Episode 98

Fritz Coleman (00:00:00):

Welcome to Media Path. I'm Fritz Coleman.

Louise Palanker (00:00:07):

And I'm Louise Lanker.

Fritz Coleman (00:00:08):

As you're heading down the media path, considering your entertainment options, think of us as your Wave app to help you avoid the glut of items that aren't worth your while. <laugh>. And a treat for you, as for us, is to get to talk to guests who have made their mark in their field, and nobody has made a greater mark in entertainment, especially in the area of children's programming than Marty Croft, who, with his brother Sid, created Sid Marty Croft Productions producing historic shows like HR Puff and Stuff, which started in 1969 at NBC when I didn't start there. Land of the Lost Lidsville, the Boogaloos Electro Woman and Diana Girl, far out space nuts, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and a lot more. And Wheezy will get to Marty in just a second. What have you got for us this

Louise Palanker (00:00:52):

Week? So this week I've been watching the First Lady on Showtime, and, uh, you've been watching it. Oh my gosh.

Fritz Coleman (00:00:57):

Yeah,

Louise Palanker (00:00:58):

Love. So, the First Lady Ambitiously takes on the task of weaving together the parallel story arcs of Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama. In an effort to show us how the title of First Lady affects each woman and how she in turn uses her role to affect the nation outcomes are naturally informed by each woman's personality, the political climate, and her relationship with her husband As First Lady, much is expected of you, while little is permitted, and the subsequent desires and frustrations of each woman impact her ability to maintain personal balance while positively influencing her generation. Much has been said about the actor's abilities to capture the essences of the iconic personalities they portray. There is, of course, some distracting mimicry required for the task, which could be why Michelle Pfeiffer seems to be receiving the most praise. She plays Betty Ford, whose speech and mannerisms are lesser known. Viola Davis is Michelle Obama. Jillian Anderson is Eleanor Roosevelt, and their husbands are Keefer Sutherland as fdr, Erin Eckhart as Gerald Ford and o t Feg Benley as Barack Obama. Let go of your familiarity with the actual figures they portray and just take in the stories and the themes. There is much to enjoy and learn here. The First Lady is on Showtime.

Fritz Coleman (00:02:13):

I love it. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm addicted to this show, and I love it because it drills down on some of the personal things we didn't know about. The first ladies, I think the most affecting one to me is the way they treated the, um, uh, same sex relationship that Elner Roosevelt apparently had with Ms. Hickock. Mm-hmm. Who was her mentor and her friend. Now, they even do a disclaimer at the beginning of the show where they say some of this is fictionalized in order to make it really human. But I think that's a, that's a known fact that after her husband's indels became positive, she sought the solace of this woman, and they became partners and lived in a house with five other women somewhere else on, you know, in, in, um, in New York. But I, I love that Karen. I think Jillian Anderson is killing it with, uh, uh, with, uh, Elner Roosevelt.

(00:02:57):

I love the Michelle Pfeiffer character because I think she's the most American. I mean, she stuck up for women's rights, did it out of an office in the White House, was chastised for it by his assistance and thrown outta the White House. She put a face on breast cancer. She put a face on pill addiction, and I think women in America seized her. And this tells the great story, the Michelle Obama one. Um, I I, you beautifully phrased, you know, the physical characteristics. I find that things she's doing with her lips completely distracting, uh, and a little over the top. But I, but it really does put a point on what a strong woman she was and how she was the strength in the family, and how her husband, she was like the, she was the rock in the family and had to, you know, be, be strong and wasn't gonna fall into the typical first Lady role in her bouts with Rama Manuel. Like, no, I'm not gonna be the first lady you want me to teach. I'm a lawyer. You know?

Louise Palanker (00:03:52):

Yeah. And then she's proven right in, like, yeah, in many aspects of, you know, what it was that she was, you know, Barack was a, a politician and he was con always worried about midterms or reelections or what have you. And Michelle was just really trying to make a difference and move things forward.

Fritz Coleman (00:04:07):

Yeah. Yeah. And a smart woman, and it was great. And I think she had the same problem that Hillary Clinton had being too smart for the role when America wasn't ready to accept that over

Louise Palanker (00:04:15):

Eleanor too.

Fritz Coleman (00:04:16):

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There you go. Well said Marty. Yep. Well, my pick this week, I hope you like this one. We is George Carlin's American Dream. It's a two-part documentary, maybe the greatest standup performer of all time, George Carlin streaming now on HBO O Max. It's co-directed and produced by Judd Appal and Mike Bonfilio. Judd produced, in my opinion, one of the greatest looks at standup ever. The Zen Diaries of Gary Shandling, also a two-part series for hbo, not just interesting but profound. My opinion was at the time that every beginning standup should be forced to watch the Shandling Doc, because it's about standup as an art form. And I feel the same about this one. It's a named American Dream, which comes from a line in George's act quote. They call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it. <laugh>

(00:05:03):

Quote, part one charts his early life as he transforms himself from the vegasy suit, wearing impressionist mainstream comic to the bearded jeans wearing prophet philosopher that made him the legend. We know part two gets into the genius of his act, and it shows long uninterrupted pieces, and I'm so happy about that. So you get the full force of his writing. You're astonished at how prolific he was, what a disciplined writer he was. I think he holds the record for the number of HBO specials over 10. It's a lot of stark truth about his relationship with his soulmate and his late first wife, Brenda, his daughter Kelly, Sally Wade, who was his wife at the time of his death. Toward the end of his life, there were grumblings from his, even his greatest fans like me, who thought he might be drifting to a little darkness.

(00:05:48):

It seems similar to the way Lenny Bruce went toward the end, more bitching and mourning and less comedy. But when you set him against our current malaise in this, he realized he wasn't too dark, he was just too far ahead of his time. Wow. We could benefit from his voice. Right now, George Carlin was the reason I wanted to do standup. My friends gave me tickets to see him when I was a freshman in college at the Valley Forage Music Fair outside Philadelphia, not knowing the grunt work and the nuts and the bolts of preparing a standup show, I was rattled and spooked by this man's ability to get on stage in front of 3000 people, seemingly off the top of his head, no notes. And to Mesmerize and convulsant audience for 90 minutes. It was a religious experience for me. I've described it as my St.

(00:06:34):

Paul in the Road to Damascus moment, and my life is, was forever changed. And that's not exaggerating. It really was. No, it's a wonderful documentary. Wow. All right. All right. So let's introduce our wonderful guests. I can't wait to get to our guests. I've been so anxious to talk to Marty. Very few people have seen, uh, the transitions in the history of television. Like this guy has, uh, uh, you, you are, uh, amazing. Marty and Sid got the last star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before the pandemic. They received a lifetime achievement award from the daytime Emmys, along with all the great children's shows they produced. These men literally created Saturday morning children's television. They also did primetime programming, the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, the Donny and Marie show, Barbara Mandrell, my favorite, DC Folleys, which was a political satire show that we only wish was around right now. We're very happy to welcome Marty Croft. Marty, nice to have you.

Marty Krofft (00:07:26):

Alright, great to be here.

Fritz Coleman (00:07:28):

Listen, you and your older brother

Marty Krofft (00:07:31):

Always loved you.

Fritz Coleman (00:07:32):

Oh, God bless you. I appreciate it. Well, uh, you and your older brother see it, have a fascinating start in show business. Talk about your dad discovering that Sid had an early and brilliant talent at seven years old as a puppeteer. He went to work for Ringling Brothers, and he even opened for Liberace and Judy Garland at a very young age. Great story.

Marty Krofft (00:07:53):

Well, that was it. That's that is it. You know, my father probably started at all. And then my brother, who's eight years older than me, so I was still in school when he was in Ringley Brothers and other playing clubs and the End of Vaudeville. So I joined him when he was beginning to work with Liberace. So, you know, we worked with Judy Garland for a couple of years. We were there opening act, Tony Martin, Dean Martin, you know, and on and out. We were, we always worked. We worked with stars. And before we made Puff and stuff, we had a big track record. So we weren't just starting then. You know, when I was at the New York World Fair with our adults only puppet show in a thousand seat theater, were the only one that survived there. And one day, Dean Martin walked by the front of the theater, came inside, then he asked for me and said, Hey, do you wanna be our series every week?

(00:08:58):

What do you think about being the girls in the show with your puppets? So of course, that was incredible. So we got star billing every week with all the big stars that were, you know, hired for the, for the series. And, uh, you know, so that was a big thing. And then of course, we had a club in New Orleans on Bourbon Street with the puppets, and we were at all three worlds fairs, and we were always successful at the fairs. So that was all before Puff and stuff. And then Joe Bar came to me and said, Hey, we're doing something live and we don't know how to do it. Would you guys come aboard? And was the banana splits? So we created the banana splits, and while we were building them in our factory, the head of b c Coca-Cola and Kellogg's, they came a few times to see the construction, what was going on. So one day, Larry White was, had a program at NP c leaned over to me and says, why don't you do your own show? I'll pick it up. So that's how puffing stuff was created. But he, he existed the year before at the World's Fair. We did the Coca-Cola Pavilion at Hemisphere in San Antonio, so that, you know, he is called Luther then. So then we got him updated and we created the show around HR and stuff. So that's how it started.

Louise Palanker (00:10:34):

It seems like you were, you were the business mind, be behind taking, uh, a puppet act into like an e entertainment production company mogul type of space. And you kind of like hit that stride in the seventies when color television and everything just being vivid and, and, and more colorful than real life was the, the fashions. So you guys were able to hit that stride simultaneously, correct?

Marty Krofft (00:11:01):

Well, what we did was we took, well, we went from an act, an opening act to a company, which I did run and had more than one responsibility. Mostly creative, but, but you know, we did know, we, we didn't know we were changing the face and they were getting rid of animation at the time. So we cost a few companies, some show pickups, and, you know, our thing, our shows were always known for color. And look, we went in and sold that I shows without scripts. We did art artwork, we went in with artwork Oh. And got picked up. Okay. So that's how most of our stuff got,

Fritz Coleman (00:11:46):

I, I love, I love your philosophy about pitches too. In 69, you pitched NBC and he said, you have to be able to do your pitching no more than 90 seconds, or you're out of there. Which is a great lesson for anybody who we've pitched TV shows together.

Marty Krofft (00:12:00):

No, Saint Alex, you're in a room with, let's say Michael Eisner, and he has a phone call from his boss. He's out of the room. He has a phone call from his wife. He's out of the room. He has a phone call that they just stole his car. So if you don't do it in like three minutes, you're done. So we learned to, to really, you know, to come to a conclusion as to what the show was.

Louise Palanker (00:12:25):

But some of its real, it's high con concept stuff where like, it's a, it's a fish out of water. It's a kid on an island. So what's the 92nd and stuff pitch?

Marty Krofft (00:12:34):

Well, you're asking me, I <laugh> I don't have that. Good question. It's gonna remain unanswered.

Louise Palanker (00:12:41):

Yeah. It's not

Marty Krofft (00:12:42):

I the pitch. Yeah. I got the pitch. We did, we put together a book with about three, four pages and, uh, Larry White was in a plane crash, the head of N B C. And so he never took planes. So he took trains and his office was in New York. So I said to myself, let me go out to Union Station. It was on a Friday. See if I can find his train car and give him this book. Wow. So I'm at the probation counter at the Union Station, and I said, where do I fine train 37 40? So he, I said, he said, well, what, who you looking, looking for? I said, Larry White, as I'm saying it, I get an elbow into my side. Larry White was standing right there, <laugh> <laugh>. So I gave him a book. There was no phones on, on air, on, on, uh, trains. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, so I knew he would be looking at this over the weekend. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So on Monday he called me, he said, okay.

Louise Palanker (00:13:53):

Wow. Wow. So you're, you have a fearlessness to you as well. Like, you know, you're good and you're gonna go for it.

Marty Krofft (00:13:59):

Well, you better have no fear when you're doing this job. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, you, you better not walk into a room and start shaking with a network and getting right into your pitch. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we never had to do that.

Fritz Coleman (00:14:13):

So, HR puffing stuff was one of the, one of the, uh, was your breakthrough one. And, and part of the, uh, the brilliance of that show is your casting. Talk about Jack Wild, where he came from and how you got him.

Marty Krofft (00:14:26):

Well, Jack Wild, uh, my brother went to a opening, one of the previews of Oliver. And, uh, Jack Wild was the artful dodger in that. And, uh, I can't think of the guy that did the music. He was famous.

Louise Palanker (00:14:44):

Oh, Lionel Bart.

Marty Krofft (00:14:46):

Lionel, you're right. So Lionel Bart knew my brother. He actually asked my brother to go see him. So then my brother, of course came to me and said, go and get Jack. We, well, my brother always said this <laugh>, he left LA three times <laugh>. So yeah. I said, you know what? Why don't you go? He said, no, I want you to go. I said, look, I've got two kids and a wife. You asked me to go to London. So I went, and ultimately, uh, his man, I bonded with the manager, you know, he, he was called Hemdale, David Hemings company. And so I brought Jack Wild back to la, put him up. He, he got the Oscar nomination, you know, and all of this was going on. I got him for Puff and stuff. And then I took him to the Academy Awards. The only time I went in the first row, and the first, he was up for the, you know, the supporting actor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in and had 12 nominations, I think got 11 Oscars. So the first Oscar was being given, and the guy who, I forget the actor who gave it. So he said, and the winner is Jack Halon.

Louise Palanker (00:16:06):

Oh my God. So that was, wow. You're halfway outta your seat. But you had, you had Jack Wild, who was now becoming a Teen Idol, staying with you and your family and your teenage girls. So how did that go over in the neighborhood? <laugh>?

Marty Krofft (00:16:18):

Well, that was not great. <laugh>. He brought, he brought his brother with him, which wasn't that great. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But Jack was great. And he was like, Mickey Rooney. This guy had more talent. And literally he got messed up, you know, I don't wanna say by his parents, but he, they took him back to London and, you know, I mean, it just didn't happen for him, but it did while he was doing, you know, our show. Yeah. He was like the Teen Idol.

Louise Palanker (00:16:47):

Yeah. He had, so he was just packed with talent, this guy. How old was he at the time? Uh, Marty,

Marty Krofft (00:16:54):

When we got him and, oh no, he was the song and Dance Man. He was one of a kind. And, uh, he was a, a big, a big reason how the show got picked up. But of course, the Star was always Witchiepoo <laugh>, you know, she, Billy Hayes was great doing that part. Oh,

Louise Palanker (00:17:16):

Wow. He

Marty Krofft (00:17:17):

Gonna do something with Puff and stuff that I can't talk about, but it's gonna be a big surprise and hopefully a home run. Well,

Louise Palanker (00:17:26):

Wait, are you holding on to headlines? <laugh>,

Marty Krofft (00:17:31):

You know, you can't kill our shows with a baseball bat. And we only had 17 episodes. 17 episodes, eight episodes. We have left a Woman and Diner girl, which we're gonna do for the first time in animation. And, uh, and it looks like we'll do it at Disney. So

Fritz Coleman (00:17:50):

That, that, that's very exciting. That really is. You, you mentioned Billy Hayes, who, who we lost fairly recently, correct?

Marty Krofft (00:17:58):

Right.

Fritz Coleman (00:17:59):

Well, she was witchy Poo. What? Uh, so full of energy. She was a fireball. And, and Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked witch of the East in the Wizard of Oz, said was a better witch than her because she was scary and funny. <laugh>, which is a great combination.

Marty Krofft (00:18:18):

Margaret Hamilton thought that, that Billy Hayes was the best witch ever. And we had her on segment. We hired Margaret. I mean, let's face it, the Wizard of Oz. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is still legendary. Mm-hmm.

Fritz Coleman (00:18:31):

<affirmative>. But

Louise Palanker (00:18:31):

Margaret was supposed to be mostly scary. Yeah. She wasn't supposed to be at all funny. But

Marty Krofft (00:18:35):

Dad, he talked about the comedian. And I had Richard Pryor,

Fritz Coleman (00:18:42):

Richard Pryor on his first SP thing. Yeah.

Marty Krofft (00:18:44):

That was, that was a trip. You know. So how did

Fritz Coleman (00:18:48):

That happen? George?

Marty Krofft (00:18:50):

Were very, in a lot of ways similar mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:18:54):

You know, so I can't see Richard Pryor going, the guy that does HR puff and stuff. I gotta have this guy doing my comedy special. How did that happen?

Marty Krofft (00:19:02):

How that ha I'm in New York, in the middle of the winter. It's a Meridian Hotel on the 20th floor overlooking the park, and it snowed. And I had a meeting coming up to the room by Jim Henson. So I had a meeting with him, and he asked me, what are you doing next? And I said, Richard Pryor. And I didn't have him, I hadn't met him on the show. So Jim Hanson left the room and I said, oh, why did I tell him this? So then when I went back to la I called Skip Brinham, who's an incredible lawyer who represented, represented us way. At the beginning, I said, look, I gotta get a meeting with Richard. You gotta do this for me. <laugh>. So he got me a meeting and Warner of Brothers. I figured there'd be 10 people in the room. The only two was the lawyer and Richard.

(00:19:54):

Wow. Richard said, yes, he, the four sketches, he said Yes. Then two hours later, he said, no. And he said yes. And he said, no. So finally, I gotta tell you, he said Yes. And now we're building the assess. 300,000 we have into the sets. He comes to the studio with Skip and says, look, skip says we we're sorry, but Richard doesn't wanna do the show. Oh my God. I said, look, we have $300,000 into the sets. You can't do this. He says, okay. He took out a check and wrote it out for 300,000. I wouldn't take it. So then I took Richard for a walk. He finally, he finally did it. But he said to me, whatever you do, Marty, don't ever call anybody that I know to be on this show. <laugh>. I said, rich, I never will. As soon as he walked out the door, I called Sammy Davis, Jr.

Louise Palanker (00:20:55):

<laugh>. Wow. So what do you think explains the back and forth, the indecision? Did he just not wanna have a variety show? Was that just too ordinary for, I,

Marty Krofft (00:21:06):

I, Richard Richard was sober. He went through an awful lot. He was, you know, off the screen. He was real serious. I guess I talked to him almost every night. Not about the show. I don't know, maybe he was lonely

Louise Palanker (00:21:22):

Just about life. So,

Marty Krofft (00:21:23):

Yeah, the last episode though, he had a yellow Rose Royce. He opened up the door, I kneeled down, talked to him for 20 minutes and never saw him again. Ah,

Fritz Coleman (00:21:35):

Where did that air, where and when did that air?

Marty Krofft (00:21:39):

That was in the eighties.

Fritz Coleman (00:21:41):

On what network? That

Marty Krofft (00:21:43):

Six, that was after he got sober. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, then he got, he married Jennifer Lee divorced her, then she married him again. You know, Richard was the trip. Mm-hmm.

Louise Palanker (00:21:56):

<affirmative> Day. It's kind of like, it's kind of like the show. One day he wants to do it, <laugh>. One day he doesn't, one day he wants to be married. One day he doesn't.

Marty Krofft (00:22:03):

Well, one day he calls me up and he says, Marty, uh, it was 12 o'clock, I'd not gonna take a ride with me. And we were off of Sunset Boulevard. Cause I figured he's taking me to lunch. They get in the, I get in the car and he says to me, no, I'm not taking a lunch. I'm going to my bank, <laugh>. He said, why is that? He said, because I heard they're going under and I've got $2 million in the bank. So we're driving up Sunset towards Fairfax, but I figure he's gonna make a left turn at Fairfax and find some small bank. He keeps driving to Century City. He pulls up by the Bank of America. Oh my God. That's what he's going under. I said, Richard, if that goes under, so that, that's my Richard Bris What,

Fritz Coleman (00:22:50):

What network was that show on Marty?

Marty Krofft (00:22:53):

That was on cbs. Oh,

Fritz Coleman (00:22:54):

Okay.

Marty Krofft (00:22:55):

Wow. See, we had, we had cbs, N B C and B abc, and that's all there was. Yeah, for sure. So every kid in America to watch Saturday morning saw, see, they didn't see the whole series. They saw most of what we did.

Louise Palanker (00:23:12):

Well, one, one of, did you know that you were providing some consistency for kids? Because a lot of kids don't have parents that, that they know whether or not they're gonna be there on Saturday morning, but you're gonna be there.

Marty Krofft (00:23:23):

Well, you know, they all, they were loyal, but I'll give you the best loyalty. Mm-hmm.

Louise Palanker (00:23:28):

<affirmative>,

Marty Krofft (00:23:29):

All those kids then grew up and I can stop 10 people on Times Square 40 50 and say, Hey, Mr, can you sing the theme song of one of the craft shows? And they could sing the lyrics. Oh, yeah. So our fans that we have out there, I say, there's 40 million fans. And, you know, they just, they're totally still with us.

Fritz Coleman (00:23:56):

As a matter of fact, you can go to your website and hear the soundtracks and sing along with the HR puffing stuff, jingle, and it immediately comes back to mind. You got a whole list of all the jingles from all the shows right there. It's fun.

Marty Krofft (00:24:10):

You know, there was a convention two weeks ago called the Croft Con. Right.

Louise Palanker (00:24:15):

<laugh> talk

Marty Krofft (00:24:16):

About right outside of Oakland and San Francisco,

Louise Palanker (00:24:19):

And you turned it into, uh,

Marty Krofft (00:24:21):

Theater. And we had about 500 people, of which we signed autographs all day. I mean, if you heard these people, it was like wild. They all are like into everything we

Louise Palanker (00:24:35):

Did. And you turned the whole, the whole convention hall. You, you turned it into Living Island. Correct.

Marty Krofft (00:24:40):

Right. And we're gonna go on tour and do this.

Louise Palanker (00:24:43):

How, how do you, how, how can you make that portable?

Marty Krofft (00:24:49):

Well, you know, it's gonna be, we're gonna be smart about it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the one we did up in, you know, Northern California. Uh, I would say it takes only one truck. You know, you do a show in an arena, you got 10 trucks and that kills you if you're not doing business. So we're gonna keep the cost down. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But we have, look, we know how to make it look great and we're gonna have some entertainment. We're gonna have some of the stars to run our variety shows. We've got the Stars to run our shows. So there's gonna be a lot to look at. And one thing we did do up there, we did the history of Cross and was narrated by, uh, Rob Klein. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, who like, knows more about stuff and the archives. He was at Disney for five years mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So this guy knows more about our shows than, than we do <laugh>. So we got a lot of entertainment going, and we're gonna go take it out on, in the west Coast first and play about eight, 10 cities and then work our way towards East Coast. So that's what we got planned. Oh wow.

Fritz Coleman (00:25:59):

Sounds great. Wow. Marty, let, let's go back to, um, the block that you carved out for yourself on Saturday mornings. That was back at a time when the FCC had a firmer grip on regulation on broadcast television. And the mandate was that stations had to supply a certain minimum number of hours of children's programming that you filled. Now there's no regulation at all. H how has it changed and how has that affected the business you were in?

Marty Krofft (00:26:28):

First of all, Fritz, you know too much. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I can't

Fritz Coleman (00:26:32):

Believe it. I'm sorry. You have

Marty Krofft (00:26:33):

A big background of knowledge, but you know, today I think there's such an amount of everything. It all comes together. And there are only a few standouts. Then, you know, you zeroed in on the three networks and you always found something that was special. So today, I don't know, you, you don't have to, to really, you know, follow those rules. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, to me, I don't think that's great. Look, they never inhibited us. You know, I remember when we did Land of the Lost, we, we met a woman called Gloria Kin from ucla, and she did the Paco language. The land of the Lost that wound up being the Educat Educational, you know, plug that we were able to, to, I'll tell you, you always did better if you had that. Especially then, they're still looking for it now. The stations still want that kind of show. Right. I mean, we've got some people from CBS working on, you know, our, our original shows. And the stations are still looking for ways to have some educational input in them.

Fritz Coleman (00:27:47):

Did did the sponsors ride you at all being very aware of children's content, make sure everything was healthy and have suggestions?

Marty Krofft (00:27:55):

Well, I gotta tell you, I don't think, you know, we weren't bothered much. Our shows were so different. Nobody really bothered us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the sponsors loved us. I mean, we were big with Coke, with Kelloggs, with Hasbro. And I don't remember ever having trouble with them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But there was, there's always people that never worse to get involved, you know? And most of them, or all of them have never produced anything <laugh>. So that's what happens. Now also

Louise Palanker (00:28:26):

Describe the, the creative process of coming up. You know, cuz you kind of like broke the mold wide open in terms of what can be a character and what would be an inanimate object. You mean you could turn anything into, into a character. And so what was it like when you guys were creating and coming up with ideas,

Marty Krofft (00:28:42):

Whatever. Whereas the most important thing when you create something is the idea. The idea is everything. Then you turn it over to other people and they either make it better or screw it up. But the ideas where it's said, so we had the ideas, uh, just about everything. I mean, I can't think of the ones that we did that somebody else came up with the ideas. But we always had, you know, in the first four shows that we did Puff Bolo, Lidsville and Sigmond and the Sea Monsters, I had a close friend by the name of Si Rose who had a big history of sick times. So I didn't know how to do a show. So I said, SI would you come and help us? So he was, he did Baha's Navy, uh, and a lot of special big shows. So mostly his Universal. So he had, he was really my teacher and I Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:29:47):

And you were able to use him for casting cuz you had Bob Denver doing your shows. You had, you had some of the stars you crossed over stars from his other venues.

Marty Krofft (00:29:55):

Well, by the time I got the Bob Denver, he wasn't doing it. Oh. So that's what I did was I always found the stars who shows were finished canceled. So Jim Neighbors, same thing, you know. So we always had names like Jack Wild, we got him guys up an Oscar and we got him for a kid show. So, you know, that was mostly my job.

Louise Palanker (00:30:22):

Now

Marty Krofft (00:30:22):

We, that's just about everybody that, that we had on these shows.

Louise Palanker (00:30:26):

Now, witchy Poo is a person whose, why me Lament would indicate that she does not seem to understand how her behavior is impacting the outcome of events. <laugh>. Was she modeled after anyone you knew?

Marty Krofft (00:30:39):

No, she was playing herself. She at Bambi Yoakum on Broadway in Little Abner. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And she had a one of a kind delivery. It was her. So when we're gonna do puffing stuff next we are not gonna do a re reboot, you know, and make the thing a copy of her. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we're gonna reinvent the character. Cause you gotta be real careful when you do reboots, you can die real quick. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, someone wouldn't wanna do any reboots.

Louise Palanker (00:31:12):

But there was so much humanity in all, all of the characters. There was like something to make the adults laugh. You were using impressions of a lot of famous people that the kids didn't know. And so you guys must have been having a lot of fun.

Marty Krofft (00:31:25):

Well, I don't know if I was having fun, I think everybody else was. Okay. <laugh> Butty added the comedy cause he was the best at punch up. You know, it was very hard to find writers that can do punch up and do you know Joseph be horrible? You within a show, they can stick out and ruin you. You know, I always said if we have, if I get three cringes in a half hour, I gotta tell you <laugh>, if I got one cringe I can survive two or like a second degree burn. <laugh> don't.

Louise Palanker (00:32:02):

Okay, sounds

Fritz Coleman (00:32:04):

Good. So out of all these successful kid shows you did, is there a common thread that runs through them that makes a successful kid show? Like what resonates? Is it the adventure? Is it the likable characters? Is it the no real danger? Or are all those, what, what's the common thread? Well,

Marty Krofft (00:32:24):

I, none of those. Oh, it's getting some to the network to pick it up. Oh,

Fritz Coleman (00:32:29):

There we go. And

Marty Krofft (00:32:30):

Then, then you make it happen. Ok. Cause one didn't tie into the other, but the fantasy and the look, we always kept what we call the cross look. Ah, we've kept the logo on our company and you know, and I gotta tell you, I got another story for you. Okay,

Fritz Coleman (00:32:50):

Let's have it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Marty Krofft (00:32:53):

We opened for Judy Garland if Flamingo, first time she ever went out. Two years later I'm sitting at the, the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel and they flew in all these stars the opening night in Vegas. But two years later, I'm sitting in the Polo Lounge with Judy, her husband Sid left Sinatra, his wife, and Tony Martin and Siese. Wow. Yikes. And about 22, 21. So we're there having a drink. And this man, this old guy comes over and I find a lady, he saw si char's legs. She probably came over

Fritz Coleman (00:33:40):

<laugh>

Marty Krofft (00:33:42):

And it was Walt Disney.

Fritz Coleman (00:33:44):

Oh wow. Whoa.

Marty Krofft (00:33:45):

Sat next to me. And uh, Judy said, you know, this is Marty Cro. He and his brother were my opening act and you were there. You know, so he said, he looked at me, he said, kid, let me give you some advice. He said, don't ever sell ever what you create. And then he said, the next thing I'm gonna tell you is the hardest thing to get. Always fight for your name above the title. So the only thing he never told me was how to save my money <laugh>. So that's why still work

Fritz Coleman (00:34:20):

<laugh>. Oh wow. Those are, those are words of wisdom.

Marty Krofft (00:34:25):

I never saw him again. But then Card Walker was a PR guy, was his PR guy, and Card Walker was named the next president. I bonded with him. Yep. I have to go sit with him once every couple of months in his office for lunch. Then, then Walt Disney son-in-law, he became the head, he almost ruined the company. And then Michael Eisman came in, was like my mentor. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I knew, I knew the whole succession of Disney, but never really worked there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we had a couple of developments, but now I may be

Fritz Coleman (00:35:03):

Maybe.

Marty Krofft (00:35:04):

Okay. Not an easy place, but it's still busy.

Fritz Coleman (00:35:07):

You outlasted all of a Marty, it's fantastic. Now, um, talk about your variety experience doing the Brady Bunch Show.

Marty Krofft (00:35:16):

Okay. Oh great. Well, the first thing is was Donia Marie. So Fred Silverman and Michael Eisner called me into their office. And the first day Bob Iger worked at a B, C. He came into that room, had all three, but Bob Quiet. So Fred says, look, we've got two kids, we don't know what to do with them. We wanted to give you the show. They're an opening act. Think he said, with Bob Hope in a state fair, come back and tell us what you wanna do. So we came back and said, look, we don't want the answers. We want ice skaters for mic Capade 16 of them. And Marie can't ice skate, so they'll do the comedy in the opening. They said as soon as they heard it said, okay, you got it. So that's how we got that. So as far as the Brady Bunch hours, Michael Eisner was leaving a b ABC to go to Paramount. She says to me, you don't wanna stay with Donnie and Marie in the third season. They were moving to Provo. I'm gonna give you the Brady Bunch to be in the, to start a variety hour. So that's how we wound up with them.

Louise Palanker (00:36:33):

So Youi start with Donnie and Marie who were absolute singing, dancing, skating, juggling musician show business pros. And then you created a show for the Brady Bunch who were actors. So that must have been a li a little bit of a speed bump. And and how did you manage it?

Marty Krofft (00:36:50):

Well, that was tough. They worked their sales off. But you know, they, it was a tough medium for them and they didn't totally pull it off. We, we surrounded them with great stars. But you know, if your stars that are on every week, they gotta make it. That's what the audience comes back to. So we got eight episodes and the first one we got like a fifties share and then we kept going down and we kept having better guests. You know, I mean, we got Donnie and Maria, you know, we got Blonie, we got Alice Cooper, <laugh>, we surrounded them. But I gotta tell you, Florence Henderson worked at Tail Off. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the kids there too. They're still in my life, you know? Oh. I mean, when we got the star on Hollywood Boulevard, Chris Knight was there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I mean, a couple others were there wishing us well. So, you know, we never lost any of our stars.

Fritz Coleman (00:37:53):

And, and you said Greg was a key player cuz he was a good singer in a, in all around performer. Barry. Barry rather. Yeah,

Marty Krofft (00:37:59):

Barry was good. He was, he's a he was a great performer. Still is. You know, so we're close with him. You know, they worked with us outside of the show, so we had known them. I mean, we worked with the Jacksons in the seventies, you know, so we, we had, we were around after we did Puff and stuff, and we were around very big time before, you know,

Louise Palanker (00:38:28):

Talk about songwriting because you always surrounded yourself with, I I think what, in addition to the sets and the costumes and the puppets, you guys are kind of known for your music. So talk about songwriting.

Marty Krofft (00:38:39):

Well, I mean, the first, uh, puffing stuff, after we did the first season, you know, while we were doing it, I went to, to Lou Washington, said, I wanna do a movie on puffing stuff. So he said, oh, how much is it? I said, A million dollars. I made the number up. And he said, oh, that's a lot of money. I said, what if I get half the money from Kellogg? He goes, then I'll do it. So he thought he'd never see me again. <laugh>. But I got the, I got half the money, and so I did the movie. Then I was looking for writers. So I found Charlie Fox in New York. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Charlie Fox and Norman Kimble were partners. So I got them. They moved out to LA for us, got them to write the score. And then Charlie wrote a real small song after he did puffing stuff called Killing Me Softly. Whoa. So that, you know, I had, uh, Sammy Khan and Shimmy Van Yuen. Wow. Sammy K The Sinatra. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That was before, you know, that was before of us. They, they did a, a whole, they did a whole album with us. So they were great. I mean, uh, Sammy Khan was a strip <laugh> know who that is, right? Oh

Louise Palanker (00:40:00):

Yeah. <laugh> definitely.

Fritz Coleman (00:40:02):

You know, we had Go ahead.

Marty Krofft (00:40:05):

No, I'm just saying that's the kind of talent I was looked for. The guys who did The Monkeys. I hired them. I had the Osmond brothers write some of the show.

Louise Palanker (00:40:15):

Oh, they're, yeah. Really talented.

Marty Krofft (00:40:18):

I mean,

Louise Palanker (00:40:19):

When you were, remember when you were casting the, the Aloo? Was that before or after they were casting the Monkeys?

Marty Krofft (00:40:26):

Oh no, that was way before.

Louise Palanker (00:40:28):

Yeah. So you were the first to kind of like customize a, a group. Correct. We went

Marty Krofft (00:40:32):

There England after we did Jack Wild. And that was the British invasion. So I had 'em lined up for three blocks in the winter to audition for the bug moves. So that's how that started.

Louise Palanker (00:40:46):

And you had some interesting people audition who were thrilled to not have gotten the, the role. Correct.

Marty Krofft (00:40:52):

Oh, you got it. <laugh>. You now you're really, you guys know too much

Louise Palanker (00:40:57):

<laugh> <laugh>,

Marty Krofft (00:40:59):

You know, too much. So yeah, we had some, you know, Elton John's partner,

Louise Palanker (00:41:04):

He always, Bernie asked me

Marty Krofft (00:41:05):

For not picking him. <laugh>. Yeah. You ruin my career. So every time Elton came to the Hollywood Bowl, he sent me four tickets.

Louise Palanker (00:41:13):

<laugh>

Fritz Coleman (00:41:14):

Well, you know, that, while you mentioned that, that that in terms of California, uh, the, the, the tip of the pyramid in California show business culture, the fact that they did the Sid Marty Croft musical night at the Hollywood Bowl is pretty impressive.

Marty Krofft (00:41:32):

We did do, and we did 12,000 people. Wow. Crazy. And we did do it, you know, that we came up with this, we were going into the Hollywood Bowl for one night, and then I decided on Tuesday of that week, why don't we do a special, so I called up a syn indicator and got somebody to do it. And by Friday we, you know, that's when we did the show. We did a special, you know, so that we still have, oh, by the way, the one star that also thanked us was Phil Collins <laugh>. Oh my.

Louise Palanker (00:42:09):

Yeah. Cause he, he was in Genesis the year after he auditioned for the bug loses. That would've been a different career path. Yeah. But, um, you all, you all, you also kind of take a lot of joy in creation and you're, you're someone who's not afraid to learn from failure. So talk about some of the really interesting concepts that you had that really never made it.

Marty Krofft (00:42:30):

I gotta tell you, we have a warehouse without all of our stuff.

Louise Palanker (00:42:34):

Wow.

Marty Krofft (00:42:35):

At one big development called M 13 based on astrology. Hmm. That was about the only one. So we created, it didn't get on. So we really, our batting average, I mean, we did about 20 pilots got 18 on the air and 16 were hits. Joe, the Maggio didn't have a, a batting average like that

Louise Palanker (00:43:02):

<laugh>. No, he didn't.

Fritz Coleman (00:43:04):

Well, you, you learned that the fine art of show business, which is diversification because you did not only these great shows, you made props for huge rock shows. You built puppet shows for major theme parks, like Six Flags. Talk about all your ancillary businesses and where they are.

Marty Krofft (00:43:24):

Well, a guy came to us through, he owned, I think he owned a holiday in an Atlantic city, and he was gonna build something called, uh, oh shit. <laugh>, what's the name of the, the thing where the little kids go for their birthday?

Fritz Coleman (00:43:42):

Chucky cheese.

Marty Krofft (00:43:43):

Chucky Cheese. Thank you.

Fritz Coleman (00:43:46):

They spent a good fortune on my retirement at Chuck Cheese

Marty Krofft (00:43:49):

Chuck who wants to help us create it and also build the characters. So we did it. And then he comes to me and he says, look, you have two choices. I'll give you a piece of the company or I'll give you a hundred thousand dollars. I said to myself, this thing is never gonna work.

Louise Palanker (00:44:09):

Oh man.

Marty Krofft (00:44:10):

Okay. So that's way that is still going on.

Louise Palanker (00:44:16):

What did you guys make a lot of money on merchandising though? Because I, I can, I'm picturing a lot of dolls of puff and stuff and that exists. Correct? Let me tell

Marty Krofft (00:44:26):

You about money.

Louise Palanker (00:44:27):

Yeah.

Marty Krofft (00:44:28):

I just said to me one day, it really made a big mistake, Marty. It took the wrong way out with the entertainment industry. You should have done what I do. He said you would've been running a studio by now. But you know what you did, you went to the fame and not the cash <laugh>. And that was so that's why we're still working. Well, true. We never went to cash. You know, we were never a, a money company.

Louise Palanker (00:44:59):

And how did you and your brother operate as a team? Like what were your roles?

Marty Krofft (00:45:03):

Well, my brother was totally in the end, in the creative side. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I was split among, amongst the business and the creative. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I never could, I never kept score on the creative side. But I'll tell you the most creative thing I probably did. I got all these shows on the air. Yeah. If that was now, I would whisper all my ideas to my brother and I didn't need to to keep score on that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, you know, it's hard to do these shows and not, you know, my brother just did that. You know, he, he was not somebody that wanted to come to the studio every day. Mm. So he did. So I'll leave it at that.

Fritz Coleman (00:45:54):

I, I, I Marty think that one of the funniest people that's ever appeared on television was Charles Nelson Riley. And so talk about Lidsville and doing Charles, I watched the clips on your website and it still makes me laugh out. He doesn't even have to say anything. And I laughed

Marty Krofft (00:46:08):

Him, Charles was a trip. Charles didn't wanna do it. I said, Charles, see what she put. It took her, took us an hour and a half to do the makeup. We can do your makeup in probably 45 minutes. We won't torture you. Well the makeup took three hours.

Fritz Coleman (00:46:29):

Oh no.

Marty Krofft (00:46:31):

He hated me.

Fritz Coleman (00:46:32):

<laugh>. Oh no.

Marty Krofft (00:46:34):

But nobody as good as him. He was great.

Fritz Coleman (00:46:38):

Such a funny man. Great supervisor.

Louise Palanker (00:46:40):

So how did you come up with the concepts for the show? Because it usually involves some, some young person or maybe a family somewhere that where they do not feel familiar.

Marty Krofft (00:46:50):

I'll give you one thing. Mm-hmm.

Louise Palanker (00:46:52):

<affirmative>.

Marty Krofft (00:46:53):

Westville. Yeah. Land the hats.

Louise Palanker (00:46:56):

Yeah. <laugh>

Marty Krofft (00:46:57):

Brother claims he ran, ran on a beach for nine hours a day. No, nine miles

Louise Palanker (00:47:04):

Okay.

Marty Krofft (00:47:06):

He wore a different hat. He said, I'm wanna do a show with hats.

Louise Palanker (00:47:10):

Okay. <laugh>,

Marty Krofft (00:47:12):

Let me give you a segment.

Louise Palanker (00:47:13):

Yeah.

Marty Krofft (00:47:14):

Brother's on a, with a friend of his on some rocks facing the ocean in La Jolla, he sees this big piece of seawood seaweed. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in the ocean. He goes down and gets it, puts it in the back seat of his core edge and calls its

Fritz Coleman (00:47:32):

<laugh>.

Marty Krofft (00:47:33):

Yet he, to verify the story. <laugh>. Right. <laugh>, that's how that one happened. So, you know, that, you know, but they went the landed lost. We knew we wanted to do a great family and they told us the dinosaurs was secondary. Nobody had done dinosaurs then on tv. So, you know, that's basically where we're at.

Louise Palanker (00:47:59):

But it was also interesting to watch the kids interact with the native kids there and learn each other's languages and, and see each other as valuable. And so there was a, there was a lot of messaging going on that was, I think, interesting for kids to, to watch. But we had

Marty Krofft (00:48:17):

Messages that were under the underground. You know, we had the look and puff and stuff, the humor as adults, but we never went that far over the kids head. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> was always a message. Dr. Blinkie was at a house in Puff and stuff at the top of the chimney. He had a ice bag because he smoked too much. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman (00:48:42):

<laugh>.

Marty Krofft (00:48:43):

So that was like, that was one thing

Fritz Coleman (00:48:47):

I'm gonna talk about DC Folleys. Cuz it was one of the first political satire shows. And you even had life size puppets of Richard Nixon. I would like to own that. I'd like to have that in my den and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And, uh, it, it had a short life because the writer strike sort of nipped it in the bud. But that was a pretty forward thinking show. Talk about the, the development of that show. Well,

Marty Krofft (00:49:09):

First of all, that was the only syndicated show we ever did. And that hurt us. He never knew what time it was on and what what day. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But, you know, we made a comedy star at the bottom of Phish a Dixon's career. We turned them into a comedy star. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So when we did, I can look at those shows now and a lot of them hold up. Yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:49:33):

Oh yeah. So what do,

Marty Krofft (00:49:35):

So yeah, we would like to do something like that again. I strive by giving two guys put 'em on the news every day with three, two minute pieces. Putin and, and, uh, Trump. Oh my

Louise Palanker (00:49:49):

Gosh.

Fritz Coleman (00:49:49):

Perfect.

Louise Palanker (00:49:51):

Didn't work

Fritz Coleman (00:49:52):

<laugh> this week. It would work. <laugh>. You know, and I think the greatest casting ever. And, and you got this woman to go way outside her comfort zone. Was Betty White as a stripper?

Louise Palanker (00:50:03):

<laugh>, yeah. Right.

Marty Krofft (00:50:05):

That was good. But you know, look, we cast that show perfectly. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, and that show was funny and people went home on Friday night to watch it.

Fritz Coleman (00:50:19):

I think we could use it now Marty,

Marty Krofft (00:50:21):

We, we tried to do it, but we haven't been able to conquer it yet. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we'll see what happens.

Louise Palanker (00:50:28):

You are always working and always thinking and always creating. So what should we start getting excited about

Fritz Coleman (00:50:35):

Monday's at Marty? Oh, you say you have Monday, you have 40 million fans that you found out about at Craf Con and you do a little chat called Mondays at Marty that has a big viewership talk

Louise Palanker (00:50:44):

About on on YouTube. On his YouTube channel.

Marty Krofft (00:50:45):

Well, I gotta tell you, you know, I started doing it. My brother was doing this Instagram, so I decided to do my own and short. My brother does it for I think a half hour. An hour. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, so I'm trying to tell the stories behind the scenes and give the audience more interesting information. So look, I've done about 12 of them so far. And, uh, they're easy to do. I do them in the office and I do them without a script. And, uh,

Fritz Coleman (00:51:19):

They're really fun.

Marty Krofft (00:51:22):

Well, you know, we pull it off. You're right people.

Fritz Coleman (00:51:25):

And what's funny is, as I mentioned before, it drives it to the other content. You have great memories on your website. You've got the, the, the soundtracks from the various shows and it's kind of fun to just play along. It turns over a rock on an earlier part of all of our lives. It's a lot of fun.

Marty Krofft (00:51:40):

Well, that's why the adults are important to us. You know, the adults are at. So that's why we're going out with Cross Con. We're gonna go hit the road because that, we found out two weeks ago that the fans are out there. We had 500 who were like flipping out every last one. So we know what we did. Right. And we know what we did wrong. And we're gonna get this thing, we're gonna get this thing going. Oh yeah. No, it's mostly for the fans. You know, we've never known how to make a lot of money. Okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that, that's just the way it comes. So we've never worked from money mm-hmm. <affirmative> and we've never created shows because there was a toy out there mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So we tried to stay away from that. So we didn't try, we did.

Louise Palanker (00:52:32):

Well, I would like, I would like to recommend if you are a, a baby boomer or younger who grew up watching the Croft shows, watch them again. Watch them now as an adult. You're gonna see something different and in them and you're gonna experience them, you know, with new awareness of what you've now experienced in your lifetime. And so, and they're great just across the board for little kids and for people that have had, you know, more life experiences, they're just fantastic. So, uh, I highly recommend doing that cuz I did that to research for this show. I rewatched puff and stuff and appreciated it on a different level.

Marty Krofft (00:53:08):

That's great. You know, it's important to have adults. I wanna hire somebody that didn't grow up with the shows. Ah,

Fritz Coleman (00:53:19):

Oh, that's interesting.

Marty Krofft (00:53:20):

Correct. You know, I, I want that. They had goosebumps when they saw, saw these shows. Wow. And they still have them. If you would've seen 500 people coming by my table talking to me, I, I flipped out. I couldn't believe it.

Louise Palanker (00:53:37):

What did they say? Tell us. Share with us a little bit about what they tell you.

Marty Krofft (00:53:42):

What they tell me. Yeah. I changed their life. They wouldn't have been in their career there in if it wasn't for us. Wow. You know, so that was, I I have to tell you another thing quick. Yeah. I went on the weekend cuz my fiance as a kid who's 18, who wanted to go Toim Mae Convention. Yeah. Have you heard of the

Louise Palanker (00:54:05):

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Marty Krofft (00:54:07):

Well, this was in Riverside. I got there in the morning. They were lined up five blocks to get in mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. The convention. So, you know, of course I knew the agent that took a lot of the talent. So I got, I got our kid. Aw. Close. But I couldn't believe what was going on.

Louise Palanker (00:54:27):

Oh yeah. I

Marty Krofft (00:54:28):

Mean, I mean this is like a home run. They had about 15,000 people there. Yeah. Mostly young.

Louise Palanker (00:54:36):

Yeah. Almost all. No, it speaks to them. They had, they identify it, you know, who they are through what they love or who, you know, what programming, I mean, just like kids did when you were, you know, when they were watching the shows that you created. You know, you kind of see yourself in these characters.

Marty Krofft (00:54:52):

I mean, one of them, I can't think of her name, she's like very popular in this guy, this young guy. They were signing autographs and the agent said to me, Hey Scott. They collected about 75,000 in the one day for

Fritz Coleman (00:55:10):

Appearing photograph.

Louise Palanker (00:55:10):

Wow. For appearing. Wow.

Fritz Coleman (00:55:12):

Marty, if you don't mind, uh, I I I would like to reflect on a few friends and former cast members that you lost. You commented about Billy Hayes, who was this wonderful fireball of the talent. What about Bob Saget?

Marty Krofft (00:55:28):

Well, Bob Saggot I knew, but I think he only did one thing with us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but just a special guy, you know. That was a sad moment. I don't even know what happened

Fritz Coleman (00:55:40):

To No, I don't think anybody does. That was very sad. What about Betty White? Any, any thoughts on your working with Betty White?

Marty Krofft (00:55:49):

Well, Betty White was a trip, you know, <laugh> Betty White. Wait, what was the thing? I went to her house once <laugh>. Yeah. Forget what? Tripped. And I heard about 20 dogs in the house. Oh, wow. I asked her, do any of them fight? She said, they all bite

Louise Palanker (00:56:09):

<laugh>

Fritz Coleman (00:56:09):

<laugh>. He's a lovely person.

Louise Palanker (00:56:12):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's phenomenal. Who

Marty Krofft (00:56:14):

Else?

Fritz Coleman (00:56:15):

No, that's it. You've outlived everybody else. We'd be here all day. We're talking about people.

Marty Krofft (00:56:20):

This is, I don't know, several of them have died. But,

Fritz Coleman (00:56:24):

But you're such an inspirational, I'll tell you to hear your enthusiasm for show business and that your mind is still working like a well-oiled machine coming up with ideas and talking about marketing and talking about how to make a project successful. It's pretty inspirational at your age. You're the last of the Titans.

Louise Palanker (00:56:40):

And I, I just want like, let folks know that they have, uh, the Crofts have a wonderful website, that they have a Facebook, they have Instagram, they have Twitter, they have TikTok. And so there's a lot going on on the YouTube channel. I don't even have TikTok. Just check out the YouTube channel. Just go there right now. When you're done listening to this podcast, there's, there's so many memories that are just gonna pop off the screen into your heart and, uh, make you feel warm and cozy and like, pouring yourself a nice bowl of cereal <laugh> to, to recapture those feelings of, you know, what it felt like to, to enjoy these shows. This mu the music, the colors, the sets, the puppets, uh, the comedy. You know, so much of it was just way, way ahead of its time. And, and it, you know, it, to, to do that all live, you know, with no CGI and stuff. You guys were geniuses. And I just, it just, it's, I'm so thrilled that it's being celebrated. And so

Marty Krofft (00:57:35):

Do I have, do I have time for one short story? Yes, of

Fritz Coleman (00:57:38):

Course.

Louise Palanker (00:57:39):

Please.

Marty Krofft (00:57:41):

Okay. Last March 21st, I at Gelson's, at the bakery counter, and a woman comes over to me about 45 years old, I guess. And she saw an emblem on my jacket that was very dull that said Land of the Lost. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So she walks over to me, hesitant. She was hesitant and said, are you Sid or Marty?

Louise Palanker (00:58:09):

Oh my gosh. So

Marty Krofft (00:58:10):

I said, well, I'm Marty, the good looking one, <laugh>. And she said, oh my God, my effing mother <laugh>. She, I was scared you would die. She's 85. And she would flip out. So she had more hens than I ever said, <laugh>. And now, so I, I liked her and I, you know, so I said to her, what do you do? She said, I'm a writer. I said, well just hang in. I said, you know, let me tell you what my father told me. Don't ever ever give up because if you give up on Tuesday, there is no Wednesday. Oh, and Wednesday could have been the day. Yeah. She said, oh my God, my mother <laugh>. Okay. So then I said to her, look, I'm gonna give you my card and I don't give it out and I want you to send me an email. And I said, lemme tell you about this card. I gave it to a woman three months ago and she sold it on eBay for,

(00:59:22):

So she sent me an email the next day. I never answered it. I'm sitting at our a month later and this girl comes over with all tattoos and she asked me, my mother loves you. So I didn't pay attention, but my girlfriend said, you know, talking to her. And then the girl put her mother on FaceTime and that was it. And they left. And the next thing I knew, two weeks later, I got an offer for $4,000 to be on the show. Better things. So this was Pamela happy. Oh, oh my. Talking to me. Who's the star? The writer of that show? The show's a home run. So now I'm, I've bonded with her. I did the show and I had one of my daughters, Christina, who's an actress, work with me cuz I said, I can't do this.

Fritz Coleman (01:00:15):

You stuck your dream.

Marty Krofft (01:00:17):

What we did,

Fritz Coleman (01:00:18):

You stuck your dream as an actor and after all this time finally came true. And if you had given up Wednesday never would've arrived. That's fantastic.

Louise Palanker (01:00:26):

Wednesday was the day

Marty Krofft (01:00:27):

That folk and went all over the world on her show. Oh wow. Now she, she is like close to me

Louise Palanker (01:00:35):

Now. She's,

Marty Krofft (01:00:35):

And I gave her a Freddy the flute, you know, she, she, now she's going to New York to do a, to direct a movie. Oh my. But I never heard of her before.

Louise Palanker (01:00:44):

I always wanted a Freddy. The, you always wanted, I wanted Freddy. The, yeah. I, I wanted to keep it in my pocket. Yeah. <laugh>. All right. Well we wanna thank you so much Marty. I'm gonna read the clothes and credits right now. Thank you so much for joining us. We would love to continue this conversation with you on Instagram and Twitter, where we are at Media Path Pod and on Facebook where our show page is, media Path Podcast. And our Facebook group is Media Path with Fritz and Weezy podcast community. You will find full video podcast episodes loaded with bonus visual content on our YouTube channel Media Path podcast. You can write to us at Media Path podcast@gmail.com. Unlike Marty, we will write back. If you enjoy the show, <laugh>, please give us a nice rating in Apple Podcast.

Marty Krofft (01:01:27):

Guys, guys are stressful. You're prepared.

Louise Palanker (01:01:32):

Thank you so

Fritz Coleman (01:01:32):

Much. It was so much fun, Marty. And I'll tell you, when, when you get, uh, Croft Con up and running and just doing a tour and you want to talk about it, come back and join us again.

Louise Palanker (01:01:41):

Yeah, we would love that. And we'll come, we'll come to the festival.

Marty Krofft (01:01:43):

We'll invite you too. That'd be awesome. Of course.

Fritz Coleman (01:01:47):

Let me plug some gigs here.

Louise Palanker (01:01:48):

Oh, yeah. Oh, fors some upcoming gigs. Marty.

Fritz Coleman (01:01:51):

Yeah, Marty, excuse me. Yeah, so if you're listening to this the week it's originally posted, that is before Saturday, June 11th, I would invite you to, uh, the Camino Rio Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano this Saturday the 11th. I'm doing two shows down there at five and eight o'clock. It's a wonderful little venue. Great places to get little meals around there. July 21st at Feinstein's. At Vitello's, great upstairs showroom. An evening hosted by the great Wendy Leman. And I'll be joined by a pioneer lady standup Carol Leifer, who also wrote on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I'll be joining one of our former guests, Mark Arthur Miller, who is a wonderful soul and r and b singer. I'll be opening for him at the legendary Catalina Bar and Grill. Off Sunset on Sunday, August 7th. Consult your internet devices.

Louise Palanker (01:02:33):

All right, you can sign up for our Fun and Dishy newsletter@mediapathpodcast.com. We wanna thank our wonderful guest, Marty Croft. Our team includes Dean Friedman, John Maddox, Sharon Beo, bill Fiac, Thomas Hubble, Mason Brown, and you. Our theme music is by me and John Maddox. I am Louise p Planker here with Fritz Coleman and Marty Croft. And we will see you along the media path.

(01:02:58):

Really

(01:02:59):

Wonderful.