H.R. Pufnstuf

H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program (not including their previous work with the Hanna-Barbera program The Banana Splits Adventure Hour).[1] The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast Saturday mornings from September 6, 1969, to December 27, 1969. The broadcasts were successful enough that NBC kept it on the schedule until August 1972. The show was shot at Paramount Studios and its opening was shot at Big Bear Lake, California. Reruns of the show aired on ABC Saturday morning from September 2, 1972, to September 8, 1973, and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 16, 1973, to September 8, 1974. It was syndicated by itself from September 1974 to June 1978 and in a package with six other Krofft series under the banner Krofft Superstars from 1978 to 1985. Reruns of the show were featured on TV Land in 1999 as part of its Super Retrovision Saturdaze Saturday morning-related overnight prime programming block and in the summer of 2004 as part of its TV Land Kitschen weekend late-night prime programming block, and it was later shown on MeTV from 2014 until 2016.

In 2004 and 2007, H.R. Pufnstuf was ranked #22 and #27 respectively on TV Guide' s Top Cult Shows Ever.[2][3]

Fast food chain McDonald's later plagiarized the series' concept for its long-running advertising campaign McDonaldland, and the company was successfully sued by the Krofft brothers for the copyright infringement.[citation needed ]