H.R. Pufnstuf

I cannot recommend this show highly enough! It is a major reason that I grew up with the wild imagination I still have to this day! Along with Lidsville and Sigmund and the Seamonsters, Pufnstuf was a staple of my Saturday morning. I taught a group of high school kids last year. A few of them somehow found out about the show. We started talking and then one of them came back the next day with the DVD set! He bought all the episodes and a new generation was exposed to the big goofy dinosaur. They loved it! Now I need to show it to some younger kids and get them influenced early by Pufnstuf, Witchiepoo, Freddy, Jimmy, and the rest! HR Pufnstuf is a classic. Pufnstuf even went on stage with the Brady Kids at one of their cheesy concerts at the Hollywood Bowl ! The late 60's early 70's were a great time to be a kid. A big dinosaur puppet became a teen idol !

This is a strange,scary,freaky demented show. All I can remember is a screaming, living flute, bizarro McDonaldland characters and "Withchy-Poo", by far the scariest villian ever on T.V. The thought of seeing this show again sends shivers up my spine. Therefore I have no choice but to give it a "10"

This show, and many other Krofft programs (i.e. Lidsville and Land of the Lost), scared the hell out of me. In 1979 HR was deep in syndication, but that didn't stop a 4 year old from finding it. You'd sit down and watch, allured by the surreality, the "stranger in a strange land" themes and the larger than life puppet-like characters. You'd expect a benign Sesame Street-like program full of soft freindly characters. But in the land of Krofft all things are slightly twisted, mysterious, surreal. Just look at the expressions they've sewn into the faces of the characters. Dark man, dark. You'd be a little tense for the first 15 minutes, but then Freddy the Flute would bite Witchiepoo on the finger or some hitherto inanimate object would turn around and talk and freak the hell out of you, push you right over the cliff into full throttle terror... I remember crying hysterically and trying explain to my grandmother the freaky stuff that just went down on TV. She probably thought I was crazy. This stuff permeated my dreams and nightmares for years. I deeply repressed all things Krofft and then around age 20 learned that this show actually existed. Boy was I relieved, I hadn't made it all up. Absolutely priceless program, I've got some on tape.

Remember the sleestak? Enik? Chaka? That's a whole nother source of Freudian terror.

I just wanted to say that you couldn't pull me away from this show when I was a kid.

I LOVED IT.

What child didn't want to be wisked away to a far away place where trees and creatures of all sorts talked with you.

To this day I still love to reminisce about the show with other friends that have seen the show as well.

And to those who said it didn't make sense................WHAT children's show DOES make sense??? They are a make believe fantasy world that kids dream about. A place for them to get away and just have some PLAIN ordinary fun.

Tiala

This past Sunday I went to Best Buy and bought the complete series of episodes from this show on DVD. This show has brought back so many great memories... I can still remember waking up every Saturday morning at 6am and sitting in front of the TV until 11am and watching many shows...like the Superfriends, Hong Kong Fooey, Space Ghost, The Lost Saucer...and many others. BUT...this show by far sticks out more in my memories more than any other.

I remember seeing Witchie Poo trying to steal Freddy from Jimmy and PufNStuf and always failing in the end of each show. I remember the Frog with the sparkly pants, the Boyd's band at the end of each show, the Owl Doctor, Cling and Clang, the talking trees, the Vulture who Witchie Poo always hit on the head or nose...the monster with six arms...and many others... All of these creatures and people together put on half an hour of fun and laughs every Saturday morning for me...

If you have young ones, I HIGHLY encourage everyone who reads this to have them watch the series... I have two little boys, one 5 and the other 8, who are addicted to Jimmy Neutron and SpongeBob. This show, for them, has quickly become one of their favorites...as it once was one of mine. Their friends love the show too!!

Hope this helps anyone out there...