In this episode we are talking about Sid and Marty Krofft and their weird and wonderful show like "H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost."
In this episode we are talking about Sid and Marty Krofft and their weird and wonderful show like "H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost."
Welcome to Don’t Touch That Dial, a classic TV podcast. Did you grow up in the 70s and 80s? Did you rush home from school to watch reruns of the Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family? On each episode of Don't Touch That Dial, three guys who love TV will look back on those days and talk about the shows and stars that made watching television before streaming, DVRs, and even VCRs so special.
JODY: The latest of Don’t Touch That Dial was recorded before the passing of Marty Krofft. We are honored to present it to you in tribute to Krofft’s remarkable accomplishments
ANTHONY: Hello Sleestaks and sea monsters and welcome to another episode of Don't Touch That Dial, a classic TV Podcast. Today we are talking about Sid and Marty Krofft and their weird and wonderful kid shows that aired on Saturday mornings in the 70s. I'm Anthony Stoeckert.
JODY: I’m Jody Schwartz.
KEITH: And I’m Keith Loria.
ANTHONY: Before we get to the world of Sid and Marty Krofft, Keith has an update on an event he attended, during which Henry Winkler promoted his new memoir Being Henry: the Fonz and Beyond. This is a tough challenge, but we need to make this kind of quick. Keith, just tell us a little bit about what this event was and what your experience was there.
KEITH: The Fonz was in DC doing a reading and a signing for his new book. I got to go. Any opportunity to see Henry Winkler, I am going to take. It was like an hour interview. He told stories, many I had never heard before and I've seen him a few times do similar things. And so far I started the book, great book, really enjoyable. Definitely go out and get that one. If you have the chance to ,you know, see a similar event. Go check it out. I know he's touring the country right now.
ANTHONY: Can you tell us one quick story that you hadn't heard before? Because that is pretty impressive that there was was a story you hadn't heard?
KEITH: So someone asked him about the jump the shark reference and whether it bothered him and you know, he was talking about how Happy Days was still number one for years after the jump-the-shark episode. So obviously it wasn't the curse that people think it was. It's not like the Ted McGinley curse. And he said, he talked about how it happened. Henry Winkler’s father went up to Gary Marshall and said, “My son water skis” because he was telling Henry to tell him for years. “Tell him you can water ski; tell him you can water ski,” and he finally told him and so once Gary heard that, he’s is like “ahhh!” and had jump-over-the-shark moment.
JODY: (Imitates Gary Marshall) “Got get him on the skis.”
ANTHONY: Can you imagine being Henry Winkler? You're so successful and famous and you're like, “Oh, no, my dad's telling Gary about the water skiing.” Very cool. Very cool. I think jumping the shark gets a little misunderstood. The people who do it…
JODY: It’s always been misunderstood.
ANTHONY: Yeah, the people who did it never said the show was terrible after. It's just that something changed. It wasn't quite as good as it used to be.
JODY: Yeah, they had a lot of good episodes following that moment and it's used incorrectly.
ANTHONY: Yeah, but I think their original definition is that jumping the shark is really more of a turning point.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Not necessarily that the show was terrible from you know, from that.
KEITH: I was going to say he also had this great story about meeting Robert De Niro for the first time after Mean Streets and I can't repeat it here because there's a lot of cursing involved, but it was a very funny story. So one that you should hear.
ANTHONY: All right. Well you can tell us later.
KEITH: I’ll tell you off camera.
ANTHONY: I'm shocked that there's a story involving De Niro that involves cursing,
JODY: Yea, right. Imagine that.
ANTHONY: All right, well, let's get on to the topic of this episode, and that is Sid and Marty Krofft. I'll give just a little bit of a background. They are brothers; they were born in Canada. One of them worked in Ringling Brothers Circus for a while and they designed characters I think for television. Among the shows they were involved with was the Dean Martin Show, and then they got hired by Hanna-Barbera to do characters and sets for the Banana Splits. I guess the Banana Splits does technically not a Sid and Marty Krofft show but a Hanna-Barbera show and then they went on to do a whole bunch of shows: H.R. Pufnstuf, the Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost. So I guess just, we'll start with Keith because I know Keith loves these guys. What do you want to go with? Your first memories? Your favorite show? Wherever you want to go.
KEITH: Even though they were on Saturday mornings, my biggest memories are that I would rush home from school and they would have kind of like this Sid and Marty Krofft – I don't know if it was called the superstar hour or something like that. And there'll be two episodes on everyday and you never knew what it would be.
JODY: They had a few different shows too. Some of it was Saturday morning. Some of that was after school, but they had a few.
KEITH: Yea, right. It could be Sigmund, it could be Land of the Lost. It could be a Lost Saucer with Jim Nabors also a great one. And you would always get disappointed if it was like the Bugaloos or Lidsville.
JODY: Yes. And the Bugaloos was almost like a big long music video. Wasn't really much of anything.
ANTHONY: I don't think I remember this. So basically, it was a syndicated version and they mixed up the shows?
JODY: Basically, they did a lot of different shows in the 60s, and then they syndicated them in the 70s as part of like packages. So some of them would be on Saturday morning. Some of them would be after school. They actually had a couple of things on Saturday mornings. They had The Krofft Superstar Hours from 78 to 79, which had the Bay City Rollers as part of it, and they had the Krofft Super Show, which had a fictional band called Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, where Michael Lembeck was Kaptain Kool.
KEITH: Yes.
JODY: And they had shows like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, which was actually live action not puppets, and they had Wonderbug as part of that, and oh, Magic Mongo and interesting thing about Magic Mongo was that Lennie Weinrib played Mongo, and he was also the voice of H.R. Puff. A little Sid and Marty Krofft trivia there.
KEITH: There's a lot of people that seem to be in several episodes, like different series like Billy Barty obviously was in several of them.
JODY: Witchiepoo.
KEITH: Withchiepoo was also, Yes.
ANTHONY: What was the show, You mentioned, Jody, that didn't have puppets?
JODY: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Magic Mongo, neither of … they didn't have puppets. Electra Woman and Dyna Girl were two female superheroes but not – again all live action and Magic Mongo he was a genie; Lennie Weinrib was a genie and he helped these teenage kids get through life. Interestingly enough about Magic Mongo, Bart Braverman was played the bully in that – his name was Ace; the bully's name was Ace – and he was Binzer on the Vegas show.
KEITH: Also Electra Woman was played by Deidre Hall who was one of the famous soap opera stars of all time.
JODY: I was, actually I was, I knew you’d would bring it up.
ANTHONY: I remember a Saturday show about a female superhero, but I don't think it was that. Was there something else? I feel like she had things on her wrist.
JODY: The Mighty Isis. It was part of Shazam!
ANTHONY: That wasn't Sid and Marty Krofft, though?
JODY: No, it was not no.
ANTHONY: Okay. All right. Well, then let's stop talking about it. My favorite show of theirs was Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, which I don't remember well, but basically the premise was these two kids are on the beach and they find a sea monster and the sea monster has a really annoying family. And basically, in every episode, they're trying to make sure nobody finds out Sigmund exists.
KEITH. Exactly.
ANTHONY: That's basically my memories of this show.
JODY: That was pretty much the whole premise, just keeping Sigmund … that was part of the theme song. It was in it, too.
KEITH: Yes, the theme song is awesome, by the way, one of my favorites.
ANTHONY: One of the writers of the songs for these, for the show was Bobby Hart, who co-wrote many of The Monkees’ biggest hits.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Boyce and Hart was a songwriting team for The Monkees.
JODY: And that's just it. A lot of these Sid and Marty Krofft shows were kind of set after The Monkees. There was same kind of like, you know, quick hijinx …
ANTHONY: Yes, that’s a good point.
JODY: … they’re running around. A lot of it – they actually said that – a lot of those shows were tailored after that, after The Monkees.
ANTHONY: And the one kid was from Family Affair, right. Am I right about that?
JODY: Johnny Whitaker.
ANTHONY: I think when I was a kid, I think I thought this kid's a huge, this guy's a huge star.
JODY: He was Jody on Family Affair.
ANTHONY: Yeah. And they did a reboot on Amazon.
KEITH: I never watched that.
ANTHONY: I mean, I tried to watch it. It wasn't good. And they basically just recast everything.
KEITH: Wasn’t David Arquette in that?
ANTHONY: . Yes, he was, but I think instead of recasting, it should have still been with the original kids, and now they're 60 and they still have to constantly protect Sigmund from getting in trouble.
JODY: That’d be so great.
ANTHONY: And then like they realize that…
JODY: “We’re still doing this!”
ANTHONY: … and it's really annoying to them, and then they realize that Sigmund’s gonna live for hundreds of years and it makes them face their own mortality.
JODY: Oh that’s so funny. How did this not happen? How did we not do this?
KEITH: And I have to say about Sigmund, too, – this is very important – that Rip Taylor was in some later episodes.
JODY: Rip Taylor was everywhere. And he was like Paul Lynde. He was like everywhere in the 70s.
ANTHONY: Margaret Hamilton was in it. She's the witch from the Wicked Witch and Mary Wickes, do you know who she is?
KEITH: No.
ANTHONY: You’d definitely know her face. She was on every show, the thing that might stand out is she was the colonel on M*A*S*H who Margaret was really nervous about.
KEITH: Ah, right, right. Interesting. And you know what? There were a lot of adults in the show, but, interestingly enough, there were no parents, right?
JODY: Yeah. You have a lot of adults but not their own family. My favorite with that was always Punstuf. And I remember I have very clear memories of watching that show. I had no idea when I was a kid that it actually came on originally in 1969. They repackaged it in the 70s. I thought it was new in the 70s. I thought this was a new show. H.R. Pufnstuff had Jack Wild as a kid named Jimmy who gets, somehow he gets onto this boat for no reason and that he thinks is like this magic boat and the witch is trying to lure him into her castle to do god-knows-what and H.R. Pufnstuf saves him and now he lives there on Living Island and they call it Living Island because literally every inanimate object talks.
ANTHONY: And does his family know where he is.?
JODY: They never touch on that. They never touch on where his family might think he is, but he's there on Living Island with H.R. Pufnstuf and I don't know why he keeps staying there because his entire existence there Witchiepoo, Billie Hayes, is trying to get him to do whatever she's gonna do to him. You would think he would just go home. That would be safe but he's there and H.R. Pufnstuf is always protecting him.
KEITH: And his magic flute.
JODY: He has a magic flute that talks, Freddy the flute.
ANTHONY: And he knows to get home he has, like, the means? He knows – it's not like Gilligan's Island – he knows he could just get on a boat and go home.?
JODY: They do all sorts of magic. You figured they would. He just never does. They never really touched on the fact of why he just doesn't leave, you know, it's just there he is and he's Jack, Jack Wild’s played him.
ANTHONY: That is a premise that would not fly today, even 20 years ago.
JODY: It is actually one of the first live-action, live life-size puppet program.
ANTHONY: There you go.
KEITH: Also another great theme.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Yes, I do remember the theme and I know what H.R. Pufnstuf looks like. I don't remember really anything else about this show.
JODY: And he was the mayor of Living Island, H.R. Pufnstuf.
ANTHONY: What was his platform?
JODY: He ran on “We're gonna save English children from witches” platform
ANTHONY: And of course, I mean, we have to talk about Land of the Lost, which I kind of remember that show. I remember the premise but the one thing I remember is the Sleestaks because they used to freak the hell out of me.
JODY: Those were scary.
KEITH: Dinosaurs were not, but Sleestaks were.
ANTHONY: There’s somebody who is fairly well known, not for show business, who played the Sleestak. Does anyone know who it is?
JODY: I do not.
KEITH: I do not either.
ANTHONY: I only found this out yesterday on Wikipedia. Bill Laimbeer was a Sleestak, the basketball player.
JODY: Basketball player from the Pistons?
ANTHONY: Yeah.
KEITH: I don't remember them being that tall.
ANTHONY: Apparently they were tall and that's what they were looking for like tall kids from like the local basketball team.
KEITH: Very interesting.
ANTHONY: So Bill Laimbeer was a Sleestak.
KEITH: So the thing I remember about the Land of the Lost…
JODY: Score one for him. There you go.
KEITH: … that freaked me out a little when I was younger was all of a sudden the dad disappeared one episode and
JODY: Uncle Jack.
KEITH: Right. He was replaced by his brother who just happened to be looking for them so went through kind of the same portal that the father went out, Rick.
JODY: They actually revised the theme song for it because the theme song tells the story. So when the episodes with Uncle Jack, they revise it. And the funny thing is with that is when they show it, on the opening credits, you see Uncle Jack, for whatever reason in the canoe. He’s in a canoe and that's how we get sucked into this time portal.
ANTHONY: Was this just a matter of the actor who played the dad wanted to leave the show?
KEITH: Yes.
JODY: He hated Bill Laimbeer.
ANTHONY: By the way, I hope when – well hopefully it's a long way off – but when Bill Laimbeer dies, I really hope the headline is “Sleestak passes away.”
JODY: No mention of the NBA championships.
ANTHONY: Nothing, no. Why didn't they just recast the dad like on Bewitched? Would people have noticed? Kids might have noticed.
KEITH: Kids may have. It may have bothered them.
JODY: But you know what? They went through the trouble of doing that but they really didn't give a good explanation of why the father wasn't there anymore. He just sort of like got sucked into another portal.
KEITH: They did explain that he was doing his pylons. They just have these things called pylons with crystals inside, and he got sucked in. And that's how Jack got sucked back in this world. So they definitely had an episode where they explained it which was interesting because they don't always do that on television.
ANTHONY: Did the father ever show up again?
KEITH: No.
JODY: That was it.
ANTHONY: Did any of these shows resolve? Like did they have finales where like the kids from H.R. Pufnstuf got home or with the people from Land of the Lost got home?
KEITH: No.
JODY: By the way, I feel like Uncle Jack was a jump-the-shark moment for that show.
KEITH: Maybe. Though is that when Cha-Ka came into it? I don't think Cha-Ka was in until Jack was in it.
JODY: I remember as a kid being disappointed when the Uncle Jack episodes were on. I wanted to see the father for whatever reason. I don't really even know why but I remember as a kid feeling a little letdown when the opening credit, “Man, it's an Uncle Jack episode.”
KEITH: What's interesting, I had read this is that a lot of the episodes were written by very, you know, famous sci-fi writers at the time. And when Walter Koenig from Star Trek actually did an episode.
ANTHONY: Oh really? There was a reboot of Land of the Lost. Did anyone know that in 1991?
JODY: Yes. I never saw it. I knew it existed.
KEITH: And the movie with Will Ferrell.
ANTHONY: Yeah, I knew about the movie. I did not know about the reboot.
KEITH: Movie’s terrible.
ANTHONY: Yeah, no, I never saw it. I never saw it, either. What other shows that these guys do that you guys remember?
KEITH: So like we said the Bugaloos which Jody said was just really one long British video of this group, but I was Margaret Hamilton in that one as well?
JODY: No, Billie – the Witchiepoo – Hayes. Billie Hayes. Yea, Billie Hayes was in it.
KEITH: I'm sure Rip Taylor was in it, too.
JODY: Wasn’t… I feel like – what's her name? – was in it. Phyllis Diller?
KEITH: Oh, you're right. Yeah. She's was
ANTHONY: Phyllis Diller also supposedly was the basis for one of the relatives in segments.
KEITH: Maybe the aunt, yeah.
ANTHONY: Maybe so Sid and Marty Krofft were big Phyllis Diller fans, I guess.
JODY: Well, who isn’t? One thing I'm going to bring up too is another favorite of mine. You mentioned the Banana Splits before which was actually a split between Hanna-Barbera and Sid and Marty Krofft. They did it the Banana Splits: Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky were these four giant puppets. And the way they packaged it in the 70s was – from actually from 70 to 82, so for a long time they did this – a part of the show would be set in the Banana Splits like house wherever they lived or they'd be in an amusement park or somewhere. And then they would introduce cartoons, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such as Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel. They would all be part of that. So it would be like and so basically they took existing cartoons and then combined them with the Banana Splits and it would be like okay, so suddenly, you'd see the banana splits doing something crazy and be like and now here's this and then they show an Atom Ant cartoon.
ANTHONY: There was also an amusement park – a Sid and Marty Krofft Amusement Park.
JODY: Right and you would see them walking around that. You would see. That would be part of it. You'd see them walking around the amusement park, you'd see them doing things in the set – Boing! –like sounds like that.
ANTHONY: But the park was a flop.
KEITH: It’s now CNN headquarters.
ANTHONY: Yes, exactly. Yes. And apparently there was an elevator that was part of the park that was a big deal. And that elevator is still part of the CNN offices. There was so much land apparently some of the land’s not used. I don't think there's like, you know, ignored Sid and Marty Krofft stuff floating around.
JODY: And by the way, the Banana Splits also had a very cool theme song.
ANTHONY: Absolutely.
KEITH: They all do.
ANTHONY: That one I remember very well. Wasn't there an episode of The Partridge Family where they went to an amusement park and the characters were Sid and Marty Krofft?
JODY: No, Brady Bunch.
KEITH: Brady Bunch.
JODY: … where they went to that amusement park in Cincinnati.
ANTHONY: Oh yeah, but that wouldn't have been the Atlanta amusement park?
JODY: That was the Cincinnati one very famously that was they were at – the Cincinnati amusement park.
ANTHONY: Okay. Anybody else have anything to do want to say?
KEITH: So probably when I was about 5, 6 years old, I got to see it was like an H.R. Pufnstuf in concert. It was one of those things. I believe it was at the Nassau Coliseum. I don't remember...
JODY: I went to that too.
KEITH: You did? Yes. I don't remember a lot about it. But I do remember I got, like the program which had like a coloring book inside and I loved that program. And I lost that once and I was so upset and tried to find another one never. There was no eBay back then.
ANTHONY: Have you looked recently?
KEITH: No. I haven't even thought about it until just now.
ANTHONY: Well, we know what you're doing after we…
JODY: I was about to say. I may have to outbid Keith for that thing on eBay.
ANTHONY: All of a sudden some guy's got some programs and like the bid gets up to $1,000 between two guys. It's been up there for years.
KEITH: There's another show. Let’s talk about The Lost Saucer with Jim Nabors and Ruth…
JODY: Buzzi
ANTHONY: Oh, yeah, I vaguely remember this one.
KEITH: Oh, so good. Yeah, that was one of my favorites. I really liked Jim Nabors. You know, I had already known who Gomer Pyle was at the time.
ANTHONY: And Ruth Buzzi was in it too.
JODY: But no again no puppets, Well, I guess occasionally aliens, right?
KEITH: Sometimes Yeah. But they played Fi and Fum. They're flying saucer came down to and they got a boy and his babysitter.
JODY: That's the funny part about this. It's not even a brother and sister; it’s girl babysitting for a younger guy.
KEITH: And they're androids and they fight all the time.
ANTHONY: Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors are androids?
KEITH: Yeah.
JODY: They're fighting androids.
ANTHONY: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and I'm gonna guess that Jim Nabors, his character isn't all that bright?
KEITH: Correct.
ANTHONY: Wow. So some other society on a different planet, they made a dumb android?
KEITH: I don't remember the theme song for this. Do you remember?
JODY: I do. I remember the theme song very well.
KEITH: Is it (singing with Jody) “Where are you going in the sun?” Okay, it just came to me and we got to pay rights now. Great.
JODY: Oh, yeah. Well, come get us. There are actually several times during the show where the girl says that “Oh, your parents are gonna kill me.”
KEITH: I think that was her line. That was here “Whatcha talkin’ about Willis?”
JODY: There was one year – at least one year, could have been more than one – but there was one year, do you know how they would always do, all the networks would do this: they'd have an intro to their upcoming fall season of Saturday morning cartoons and there was one year when Fi and Fum hosted that. It was like a Friday night before the first showing of the new shows. I remember that very well.
ANTHONY: Do you guys know about the Far Out Space Nuts?
KEITH: Sure, Bob Denver.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: Yeah, I don't remember this one either.
KEITH: That was part of it as well.
ANTHONY: Apparently, it's a prime time show. That was a prime time show. Am I right about that?
JODY: I thought it was Saturday mornings.
KEITH: Yeah, I just know from syndication.
ANTHONY: Alright, that's Sid and Marty Krofft also so they had their sci fi theme going with…
JODY: And here's the funny part. The reason that they're out in space is because Bob Denver's character accidentally – they're actually I think they're cleaning the ship, doing some general repairing it – Bob Denver's character actually accidentally presses something that sends them into space so he screws up no matter what.
ANTHONY: Do you think Bob Denver read the script for the pilot and went, “Really? I gotta …”
JODY: I'm sure he did that, but he probably needed money.
ANTHONY: That's pretty cool. Yeah, no, I I don't know. Maybe I vaguely remember that, but I don't think so. And they did a non – they did a Richard Pryor show: Pryor’s Place.
KEITH: That I don't know.
ANTHONY: Yeah. But I think that's just like sort of a regular sitcom. I don't think it had…
JODY: No, no.
ANTHONY: It wasn't Richard Pryor walking around with puppets, right?
JODY: Yeah. Although I would pay to see that that would have been funny.
ANTHONY: Ray Parker Jr. did the theme song for Pryor's place.
JODY: Yes.
ANTHONY: And we should also point out down the road we'll do an episode about variety shows, but Sid and Marty Krofft were responsible for a lot of these here.
JODY: They must have been fun guys.
ANTHONY: Probably either a lot of fun or huge pains in the neck.
JODY: Probably a little of both. I'm sure there's a little both in there. But I mean, you know, the minds that it takes to create things like this is pretty interesting.
KEITH: There's one other thing I remember about the shows being on back to back when they were on in syndication – and this is really only for the Long Island fans that are listening — they would always be on when they had the contest where you would go “PIX! PIX! PIX, PIX, PIX!”
ANTHONY: : Oh yeah, yeah.
KEITH: Do you remember those video games?
JODY: Of course. I always wanted to get on that …
KEITH: Everyone did, yes.
JODY: Because you had to call in and play the game. I was like, oh, but the…
ANTHONY: Jody, we know someone who did it.
JODY: Oh, really?
ANTHONY: Barbara.
JODY: I didn't realize that, OK.
ANTHONY: If my memory serves correctly.
JODY: Yes. That does sound familiar.
KEITH: Did she win?
ANTHONY: I don't remember. We may have to have her on as a guest.
JODY: Can we get our producer to call up Barbara now and get her on the phone?
ANTHONY: And then there always be some wise guy just going: “PIX, PIX, PIX, PIX, PIX, PIX.”
JODY: Always some jerk.
ANTHONY: Oh, that was great. I think something that people would say about Sid and Marty Krofft in general was that it was very drug influenced, but I believe they denied that.
KEITH: They did deny it. Yes.
JODY: Yeah. It's like the same thing with the Beatles with Lucy in the Sky. They completely denied any drug, you know, thing. It was just very psychedelic. You know, it had the colorful backgrounds, they had people floating sometimes, weird music, things popping up out of nowhere going boing.
KEITH: And I know we didn't talk about Lidsville but I don't even think it deserves any time. I'm sorry. It was that bad.
ANTHONY: Wow. What was it? Did you watch it?
JODY: I almost did a spit take.
KEITH: I did watch it. I don't even remember. I just remember I was so disappointed. It was the most disappointing thing in the world when Lidsville was on when you're expecting Sigmund or Land of the Lost.
JODY: Yeah. He's right. That's just it. You turn these things on and there was always a variety of things they might show and you were like oh, when that one came on, you're like, “Okay, great day.” This one is coming on, “I may as well do my homework.”
KEITH: But Charles Nelson Reilly was in Lidsville.
ANTHONY: And so was Butch Patrick, Eddie from The Munsters. He lived in the world of living hats?
KEITH: Again, I barely remember it.
ANTHONY: I guess lids are hats..
KEITH: Yeah.
ANTHONY: And the hats on the show are depicted as having the same characteristics as the humans who would normally wear them. For example, a cowboy hat would act and speak like a cowboy.
KEITH: Oh, yes, I do remember that. It’s all coming back. I’m going to have nightmares tonight. Ahh.
JODY: I hope my hats don’t start doing that.
ANTHONY: It looks like Charles Nelson Reilly played multiple roles. He also played the villain Horatio J. Hoodoo.
KEITH: Yeah, we might need to meet to do a little binge of the show. Maybe it's better.
JODY: Croc’s Block ….
ANTHONY: What was that ?
JODY: There was a show called Uncle Croc’s Block with Charles Nelson Reilly where he played an alligator.
ANTHONY: No, I don’t remember that.
JODY: Look that up. That might be a Sid and Marty Krofft thing. But I remember it was Charles Nelson Reilly in an alligator suit, but just being Charles Nelson Reilly's not acting any different. The way you would expect him to act, only he's dressed up as an alligator.
ANTHONY: What was the name of it again?
JODY: Uncle Croc’s Block.
KEITH: Phyllis Diller also, amazing.
ANTHONY: I'm not seeing that listed under Sid and Marty Krofft.
JODY: It might not be them. But that also introduced cartoons; that was part of it as well. They introduced different cartoons there.
ANTHONY: I only knew Charles Nelson Reilly from Match Game and then I know he did a lot of theater work.
JODY: My first experience of Charles Nelson Reilly was Uncle Croc.
KEITH: I'm gonna take this all full circle. Uncle Croc's Block was on after the Shazam Isis Hour.
JODY: Yes. And that's when I watched it. I never missed the Shazam Isis Hour. I love that show.
ANTHONY: I remember, I definitely remember Isis. Yeah. All right. Anything else on Sid and Marty Krofft?
JODY: I don't think there's ever been this much said about them.
ANTHONY: So I think the way Lady Gaga calls her fans Little Monsters, I think we should call our fans Sleestacks.
JODY: I'd vote for that.
KEITH: Is Lady Gaga a television personality? I’m not familiar with her.
JODY: I'm gonna Google it now.
ANTHONY: Well, this was fun, kid-time memories, what it was like being a kid in the 70s and 80s. And if there's anybody who's younger than 50 listening to this, or 40, you had to watch this stuff when it was on. There wasn't endless kids entertainment available to you. So this stuff was special. It was important.
JODY: If there's anyone younger than 50 watching, I'm gonna ask why.
KEITH: And you did, you did race home to watch it. It wasn't…
JODY: Without question.
KEITH: There were no VCRs yet. No binging so...
JODY: It was a bad day when you missed it.
ANTHONY: And then you rushed home to find out it was Lidsville.
KEITH: Exactly.
JODY: And the day got worse.
ANTHONY: Alright, well, thanks for listening everyone. Bye.
JODY: Bye, everyone.
KEITH: Thanks for listening to Don't Touch That Dial, the classic TV podcast if you liked what you heard Be sure to subscribe. Please leave a review on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen. We'll be back soon with another journey back in time to the days of static left tracks and seven channels.