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Synopsis

H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet program. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast from September 6, 1969 to December 27, 1969. The broadcasts were successful enough that NBC kept it on the Saturday morning schedule until August 1972. The show was shot in Paramount… Studios and its opening was shot in Big Bear Lake, California. Reruns of the show aired on ABC Saturday morning from September 2, 1972 to September 8, 1973 and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 16, 1973 to September 8, 1974. It was syndicated by itself from 1974 to 1978 and in a package with six other Kroft series under the banner Kroft Superstars from 1978 to 1985. In 2004 and 2007, H.R. Pufnstuf was ranked #22 and #27 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever.

Episodes

The Ludicrous Lion bears have more than a passing resemblance to Irving, the eponymous lion in a pilot they had made in 1957 called Here's Irving.

Sid took notice of young actor Jack Wild and immediately decided that he was the kid whom he wanted to play the lead in his television series.

Pufnstuf contained a laugh track, the inclusion of which the Kroffts were initially against.

Pufnstuf appeared in a segment of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and along with Witchiepoo in the Lidsville episode "Have I Got a Girl For Hoo Doo", where Hoo Doo conjures Pufnstuf as Witchiepoo's date for a witches' dance.

The plot was recycled from Kaleidoscope, a live puppet show the Kroffts had staged in the Coca-Cola pavilion of the HemisFair '68 World's Fair.

Sid and Marty had toured with their puppets as the opening act for Judy Garland, and they based Judy the Frog on her.