Lidsville - Complete Series
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Billie Hayes, Butch Patrick, Charles Nelson Reilly, Joy Campbell, Sharon BairdBrand: WEA DES Moines Video
Writer: Marty Krofft
Writer: Sid Krofft
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 440 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino Theatrical
Movie Reviews of Lidsville - Complete Series
Movie Review: "LIDSVILLE IS THE LIVING END, FRIEND"-- WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF ADULT APPEAL
Summary: 5 Stars
"Lidsville" is my favorite of Sid and Marty Krofft's classic, live-action Saturday morning shows from the early 1970's. And it is one trippy tale. Fascinated after watching a magic act, Mark ("The Munsters'" Butch Patrick) falls down a giant magician's hat and lands in loopy Lidsville, inhabited by talking hats! Mark is befriended by the Good Hats, including British Col. Poom, Miss Ring-A-Ding (a party hat), Nursy, the chinese Mr. Chow, Tonsolini (an Opera Singing Hat), Mother Wheels (a motorcycle/helmet), Rah-Rah (a football helmet), etc. and Weenie (Billie Hayes), a rather inept but kind-hearted Genie. The versatile Hayes, best known as Witchiepoo on "H.R. Pufnstuff", comments that she was offered the role of Weenie The Genie (a male role) after Billy Barty became ill, although Barty denied that the role was created specifically for him. There are also the Bad Hats, who are the flunkies of the evil magician Horatio Hoo-Doo (Charles Nelson Reilly). Hoo-Doo is furious at the Good Hats for not acknowledging him as their Lord and Master, and not paying him taxes. He also hates "that brat Mark" for continually helping the Good Hats plan revolts against him. He flies in the skies over Lidsville in his Hattermerand, zapping the Good Hats. But, no matter how nasty Hoo-Doo is, he is continually out-witted by Mark, Weenie The Genie, and the Good Hats. Director Tony Charmoli presides over the fantasy/insanity. The episodes usually end with a moral, a song or two (by Les Szvaris and Charles Fox), and Hoo-Doo exclaiming, "I want my Mommy Hoo-Doo!" The rather horrible Mommy Hoo-Doo, who fears her son Horatio is not "rotten" enough, does appear in the final episode.
The Good Hats were, probably, supposed to be the original focus, but there is no question that Charles Nelson Reilly is the star of the show. Reilly, with his larger-than-life performance persona, is deliriously, delightfully over the top (hat pun intended) as Hoo-Doo. Sid Krofft remarks in a commentary that Reilly had more energy than anybody else at the ABC televison network. The best episode, "Have I Got A Girl For Hoo-Doo", is actually a semi-cross-over with "H.R. Pufnstuff." A lovelorn Hoo-Doo writes a letter to a lonely hearts club seeking a girlfriend-- and gets Witchiepoo (Billie Hayes plays both Witchiepoo and Weenie The Genie in this episode). Their initial mutual dislike (Hoo-Doo: You're about as sexy as a plucked vulture." Witchiepoo: "You're too ugly to be good-looking") disappears when they discover they enjoy zapping together and causing chaos for the Good Hats. The Good Hats soon realize they must break up this terrible twosome, so Mark cross-dresses as Lovey-Dovey, a Mae West type female! "I hope I don't catch it from Women's Lib," Mark says afterwards. Billie Hayes and Butch Patrick offer a great, giggly commentary on this episode.
Everything about "Lidsville" is extraordinary; particularly when you consider that the 17 episodes were filmed over an 11 week period. The show itself had a four year network run, on both ABC and NBC. The work hours must have been long and arduous. Charles Nelson Reilly always complained about how hot and miserable he was in Hoo-Doo's make-up and costume. Conditions must have been doubly hot and miserable for Sharon Baird, Joy Campbell, Jerry Maren, Angelo Rositto, Van Snowden, Felix Silla, Buddy Douglas and the Hermine Midgets; the actors inside the Good and Bad Hat costumes. The Good and Bad Hat characters are also superbly voiced by Lennie Weinrib, Joan Gerber, and Walker Edmiston. Sid and Marty Kroft had an extraordinary influence on the generation that grew up watching their shows. Look inside the oversized magician's hat that Hoo-Doo and his flunkies live in and you'll see where Paul Rebuns got his ideas for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse", more than a decade later.
The three DVD "Lidsville" set is loaded with extras; including interviews and selected episode commentary from Sid and Marty Krofft, Butch Patrick, Billie Hayes, and the, sadly, late Charles Nelson Reilly; and excerpts from Butch Patrick's personal scrapbook. Watching "Lidsville" again, after more than twenty years had passed, I frequently thought to myself, "Who the hell thought THIS up?" The extraordinary Krofft brand of creativity and imagination has completely vanished from television today; which perhaps increases appreciation and affection for "Lidsville." Butch Patrick admits he was too young (at ages 17 and 18) to appreciate "Lidsville" at the time, but he seems fond of it now. Even the constantly complaining Charles Nelson Reilly admitted in an audio commentary that "Lidsville" is clever, colorful, and inventive. "Lidsville," like the Kroffts' other shows, should never be discounted as merely a "children's show." Between the visual imagery and verbal puns and humor that go way over children's heads, there is an abundance of adult appeal.
"If you bump into a bonnet
with eyes and ears and nose upon it
Nope, you haven't gone bats-- that's Lidsville!"
Summary of Lidsville - Complete Series
Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 01/25/2005Similar DVD Movies
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