H. R. Pufnstuf (voiced by Len Weinrib), Weenie the Genie (Billie Hayes, reprising from Lidsville), and Sigmund, far, far away from his sea monster family (Billy Barty, voice by Walker Edmiston) are stuck on the island, which also serves as a gateway to the Land of the Lost, as the stop motion footage looks like it may have been recycled from that series, which had only ended a year earlier, only to return in the 90's.
And, then, there is Dr. Deathray, formerly known as Dr. Shrinker (Jay Robinson). Similarly, Shrinker's assistant, Hugo (Barty) has been rechristened Otto. You'll notice that in this episode, Otto & Sigmund are never in the same scene together, else another actor would be wearing the Sigmund costume.
Anyway, Robinson chews up even more scenery than he did on Krofft Supershow two years earlier. Not good.
The plot to this episode: Pufnstuf is ill, and Weenie, along with Barbie (Louise DuArt), must find a cure. To do it, the ladies have to travel to the "City of the Doomed" (Land of the Lost),. where they meet the Sleestak king, Enik (voiced by Walker Edmiston). Unfortunately, Deathray is headed in the same direction, but on a completely different quest.......
Edit, 4/19/22: The Kroffts have made copyright claims on several videos, so the video we had was deleted by YouTube. In its place is a title card:
Robinson must've had Rudy Vallee as a voice coach, they sound so similar. Seems as though the Kroffts picked the characters at random to use here, but viewers saw right through the disjointed format, which is why the series was trimmed to a half-hour after about a month or two, leaving the Bay City Rollers and the Horror Hotel skits.
Rating: D.
4 comments:
I have to at least give the Kroffts a tiny modicum of credit for assorting a mishmash of their characters and concepts into a crossover/greatest hits package of sorts, but the execution thereof....ehhh, kinda weak. And yeah, Jay Robinson was gorging himself on the scenery there.
And did they seriously try to pass their "Land of the Lost" dinosaurs off as dragons? I mean, really. Lest we forget, Pufenstuf is a dragon!
Yeah...I can see why the Kroffts pulled the plug on this one. While Horror Hotel could have been cheesy fun, The Lost Island seemed more like an experiment than anything else. It's like Sid and Marty were just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck. That segment raised more questions than it answered, and I have to marvel at just how almost completely useless Weeine the Genie was here. My memories of Lidsville are very fuzzy (I was a little kid when it originally aired), so I don't remember if Weenie was any more effective on that show.
On Lidsville, Weenie was a bumbling, but well-meaning genie who seemed awfully fond of her master, Mark (Butch Patrick), from what I recall, perhaps protective. In comparison, she was more effective on Lidsville, anyway.
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