So we got the Lidsville DVDs, and we've been enjoying them, though they are certainly not as good as the other Krofft production we enjoyed so much, H.R. Pufnstuf.
Indeed, While Pufnstuf retains a hold on America's popular consciousness, Lidsville has been largely forgotten. There are many explanations for this: lack of compelling characters; obvious retread of the Pufnstuf premise; it's shot on video rather than film and therefore looks cheesier and less magical; racist puppets; excessively long, crappy theme song.
Arguments can be made for each of these, but I think the real reason Lidsville is not as popular as Pufnstuf is that the Kroffts created something far too daring and outre for America in the 70's, and it is their laudable boldness that keeps the show from Pufnstuf-like cult status.
For Pufnstuf is a simple, straightforward psycho-sexual allegory. The prepubescent boy takes refuge in a land of fantasy because an adult woman wants to get her hands on his flute. Note that the only adult human in the show is this terrifying, horrific characacture of femininity, an evil crone who will certainly harm Jimmy's "flute." (Note whenever the flute is captured, his shrill cries of "help me, Jimmy! I'm frightened!") Thus this is the story of a boy's fear of adult heterosexuality, and in particular the evil things women may do to his flute.
In Lidsville, however, the boy is slightly older: his voice has already changed. When confronted with a top hat that grows to gigantic size (An ambiguous sexual symbol--as the top hat grows taller, so does the opening opposite the crown of the hat grow larger.) Confronted with a hermaphroditic sexual symbol, Mark falls into the opening--surely the expected choice for a teenage boy.
And yet, when he lands in Lidsville, he finds himself in a magical land of cartoonish, stereotypical hat-creatures. Even the racist Indian and Chinese hats are clearly meant to evoke a child's inability to grapple with complexities. But in this magical land, a gay despot named Hoodoo rules. (His phallic bald head is often conceled by a top hat, and he lives in a gigantic top hat, thus repeating the ambiguous sexual symbology). Mark, in order to get back to what he refers to as "The real world" (i.e., the world of adult sexuality to which a deep-voiced lad like him clearly belongs), must steal HooDoo's ring, thus beginning his own transformation into the magical gay despot. The ring gives Mark control of a clearly female Genie who is referred to as "him" by all characters, and whose name is Weenie. Again, gender confusion abounds, but, more importantly,Mark, in order to escape childhood and fulfill his destiny as a sexual being, must grab Hoodoo's Weenie.
Is it any wonder that this bold, transgressive exploration of gender roles and sexual politics has had a harder time finding a place in America's heart than the bland, conventional sexual fears embodied in Pufnstuf?
