Talk 'Land of the Lost' With Sid and Marty Krofft

Sid and Marty Krofft are the brothers and producing partners behind several of the most beloved (and, let's face it, trippy) children's television shows of the 1970s. The Kroffts produced "H.R. Pufnstuf," "The Bugaloos," "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" and "Land of the Lost," among others.

Join both of them for an online discussion on Tuesday, June 2 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss their careers in television as well as the upcoming movie adaptation of "Land of the Lost," on which the Kroffts also serve as producers.

"Land of the Lost" opens in theaters on Friday.

A transcript follows.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi guys,

I loved the show y'all produced with Ruth Buzzi and that semi-alive dune buggy (which probably dates me right there). What was it called again?

What were your creative influences? How did you get started in show business?

Sid Krofft: This is my 68th year in show business and I started as a puppeteer and our career has been like a huge snowball. We were the opening act for Judy Garland, I toured all over Europe with my act, I was at the Lido in Paris for two years and I am going back and forth. When I was 16 I was with the Ringling Bros Circus in the side show as the world's youngest puppeteer.

The reason we got into television is because we were the creative heads of all the Six Flag parks. We were approached by Hanna Barbera to create and manufacture the suits for the Banana Split characters because we were the only ones doing anything like that. Because of the Banana Splits, NBC approached to do our own show and that became HR Pufnstuf.

The Ruth Buzzi show was called "Lost Saucer." That was probably our 8th or 9th or 10th show, I don't know.

Marty Krofft: Ruth Buzzi also starred with Jim Nabors in "Lost Saucer."

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Colorado: Dear Sid and Marty,

We just caught a re-run of the original "Land of the Lost" on TV, and my 6-year-old son loved it. So we've rented the whole series, and he's slowly watching a little every day. What has struck me now that I'm seeing it as an adult (I'm 42 now, and suppose I was probably 8 or 9 when it was out), is both the imaginative quality of the writing and the character-building emphasis with the father explaining what is right and wrong to the kids. I'd much rather have my kids watch this than "iCarly" or Disney Channel. God forbid a kid's show be creative these days.

I'm curious what you think has changed in TV and kids shows since the 70s? (My feeling is that kids shows now all seem to be based on teenage or pre-teen social interactions, and there's little imagination left.)

Marty Krofft: There are little budgets left to do show likes ours. We got very little money in those days and we funded the rest. Networks will not pay to do these kinds of shows again.

Sid Krofft: When we produced our shows, we wanted Mom and Dad to watch it with the kids. We did not want to do a show that was just a babysitter. We also know that kids went to school five days a week and Saturday was their day.

We wanted to put a message in there but we were very careful on how we did it. It was done with a little sense of humor. And the shows were always written up, not down for the children. For instance, in "H.R. Pufnstuf," Dr. Blinky's house had a fireplace that smoked too much and the whole house had a terrible cough and ended up on crutches. The chimney stack had a headache from the smoke.

That was how we approached teaching children a lesson.

Marty Krofft: In "Land of the Lost," the series and the movie, the Pakunis had their own language. We went to a professor, Gloria Ronkin at UCLA who created a dictionary of Pakuny language. In the movie, we upgraded the Pakuni language, so we don't know what to call that. But it works.

You have to know that the difference between the series and the movie. The show we had was dramatic and there were dinosaurs. And in the movie there is major comedy and jeopardy so Chaka is funny in the movie but wasn't in the series. Very funny.

Sid Krofft: "Land of the Lost" was our fifth show for Saturday morning television. Our first shoe qas Pufnstuff, then came Bugaloos and Lidsville and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

When we were ready to come up with our fifth show, all those kids that watched our first four shows were teenagers so we wanted to do a show for them and all the other kids. The idea that we had was dinosaurs because every kid and every adult on the planet has a fascination and love for dinosaurs. And we gave it a Swiss Family Robinson background, and oddly enough the first title we gave this show was "Lost." When we looked at that one word, we said "What does that mean? It needs a place." So we ended up calling it "Land of the Lost."

When I was 11 years old, our dad took me to see the very first movie done with moving dinosaurs. It was called "One Million B.C." with Victor Mature, and not only did it scare the hell out of me, it just gave me a lasting impressions. That's why dinosaurs was our fifth show, I guess.

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Los Angeles, CA.: Did you get to work with Will Ferrell? If you did, what it like to work with him? Does he ever suddenly go into character as George Bush or anyone else?

Sid Krofft: Will Ferrell is probably the nicest guy on the planet. He came to work totally prepared. We had a five month shoot on this movie and there was never, ever one problem, not only with the actors but we never had a problem with the whole movie.

Will Ferrell yesterday said to Marty and myself, "You guys are so cool, and this has been the coolest project I have ever been on." And I said, "It's great that you say that because we have always been accused of being hip and trippy. So now we can say we're cool, hip and trippy." And when you go to see the movie, all those three things are definitely in it. "Land of the Lost" is very Krofft.

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Bring back Lidsville!!: I miss it!

Marty Krofft: We have a deal at Sony for a "H.R. Pufnstuf" movie, and we have the director who directed "Shrek" and "Monsters vs. Aliens," Conrad Vernon. We've got Dennis McNichols, who wrote "Land of the Lost," writing "Pufnstuf."

We're developing "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" as a movie for Universal. And we have Dana Gould, from "The Simpsons," writing the script for the movie.

Yes, it is in the back of our minds to develop "Lidsville," one of our favorite shows. And we think Jim Carrey would make a great Hoodoo.

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Brooklyn, NY: What is Chaka doing now? And was Chaka a boy or a girl?

Sid Krofft: In the series, Chaka was 10 years old. He was a black belt and a great little actor. When he came in to audition, immediately that was Chaka. His name was Philip Paley.

Marty Krofft: In the movie Chaka is played by an actor from "Saturday Night Light," and he's a home run, Jorna Taccone.

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Washington: I used to live in England where I heard about HR Pufnstuff. But everyone there is convinced it was an entirely drug-enduced production. Can you lay the rumors to rest?

Sid Krofft: If we did the drugs that we've been accused of doing all these years, we wouldn't be here answering your questions. I just want to make one thing really, really clear. When we created these shows it was all through the '70s, and those were the psychedelic years.

Sid and Marty Krofft have always moved with the times, and when you go to see "Land of the Lost" the movie, you will see that we brought it up to the year 2009. Because that show alone was done 35 years ago. And the reason the shows were so bright and colored is because in the '40 and '50s we had movies in Technicolor. Bright colors make you smile and make you happy. So that's why all of our shows were really bright. We wanted you to have a good time watching them.

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Denver, Colo.: I happened upon the Memorial Day LOTL marathon on the SciFi Channel and got sucked in. I watched these as a kid when they originally ran (10-13 year old boy... right in the target demo).

I had vague memories of it. I remembered Chaka and the Sleestaks and the goofy (I mean that in the best way) dinosaurs, but that was about it.

What really impressed me upon revisiting LOTL was the writing (especially Seasons 1 & 2). You brought in some established heavy-hitters in science fiction: Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold, Ben Bova, D.C. Fontana. What was that like? Did they help inform the sensibilities of the show, or was the nature of the "closed universe" already established in your minds?

Marty Krofft: These guys you mention were from "Star Trek." We weren't stupid.

Creation, creating something isn't like an artist in a closet painting. We start the thing, we initiate it, and there are people working all around us to get things. It was collaborative. You can create something and other people come in and add so much to it.

Sid Krofft: If you look at the credits of all of our shows, you will discover the most famous people in our business because they always wanted to get involved with our shows because they were so different and creative.

Marty Krofft: When we did it when our career began in television, everybody that were kids that were watching have all grown up. Now they're the heads of studios, they're art directors, they're directors, they're actors. That's how we pull them in now. Everyone that worked on "Land of the Lost" the movie was a fan of our shows. They all grew up on it so it's a lot easier now to get great talent.

Not only that but the head of Universal -- he was our agent and we were his first clients.

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Marty Krofft: We made all the kids happy in the '70s. We gave them great Saturday mornings. And now they're over 30 and we want them all to come see the "Land of the Lost" movie, Friday the 5th, for payback. And I'm not kidding.

Thanks for all the questions and for checking in with us all these years. You were very loyal to us and we will remain loyal to you.

Sid Krofft: And the best is yet to come.

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