"You know, to be honest, I don't remember too much about any of this. It was 35 years ago, and.it's like one green-blur-with-itchy-hair memory." - Charles Nelson Reilly (Hoo Doo the Magician) in his "Oh Brother" commentary
Lidsville: The Complete Series DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
If you ever find yourself immersed in a magical land populated by oversized talking hats, it could only mean one of two things: either you're having a particularly strange LSD trip, or you've stumbled into Lidsville, one of the koo-koo-kookiest creations from the fertile minds of producers Sid & Marty Krofft. Kids who tuned in to ABC on September 11, 1971 found themselves in the same predicament - becoming immersed in Lidsville, that is, not on a strange LSD trip (although it was the '70s, so who really knows?). The Kroffts already had a large following, thanks to their previous two Saturday morning hits: H.R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos. Lidsville would be their strangest yet - no small task when you consider that Pufnstuf is about a boy, his talking flute, and a talking dragon, while The Bugaloos follows a rock band of singing, dancing bugs.
While visiting a theme park with his pals, teenage Mark (The Munsters' Butch Patrick) becomes entranced by a magic show. Ditching his friends, he sneaks backstage to discover the secrets behind the magician's amazing tricks. He finds the magician's top hat, but when he tries to examine it, the hat grows and grows to enormous proportions. He climbs onto a chair to peer inside, loses his balance, and plunges inside. After a terrific fall, he finds himself in Lidsville, a topsy-turvy place inhabited by talking hats, including Colonel Poom (a safari helmet with a British accent), Mr. Chow (a Chinese chef's hat who speaks with a chop-socky accent), Tex (a cowboy hat who sounds like John Wayne), Tonsilini (a dapper hat who speaks/sings with an operatic trill), and Hiram (a straw hat who sounds like a resident of Green Acres). These "good hats" live in constant fear of Horatio W. Hoo Doo (Match Game bon vivant Charles Nelson Reilly), an evil sorcerer with green skin, a nearly bald pate, and reddish-orange facial hair. Hoo Doo zooms around on his Hatamaran, an oversized top hat that flies around like a hovercraft, and "zaps" the good hats with magic rays that shoot from his fingertips. At his command is his gang of bad hats, including Mr. Big, a fedora who sounds as if he has stepped out of a 1930s gangster film. With the help of the good hats and Weenie the Genie (Pufnstuf's Billie Hayes), Mark tries to stay one step ahead of Hoo Doo and find his way back home.
As with the Kroffts' other series, Lidsville is brought to life in a visually imaginative style. Most of the characters (with the exception of Mark, Hoo Doo, and Weenie) are played by actors in full-body costumes similar to those worn by theme park mascots. They live in houses shaped like giant hats. Even Lidsville's flora resembles hats. Overall, the design elements on Lidsville look cheaper than those on Pufnstuf, but they are still creative and interesting.
The humor in the show tends to consist of silly puns, the kind that are so stupid, they're clever. When Hoo Doo decides to control the weather in Lidsville, he calls on his Weather Bureau, a chest of drawers in which each bin contains a different weather condition. He spies on the town using his Evil Eye, a giant eyeball that serves as a TV screen. If you want to call the wizard, he doesn't have a hotline. Instead, he uses a hot hat line, a phone-shaped hat so fiery he has to pick up the receiver with a potholder. Hoo Doo's top hat home (it's number 13 7/8) has its very own hatband, a group of musicians who strike up a tune at the drop of a hat (sorry, couldn't resist - bad puns are pretty addictive). Older fans will also appreciate the hats' vocal tributes to stars of yesterday, including Bela Lugosi, John Wayne, and others. (All of the voices are provided by Lennie Weinrib, Joan Gerber, and Walker Edmiston, each of whom also worked on Pufnstuf.)
One of the strongest episodes is "Have I Got a Girl for Hoo Doo." Feeling lonely, Hoo Doo decides to submit an application to a computer dating service. He isn't quite honest on his questionnaire - he even submits a picture of someone else (in actuality, it is series creator Sid Krofft, looking quite handsome). His dishonesty seems to have paid off when he receives an enthusiastic reply - and a va-va-voom photo - from a potential suitor. When she arrives for their date, Hoo Doo is horrified to discover that she has lied, too. The beautiful chick he thought he would be dating actually turns out to be H.R. Pufnstuf's Witchiepoo (Hayes). It's hate at first site.until they discover their mutual love of zapping the good hats. Soon, Mark is taking drastic measures to end this unnatural affair. The episode is funny, fast paced, and tightly plotted.
In her appearance as Witchiepoo, Billie Hayes is as vivacious and crafty as she was in Pufnstuf. She plays Witchiepoo with a "playing to the cheap seats" style that meshes perfectly with the Kroffts' garishly goofy vision. Unfortunately, it also serves to point out that her Lidsville character is a much weaker creation. Weenie is an extremely neutered character, and not only because the character is referred to as a male but is obviously played by a woman. Weenie isn't given much to do, and his only talent as a genie seems to be popping in and out of the ring that Mark wears.
This is really Charles Nelson Reilly's show. His flamboyant turn as Hoo Doo is a joy to watch. Hayes' Witchiepoo dominated Pufnstuf through the sheer force of her outrageous performance. The other characters were well written and performed, but it was most fun to watch Witchiepoo. Reilly is also a strong performer, but the difference here is that the remaining characters are underwritten. We never really get to know Mark or any of the hat characters. They all seem secondary to Hoo Doo. If only the writers had given Hoo Doo stronger adversaries, Reilly's performance would have really soared.
Lidsville is truly a strange animal. The show's overall concept - a land of hats, each with its own unique personality - is an undeniably imaginative one. It is unlikely that anyone other than the Kroffts could have come up with such a wacky idea, much less brought it to fruition. Unfortunately, the innovation stopped with the hat concept. If H.R. Pufnstuf was a riff on The Wizard of Oz, Lidsville is a riff on Pufnstuf by way of Alice in Wonderland. Falling down a hole into a strange land, Hoo Doo's rabbit assistant, and a few playing card guards are just a few of the ideas lifted from Alice in Wonderland.
While the Wonderland bits might be considered homage, Pufnstuf is positively cannibalized by Lidsville. Entire plot points are recycled. In "Alias the Imperial Wizard," Hoo Doo kidnaps several of the good hats to help prepare for a visit from the exalted Imperial Wizard. When he intercepts news that the meeting has been cancelled, Mark decides to impersonate the Wizard to rescue his friends. The Pufnstuf episode titled "The Visiting Witch" featured a remarkably similar plot. Other déjà vu-inducing episodes include "Hoo Doo Who?" (amnesiac victim Hoo Doo is suddenly a good guy), "The Old Hat Home" (Mark gets turned into an old man), and "Is There a Mayor In the House?" (Hoo Doo schemes to have one of the bad hats elected mayor of Lidsville). Each of these episodes is a variation on Pufnstuf storylines.
The seventeen episodes that make up Lidsville: The Complete Series are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in thin, black keepcases. The back of each case features basic information on the discs' contents, including short episode synopses. The front cover of each case is decorated with a composite photo of Mark standing in front of Hoo Doo's large top hat, the same image that decorates the front of the cardboard sleeve which holds all three keepcases.
The colorful, full motion menus allow viewers to play all of the discs' episodes or to choose an individual one.
