Oranges smoranges! Who said?

May 7, 2007 1:56 PM

Hold on to your talking magic flute, 70s kids... a new, animated H.R. Pufnstuf is on the island. Beatbox reworking of the original theme song included (Before/After). I'm dying to hear what they'll do with Mechanical Boy...
posted by miss lynnster (55 comments total)

"But Who Would Get There First?!?!"
Good times.
Thanks, miss l.!
posted by Dizzy at 2:02 PM on May 7, 2007

I noticed they changed the melody on the bridge of the song... flattened some of the notes to give it a darker, minor/discordant sound. Kinda interesting.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:04 PM on May 7, 2007

Forgot to mention two RIPs... Jack Wild & Pufnstuf himself. (Witchiepoo is still going strong, though.)
posted by miss lynnster at 2:09 PM on May 7, 2007

Oooh! Orson the Vulture & Dr. Blinky the Owl too. Man, this was a bad year for Pufnstuf people.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:15 PM on May 7, 2007

Welcome to the Altered State of Druggachusetts.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:18 PM on May 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

trippy
posted by caddis at 2:20 PM on May 7, 2007

I only hope it turns out as good as Pryor's Place. Actually, I only hope it turns out as good as that Land of the Lost remake.
posted by box at 2:33 PM on May 7, 2007

Awww I luurved H.R. Pufnstuf. I had a little-girl crush on Jimmy (sigh)... All of the Krofft shows were such cheesy fun!
posted by amyms at 2:38 PM on May 7, 2007

i first found that jack wild passed during the recent academy awards when they have that montage for all the recently deceased. it was a sad moment to see the image of him dressed up as the artful dodger.
posted by cazoo at 2:55 PM on May 7, 2007

That show used to bother me something fierce. Trapped in a surreal and occasionally hostile world, repeatedly thwarted in your efforts to get home - it was like a nightmare. The only thing scarier was Pinocchio's Pleasure Island
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:01 PM on May 7, 2007

H. R. Pufnstuf scared the stuffing out of me! I watched it a lot, though - I guess it was in syndication by the time I was old enough to understand it. I blame that show for all of the acid I took as an adult. Trippy, freaky stuff for a 6 year old.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:09 PM on May 7, 2007

There ain't no rhyme for oranges!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 3:10 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

You better believe I'm holding on to my magic flute!

But yeah, I'm with CynicalKnight...
posted by sourwookie at 3:16 PM on May 7, 2007

H.R. Pufnstuf: You can't do a little, 'cause you can't do enough.

Hmm, no double meaning there. (The Wikipedia page says the lyric was actually "He can't do a little, 'cause he can't do enough", but I'm not sure how that changes anything.)
posted by The Tensor at 3:19 PM on May 7, 2007

Well, this will either make me really happy as I will be able to enjoy and share the enjoyment with friends, or this will be another emotionally rending round of abusive necrophilia with the corpses of my youth...
posted by Samizdata at 3:21 PM on May 7, 2007

Mechanical Boy is now Mechanical Man, and has a thriving career in porn. His, er, staying power is legendary. He's sort of the Energizer Bunny in reverse.
posted by Malor at 3:23 PM on May 7, 2007

The gateway drug for me too (well, if not a drug then foreshadowing at the very least)
posted by Fupped Duck at 3:40 PM on May 7, 2007

That stupid oranges song is now going through my head but I'm remembering it as: "Oranges poranges--who cares?" I'd hate to think the my memory for something I heard 35 years ago is faulty but can anyone clear this up?
posted by Turtles all the way down at 3:43 PM on May 7, 2007

I would wonder when we will be getting a new Banana Splits show, but frankly, the 60s design ethos of making a wacky drug culture into innocent cartoon shows would almost certainly be turned into the putrid 00s design of primary colors generic clean, straight curves Xtremism.

OTOH, the new Pufnstuf doesn't look like any great departure from the other current design school of cheap Hanna-Barbera knock offs.

I'll be pleased when something interestingly original arises from the current morass of unimaginative much.
posted by smallerdemon at 3:48 PM on May 7, 2007

i see a lot of craig mccracken's influence there. he does call out someone named 'craig' so maybe they work together?
posted by joeblough at 3:53 PM on May 7, 2007

Oranges Smoranges. There's another one!
posted by miss lynnster at 3:55 PM on May 7, 2007

metafilter: another emotionally rending round of abusive necrophilia with the corpses of your youth

banana splits whee!
posted by dorian at 4:00 PM on May 7, 2007

Thanks, miss lynnster, but I counter with this, the track listing for the official Pufnstuf soundtrack!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 4:06 PM on May 7, 2007

The big orange ape's freaky frozen smile scared me. And they're even worse in Spanish.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2007

the 60s design ethos

Peter Max Redux
posted by ericb at 4:12 PM on May 7, 2007

Ahhhh, but I beg to differ... the true collector HR Pufnstuf soundtrack is THIS 45. Which my mom gave to me for Christmas decades ago, and is... no lie... hanging on my wall about 3 feet from me. Thanks to that little piece of plastic I have every HRP song stuck in my head until the day I freakin' die.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:12 PM on May 7, 2007

I am not worthy and bow to your superior Pufnstufflieness. Bravo!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 4:14 PM on May 7, 2007

Yeah, cereal boxes used to offer much cooler prizes than they do now... ;)
posted by miss lynnster at 4:22 PM on May 7, 2007

omg! how cool this will be (if they keep it as cheesy as the original one was) : >
posted by amberglow at 4:23 PM on May 7, 2007

OTOH, the new Pufnstuf doesn't look like any great departure from the other current design school of cheap Hanna-Barbera knock offs.

I'll be pleased when something interestingly original arises from the current morass of unimaginative much.

It looks a little like Foster's Home to me (but that's ok--i love that show)

It's true tho--kids today need their own new freaky psychedelic shows--they grew up on teletubbies, after all, no?
posted by amberglow at 4:25 PM on May 7, 2007

... putrid 00s design of primary colors generic clean, straight curves Xtremism.

Isn't most of that because of Flash animation instead of hand-drawn?
posted by amberglow at 4:26 PM on May 7, 2007

has this guy sold it yet? will it really air?
posted by amberglow at 4:28 PM on May 7, 2007

He's sort of the Energizer Bunny in reverse.

I see what you did there.
posted by sourwookie at 4:56 PM on May 7, 2007

BTW, regarding primary color, straight curve extremism, I disagree. First off, most of the colors are secondary or tertiary, more like a palette Shag would use. Also, the quirky lines remind me more of Jim Flora than of this.

The mini pufs cracked me up because they are clearly a parody of Disney & WB's love for babifying their licensed characters until they are clearly suffering with deformities. Poor Tigger. Poor, poor Tigger.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:14 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Important side note mentioned but not clarified...

..."McDonaldland" was a rip-off of H.R. Pufnstuf concept.

How much so? To the tune of $1-pointsomething million (1973) dollars.
posted by humannaire at 5:36 PM on May 7, 2007

First off, most of the colors are secondary or tertiary, more like a palette Shag would use. Also, the quirky lines remind me more of Jim Flora than of this.

Well, I wasn't saying the HR Pufnstuf looked like Loonatics, mind you. I was saying that there's a danger of revisionist shows ending up like Loonatics. HR Pufnstuff 2.0 is definitely more of Foster's Home and even Angry Beavers (all descendants basically of the 60s Yogi Bear style, itself a descendant of 50s commercials styles). Right now there are three directions that animation seems to be going: EXTREME! (Loonatics), Retro (Fosters), and quick and easy (Family Guy). As odd as it sounds, it's one of the reason I appreciate The Venture Brothers so much. They are doing a bit of nostalgic revisionism, yes, but they certainly have found their own style. (I appreciate ATHF too, but that's mostly for the fact that's it's modern absurdism that actually made it to television). So, i.e. please oh please don't let me see revisionist Banana Splits that looks like Loonatics.
posted by smallerdemon at 6:00 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I can never hear H.R. Pufnstuf and Sid and Marty Croft without thinking of this. which I was oh so very close of getting to. I never go to see it. I was a few months too late. I was able to crawl up the world's tallest escalator quite a bit sometimes in 76/77 (I don't remember) and see everything completely covered up in tarps and covers. One of the strangest experiences of my life.
posted by smallerdemon at 6:08 PM on May 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

smaller: I'm holding out for either a giant magician's hat to a real Lidsville, or for that Pufnstuf boat to come for me (even today--that theme park would have been cool tho) : >
posted by amberglow at 6:30 PM on May 7, 2007

I'm really not keen on Pufnstuf being given a revival while our culture is still leaning to the right, but then I wasn't too keen on Billy Joel going Broadway. Je t'aime..
posted by ZachsMind at 7:25 PM on May 7, 2007

Little known fact about the World of Sid and Marty Krofft in Atlanta: It was the first professional performing venue for Steve Whitmire, who now performs Kermit the Frog.
posted by evilcolonel at 7:31 PM on May 7, 2007

What, are we completely out of new ideas as a culture?
posted by darkstar at 9:56 PM on May 7, 2007

darkstar--
Two words:
"Spiderman 3."
posted by Dizzy at 10:04 PM on May 7, 2007

Now that I am home from work...

The new theme stinks.

On ice.

In Siberian high winter...
posted by Samizdata at 11:25 PM on May 7, 2007

HR Pufnstuf was the first thing I ever saw on colour TV, so it made a big impression on me. I preferred the closing theme to the opening one - "I got, you got, everybody do got, someone who cares!"
posted by andraste at 5:11 AM on May 8, 2007

Right now there are three directions that animation seems to be going: EXTREME! (Loonatics), Retro (Fosters), and quick and easy (Family Guy).

Well, North American animation, anyway. I say North American, not "American" because Nelvana does the same sort of stuff.

Actually I had seen some of the WB stuff was going "anime" style a couple of years ago. I don't get a lot of time to watch TV these days so I'm not sure what became of that.
posted by smoothvirus at 5:59 AM on May 8, 2007

Saturday morning double bill, Pufnstuf and then this show...good times...
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:27 AM on May 8, 2007

I'm with CynicalKnight-this show used to give me nightmares.
posted by hollygoheavy at 10:23 AM on May 8, 2007

God smallerdemon, I never knew about the park until BoingBoing posted a map two or three years back, and thinking about the park shuttered and unavailable to kids filled me with a profound melancholy. But you've actually SEEN the thing in mothballs. Did you get to look around at least?
posted by JHarris at 10:48 AM on May 8, 2007

I'm really not keen on Pufnstuf being given a revival while our culture is still leaning to the right, but then I wasn't too keen on Billy Joel going Broadway.

Pufnstuf on Broadway!
Pufnstuf on Ice!
...

: >
posted by amberglow at 11:33 AM on May 8, 2007

Did you get to look around at least?

The way the Omni was laid out was that big skating rink in the center and then open all the way up with the building having several open balconies facing out into the main atrium where the skating rink was located.

The (at the time) world's longest escalator was how you got up to the place, and so it was turned off. Funny thing about escalators how they can still be functional when they're off. I went up as far as my 11 or 12 year old mind thought was safe, which was probably about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to the top of the escalator, which was a sufficiently good vantage point to see two levels of the shuttered "park". It was basically stacked on top of each other, about two or three levels high, and walking up the escalator I could see two of the levels.

One level had a carousel on it, and looked to be almost entirely covered up in tarps, with one of two of carousel creatures not covered. I think I remember seeing a unicorn, but it was the 70s and you could see a unicorn just about anywhere you looked, so that could easily be a false memory.

The other level, that was the one that was heartbreaking to me as a 12 year old kid to see shuttered up because I could see it! It was so close! It was the giant pinball machine ride, in which you got to ride around in the ball in a big thing that was very reminiscent of Number 2's chair from The Prisoner. Except it was big, HUGE and silver, like a giant pinball (duh). And I could see it! Just sitting there, inside the ride itself! Like they had shut it off in mid-ride and dragged the patrons out and threw them over the balcony (and probably yelled "We're closed!" while the bodies fell down several stories into the mall of the Omni). You could see it because big chunks of it, both the carousel and the pinball machine, both faced outward into the Omni atrium itself. There wasn't any wussy glass up either, it was just that the rides were put close to open balconies, I guess so you could get natural light or see out into the atrium.

I kid you not, that was 30 years ago, and I am still bitter that the place was shut down when I finally was able to make my way to Atlanta as a 12 year old kid (through begging to go with my father to a convention) and then coercing my mother to go to the Omni while my father was at the convention. Is bitter the right word? I lament my lost opportunity is really a better way to describe it. Yes, as an adult, it would have been an utterly lame experience of yet another carousel and a silly track pulled ball on a stick (similar to what you would experience at Epcot Center) acting like a big pinball machine, but as a kid, you know, that would have been amazing. Instead, I got a rather rude awakening about the impermanence of ideas and fantasies.
posted by smallerdemon at 11:56 AM on May 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Just to brighten your day. You're welcome.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:00 PM on May 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

If anyone could point me to an mp3 version of this "Oranges, Smoranges" song, I'd be forever in your debt.
posted by StopMakingSense at 2:10 PM on May 8, 2007

Well, this map confirms a lot of my memories. Weird.

So, if you look at that, you can see the escalator, the pinball ride, and I am guessing that I was seeing whatever was on the third tier there, not the carousel on the top (because I distinctly remember not trekking all the way up the escalator).

Note that the map was found at this page. That guy went and he has scanned all of the memorabilia that he brought back. Very cool. And a little sad for my inner 12 year old. I just went a little too late according to wikipedia.

C'est la vie. I've made up for that loss in spades as an adult by being fortunate enough to be at four of the eight of these. As an adult, those attendances are some of the few times in my life that I have been able to recapture actually feeling like a kid again. Maybe there's more to this karma thing than I thought. :)
posted by smallerdemon at 2:14 PM on May 8, 2007

According to this article, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft opened May 24, 1976, and closed five months later. That puts me there only a few months after it closed, which is why everything was still there (I was there in January of 1977).

That article is about six years old and there was talk in it of the Kroffts themselves being involved in a revamp of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl for the WB. :) I don't recall that ever happening (there was a pilot, but the show never made it back to life). So, it looks like someone finally was able to squeeze something from the intellectual properties of the Kroffts. Looks like the last thing they did before this was a 2002 version of Family Affair.

Those guys have a very eclectic catalog of works.
posted by smallerdemon at 2:41 PM on May 8, 2007

Can't find an mp3, but one of the Kelloggs 45s is on ebay.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:56 PM on May 8, 2007