Children’s television during the late 1960s included some trippy shows. Two Canadian brothers, Sid and Marty Krofft, created two memorable series. One was The Banana Splits; live action costumed characters of a dog, a gorilla, an elephant, and a lion who formed a musical band ala The Monkees. The other, trippier show was HR Pufnstuf.
Like the Banana Splits, Pufnstuf featured all manner of live action costumed characters - think of today’s sports team mascots - but it also starred a real 12-year-old boy.
The story thread: A boy named Jimmy and his talking flute named Freddy were shipwrecked on a magical Living Island. An evil witch named Witchiepoo kept trying to steal the talking flute from Jimmy to use for her own nefarious plans. But Jimmy repeatedly thwarted Witchiepoo with the assistance of the island’s many human-sized puppets, most notably HR Pufnstuf, a lovable big-headed dragon who was the island’s mayor.
Nearly everything on the show became a live-action character: frogs, birds, ants, clocks, trees, mushrooms, a talking lollipop, buildings, and even the winds. Hence the Living Island. Some viewers considered the show kinda psychedelic.
The series premiered September 1969 and the last original episode aired in December of that same year. Only 17 episodes were created, but it ran as reruns in syndication on more than one TV network throughout the 1970s.
At that time, McDonald’s fast food chain dominated the American landscape and began branching out across the globe. The Big Mac debuted in 1967 and the quarter pounder in 1971. McDonald’s restaurants were ubiquitous.
So was their advertising, which was purposefully aimed at children.
The company’s clown mascot Ronald McDonald first appeared in 1963, but by the early 70s new friends joined him in TV commercials.
They included two food thieves - the Hamburglar and Captain Crook - as well as two characters with McDonald’s hamburgers for heads - Officer Big Mac and Mayor McCheese. Then there was a purple thing called Grimace. Thirty second TV ads showed the characters in McDonaldland.
The resemblance to HR Pufnstuf creations was no accident. The advertising firm that McDonald’s corporation had hired for their new ad campaigns wanted to bring in Sid and Marty Krofft as consultants. But then the ad agency dropped the Krofft Brothers and plagiarized the characters. The physical similarities between the lovable dragon HR Pufnstuf and Mayor McCheese were hard to overlook. Both were big-headed figures, and both were mayors. Even McDonaldland was too close to the Living Island concept.
Then it was learned that the ad agency hired some of the same crew members from the HR Pufnstuf TV series, including costume designers and voice talent.
Sid and Marty Krofft sued the McDonald’s corporation.
The verdict went in favor of the Kroffts, but they balked at the financial penalty. McDonald’s only had to pay them $50,000. McDonald’s didn’t think they should have lost the case, so it was appealed to a higher court.
With the second trial, the Krofft Brothers won again, but McDonald’s had to pay them $1 million.
By that time, HR Pufnstuf had been off the air for years. Sid and Marty Krofft continued to work in television mostly on children’s shows including a 1984 series that starred Richard Pryor.
The McDonaldland characters were eventually retired, and these days even Ronald McDonald rarely appears in advertising.
ALSO:
The theme song to HR Pufnstuf was the source of litigation, too. Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel sued Sid and Marty Krofft because the theme bore too much resemblance to The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy). As a result, Paul Simon got co-writing credit on the tune.
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