| Lidsville | |
|---|---|
| Format | Children's television series |
| Starring | Butch Patrick Charles Nelson Reilly Billie Hayes Jerry Maren Sharon Baird Joy Campbell Van Snowden |
| Voices of | Lennie Weinrib Joan Gerber Walker Edmiston |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Sid and Marty Krofft |
| Running time | 0:25 (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 11, 1971 – September 2, 1973 |
Lidsville was Sid and Marty Krofft's third television show following H.R. Pufnstuf (1969) and The Bugaloos (1970). As did its predecessors, the series combined two types of characters: conventional actors in makeup filmed alongside performers in full mascot costumes, whose voices were dubbed in post-production. Seventeen episodes aired on Saturday mornings for two seasons, 1971–1973. The opening was shot at Six Flags Over Texas.
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Lidsville resembles an earlier British series, Hattytown Tales, produced by Hattyland Enterprises & FilmFair Ltd. in 1969, which used an almost identical concept but different characters and was produced in claymation.
Like predecessors H.R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos, Lidsville ran for only one season (1971–1972), with reruns airing the following year (1972–1973). Also like H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville's title and subject matter were often interpreted as references to drug use: the word "lid" is slang for a hat or cap (as in "flip your lid"), but "lid" is also early-1970s slang for an ounce of marijuana.
Like most children's television shows of the era, Lidsville contained a laugh track.
The complete series was released on DVD in the United States in January 2005. Extra features in the set included interviews with Charles Nelson Reilly, Butch Patrick and Billie Hayes. They also provided commentary on some of the episodes.
The show involved a teenage boy named Mark (Butch Patrick) who fell into the hat of Merlo the Magician (Charles Nelson Reilly) and arrived in Lidsville, a land of living hats. The hats on the show are depicted as having the same characteristics as the humans who would normally wear them. For example, a cowboy hat would act and speak like a cowboy. The characters' houses were also hat-shaped.
The villain of the show was a magician named Horatio J. HooDoo (also played by Charles Nelson Reilly in a magician's costume and make-up). Among other notable characters were Raunchy Rabbit (Sharon Baird in mascot, but voiced by Walker Edmiston), Weenie the Genie (Billie Hayes who also reprised her H.R. Pufnstuf role, Witchiepoo, in one episode), and Rah-Rah the football helmet (portrayed by Jerry Maren, voiced by Lennie Weinrib).
The vain, short-tempered, but somewhat naive HooDoo flew around in his Hatamaran, blasting the good citizens of Lidsville with bolts of magic (referred to as "zapping") and keeping them in fear, demanding that they pay him their Hat Checks. Mark helped the good hats resist as he attempted to find a way back home. HooDoo, trying to reclaim control of the androgynous Weenie from Mark, often enlisted the services of four Bad Hats consisting of Mr. Big, Captain Hooknose, Bela the Vampire's Cowl, and Boris the Executioner's Hood. In his high hat home, HooDoo was besieged by the taunting music of the Hat Band, as well as all of his talking knicknacks (the parrot, Mr. Skull, the mounted alligator head, the sawed-in-half lady, to list only a few). HooDoo also experienced further aggravation at the hands of his aides, the dim Raunchy Rabbit and his two-faced card guard, Jack of Clubs (a walking deck of playing cards). HooDoo watched the action going on in downtown Lidsville from his hat home by using his Evil Eye, a device similar to a TV set, but resembling an eyeball. He also had a hot hatline phone. The show relied on an endless array of puns based on hats.
Many of the episodes were about Mark trying to get back home, but the evil HooDoo prevented him from leaving. Weenie, being a nervous bumbler, was, in fact, a genie, but many of the tricks and spells didn't work right anymore after being a slave to HooDoo for so long. In the show's final episode, scenes from some of the past episodes were featured, as HooDoo's mother had paid a visit to find out what has been going on in Lidsville. Unfortunately for Mark, he did not return home at the end.
Music was also a part of the show, with songs being performed by the characters in several episodes.
| Episode | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "World in a Hat" | September 11, 1971 |
| 2 | "Show Me the Way to Go Home" | |
| 3 | "Fly Now, Vacuum Later" | |
| 4 | "Weenie, Weenie, Where's Our Genie?" | |
| 5 | "Let's Hear it for Whizzo" | |
| 6 | "Is There a Mayor in the House?" | |
| 7 | "Take Me to Your Rabbit" | |
| 8 | "Have I Got a Girl For Hoo Doo" | |
| Mark and Weenie use a dating service to set Hoodoo up with a girlfriend. Unfortunately for them, the girl that Hoodoo received was Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf. | ||
| 9 | "Mark and the Bean Stalk" | |
| 10 | "Turn in Your Turban, You're Through" | |
| 11 | "Alias, the Imperial Wizard" | |
| 12 | "A Little Hoo Doo Goes a Long Way" | |
| 13 | "Oh, Brother" | |
| 14 | "Hoo Doo Who?" | |
| 15 | "The Old Hat Home" | |
| 16 | "The Great Brain Robbery" | |
| 17 | "Mommy Hoo Doo" | September 1, 1973 |
| In this clip episode, Hoodoo's mother comes to Lidsville thinking that her son isn't as bad as he used to be at the time when Hoodoo is at the doctors. The residents try to convince her that Hoodoo is still as bad as he is. | ||
An armored Knight named Sir Rip Van Helmet, and the Red-Hooded Hatpeckers.
On January 31, 2011, it was announced that DreamWorks Animation is adapting Lidsville to make a 3-D animated musical.[1] The feature will be directed by Conrad Vernon, the co-director of Shrek 2 and Monsters vs. Aliens, and the music will be composed by Alan Menken, the person famous for composing many of Disney's greatest animated features.[2] Menken stated that, "The songs will be an homage to '60s psychedelic concept-album rock."[3] The release date is not yet set.
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