Where did Saturday mornings go?

July 4, 2007

Sit down, grab a Pop-Tart, and ponder this question. What did you watch on Saturday morning TV when you were a kid? And are any of those programs on anymore? Saturday morning shows have certainly changed over the past 15-20 years, and not necessarily for the better.
Depending on what generation you grew up in, you might have fond memories of your Saturdays, waking up early in order to race downstairs in footed pajamas to watch your favorite cartoons - or you might not.
Since the late ‘80s, Saturday mornings haven’t been quite the same. Cartoon Network’s Linda Simensky says that Saturday morning animation has long been considered the “backwater” of programming for network broadcasters. So, that block of programming, over time, became less and less of a priority for the networks, who instead began enhancing their advertising dollars with teen programming (think “Saved by the Bell” and “Sweet Valley High”). The networks were also pressured by mid-’90s FCC-mandated regulations stating that broadcast stations had to put forth a minimum of three hours of children’s educational programming - Wile E. Coyote’s er, creative uses of Acme products weren’t exactly considered “educational.”

MEMORY LANE
Remember The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner hour, SuperFriends, Scooby-Doo, Ewoks, Voltron, The Smurfs, Fraggle Rock, and PeeWee’s Playhouse with their clever inside jokes, well-thought-out plots, and quirkily-inventive characters? Well, they were long gone by 1990, replaced by the tepid likes of the California Raisins, Kid n’ Play, Piggsburg Pigs, and the shadow-of-his-former-self that was Yo! Yogi.
With their pandering, simplistic dialogue and thrown-together, sloppy animation, these quick-buck shows were a far cry from the golden age of Saturday Morning TV. Thank goodness for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or there wouldn’t have been much to watch at all - that is, until the resurgence of the Sid and Marty Krofft shows began to make a return.
Even during the time of the Turtles, it was obvious that Saturday morning TV was heading for a state of mediocrity. So people started to reach even further back in order to dig up some programming that was imaginative and colorful while not pandering to the youngest possible demographic.
The “new” version of the Krofft brothers’ dinosaur-age drama “Land of the Lost” was one of the first to see a revival, and it had the unexpected effect of reviving interest in the “old” Krofft shows, starting a whole new Krofft retro trend. Today, Sid and Marty Krofft shows have become cult classics, ones that are making Saturday mornings fun again (albeit on DVD). Take that, Piggsburg.

PUPPET DAYS
So where did these Krofft fellows come from, anyway? Well, before the Krofft brothers became Saturday morning magnates, they were puppeteers back in the days of vaudeville. Marty and Sid did puppeteering together in various clubs in New York City, and were one of the last Vaudeville acts to play at New York’s famed Palace.
“After Vaudeville,” Marty Krofft reminisces, “we opened up for Judy Garland the first time she went on tour in 1957.” After that impressive start, they followed up by opening additional shows for Frank Sinatra and Liberace. Next up was the creation of an adult puppet show for the New York World’s Fair, at which they were discovered by Dean Martin, who had them make puppet showgirls for his television show; and the television bug was thereby planted in the Krofft’s collective brain.
“After we stopped working with Dean Martin, we started working at Six Flags doing puppet shows, with Coke as our sponsor,” Krofft explains, “Hanna-Barbara (famed cartoon production company known for such shows as “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons”) became familiar with our work, and we created The Banana Splits for them.” The Saturday morning Banana Splits - a quartet of animal musicians including a beagle, a gorilla, a lion, and an elephant - were played by actors in inventive fleece costumes, and would be the precursor to the Krofft shows that would soon follow.

A STAR IS BORN
In 1968, the Krofft brothers created a Coke mascot for the 1968 World’s Fair - and from him, the creature that would come to be known as H.R. Pufnstuf was born, a magical being inspired in part by Sid Krofft’s love for “The Wizard of Oz” stories. Pufnstuf himself would shortly thereafter be developed into the main character for the Krofft’s first full-scale TV show, also titled “H.R. Pufnstuf.”
Featuring large-scale, colorful puppetry (Pufnstuf himself resembles a sort of mop-topped pumpkinhead in a fleece jumpsuit and go-go boots) and featuring charismatic and well-spoken British child actor Jack Wild as Pufnstuf’s co-star, almost all of the show’s island setting was “alive” - clocks, buildings, trees, etc. - and it soon garnered a large and faithful audience among both kids and adults who were intrigued by the zany characters, the positive messages, and the creativity of the show. PeeWee Herman was said to have even referenced Pufnstuf when creating his own “PeeWee’s Playhouse,” and the series is now experiencing a resurgence on Rhino DVD.
The Kroffts quickly capitalized on the success of Pufnstuf, but were careful not to let the quantity affect the quality; they remained focused on the originality of their programming and story ideas. Several other puppet-based shows would follow, each wackier than the next, and all causing the cult of Krofft to grow.
The original “Land of the Lost” - actually one of the Krofft’s later shows, although it may be their best-known - showcased the adventures of a family of three (Rick Marshall and kids Will and Holly) who were trapped in a dark, dinosaur-filled epic world after having fallen through a portal; although it of course had its light moments, it was surprisingly thoughtful and somewhat serious for children’s programming, which only added to its intrigue. “Land of the Lost” was actually inspired by the 1966 Raquel Welch prehistoric-times movie “One Million Years B.C.,” which was later turned into a Las Vegas stage show with the Krofft brothers in charge of the dinosaur puppets - hence the Land of the Lost idea. “I always wanted to do another show like “One Million B.C.,” Marty Krofft remembers, “so we did.”
And that wasn’t the only show that the Kroffts had in mind. Other Krofft shows with followings of their own were “Lidsville,” which told the story of a teenager who fell into a world of living hats (puppets, of course); “The Bugaloos, “which were a human British rock band who were equipped with bug appendages and wings; and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” which featured sea monster Sigmund (another puppet, this one sporting seaweed), who had run away from his unfriendly sea monster family in order to take refuge with humans. Let it not be said that the Kroffts were anything but wildly creative.

RETREADS
But the phenomenon of the Saturday mornings that we grew up with was fading, and, given the apathy for the genre, plus the ubiquitous nature of DVDs and cable cartoon channels, it seems like they’ll never return. Luckily, the Krofft shows will continue to gain new fans on DVD - and the Krofft brothers have a couple of additional tricks up their sleeves, too.
“In all of television, there are great shows and shows that are pathetic,” Krofft muses. “The kids don’t have any other choices for TV beyond what’s already on TV. So we’re going to go back in and do it the Krofft way.”
That’s right - almost 40 years after they began their TV career, Marty and Sid Krofft have made a decision to try and put a little bit of life back into Saturday morning TV - and beyond. That “beyond” part is set to include an all-new Bugaloos series for preschoolers, as well as something a little bigger for “Land of the Lost” fans - namely, a movie version of the show (due in 2008) that’s set to star none other than Will Farrell as the beleagured Rick Marshall himself.
“Our old shows, you can’t kill ‘em with a baseball bat, y’know,” Krofft chuckles, “it’s unbelievable how many fans of all ages know us and how many are still finding us. We’re lucky, we’re still above the grass, Nick Jr. is about to rerun some of the original Pufnstuf shows again, and we’re ready to do even more.”
Which is, of course, good news for loyal fans of what used to be - and what might someday be again - classic Saturday Morning TV.