R.I.P. Marty Krofft, iconic TV producer behind H.R. Pufnstuf and Land Of The Lost

Marty Krofft, the TV producer who—along with his brother, Sid—helped develop a run of cult-classic TV shows and specials in the 1970s and beyond, has died. Through their Side & Marty Krofft Pictures label, the duo worked on H.R. Pufnstuf, Land Of The Lost, Sigmund And The Sea Monsters, and a number of other projects with an instantly recognizable blend of surrealism, camp, and occasionally darker themes. This comes from Variety, which says Krofft died of kidney failure this weekend. He was 86.

Marty Krofft was born in Montreal in 1937, and his brother became an in-demand puppeteer for vaudeville shows as a teenager. Marty, meanwhile, started using his brother’s puppets to put on some shows of his own and learning the ropes (so to speak), and when Sid began working as the opening act for bigger celebrities—including Judy Garland and Liberace—he brought in Marty to help him perform his shows.

The debuted a musical puppet show in the early ‘60s called Les Poupées De Paris that featured specifically adult-oriented content, including jokes about celebrities of the era, horror, and nudity (though, of course, the performers were all puppets). The show later traveled around the country and became a huge hit, which led to the Kroffts getting hired to design the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning kids variety show The Banana Splits.

The show was a success early on, running for 36 episodes before the ratings took a severe hit in its second season (though it lived on in syndication for another decade), but getting their foot in the door of television gave Sid and Marty Krofft an opportunity to create their own show: 1969’s H.R. Pufnstuf, which was about a young boy getting shipwrecked on an island full of wacky characters—including Pufnstuf himself, plus a magical talking flute and the villain Witchiepoo. The non-human characters were all brought to life with either giant, colorful costumes or elaborate puppetry, and a lot of viewers associated the show with an acid trip due to basically every single thing about it—though the Kroffts vehemently denied making any of their shows while on drugs throughout their careers.

Only 17 episodes of H.R. Pufnstuf were produced, but it was popular enough that it lived on in reruns for years—long enough to develop new followings that appreciated its weird aesthetics and obviously small budget as kitsch. The Kroffts followed that show with The Bugaloos, Lidsville, and Sigmund And The Seas Monsters before co-creating Land Of The Lost in 1974. That show, about a family that gets trapped in some kind of alternate world/time warp where primitive humans live alongside dinosaurs and humanoid lizard beings called Sleestaks.

That show, arguably the Kroffts’ biggest hit, ran for 43 episodes (plus, naturally, a long life in syndication) and inspired a 1991 remake and a 2009 movie with Will Ferrell, Danny McBride and Anna Friel (though it was poorly received and was a box office flop).

In the rest of the ‘70s and ‘80s, the duo mainly produced various variety shows and one-off TV specials. As recently as 2016, they were involved in a Prime Video remake of Sigmund And The Sea Monsters, and in 2015 they co-created a Nickelodeon show with Cesar Millan called Mutt & Stuff. Marty Krofft is survived by two brothers (including Sid, who is now 94), three daughters, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.