Sid Krofft, the wildly imaginative puppeteer who teamed with his younger brother Marty to build an entertainment empire behind such iconic TV shows as The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost, has sadly passed away. He was 96.
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| HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 13: Sid Krofft attends Sid and Marty Krofft honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 13, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images) |
Krofft, eight years older than Marty and the creative force of their business, died in his sleep at the Los Angeles home of friend and business partner Kelly Killian on Friday, April 10. Marty died in November 2023 at age 86.
“I get a dream, and Marty gets it done,” Sid said of their partnership in a 2000 interview for the TV Academy Foundation.
The pair were well-known theatrical puppeteers in 1968 when they were recruited to design the costumes for the live-action portion of NBC’s The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. Their furry animal characters (Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky), members of a rock band, were an instant hit on the Saturday morning show, which ran from 1968-70 (and in reruns since then).
The next year, NBC asked them to create a Saturday morning kids show, and they came up with H.R. Pufnstuf, about a shipwrecked boy (Jimmy, played by Jack Wild) who lands on a magical island. The title character, Pufnstuf, was a revamp of Luther, a friendly dragon that they had created for a show at the 1968 HemisFair in San Antonio.
NBC wanted a second season to follow the 17-episode first but offered only a small increase on the rights fee, already far below what it was costing the brothers to make the show, so they declined. H.R. Pufnstuf was canceled in 1970 but lived on in reruns as well.
Pufnstuf‘s psychedelic sets and costumes were a big hit with college kids, and The Beatles asked for a full set of episode tapes to be sent to them in England. The look of the show prompted many whispers that the brothers took drugs, something Marty denied.
“You can’t do a show stoned,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in January 2016 during a visit to explore the Krofft archives.
The duo followed Pufnstuf with The Bugaloos (1970-72), the Claymation series Lidsville (1971-73), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-75) and Land of the Lost (1974-76), which spawned an Will Ferrell movie adaptation in 2009. Those shows were wildly popular in syndication as well.
“We screwed with every kid’s mind,” Marty told THR. “There’s a Krofft look — the colors. There’s an edge. Disney doesn’t have an edge.”
Indeed, the Kroffts‘ style was so popular that McDonald’s copied it to create Mayor McCheese and McDonaldland for an early 1970s advertising campaign. The Kroffts sued, winning a reported seven-figure settlement in 1977.
A year earlier, the brothers opened The World of Sid & Marty Krofft theme park in downtown Atlanta’s new Omni Complex (now CNN’s headquarters). Spread over six levels, it was billed as the world’s first vertical amusement park. About 600,000 visitors came during the recession-plagued ’70s, but it wasn’t enough to cover the costs and interest payments, and the park closed after just six months.
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| Sid (left) and Marty Krofft with Mutt & Stuff. COURTESY OF SID & MARTY KROFFT PICTURES ARCHIVE |
Long after other smaller kids producers had sold out to conglomerates, the Kroffts were still developing shows as the last of the great 1960s independents. As late as 2015, they had a hit on Nickelodeon with Mutt & Stuff (one episode even featured a guest appearance from Pufnstuf).
The Kroffts also developed numerous live-action variety shows including The Brady Bunch Hour, The Donny & Marie Show, The Bay City Rollers Show and Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.
They produced another kids show hosted by Richard Pryor, based on his childhood, and their puppets toured with such acts as Judy Garland, Liberace, The Mills Brothers, Tony Martin & Cyd Charisse and Frank Sinatra.
Krofft was born in Montreal on July 30, 1929, and when he was young, he and his family lived in Maine, Rhode Island and the Bronx. For PR, the brothers liked to say that they came from a long line of puppeteers going back many generations. In truth, the story was fabricated. Their father was a clock salesman who emigrated from Greece in the early 1900s.
“The Kroffts have been playing with dolls their whole lives,” Marty joked about the brothers’ boyhood interest in puppeteering. By the time he was 15, Sid was already working clubs in New York.
(They had two other brothers; Hy died during fighting in World War II, and Harry, who died last year, briefly worked for their company before going into real estate.)
At 20, Sid got hired by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and Marty joined his brother full-time in 1958 after an assistant left. They opened Les Poupees de Paris, an adults-only burlesque puppet show that was a huge hit, playing to sold-out crowds at a dinner theater in the San Fernando Valley.
“Les Poupees took us from an act, Sid’s act, to a business,” Marty said. Shirley MacLaine was there on opening night, and Richard Nixon came during his run for president.
Les Poupees took to the road and played the world’s fairs in Seattle in 1962, New York in 1964 and San Antonio in 1968. It featured 240 puppets, mostly topless women, and Time magazine called it a “dirty puppet show.”
After that, it was so popular, “we couldn’t even get our own best friends in the theater,” Sid said. It drew an estimated 9.5 million viewers in its first decade of performances.
All this led to shows at Six Flags amusements parks around the U.S. — they employed more than 100 puppeteers at one point — and appearances on TV, including a regular gig on The Dean Martin Show (they created a chorus line of girl puppets for the variety program before they were replaced by The Golddiggers).
The Krofft brothers also created D.C. Follies in the 1980s, a puppet show about political news and current events. In 1988, the duo produced Comedy Kings for the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The duo were awarded the Lifetime Career Award at the 2003 Saturn Awards and the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 2018.
In 2020, the brothers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Survivors include his three nieces (Marty’s daughters), Deanna, Kristina and Kendra. Publicist Adam Fenton said Krofft had surgery in November and his recovery proved “difficult and frustrating.”
Until recently, Krofft and Killian interviewed celebrities for their Instagram Live show, Sundays With Sid. At the time of his death, they were finalizing two books about his life and career, one from the perspective of Krofft as a performer, the other from Krofft as a person behind the scenes.
“I loved Sid with my whole heart. He taught me more than I could ever put into words — about the art of Hollywood, the magic of the stage and the depth and complexity of human nature,” she said on Instagram. “I didn’t know Sid for his shows — I only knew the man who created them. And that man was extraordinary. I wish so very much that I had more time with him. I will miss his big blue eyes, his cheerful smile with his dimples and the warmth that seemed to follow him everywhere he went.”
His career included plenty of live television as well.
R.I.P. Sid Krofft, July 30, 1929 - April 10, 2026
From Variety:
Sid Krofft, Producer and Creator of ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ ‘Land of the Lost,’ Dies at 96
Sid Krofft, who with his late brother Marty created and produced memorable kids shows “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost” — as well as the 2009 feature based on the latter — died Friday in Los Angeles.
His friend Kelly Killian wrote on Instagram, “I loved Sid with my whole heart. The last six years of my life were devoted to him, and his to me. In that time, he taught me more than I could ever put into words—about the art of Hollywood, the magic of the stage, and the depth and complexity of human nature. I wish so very much that I had more time with him.
“There is no way I could ever repay the life lessons he gave me, both the beautiful and the difficult. Even now, I find myself instinctively checking in on him, walking into a room ready to ask him a question about a piece of history or a person that no longer exists. I didn’t know Sid for his shows — I only knew the man who created them. And that man was extraordinary.
“Last Thursday night, he grabbed my arm and said, “Kelly, I need you to know something… I love you.” Those words will stay with me forever. I will miss his big blue eyes, his cheerful smile with his dimples, and the warmth that seemed to follow him everywhere he went. That man embodied love, life, and happiness—right to the very end…”
His brother and partner Marty Krofft died in 2023.
Having only been informed of their uncle’s passing, nearly 72 hours after it was reported to the media, The Krofft sisters, along with the rest of the company, are all saddened to hear about the passing of Sid Krofft.
His nieces and Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures released a statement, saying, “Sid Krofft was a rainbow-colored, prolific and creative genius who rose from humble beginnings to become a true embodiment of the American Dream. Born in Canada, Sid, along with his brother Marty, built an entertainment empire that continues to inspire generations. The brothers’ history of contrasting styles and personalities, ultimately produced a perfectly complementary blending of visions creating dazzling and imaginative worlds that have entertained and shaped future generations.”
The Kroffts also produced a number of variety shows, including “Donnie and Marie” and “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.”
Sid and Marty Krofft began their careers producing children’s television with “H.R. Pufnstuf,” a live-action program about a boy (actor Jack Wild) in a fantastic land with a dragon for a friend (H.R. Pufnstuf, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) and a witch — Witchiepoo, played by Billie Hayes — for an enemy; as conceptualized, the show followed the interactions between human actors; actors in colorful, oversized costumes; and life-size puppets with enormous heads.
The Krofft children’s shows were uniquely creative, and the producer brothers made the most of their low budgets by repurposing characters for other series and creating shows that hewed to a similar formula. The exceptionally vivid colors that were a hallmark of their designs led some to wonder whether the Kroffts were influenced by the use of LSD, but Marty Krofft repeatedly denied such speculation.
In 2007 TV Guide named “H.R. Pufnstuf” No. 27 on its list of the top cult shows ever.
Only 17 episodes of the series were produced; they originally aired in 1969-70 but proved successful enough to warrant reairing on NBC’s Saturday morning schedule through August 1972. The show is lovingly recalled by many who grew up at the time.
ABC aired reruns of the show on Saturday morning from September 1972 to September 1973, and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 1973 to September 1974. It was syndicated by itself from 1974-78 and in a package with six other Krofft series under the banner “Krofft Superstars” from 1978-85.
In 1970 the Kroffts produced a feature adaptation of the show called “Pufnstuf,” which included some material that would appeal to the parents along for the ride.
Certainly the Kroffts’ most successful series as measured by episodes produced (to say nothing of the feature remake decades later) was “Land of the Lost,” which focused on an entire family, the Marshalls, who travel accidentally to an alternate Earth ruled by dinosaurs as well as the primate-like people called Pakuni and the Sleestak — devolved, hissing, aggressive creatures who are part humanoid and part lizard.
The series ran on NBC from 1974-76, then aired in syndication in the early 1980s as part of the “Krofft Superstars” package. It returned to late Saturday mornings on CBS in 1985 as a replacement for the Kroffts’ “Pryor’s Place,” which had been canceled. In the 1990s the show, by now a cult classic, aired in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel.
A Kroffts remake of the series aired on ABC in 1991-92 and starred actor Timothy Bottoms.
The 2009 feature adaptation starred Will Ferrell and unsurprisingly had a comedic tone, but it failed at the box office, taking in $69 million worldwide on a $100 million production budget. An L.A. Times article published ahead of the release spoke of the killing the brothers would make from their percentage of profits plus licensing deals, but alas, there were no profits and probably not much licensing money.
After “H.R. Pufnstuf,” the brothers created the series “Lidsville,” involving hat people and starring Charles Nelson Reilly, and “The Bugaloos,” about winged bug people in a rock ‘n’ roll band in a magical forest who must contend with an enemy, Benita Bizarre, played by character actress Martha Raye.
Another show in the classic Krofft style was 1973’s “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” which starred child actors Johnny Whitaker and Scott Kolden and featured oversized puppets. Sigmund, played by little person Billy Barty (who’d been in “The Bugaloos”), was a sea monster who didn’t want to scare anybody, causing great embarrassment to his family; the two kids hid him in their clubhouse but had to worry that his family would kidnap or that someone else would find out about him.
The show ran for 13 episodes on NBC in 1973-75 and made a significant impression.
In February 2015 the Kroffts signed a deal with Amazon Studios to develop a reimagined pilot for “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.” The brothers long had feature adaptations of “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Lidsville” in development. The series, which premiered in 2017, produced seven episodes for Amazon.
“Sid and Marty are geniuses, and we are honored to be working with them to bring to the world a return of what we believe is TV’s most fabulous and funniest sea creature ever,” said Amazon Studios VP Roy Price in a 2015 statement.
“The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl” (1973) was a TV special capturing an attempt by the Kroffts to bring their creations into the live arena (the Brady Brunch kids were involved too), but it was a rather haphazardly produced affair.
In 1974 the Kroffts served as executive producers for a variety special starring Raquel Welch.
The brief series “The Lost Saucer,” starring Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi, and “Far Out Space Nuts,” starring Bob Denver and Chuck McCann, followed. The former series brought aliens to Earth; the latter followed two janitors accidentally launched into space.
“Electra Woman and Dyna Girl” (1976) progressively featured a female superhero (played by Deidre Hall) and her female sidekick (Judy Strangis).
By the mid-’70s the Kroffts seemed to be moving away from the puppet-based children’s content that had been their trademark and into variety shows.
While “Wonderbug,” about a dune buggy that could turn into a superhero car, ran for a season on ABC, 1978’s “The Bay City Rollers Show” combined a variety format with puppet elements, and “Donnie and Marie,” starring the Osmond siblings, was a pure variety show and a big hit for ABC that ran for 63 episodes from 1976-78. (After some legal wrangling, however, the Osmond family wrested control of the show from the Kroffts in 1977, after which the show was shot in Utah.) There was also “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” which ran for nine episodes on ABC in 1976-77 (even Ann B. Davis, who played the maid Alice, was drafted for this musical effort).
After a series of other variety specials, most intended as pilots for series, the Kroffts produced “Pryor’s Place,” a kids shows starring comedian Richard Pryor (and including some puppets) that lasted 10 episodes on CBS before cancellation in 1985. The show was recognized by the Daytime Emmys with wins for art direction and costume design (always a strength for the Kroffts) as well as two nominations for outstanding performer (Pryor and Lily Tomlin), a nomination for writing and two others in technical categories.
Returning to puppets, but this time for adults, the Kroffts produced “D.C. Follies,” a syndicated series in which Fred Willard played the bartender in a tavern where political figures in caricatured puppet form would wander in and interact. Persons thus satirized included presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon, as well as newsmen Dan Rather and Ted Koppel. The series ran from 1987-89.
After the “Land of the Lost” remake in 1992, they returned with a remake of the classic ’60s series “Family Affair” in 2002, with Gary Cole in the Brian Keith role and Tim Curry playing the butler Mr. French once portrayed by Sebastian Cabot. The show aired for a single season on the WB.
Most recently, in 2015 the Kroffts created “Mutt & Stuff,” a Nickelodeon series starring “Dog Whisperer’s” Cesar Millan, his son Calvin, a bunch of real dogs and some puppets, including a talking fire hydrant and two cats.
Cydus Yolas was born in Montreal to parents of Greek origin, but his father moved the family to Providence, R.I., and then New York City. Krofft began puppeteering when he was young, and with his father’s encouragement, he became a professional who displayed his talents in vaudeville and joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the age of 15. In the 1940s Sid created “The Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft,” a one-man puppet show he performed throughout the world. Back in New York, Marty began staging performances with his older brother’s puppets in order to earn money.
During the 1950s, Sid was touring as the opening act for celebrities including Judy Garland, Liberace, Cyd Charisse and Tony Martin; when he found himself needing another puppeteer when he opened for Garland at the Flamingo Hotel, he asked Marty to assist.
In 1957 the Krofft brothers developed “Les PoupĂ©es de Paris,” a puppet show sporting mature themes.
A 2008 article in the Los Angeles Times described the brothers’ dynamic this way: “Marty had joined the act by the late 1950s, and from then on the two puppeteers were locked in a contest to prove who was really pulling the strings. Sid was the creative force, but Marty was the one who made sure the act actually made it to the stage.”
In 1968 the Kroffts created a character called Luther for the Coca Cola company that served as the basis for Pufnstuf.
The Kroffts began their Hollywood career by designing the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera series “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour,” which ran on NBC from 1968-70.
In 1976 the Kroffts were asked to develop an amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was one of the world’s first indoor amusement parks, but attendance was poor and it closed after six months. The building that contained the park was renamed the CNN Center when the site was converted to the current headquarters of CNN.
In 2008 the Kroffts admitted to the Los Angeles Times that much of their family history as reported was the fictional product of a publicist in the 1940s. Part of this imaginary history was that were fifth-generation puppeteers.
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