Sid Krofft helped create some of the most quirky and colourful characters to grace the small screen in the 1960s and ’70s.
The renowned puppeteer died in his sleep April 10 at the home of his friend and business partner Kelly Killian, she announced on Instagram. He was 96.
Along with his youngest brother Marty, Krofft was one of the masterminds behind several TV series, including their television debut, H.R. Pufnstuf, which went on to become a cult hit.
The elder Krofft once referred to the show as “our first baby.” It followed the whimsical adventures of a young boy, a talking flute and a six-foot-tall dragon.
“Sid Krofft was an icon who did what he loved most until the very end — being out in public with his legions of fans,” said his publicist Adam Fenton in a statement released Monday.
Ronnie Burkett remembers Krofft as a big kid at heart.
Burkett was the puppeteer for Ralph on the TVOntario series Harriet’s Magic Hats. He and Krofft were also good friends. He spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about his friend’s endless childlike enthusiasm.
This interview was been edited for length and clarity.
What did Sid Krofft teach you about focus?
The thing that you learned from any of those people who have a long career, and Sid certainly had an extraordinarily long career, is, exactly, the “Stay in it factor.” Sid started as a teenager, not unlike myself in a weird way, a childhood commitment to an art form, him being a marionette puppeteer at the beginning. Then, watching his career just go for decades and decades and decades. I don’t know with Sid if it was pivoting or if it was an opportunity or part of a grand plan, but up until last year, when I spoke to him, he always had this crazy next idea, well into his late 90s. What’s the big thing he was going to do next? So, I think focus is part of passion in a way.
One of the headlines used the word subversive to talk about the puppetry of Sid and Marty Krofft. If you were to describe their work and why it might be subversive, what would you say?
I was a kid when H.R. Pufnstuf came out, [so] I’m not looking at it as an adult going, “Wow, that’s freaky.” It was freaky to me as a child, but it was good value entertainment, it was silly. I think the subversive quality of it was of its time. We just thought this was fun. What really appealed to me was something you don’t see in North American children’s entertainment much, this sense of camp. Like Witchiepoo [one of Krofft’s characters] she might as well be a panto dame in a weird way, and that’s not part of American culture. So, I love that. For me, the subversiveness was that sense of camp, that sense of unabashed adult ridiculousness in a children’s show. Because if you look at children’s television now, it really is about singing songs about broccoli and being nice to your neighbours and all of those good values we should encourage children. But the Krofft shows were not going to teach them how to count. We’re just going to make up these wacky worlds and populate them with these insane characters. I don’t know if there was any educational value in it, but it was show biz, baby.
We spoke to Christian Jacobs, TV producer and musician, after Marty Krofft died in 2023. Here’s some of what he said:
They’re really big kids at heart and I love that, because I am too. And Sid and Marty, they both have this wonder and excitement about entertainment and making people smile and laugh and I love that about them, and it actually makes me feel emotional thinking about that. They dedicated their lives to, you know, making people smile and laugh.
Do you think that there’s still space and people are pushing for that in children’s entertainment?
I would hope so. I would really hope that being big kids at heart becomes, like, a prerequisite for people doing that kind of work. And I think that is what Sid embodied is this childlike, not childish, childlike enthusiasm.
You did a show in L.A. a few years ago. Sid was there, as I understand it. What was that like?
Sid and I had been in touch for a long time, but we had never physically met one another. So, he came to the opening of my L.A. show, and a lot of puppeteers were there. It’s an industry town and I have a lot of friends working in L.A. I went back to my dressing room after the final bow. but my stage manager came backstage and she had tears in her eyes and she doesn’t normally do that. I said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “Did you hear Sid?” I said, “No.” Well, just as I went offstage, while the audience was still there, Sid stood up and gradually introduced himself and gave a little backstory of who he was, because that’s Sid and then he proclaimed that I was now the king of marionettes.
What a beautiful memory to have.
It really is. I just wish I would have been there for it. I was in my dressing room and then I went out and I finally met Sid face-to-face, and all of that finally happened. I mean if someone’s gonna call you the king of marionettes, come on, I’ll take that from Sid.
It must have felt like you were that little kid again.
The thing about having older mentors and older inspirations, no matter how old I get, if there’s some mentors still alive, I’m still a kid.
