Lidsville

I remember watching Lidsville in the early 70s. It was another of the "Stranger in a Strange Land" themed shows from the team of Sid and Marty Krofft as Mark, who fell into a magician's hat and ended up in a land of hats called Lidsville, was captured by the show's villain, Hoo Doo the Magician and he tried to leave and head home but he ended up staying.

Butch Patrick, in his first series since The Munsters was canceled in 1966 was outstanding as Mark. Charles Nelson Reilly, in his role between The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Match Game was really campy as Hoo Doo, all the way to his green makeup. Let's not forget krofft stalwart Billie Hayes as Weenie the Genie. She even reprises her Witchiepoo role in one episode.

There were also a lot of life-sized puppet characters, including a number that were played by The Hermine Midgets. It was the only series they did and to my knowledge, they were never heard from again.

What I liked about the show were the puppets and psychedelic setting. What i didn't like was the writing. It was full of puns and clichés. Whoever wrote those shows didn't have a lot of TV writing experience.

Aside from the writing, Lidsville was a joy to watch. It was a show that really flipped your lid.

If you thought H.R. Pufinstuf was tripped out, Lidsville really upped the ante big time! Teen-ager Mark (Butch Patrick, a/k/a Eddie Munster) is captivated by a magic show at an amusement park and decides to stay behind after the show to see if he can discover any of the magician's secrets. He touches the top hat, which grows to an enormous size, then climbs up top to have a look and falls into the hat, spiraling into the trippy land known as Lidsville. This parallel universe is inhabited by life-size versions of almost every type of headgear imaginable, plus a benevolent Weenie the Genie and the deliciously evil Hoo-Doo the magician. Episodes revolve around Hoo-Doo's efforts to retrieve a magic ring in Mark's possession and Mark's efforts to return home to the real world. As an 8-year-old child, this was fun, colorful and visually stimulating, but in retrospect how can you NOT think psychedelics played a major role in bringing this show to life? As a side note, I remember Lidsville was the feature attraction of the 1973 Ice Capades, and seeing all those hats on skates, gliding on the ice at the Chicago Stadium is indelibly etched into my memory 30 years later!!!

This show, like most of the Krofft brothers shows, is basically one wild experience. They claim that they never were on drugs while they were creating these shows, but I doubt that very seriously. This show basically is one long LSD trip and it basically is the same theme as the Krofft's other big creation H.R. Pufinstuff. Also, the songs that provided the musical interludes had to be some of the corniest ever written.

I can't necessarily tell you why specifically I liked certain shows in the 70s because I was 3 to 12 years old during that decade, but in general they must have hit me someplace where they stuck.

I didn't realize all these shows were Kroft . . . but I had strong opinions on them. Sigmund and the Sea Monster I couldn't stand, uggh. Who was the redheaded kid on that? Man he was like lame city-- Danny Bonaducci meets whoever played Jody on Family Affair.

But anyway, I loved Lidsville and Land of the Lost both! I remember the latter just a little bit better but wow, those shows made impressions on me. Pufnstuf I would say I liked better than Sigmund but not as much as Lidsville or Land of the Lost.

I think I had a thing about hats anyway as a kid because I remember an activity book that my mom got me and it had hats you cut out and that fascinated me too. Maybe hats are combinations of symbolic vaginas and also of masks/identities. Wow dude no wonder Lidsville is so tripped out! Remember the hat plays largely in Alice in Wonderland too -- the mad hatter. Yes I think hats must definitely mean more to us than adornment or weatherproofing.

"Lidsville" is the story of Mark ("The Munsters' " Butch Patrick) who is budding magician. After seeing the magician Hoodoo (Charles Nelson Reilly), Mark sneaks backstage to see if Hoodoo has real magic or not. He touches Hoodoo's magic hat, which suddenly grows to enormous size. Looking into the hat, Mark falls inside -- and into a secret dimension called Lidsville, where everyone is a giant, talking hat.

Mark has Hoodoo's magic wand, which Hoodoo wants back or he can't continue to work his magic. But only Hoodoo knows the secret of how to get out of the hat and back to the real world.

Hoodoo, his talking vulture pal Orson, and a host of other baddies routinely try to destroy the town of Lidsville and its oversized fedoral inhabitants -- while Jimmy saves the day every time.

For kids, "Lidsville" was a great show. (The theme song, quoted above, stick in my head 35 years later!) Charles Nelson Reilly was the perfect wacky, green-faced magician with red hair. As a seven year old, I lived every week to see him fly in his gigantic, flattened top-hat with Orson. His laugh, his goofiness, and his campy evilness thrilled me. Mark seemed too goody-two-shoes to me, and the inhabitants of Lidsville were too clumsy and inanimate to really do much. Every show was really about Mark, learning cooperation and friendship in order to beat the schemes of silly Hoodoo. Probably the worst episodes had Mark almost getting out of Lidsville, because at the last second he'd be forced back into the alterna-dimension and I'd feel horrible for him. But the other shows were wonderful.

Along with "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters," "H.R. Pufnstuff" and "Super Friends," this is how I spent my childhood's Saturday mornings.