Lidsville:)

[The Wiser Hatter]

[video=youtube_share;btpd8zg5VWA]http://youtu.be/btpd8zg5VWA[/video]

Lidsville was Sid and Marty Krofft's third television show airing for two seasons, 1971--1973. It was something like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, but with giant foam hats instead of mutant rabbits, munchkins and flying monkeys. Yes, it was awesome.

The hero was a teenage boy named Mark. As the theme song explains, Mark saw some magic at an amusement park and was like, "What the ****?" So he decided to break into the prop room and poke around. After finding a powerful magic hat, Mark ****ed around and fell into the hat, landing in Lidsville, a world of living hats. The hats on the show act like the dudes who would normally wear them. So the talking cowboy hat acts like a cowboy. It's creepy and clearly drug-inspired.

The villain of the show was a magician named Horatio J. HooDoo. Among other characters were Raunchy Rabbit, Weenie the Genie, and Rah-Rah the football helmet.

The villain HooDoo flies around in a "Hatamaran" and extorts the commonhats by demanding their Hat Checks. Mark forms the core of the resistance within the hat community as he tries to get home. HooDoo is a prick, but not really smart enough to do much damage.

HooDoo, trying to regain control of an androgynous sex slave (Weenie the Genie) from Mark, often enlists the services of four thugs hats consisting of Mr. Big, Captain Hooknose, Bella the Vampire's Cowl, and Boris the Executioner's Hood. They're pretty stupid and don't really look like they could whoop ass, but the other hats are scared of them anyway.


Man, Sid and Marty Kroff where on some serious drugs don't remember this Hat themed show at all.

 

[HatsEnough]

I remember it well. I was more an HR Puffenstuff fan, though.

 

[InsolentPuppy]

The most obvious thing about Sid and Marty Krofft was that they had a very low tolerance against the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. If you have seen any of their shows you'll know what I mean.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I remember this show very well. Though I didn't realize that Mark was played by Butch Patrick of The Munsters fame.

 

[Tango Yankee]

Dang, and with Charles Nelson Reilly to top it off! I missed this one when it came around. Is it just me, or does part of the falling into the hat sequence remind anyone of "The Time Tunnel"?

Cheers,
Tom

 

[HatsEnough]

I loved the "Time Tunnel." Also "Land of the Giants" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."

 

[animator]

This is one of my favorite shows growing up. I got all of the Lidsville episodes on DVD when my first son was born... H.R Pufnstuf, too.

It's funny how many things I liked growing up look so strange to me, now. I hope I have aged better than this show.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

and here's Butch Patrick today

Billie Hayes (Weenie the Genie) was also Witchie Poo in H.R. Pufinstuf and Charles Nelson Reilly (Hoodoo) was in another Sid & Marty Kroft show whose name I can't think of.