Monday’s Guity Pleasure: The Krofft Super Star Hour

May 23rd, 2005

Filed under: TV

Growing up in Virginia, my favorite show to watch after school was The Krofft Super Stars. This was an hour show that was really two random half-hour shows from the prolific Sid and Marty Krofft. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the episodes shown. It could be two episodes of the same show or episodes of two different shows. Even if the episodes were from the same show, they were undoubtedly shown out of order.

The Krofft Super Stars included the following shows:

  • Land of the Lost. The best of the bunch, and therefore shown rarely. The sleestaks were still creepy, but not as scary as when I was five. Chaka though, he (it?) was scary.
  • Far Out Space Nuts. Stupid but funny.
  • The Lost Saucer. With Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi as androids. Again, stupid but fun. Probably my favorite show, as the humor was perfect for a nine year-old.
  • Electra-Woman and Dynagirl. This one only showed up in the rotation rarely and I think only three of four episodes were made. I tried to like it because it featured superheroes, but it was hard not to be astounded by the low production values and inane scripts.
  • Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Or was it Sigmund the Sea Monster? I can’t remember. It was about a couple of boys who lived near the beach, their sea monster friend, and his family of less-than-friendly (though very inept) sea monsters. It was funny with the above average Kroft production values (second only to Land of the Lost).
  • H.R. Puffinstuff. Huh? What were thinking? Even as a nine year-old I knew this was a drug show and I had no hope of understanding it.
  • The Bugaloos. My least favorite. Tiny whiny hippies with wings — but that’s not all: they sing!

I know that Land of the Lost is out on DVD, but I haven’t seen any of the others.

UPDATE (24 May):
Other Krofft shows I forgot (some I can barely remember at all): Wonderbug (kind of a live action Speedbuggy), Bigfoot and Wildboy, Dr. Shrinker, and Lidsville.
Here’s the TV Tome link for the Krofft Supershow/Krofft Superstars

10 Responses to “ Monday’s Guity Pleasure: The Krofft Super Star Hour ”

  1. Nala
    May 24th, 2005 at 9:24 am

    I totally remember the Lost Saucer now. I remembered watching something with Ruth Buzzi but could never remember what it was or place it in context with anything.

    Wasn’t Doctor Shrinker (or something about a scientist shrinking people) in this show too?

  2. Dave Lartigue
    May 24th, 2005 at 9:26 am

    I don’t know if these were part of the package, but I also remember these two:

    The Ghost Busters: Long before Bill Murray et al took this name, there were Spencer, Tracy, and Kong dealing with wacky supernatural hijinks. The gorilla was not “Kong”. Among the foes was a mummy or a Frankenstein’s Monster that would dance whenever anyone said “dunce”, which was often.

    Sigmund and the Sea Monsters: Creepy Mignola-like monsters. Sigmund was the good one, friend to children, while he had naughty villanous uncloes or cousins or something who were always up to No Good.

  3. Scott
    May 24th, 2005 at 9:36 am
    Official Comment

    I forgot Sigmund at first, but I added it to the list later (apparently at the same time you were posting, Dave).

  4. Cliff S.
    May 24th, 2005 at 10:08 am

    I *so* had a crush on Joy from The Bugaloos! She rocked my 5-year-old world.

    You should’ve mentioned that Far Out Space Nuts had Gilligan. And a fake Skipper. In space.

  5. M
    May 24th, 2005 at 10:37 am

    Oh come on, how could you not like Electrowoman and Dynagirl? It was like the female version of the Adam West Batman TV show. Good, dumb fun. Way too much make-up, but good, dumb fun.

    Puff n Stuff: entertaining, but creepy.

    Never saw the Bugaloos til I was older.

    Land of the Lost and Dr. Shrinker good sci-fi for young kids.

  6. H
    May 24th, 2005 at 12:02 pm

    Many of these showed up recently on TVLand. I Tivoed them for my kids to see what modern
    kids like. Thumbs up went to H.R. Puff ‘N Stuff, Electra Woman and Dynagirl and Sigmund and
    the Sea Monsters. A middling review for Land of the Lost. And big thumbs down for Lidsville.
    They didn’t show Bugaloos, but I can add an anecdote about it. Back in 1977, Mag and I
    decided to have a game tournament and play one contest of every game we owned. We actually
    accomplished it too. One of the games was Bugaloos, which was in Mag’s basement and hadn’t
    been played in years. We both agreed that of the 300 or so games in the tournament, Bugaloos
    was the worst.

  7. Vaklam
    May 24th, 2005 at 10:35 pm

    The Krofft shows informed a large part of my young aesthetic sense. Those shows were trippy. Lidsville and “Space Nuts” were my favorites but Land of the Lost will always hold a special place.

    My friends and I used to run around our neighborhood shouting about the pylons.

  8. Nala
    May 25th, 2005 at 6:29 am

    I was born in 1970 so while I remember most of these, they are somewhat hazy in my memory.

    Didn’t Land of the Lost last a pretty long time. I seem to remember it playing at like noon or so on CBS on Channel 11 in Toledo, Oh.

    I was never a major fan of it but that one seems to be the one I remember lasting the longest of all the Kroft shows.

  9. M
    May 25th, 2005 at 11:25 am

    Forgot about Wonderbug, it was fun too.

    Never heard of Bigfoot and Wildboy.

    Dr. Shrinker, my favorite mad scientist.

    Lidsville, another one I never saw til later. Better than Bugaloos though.

  10. Richard
    May 30th, 2005 at 9:17 am

    H.R. Puffinstuff is out on DVD as well.

Leave a Reply

« Justice League Unlimited Grand Rounds »