The Bugaloos, the Bugaloos
We’re in the air and everywhere
Flyin’ high, flyin’ loose
Flyin’ free as a summer breeze
Happy as a summer breeze…
The Bugaloos, the Bugaloos
We’re climbing high and diving low
Through the sky, across the land
Straight to you with a helping hand
Ready with a helping hand…
We’re a friend indeed
Should you ever be in need
If you ever need…
The second Saturday morning television show created by Sid and Marty Krofft, The Bugaloos aired in 1970 and featured Joy (Caroline Ellis), Courage (John Philpott), IQ (John McIndoe), and Harmony (Wayne Laryea), four musically adept fairies (complete with wings) who lived in Tranquility Forest with their friend Sparky the Firefly (Billy Barty):
...your average insect/ human do-gooders who are also a smashing British rock group to boot. They live and rock in Tranquility Forrest, the last of the British colonies, where they look for good deeds to do as protectors of the forest and sing a few songs in between. Their wicked nemesis, Benita Bizarre, is hell-bent on trying to destroy their “disgusting goodness”*
On the show, Tranquility Forest was located just outside Rock City, where Peter Platter spun records at Kook Radio. Benita Bizarre (played by Martha Raye, T.V.’s “Big Mouth” and Boss Witch in “Pufnstuf Zaps the World”) lived nearby in a giant jukebox and was forever trying to get her records played on Kook Radio with the help of her henchmen Funky Rat (Sharon Baird), Woofer (Joy Campbell), and Tweeter (Van Snowden).
The Bugaloos were every bit as psychedelic as other Krofft favorites H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville, and quite a bit more so than Sigmund and the Sea Monster and Land of the Lost. Seventeen episodes were created and ran on NBC between 9/12/70 and 9/2/72. During that time period Capital Records also signed the Bugaloos to a recording contract and they released an album under that name. Bugaloos lunchboxes were also quite the hot item for a while there.
Episode List:
1 “Firefly, Light My Fire
2 “The Great Voice Robbery”
3 “Our Home is Our Hassle”
4 “Courage Come Home”
5 “The Love Bugaloos”
6 “If I Had the Wings of a Bugaloo”
7 “Lady, You Don’t Look Eighty”
8 “Benita the Beautiful”
9 “Now You See ‘em, Now You Don’t”
10 “Help Wanted—Firefly”
11 “On a Clear Day”
12 “Today I’m a Firefly”
13 “The Bugaloos Bugaboo”
14 “Benita’s Double Trouble”
15 “Circus Time at Benita’s”
16 “The Uptown 500”
17 “The Good Old Days”
Random fact: The Krofft Brothers began collaborating in 1960 with "Les Poupee des Paris", a nude puppet show. They performed it in their Los Angeles theatre and later at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.
* www.livingisland.com/shows/bugaloos/desc.html
Other Sources:
www.yesterdayland.com
www.bugaloos.com