Marty Krofft, a TV producer known for imaginative children's shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf and primetime hits including "Donny & Marie" in the 1970s, has died in Los Angeles, his publicist said. Krofft was 86 and died Saturday of kidney failure, the AP reports. Krofft and his brother Sid were puppeteers who broke into television and ended up getting stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Along the way, they brought a trippy sensibility to children's TV and brought singling siblings Donny and Marie Osmond and Barbara Mandrell and her sisters to primetime.
The Osmonds' clean-cut variety show, featuring television's youngest-ever hosts at the time, became a lasting piece of '70s cultural memorabilia, rebooted as a daytime talk show in the 1990s and a Broadway Christmas show in 2010. The Kroffts followed up with Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, centered on the country music star; it ran from 1980-82. H.R. Pufnstuf proved to have pop culture staying power. Despite totaling just 17 episodes, the surreal show, featuring an island, a witch, a talking flute, a shipwrecked boy, and a redheaded, cowboy boot-wearing dragon, came in 27th in a 2007 TV Guide poll ranking of all-time cult favorites. More than 45 years after the show's 1969 debut, the title character graced an episode of another Krofft brothers success, Mutt & Stuff, which ran for multiple seasons on Nickelodeon.
Even then, Krofft was still contending with another of the enduring features of H.R. Pufnstuf—speculation that it betokened a certain '60s commitment to altering consciousness. Krofft rebuffed that notion. "If we did the drugs everybody thought we did, we'd be dead today," he said, adding, "You cannot work stoned." Born in Montreal, Krofft got into entertainment via puppetry. He and his brother Sid put together a risqué, cabaret-inspired puppet show called Les Poupe´es de Paris in 1960, and its traveling success led to jobs creating puppet shows for amusement parks. The Kroffts eventually opened their own, the World of Sid & Marty Krofft, in Atlanta in the 1970s.
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They first made their mark in television with H.R. Pufnstuf, which spawned the 1970 feature film Pufnstuf. Shows for various audiences followed, including Land of the Lost; Electra Woman and Dyna Girl; Pryor's Place, with Richard Pryor, and D.C. Follies, in which puppets gave a satirical take on politics and the news. The pair were awarded a Daytime Emmy for lifetime achievement in 2018. Sid Krofft said on Instagram that he was heartbroken by his younger brother's death, telling fans, "All of you meant the world to him."
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