That's me in the center flanked by two men who were very important to my life…and to the lives of a lot of folks my age. The man on the left is Marty Krofft, who passed away November of 2023 at the age of 86. The man to the right of me is his brother, Sid Krofft, who passed away last Friday at the age of 96. Together, those two men created some of the most unconventional and popular entertainment vehicles in television, motion pictures and live performing.
I wrote about Marty then. I need to write about Sid now. Consult the Marty obit for a very partial list of what these men gave us.
If you never met Sid Krofft, I'm sorry. You would have loved him because everyone did. A sweeter, more fascinating person you'll never find. You'll also never find anyone who had a more interesting life, starting with the fact that as a kid, he actually, honestly, for-real ran away from home to join the circus. He had a puppet act and over the years, it grew from a kid's puppet act to the puppet act of its day.
I started working for Sid and Marty in the seventies. On the set of the first show I wrote on, there was one of those moments you never forget. We were taping on Stage 6 at the KTLA studios in Hollywood and Jim Henson dropped by the set. I think he was on the lot to tape a guest shot on Dinah Shore's talk show or something of the sort. He came by to say hello to Sid and they talked for a while. I heard none of the conversation but I was standing with one of the Krofft Puppeteers who worked on the show. We watched Sid and Jim chatting and this career puppeteer said to me, "That's history — the most important puppet guy of one generation and the most important puppet guy of the next one." Indeed.
Sid and Marty were important. They knew everyone in the show business of their era — everyone. One day, I asked Sid a question about Liberace. For years, Sid and his puppets were Liberace's opening act. Sid didn't know the answer to my question so he called to his secretary, "Trudy, would you get Liberace on the phone, please?" And maybe thirty seconds later, Trudy said, "Liberace on Line Two, Sid"" I always thought that line said something about the Kroffts: "Liberace on Line Two!"
They knew everyone. They worked with everyone. Everyone owed them one or more favors, which is how they got everyone — well, nearly everyone — to appear on the shows they produced. They were famous for doing things that were original and unique and memorable. When I was a kid, H.R. Pufnstuf was the most unreal thing on Saturday morning, even though everything else was animated and Pufnstuf was live-action. Even Marty would tell you that was mostly because of Sid.
And Sid would have given Marty full credit for the show actually getting made…which in this case, involved going ridiculously overbudget and losing them a fortune. It all worked out because some of the other things they did were ridiculously profitable but that was how they rolled. It was important (usually) to spend whatever they had to spend to do it the way they considered right. The first prime-time special I worked on with them, the network gave them $500,000 to make it and they spent seven.
That was one of the things I loved about working for them. Another was their loyalty to their people. It was one of those rare outfits in the entertainment where you weren't hired so much as adopted into the family. They were also loyal to anyone at home who might tune in because it was "a Krofft show," always concerned to not disappoint their fans — and they had a lot of them. They'd learned directly from Walt Disney to plaster their names on everything they did.
Sid and Marty argued a lot…a lot. Sid had wild ideas — plenty of them — and I don't know how many times I heard Marty, who dealt way more with the money end of things than Sid did — say, "Jesus Christ! Do you know how much that would cost?" But they never argued over the principle that you needed to spend money to do things right. They did good shows and bad shows but the bad ones were never bad because they skimped on the money.
There was something magical about Sid. He had this way of appearing whenever he was needed and disappearing when he wasn't. You never saw him arrive, you never saw him leave. He was suddenly there to discuss whatever had to be discussed and then, when there was nothing to discuss, he suddenly wasn't there. Believe me: I tried watching him and never quite saw how he did it. I know why he did it. It was his way of coping with the only thing he didn't love about show business: The stress. He avoided it as much as possible, which may be how he outlived his younger brother by ten years.
He also never looked his age. I don't know how many times I had to tell people, "No, Sid is older than Marty!"
There's so much more I could say about these men so this will not be the last post about either. It's just something I felt I had to write now that the years of Krofft Entertainment have finally drawn to a close. Which doesn't mean all those shows won't be rerun over and over and discovered by new generations who will wonder, "Who came up with that?" Usually, it was a lovely, brilliant man named Sid.