OK, maybe it's because I'm a little young, but...

Okay, coming from someone who watched all the Sid & Marty Krofft shows, I think they were high when they made some of the shows. I love all their shows, but they were crazy! I'm assuming Pufnstuf means they were puffin stuff when they were writing the show, but I love it just the same.

It's on Tv Land? CRAP! We don't get TV Land here. I've been waiting my whole life to see that show again, and just my luck, I'm living in another country while they're showing it again in the states! Irony's a real prick!

I'm thinking it wasn't pot so much as LSD. Lots of bright colours and characters with really, really, really big heads. They would generally show three at a time on Saturday morning, and you rarely got to see the ones you wanted to see--like the Bugaloos. It was always that damned Ruth Buzzi and Jim Neighbors show with the half dog/ half horse thing (I think that one was the space nuts?)Most of the shows had characters who were someplace they weren't supposed to be--(Land of the Lost, Lidsville, puffinstuff, Dr. Shrinker, Sigmund....) Sometimes Nick at Night will air a marathon. Those shows pretty muched warped most of the gen-X kids, although we can still sing the preamble thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. I'm waiting for the DVDs to come out and when it does, I'm getting out that big, oversized bowl of cereal....

The overall conclusion or even the urban legend now is that brothers Sid and Marty Kroff must have done drugs when they created their shows, Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Sigmund, Bugaloos and so on.

Clearly, the Kroffts were infatuated with the Beatles, as musical groups are prevalent in many of their shows.

Pufnstuf has the English Jack Wilde as Jimmy.

Bugaloos has the English musical quartet group.

Kaptain Kool and the Kongs has a quintet (after Flatbush quits, a quartet). By this time, it was disco and Beatlemania was passe.

The Bay City Rollers would get the Krofft treatment (oddly enough on a show I did like).

Even their earliest work for Hanna Barbera was the musical group, the Banana Splits.

Drugs were prevalent at that time and becoming 'more acceptable' especially in Hollywood, which may or may not be another urban legend, however you want to look at it.

Granted, there is the folk song "Puff the Magic Dragon" which also has drug undertones, but Pufnstuf may merely be a play on the Magic Dragon song, so the Kroffts may not have had to actually do drugs to create the show.

Josie and the Pussycats name obviously came from the Tom Jones song What's New Pussycat?

During the late sixties, Saturday morning was coming under attack for violence, so with Scooby Doo, Krofft shows sought to usher in a kinder format, with Pufnstuf and Bugaloos.

Now in comparison to other real life shows at that time, such as Shazam and Isis, there is slightly off-kilter effects to the Krofft shows.

Even in comparison to Jim Henson's Sesame Street (which began the same year as Pufnstuf, 1969), the Krofft's stand strangely on their own.

Another show called the New Zoo Revue doesn't seem to go spiraling out of control like the Krofft shows do.

So cameramen, costumers, special effects guys, musicians, and other crew members, any of these more than likely did do drugs on any of these shows.

I doubt they were holding regular Bible readings.

Or maybe the Krofft brothers were simply creative.

Why is there no speculation that the creators of the Warner Brothers cartoons did drugs? They are just as off beat and tripping as the Krofft shows are.

Still, for this time, circa late sixties, there seems to be a need to attach drug use to both the Krofft shows and to Scooby Doo's Scooby snacks, which were actually supposed to be based on the excited dog, Snuffles, from Quickdraw McGraw cartoons who wouldn't do as he was told until he got a treat.

Wow. I'm 29. Thanks for making me feel really old, cuz I LOVED those shows when I was a kid. A 20-yr. old made me feel old. . . time to go jump off a bridge! lol




"Damn the torpedoes, or give me death!"