Surprising that he stuck it out for this long. Well, rest in peace.
On a related note, anyone remember Pryor’s Place? Kind of a Krofft attempt at Sesame Street, with puppets and about a half dozen characters, all played by Richard Pryor. (Yes, THAT Richard Pryor. Hey, George Carlin hosted the US version of Thomas the Tank Engine!)
The show was a little more, um, challenging than Sesame Street, with one kid being caught in the middle of a divorce. Instead of choosing to live with his mother or father, he asked to be raised by his grandmother. As a child of divorced parents myself, my reaction was “Uh, what? The kid doesn’t get to CHOOSE his family arrangement in this situation. The court doesn’t let him make ANY decisions. I can believe that half the cast all bear a striking resemblance to Richard Pryor and that these rotty-looking puppets are alive, but what you’re showing now is straight up fantasy.”
The Kroffts actually started as puppeteers. From memory, the older one started as a professional puppeteer as a child, they both operated puppets on The Jack Benny Show back in the 1950’s, and they had a highly successful live show called Les Poupées de Paris - that one had adult themes, so things like Pryor’s Place was just them returning to their roots.
Surprising that he stuck it out for this long. Well, rest in peace.
On a related note, anyone remember Pryor’s Place? Kind of a Krofft attempt at Sesame Street, with puppets and about a half dozen characters, all played by Richard Pryor. (Yes, THAT Richard Pryor. Hey, George Carlin hosted the US version of Thomas the Tank Engine!)
The show was a little more, um, challenging than Sesame Street, with one kid being caught in the middle of a divorce. Instead of choosing to live with his mother or father, he asked to be raised by his grandmother. As a child of divorced parents myself, my reaction was “Uh, what? The kid doesn’t get to CHOOSE his family arrangement in this situation. The court doesn’t let him make ANY decisions. I can believe that half the cast all bear a striking resemblance to Richard Pryor and that these rotty-looking puppets are alive, but what you’re showing now is straight up fantasy.”
The Kroffts actually started as puppeteers. From memory, the older one started as a professional puppeteer as a child, they both operated puppets on The Jack Benny Show back in the 1950’s, and they had a highly successful live show called Les Poupées de Paris - that one had adult themes, so things like Pryor’s Place was just them returning to their roots.