"Sigmund, you're a rotten sea monster." - Big Daddy in the "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" opening credits
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Little Timmy had Lassie, an intelligent collie who often helped to rescue the young orphan from the various scrapes in which he found himself. Sandy and Bud had Flipper, an intelligent dolphin who joined them on many marine-based adventures. As for Johnny and Scott Stuart (Family Affair's Johnny Whitaker and Me and the Chimp's Scott Kolden), they're stuck with Sigmund (Billy Barty in a full-body costume), a naïve, childlike sea monster who looks like a cross between an octopus and a pile of seaweed. Yes, welcome back to the world of Sid and Marty Krofft, where dragon-like creatures are mayors of magical islands, hats have personalities of their own, and families get sucked into time vortexes that take them to lands filled with dinosaurs and creepy lizard men.
Sigmund Ooze is a friendly sea monster who lives with his decidedly less-friendly family in a beachside cave at Dead Man's Point. The Ooze family - Big Daddy, Sweet Mama, and siblings Blurp and Slurp - loves nothing more than to scare humans. When Sigmund proves to be too kind-hearted for such mean-spirited "fun," his family kicks him out of their cave. He meets Johnny and Scott Stuart on the beach, and they agree to take him home. The only problem is that Johnny and Scott's parents are out of town for an extended period of time, leaving the brothers in the care of housekeeper Zelda Marshall (Sister Act's Mary Wickes). Eagle-eyed Zelda is sure to notice a sea monster hanging around the house, and probably won't react as kindly to him as Johnny and Scott have. So Sigmund will just have to live in their backyard clubhouse, a rundown shack that has a strict "no adults" policy.
Each week, the brothers and Sigmund try to avoid the prying eyes of Zelda; Sheriff Bevans (Joe Higgins), her boyfriend; and nosy neighbor Miss Eddels (The Wicked Witch of the West herself, the legendary Margaret Hamilton), while steering clear of Blurp, Slurp, and Big Daddy. It seems that the mean Ooze family quickly came to realize that they couldn't live without Sigmund. After all, he's the favorite of rich Uncle Siggy, his status as a dependent makes Big Daddy's Infernal Revenue Service bill much smaller, and he even wins a big prize from a TV show. Along the way, Sigmund falls in love with a neighbor's dog, Sweet Mama decides to redecorate her cave using the Stuarts' furniture, Sigmund pretends to be a trick-or-treater, and a blow to the head causes him to think he's Johnny and Scott's human brother.
Sigmund is not as psychedelic and strange as other Krofft productions, like H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville. Yes, it's about a sea monster, but it looks and feels like a traditional "supernatural" sitcom - like Bewitched – aimed at kids. For years, fans have theorized that Pufnstuf is a thinly veiled tribute to smoking pot. No one, however, seems to blink an eye about the fact that Sigmund is actually about a living, breathing pile of weeds.
Other Krofft shows may get more attention, but Sigmund was actually one of their more successful ventures. Pufnstuf and Lidsville, for example, lasted only 17 episodes apiece. Sigmund was renewed and eventually 29 episodes were filmed. Only Land of the Lost lasted longer (three seasons and 43 episodes). It's easy to see why Sigmund was so successful. It's filled with the kind of stuff kids like - slapstick, stupid puns, and bad, bad jokes. Big Daddy turns on the family's "shellivision" to watch As the Werewolf Turns. They answer their shelliphone - made of conch shells - by saying "shello." Stupid, yes - but undeniably amusing.
One failure of the series is its lame "tribute" to All in the Family. Big Daddy is clearly based on Archie Bunker, right down to his frequent use of "meathead," "stifle," and "dingbat." This isn't funny - it's just a lame rip off. For her part, Sweet Mama comes across as a mix of Edith Bunker and Phyllis Diller.
H.R. Pufnstuf's Jack Wild guest stars as himself in "The Wild Weekend," a dumb episode in which "the famous movie actor" Jack Wild meets Johnny and Scott while hanging around the beach and is invited to spend the weekend at their house. Surely the phrase "famous movie actor" was put in to stroke the star's ego and to get him to agree to appear in another Krofft production, but it is used so many times throughout the episode that it most serves to point out that in no way was Wild an actual famous movie actor.
Almost every episode ends with Johnny singing a Beach Boys-flavored pop tune. The songs aren't that bad, and if some of them sound like rejects from The Monkees, it's no coincidence: songwriter Bobby Hart (here working with Danny Janssen) also wrote songs for that series.
The first sixteen episodes feature the original theme song - "Friends" - and opening credits. Episode seventeen, however, contains a new, less interesting "story song" theme that explains the entire premise of the series. This second theme is in keeping with traditional Krofft theme songs, but isn't as strong as most.
The seventeen episodes that make up The Complete First Season are divided onto three discs. Each disc is decorated with a picture of Sigmund. The discs are housed in a foldout case decorated with publicity photos and production stills. The three discs attach to two panels - one of the panels holds two discs one on top of the other in a figure eight pattern. Another panel of the foldout case lists the episode titles and plot synopses for each disc. The information as printed is incorrect. Episodes 1-6 are on disc 1, episodes 7-12 on disc 2, and episodes 13-17 on disc 3. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve.
The full motion CGI DVD menus are easy to navigate. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes include chapter stops - including one immediately after the opening credits.
