Marty Krofft Agrees – “Don’t mess with what worked”

When I went to see Where The Wild Things Are I couldn’t help but be reminded of Pufnstuf. Part of me wished that the Kroffts had gotten Puf out first, while another part was glad the Sid and Marty could hopefully learn from the mistakes of Wild. In an article at NY Daily News, Marty expresses:

” ‘Wild Things’ is very, very good for us,” says Marty Krofft. “We always wanted to do low-tech costumes and high-tech heads. But it’ll be a big difference in tone, of course — we’ll be bright, not dark.”

Also, this marks the first time (that I’m aware of) that Marty admits they went to far with Land of the Lost. That they strayed to far from the original.

“We went with comedy, which got it green-lit. But we didn’t know it was going to go so far in the PG-13 direction and so close to an R rating,” he says of the unfortunate flop. “Our characters are all likable, and we have so much goodwill from our fans. So, now we know: Don’t mess with what’s worked.”

I’m glad to see that he’s had this realization. When I met Marty Krofft this past summer, I really wanted to discuss this exact issue with him, but wasn’t sure he would have been receptive. You can’t turn a family-friendly story of a popular children’s show into a raunchy comedy and expect success. It’s like drinking a beer when you were expecting milk. Doesn’t matter how good the beer is, it’ll taste like crap. (even though in this case it was crap)

Also in the article, Marty discusses plans for Electra Woman and Doctor Shrinker. Both stories would have great appeal if handled properly. Especially EW with the rash of super hero movies at the box office.

Thanks to Shemp DeYoung for pointing me to the article. Please leave your comments below.