Theresa · Mather

All the buzz about the Land of the Lost movie made me think of the Sid and Marty Krofft shows I watched religiously as a kid. It's been many years since I've seen any of them, so last night I did a little poking around on Youtube. Just watching the credit sequences brings back all sorts of memories.

I wanted to be the girl Bugaloo. I thought the boy Bugaloos were cute.


I still know the words to the Pufnstuf theme.


I was surprised at how few episodes of some of these shows there actually are, because I remember watching these shows frequently. I really liked the controversial Lidsville as well. People freaked out because they thought it was trying to push drug culture on kids.


I really liked Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.


I remember getting my issue of "Dynamite" magazine for kids and reading all about the Sid and Marty Krofft theme park. The idea of a crystal carousel with see-through horses really stuck in my mind- I loved carousels even as a very small kid. It sounded like a wonderful park. But alas, it was on the opposite end of the country and only survived 5 and a half months.
In the 90's I unexpectedly got to see one of the horses from the crystal carousel. Someone trucked it to an auction I was attending, and tried to sell it outside for a high price. It was very large, and solid resin. The crystal tail trailed down to the ground to add support to it. Apparently the whole carousel weighed in at over 60 tons. The resin had purpled with age, but even in it's lonely state I could tell the crystal carousel must have been an awesome sight. Supposedly it was even surrounded by crystal trees, but I have yet to see a picture of the intact machine, and pictures of the park are hard to come by. CNN center now occupies the space that housed the short lived indoor amusement park in Atlanta.

I look at these shows now so many years later and see how they influenced me.