to participate, and was replaced) were back, including Robert Reed, who had notoriously clashed with Schwartz over scripts during the BB days. The premise was, Mike Brady abandoned his architect career, and decided to take the family on the road as singers/entertainers. Thus, each episode of the Variety Hour had the cast singing classic and contemporary songs, as well as participating in sketches, much in the style of the Osmond show.

The Simpsons parodied The Brady Bunch Variety Hour in a spoof episode that showed three potential Simpsons "spin-offs." It spoofed everything from the cheesy song and dance numbers, to the lame sketches to Jan's replacement: a teenage cheerleader-type substitutes for Lisa, who refuses to participate. Tim Conway appears as the guest star. "What's a Tim Conway?" "Oh, about 120 pounds."

Several years ago, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (the original special, which launched the series) came in at #1 on Nick at Nite's New Year's Eve countdown of the worst TV shows ever, and aired it in its entirety.

The Kroffts were also responsible for Pink Lady and Jeff (1980), another attempt at the variety format. This time, American comedian Jeff Altman was paired with a real-life female Japanese singing duo known as Pink Lady, who were extraordinarily popular in Japan in the late 1970s. The problem was, the ladies barely spoke English. They were forced to sing current American pop hits, rather than their own songs, and had to learn the lyrics (and their lines) phonetically. Jim Varney (later of "Ernest" fame) was a regular, and such notables as Alice Cooper and Blondie were guest stars. The show is available on DVD for the curious...

In 2002, the Kroffts updated the 1960s sitcom Family Affair, which lasted one season, and starred Gary Cole in the Brian Keith role and Tim Curry taking over for Sebastian Cabot as the family butler.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Here are two examples of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bfWvhXfY00E

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6U35yN0TRz4

And here's The Simpsons spoof.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=67Kac2GhxUI

To quote Joseph Conrad: the horror...the horror...

Although "new Jan" is

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Yeah, I've seen that show before. What a bizarre show. So was the Cartoon series by the way.

 

[Son of Enik]

Impressive...

Winslow, I am very impressed at your Krofft knowledge! I also watched DC Follies...man am I waiting for that DVD set! I admit that while I did not watch The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (though I am fully aware of it), I did watch Pink Lady & Jeff (Bizarre show, wasn't it?) as well as Donny & Marie and Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters (Also Sid & Marty's shows)
I love The Krofft's shows and I await their next DVD releases!

 

[Winslow Leach]

Winslow, I am very impressed at your Krofft knowledge! I also watched DC Follies...man am I waiting for that DVD set! I admit that while I did not watch The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (though I am fully aware of it), I did watch Pink Lady & Jeff (Bizarre show, wasn't it?) as well as Donny & Marie and Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters (Also Sid & Marty's shows)
I love The Krofft's shows and I await their next DVD releases!

(bowing)

Oh, thank you, thank you! You're too kind!

Seriously...

Yes, it would most definitely be cool to have D.C. Follies on DVD. I was a faithful viewer. It was one of those shows that you needed to watch more than once, because there was also something crazy going on in the background that you may have missed on first viewing.

And Pink Lady & Jeff...whew! That was probably trippier than anything the Kroffts had done in the early 1970s combined! Yeesh!

The Brady shows I only know through reputation, various clips, and that one episode that was broadcast one year on Nick at Nite. It seems everyone involved (except for the Kroffts, who I believe still regard it with nostalgia) was embarrassed by it.

What really amazes me is that Robert Reed was lured back not only to the variety show, but to every Brady reunion/attempt at a comeback series until his death. It's been widely publicized that Reed wanted the scripts for The Brady Bunch to be a bit more ground in reality, and not "Gilligan's Island with kids," as he said in an early interview. By the final season, Sherwood Schwartz was so fed up with Reed, he planned to kill off Mike Brady if the series was renewed for another season. You may have noticed Mike doesn't appear in the show's final episode, the one in which Greg's hair accidentally turns orange. That's because Reed found this script particularly ludicrous, and walked off the set.

So I'm really surprised he came back for The Brady Bunch Hour (even though Schwartz wasn't involved, it was still a very campy enterprise), The Brady Brides, A Very Brady Christmas, and The Bradys, these last three all produced by Sherwood Schwartz...who claims Reed was still complaining about the quality of the scripts as late as 1989/1990.

What were we talking about?

Oh yeah, Sid and Marty Krofft. 'Twould be cool to have a DVD of D.C. Follies.

 

[Xerus]

One Krofft show I liked that aired in the late 70's was The Bay City Rollers show. It was about a rock band who performed cool songs and it showed a regular series called Horror Hotel. Where Witchiepoo, Dr. Blinky, Orson, Seymour, Stupid Bat, and Hoodoo ran a spooky, but crazy hotel. I would really love to see this series again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C50F-qRQKqw

 

[D'Snowth]

Wow, that's interesting.

 

[Son of Enik]

One Krofft show I liked that aired in the late 70's was The Bay City Rollers show. It was about a rock band who performed cool songs and it showed a regular series called Horror Hotel. Where Witchiepoo, Dr. Blinky, Orson, Seymour, Stupid Bat, and Hoodoo ran a spooky, but crazy hotel. I would really love to see this series again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C50F-qRQKqw

Wow...I remember that show too! The Bay City Rollers were brought in to replace Kaptain Kool & The Kongs (who previously hosted The Krofft Super Show). I read that Sid Krofft liked The Rollers and thought they were to be the next Beatles. Marty disagreed...I guess he knew something his brother did not.