What is next for Sid and Marty?

With the lackluster performance of Land of the Lost this past year, what does the future hold for Sid and Marty Krofft? Krofft Productions defined Saturday morning & variety television in the 1970s. No matter how awful these shows appear to us today, they live in the memories of an entire generation of kids…and maybe their nightmares too.

It seemed like a sure thing…Will Ferrell and dinosaurs, what better way could you bring Krofft productions to the 21st century? Whatever happend, it didn’t work and some momentum was lost. That leaves the question of how to get the next Krofft movie on the big screen. H.R. Pufnstuf and Sigmund the Sea Monster were already in the pipe prior to Land of the Lost, so let’s explore them.

With the recent release of “Where the Wild Things Are”, Spike Jonze illustrated both what to do, and what not to do when mixing low-tech costumes and high-tech effect. The character of H.R. Pufnstuf can learn a lot from Wild Things. Sid and Marty are still costume masters, so expect them to up the anti. They can also learn from the story, as Marty said “Don’t mess with what worked“. Removing the 70s camp, and inserting some 21st century realism without loosing the childhood innocense will make Pufnstuf a wonderful film. A cameo from Billie Hayes is also a must.

Sigmund on the other hand could be tricky. Where Pufnstuf takes place in the magical “Living Island”, the Sigmund story takes place in the ‘real world’. The entire premise is camp. The story and costumes would require an update. Does Sigmund still talk? Does the story take on a Waterhorse style? It would be amazing to see the story of Johnny and his pal Sigmund come to the big screen (music and all), but I just can’t imagine how it would work. Maybe Pufnstuf would pave the way.

One of the problems I see is that Sid and Marty aren’t doing enough self promotion. They are not following the advice of Walt Disney that Sid quotes often, “keep your name above the title”. It wasn’t “Sid & Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost”, it was “Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost”. Yes, they are releasing more and more of their shows online (Hulu, iTunes, etc), but not promoting it well. They partnered with the already dieing MySpace, which has done nothing for their online presence except associate them with trashy chicks and dudes hoping to hook up (I’m not saying everyone on MySpace is that way, but it is the overwhelming majority).

Sid and Marty, get your name back “above the title”.

V – ABC is going to ruin it

The first 4 episodes of the new “V” has aired. How does it stack up to the original? I say, “great”. But why take 3 months off?!?!

Let’s take a beloved classic television event and remake it with popular television actors, and update the story to be more relevant to todays world. Then, just as it’s getting off the ground, let’s take it off the air for 3 months including February Sweeps. Yeah, let’s do that. That’s smart…really smart….not!. This seems more like a Fox move than ABC (re: Firefly, Dollhouse, etc). Most people will forget about “V” by the time it comes back around. Fail.

It started off great and took a few episodes to hit its stride. Yes, it is very annoying that the ‘visitors’ are call “The V’s”. Very stupid. “V is for victory”…remember? The only character I’m not to happy with is Georgie. I don’t know if it’s the actor or the character, but I cringe when he is on the screen. This should be more pivotal, but is merely filling a gap to bring the 3 main resistance fighters together. He’s no Mike Donavan or Ham Tyler.

Speaking of Mike Donavan. Scott Wolf’s character (Chad Decker) needs more development. We expect his journey to be the same as Marc Singer’s in the original, so you have to give us more development pre-rebel. The focus can’t constantly be on Erica.

Elizabeth Mitchell (Erica) is performing terrific as the lead of the series. Her character is very believable and fits well with Ryan and Father Jack. When it comes to Erica, we are seeing way too much of her son. I understand the parallels to the original with the recruitment of Tyler, but there is too much. It doesn’t help that Logan Huffmann (Tyler) and Laura Vandervoort (Lisa) are not the best performers. Laura seems to be playing the same character she played on Smallville without the super powers.

Father Jack (Joel Gretsch) is also a great character. His journey is and will be interesting to watch. The priest in the original was a supporting player, but I like that he was made a main character here. It’s more interesting.

Anna (Morena Baccarin) and the other top Visitors are played well. I like that they are playing them ‘wooden’; it makes it more believable. The ‘just like us’ mannerisms of the original series would have been a little campy.

The 5th Column is handled well. Ryan (Morris Chestnut) is a believable character, and I like how they mixed the themes of 5th column and crossbreeding from the original into this single character. He is played strongly, and I see him as a recruiter for Chad Decker.

In all, “V” started out strong, and is really just hitting the mark to be a great series. Too bad ABC is giving is treating it so badly. I hope it survives.

Bigfoot and Wildboy – An Unsung Krofft Show

Maybe it was because ‘Krofft’ was in the name. Maybe it was because of Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. Or, maybe because of the multiple show segements, but The Krofft Supershow is one the ultimate definition of the Krofft body of work. Bigfoot and Wildboy was one of those segments. And today at they have an article on the Krofft gem.

Science fiction/fantasy sculpturist Vincent Villafranca turned us on to Bigfoot and Wildboy the other day, and now we’re obsessed with watching all the episodes on Youtube. It’s just so wrong, from the Sean Cassidy-haired Wildboy to Bigfoot’s penchant for leaping high up in the air so that his shaggy crotch occupies the dead center of the screen. THis is the reason our formative years were more like deformative years.

Many of the Krofft shows are given unfair criticism. These people tend to forget that “C.H.I.P.S.”, “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Six Million Dollar Man” were top shows at the time. If you watch those shows today, they suffer from the same dated feel as “Bigfoot and Wildboy”.

Of all the Krofft shows, I remember watching this one the most as a 6-7 year old boy. I remember this was the only Saturday Morning show besides Land of the Lost that my father would watch with me. It had the same feel and story as some primetime hits of the day.

I think I need to bring more Bigfoot and Wildboy to KROFFT.NET. Anyone with who wants to contribute is welcome, just either post in the comments or send me an email.

Bid on lunch with a Brady for Charity

Two of your favorite stars from “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour” are auctioning off lunch for two for charity. Precious Paws is having a fundraiser where you can bid to have lunch with Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) and Robbie Rist (cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch). Also up for bid is lunch with Christopher Knight (Peter Brady) and his wife Adrianne Curry. Precious Paws says:

We are having an exclusive on-line Celebrity Experience and Entertainment Memorabilia auction starting November 5th at 7 PM PST on Ebay. It will be a ten day auction. Many of our friends have come on board to help us fundraiser for our rescues.

We are very excited to have Mark Hamill & others participating in our fundraiser. For our exclusive auction, we have lined up a handful of lunches for 2 with the celebrities listed below. We have also acquired many autographed items for this auction.

We have partnered with Auction Cause, a premier online auction company, who work hand in hand with Ebay and have held many successful celebrity based charity auctions.
This list is a work in progress, we are still working on receiving more items and celebrity experiences for our auction. Please Check Back Often!

There are other celebrities donating there time for the auction (include Star Wars‘ Mark Hamill). Go on over and support a good cause.

Here is a video from Susan Olsen discussing the event. Her foster cats want in on the act too.

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Precious Paws is a non-profit pet rescue based in Los Angeles, California where Susan Olsen is on the board of directors. They provide fostering, education and assistance to pets and pet owners alike.

Marty Krofft Agrees – “Don’t mess with what worked”

When I went to see Where The Wild Things Are I couldn’t help but be reminded of Pufnstuf. Part of me wished that the Kroffts had gotten Puf out first, while another part was glad the Sid and Marty could hopefully learn from the mistakes of Wild. In an article at NY Daily News, Marty expresses:

” ‘Wild Things’ is very, very good for us,” says Marty Krofft. “We always wanted to do low-tech costumes and high-tech heads. But it’ll be a big difference in tone, of course — we’ll be bright, not dark.”

Also, this marks the first time (that I’m aware of) that Marty admits they went to far with Land of the Lost. That they strayed to far from the original.

“We went with comedy, which got it green-lit. But we didn’t know it was going to go so far in the PG-13 direction and so close to an R rating,” he says of the unfortunate flop. “Our characters are all likable, and we have so much goodwill from our fans. So, now we know: Don’t mess with what’s worked.”

I’m glad to see that he’s had this realization. When I met Marty Krofft this past summer, I really wanted to discuss this exact issue with him, but wasn’t sure he would have been receptive. You can’t turn a family-friendly story of a popular children’s show into a raunchy comedy and expect success. It’s like drinking a beer when you were expecting milk. Doesn’t matter how good the beer is, it’ll taste like crap. (even though in this case it was crap)

Also in the article, Marty discusses plans for Electra Woman and Doctor Shrinker. Both stories would have great appeal if handled properly. Especially EW with the rash of super hero movies at the box office.

Thanks to Shemp DeYoung for pointing me to the article. Please leave your comments below.

Review: Where The Wild Thing Are

Based on the classic short children’s story by Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are takes us into Max’s world and introduces us to a world of magical monsters, and childhood anger.

The film is visually perfect. I couldn’t tell what was puppetry, and what was CG. The world of the wild things is beautiful, and captures the essence of the children’s book illustrations. It is not very colorful, but wonderful to look at for young and old.

The film was both confusing and boring. It was too much like the book. When you adapt any media into another, things must be changed. Especially when you have such a short single-minded book. Yes, they added a backstory, but that was all. The movie was just an expression of childhood anger, much like the book. Once Max got to the land of the wild things the plot ceased to move forward and just became a series of angry expression by Max and the wild things. Too much like the book. The filmmakers appear to use the book theme as an excuse for not having a good story.

The synopsis of the expanded story could’ve been pulled right from H.R. Pufnstuf. Hopefully, Sid and Marty Krofft will see this movie and use it to help determine the direction an Pufnstuf feature film should take. Honestly, the 1970s camp film “Pufnstuf” was a much better movie.

I give “Where The Wild Things Are” a didn’t really need to see it.

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