Sid & Marty Krofft: Legends We Lost

Remembering Sid & Marty Krofft

Our Love Letter to the Legends of Saturday Morning

There are certain names that don’t just belong to television history. They belong to childhood itself.

This week, with the passing of Marty Krofft, we close the final chapter on one of the most imaginative creative partnerships ever to grace the small screen. Marty now joins his brother Sid, and it is hard not to picture the two of them back together again, dreaming up something strange, colorful, and unforgettable.

That feels right.

Because that is how we remember them.

For us, this one hits a little closer.

Because we didn’t just grow up watching the worlds that Sid and Marty Krofft created. We had the chance to talk to Sid. To hear the stories firsthand. To step, even briefly, behind the curtain of one of the most imaginative minds to ever shape Saturday morning TV.

And that’s something we’ll never take for granted.

And beyond that conversation, I had the chance to meet Marty a few times over the years.

At Comic-Con, I would occasionally run into him, always approachable, always part of the world he helped create. Then at DesignerCon, I made the decision to step out of “press mode” for a moment and walk up to his booth like a fan.

Because sometimes you have to.

I picked up a signed Sleestak autograph. Forty-five dollars. And as credentialed press, you try not to fanboy too hard. But if I am paying for the moment, I am getting my forty-five dollars worth.

And Marty delivered.

He shared a kind hearted story about his brother Sid. A family trip to the Grand Canyon. A nightmare about how terrifying it would be if the ground opened up beneath you. An earthquake. A crack in the earth. A park ranger and his kids falling through into another world.

That spark became Land of the Lost.

For me, that was always the connection point. That was the show. The one that stuck. The one that felt just a little more real, a little more mysterious, and a little more unforgettable.

Before streaming. Before algorithms. Before “content.”

There were dragons, talking flutes, Sleestaks, sea monsters, and a kind of beautiful, bizarre creativity that made absolutely no sense and perfect sense all at once.

From H.R. Pufnstuf to Land of the Lost, from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters to The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, the Kroffts didn’t just make shows. They built entire worlds.

Worlds that we lived in.

And later, I came to realize their influence went even further. Into those unforgettable Saturday Morning Preview Specials. The network events that rolled out the upcoming lineup like it was the biggest thing in the world.

Because when you were a kid, it was.

Those specials were excitement. Anticipation. Pure Saturday morning energy. And like so much of that era, they had the Krofft fingerprint all over them.

We talk about and celebrate all of this in our 2018 episode.

At the time, it was a love letter to a living legend.

Today, it feels like something more.

Listen to our conversation with Sid Krofft here: