Comic-Book of the Week: The Bugaloos (Charlton)

The Bugaloos Record Album

Lunch Box of the Week: The Bugaloos

Board Game of the Week: The Bugaloos (Milton Bradley)

Theme Song of the Week: The Bugaloos (1970)

Halloween Costume of the Week: The Bugaloos (Ben Cooper)

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "The Good Old Days"

In “The Good Old Days,” Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) buys Tranquility Forest and evicts the Bugaloos.  She wants to put up a taco stand where they live. 

Unfortunately, the Bugaloos have little alternative but to leave since, according to Benita, everything is “bought and paid for.”

They realize, however, that Joy (Caroline Ellis) can pretend to by a gypsy, and “curse” Benita unless she gives them back their home.  They proceed with this plan, after finding a crystal ball.  “You will be cursed three times,” Joy tells her, warning Benita that for the final curse, her jukebox will explode.

Encountering the carefully-engineered first two curses (an “unexpected trip” and “the shock of your life”), Benita agrees to give the Bugaloos back their land.

“The Good Old Days” is the final episode of the Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning series, The Bugaloos, and it also happens to be a clips show.  The episode flashes back on several occasions to show previous adventures, as the Bugaloos reminisce, upon leaving Tranquility Forest.

Adding insult to injury, the series culminates with a rerun song, instead of a new composition. Once more, “For a Friend” is featured.

I suggest, only half-snarkily perhaps, that a more surprising ending would have seen Benita keeping the forest, and evicting the Bugaloos permanently.  Imagine how that ending would have shocked kids. For fifteen weeks, Benita got defeated. 

Then, in the final episode of the series, she would have won. That would have made the series a legend, no?

In terms of the series overall, The Bugaloos is pretty enjoyable. It doesn’t possess either the extreme highs or extreme lows of Lidsville (1972), for example. It’s more straightforward, and less spiky, but the series is also more coherent than its brethren.

I watched Lidsville and The Bugaloos with my on Joel, and his assertion, at this juncture, is that The Bugaloos is a better series, simply because it wasn’t “completely insane,” (his description of Lidsville).  That might be true.  

However, Lidsville does feature the great CNR. Martha Raye does solid work here as Benita, but Hoo Doo remains a bit more memorable, even if the series featuring him is crazy.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "The Uptown 500"

In “The Uptown 500,” a race is held in Tranquility Forest. The winner of the race will have the opportunity to sing in a TV commercial, so naturally, Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) wants in.

After a car accident between the Bugaloo Buggy and Benita’s car, the nemeses enter the race. But Benita captures Sparky (Billy Barty) and warns the Bugaloos that if they don’t drop out of the race, they’ll never see their friend again.

The Bugaloos stay in the race, trying to buy time, while Nutty Bird goes in search of the missing firefly.  Fortunately, he is found, and Benita loses the race.

You have to admire the ambition of this episode of The Bugaloos (1970). With no budget, and little in terms of studio space, the filmmakers here engineer a dramatic race through Tranquility Forest using nothing but two life-sized car props, a lot of chroma-key work, and some inventive camera angles.

This seems like it must have been an impossible episode to produce and pull-off, yet it emerges as one of the more enjoyable of this late-span Bugaloo stories. It is true that we have seen all this before, (Benita and Bugaloos in competition for some singing prize), but the galvanizing principle of the race brings at least some degree of freshness to the proceedings.

Once again, however, it must be acknowledged that Sparky is the albatross around the Bugaloos collective neck. He is constantly getting in trouble -- getting captured, or doing something foolish because he feels bad about himself -- and this behavior necessitates constant rescuing.

Of course this, and stories like it raise a question. What if Benita Bizarre got what she wanted? What if she got a commercial? Perhaps, if she won, just once, she wouldn't be such a dreadful person.

Next week: the final episode in The Bugaloos’ catalog: “The Good Old Days.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Circus Time at Benita's"

In “Circus Time at Benita’s,” the Bugaloos are disappointed when a traveling circus cancels its engagement in Tranquility Forest. 

Actually, Benita (Martha Raye) paid all the performers not to show up, so she can put on her own circus. She plans to draw attention to her own singing career before the equivalent of a captive audience.

Meanwhile, a magician hypnotizes Sparky (Billy Barty) to make him feel brave, and he uses his new skills to go on the attack against Benita.

This gives Benita her own bad idea. She wants to be hypnotized to be the best singer in the world.

With just two episodes left to go, The Bugaloos (1970) tells another very familiar story.

This one falls under the category of “Sparky Saves the Day,” and involves the timid firefly overcoming some key character flaw and defeating (at least temporarily) Benita Bizarre.  I realize that before arc storytelling, there was a lot of repetition in stand-alone shows, and especially in children's programming of the 1970's.

Still, you know the series is getting desperate when the plot of the week involves a frog magician hypnotizing one of the main characters. Throw in a bad James Cagney imitation (on Sparky’s part), and that’s all you need to have a thoroughly uninteresting 22 minutes.

There's not even a new song performed, to enjoy.

Next week: “The Uptown 500” livens up the old formula a bit with car race.

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Benita's Double Trouble"

In “Benita’s Double Trouble,” Peter Platter wants the Bugaloos to DJ his show while he is away at a convention.

However, this plan goes astray when Benita (Martha Raye) captures Platter so she can take over the show herself, and play only her own records.

The Bugaloos learn the truth, after a desperate phone call from Peter, and decide that I.Q. should pretend to be Benita to confuse her minions, and rescue their friend.

“Benita’s Double Trouble” is not a bad half-hour, but it nonetheless demonstrates the strain of writing fatigue, as it is basically the same story we have seen many times before, both on The Bugaloos (1970) and other Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning programs, such as Lidsville (1971).

In stories of this nature, the protagonists dress up in disguises as a “double” of the villain character (or some important guest character), so they can accomplish a particular mission. In this case, I.Q. -- who does only a marginally passable imitation of Benita -- dresses up as her to confuse her minions. 

Naturally, hilarity ensues as the dopey minions can’t tell the fake Benita from the real Benita.

“Benita’s Double Trouble” is made even less successful because it doesn’t culminate in a new song, instead repeating an old one. One can tell, basically, that we have arrived at the last-half of the series catalog. There are fewer new songs, and almost not new developments in terms of narratives, or ideas. The series is in a rut.

Here, there are some weird touches to discuss. For instance, the Bugaloos suddenly possess a telephone…in Tranquility Forest.  I know this is a fantasy series -- and one for children, at that -- but phones have to connect to wires (and poles), and there doesn’t seem to be any of that support infrastructure in the forest.

I know. It’s a nitpick.

The best joke in the episode involves a clue about Peter’s kidnapping. The Bugaloos must answer a question about The Beatles’ second movie. The answer, of course, is Help! (1965).

Next week: “Circus Time at Benita’s.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos (1970): "The Bugaloo Bugaboo"

In “The Bugaloo Bugaboo,” Sparky (Billy Barty) grows depressed because he has received no mail from Gina Lolla Wattage, who is away on tour. 

Sparky feels he must do something to impress her, and decides that he should become a song-writer.

Hoping to help, the Bugaloos help Sparky compose a song, and it proves to be a hit.

The success of the song goes to Sparky’s head, and Benita seizes an opportunity. Believing that he is “the genius behind the Bugaloos,” she decides to pretend to be an agent, and signs up Sparky as a client. She promises to make Sparky rich and famous.  She will debut his new song at Peter Platter's upcoming talent contest.

Unfortunately for her, Benita's song bombs, and the Bugaloos come to Sparky’s rescue.

This episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s The Bugaloos (1970) follows the patterns of others very closely.

First, there is an event of some type (sponsored by Peter Platter), and Benita wants in, but needs the Bugaloos (or Sparky) to succeed.

Accordingly, she dresses up in a disguise to trick her victims. Here, Benita pretends to be an agent, G.W. Wooster, in the belief that Sparky can write her a hit song.

The winner, in this case, gets to appear on TV, but of course, things don’t go that far. Benita’s song bombs, and the Bugaloos perform instead, repeating their song, “So It’s New to You.”

The most memorable quality of the episode involves, once again, imported (stolen?) jokes. Here, a character exclaims “You bet your sweet bippy!,” cribbing a catchphrase from Laugh-In (1967-1973). 

Also, the crystal ball that does a Don Adams/Get Smart impersonation recurs in this story.

Otherwise, the jokes are silly puns (Playbug Magazine for instance), and once again, one can’t help but wonder why the Bugaloos bother with Sparky. Once more, he acts like a jerk, and is rude to them. They come to his rescue, of course, and all is forgiven.  But Sparky is a royal pain in the ass, and easily manipulated by Benita.

Next week: “Benita’s Double Trouble.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Today I am a Firefly"

In “Today I am a Firefly,” Sparky (Billy Barty) attempts his first solo flight, and fails. The Bugaloos attempt to cheer him up, but he decides to run away from home.

While the Bugaloos deal with this crisis, Benita Bizarre’s (Martha Raye) minions accidentally break her favorite music box.  They also manage to set their zapper to a “shrink” setting.  Suddenly, they have the perfect way to rectify their crisis.

They shrink the Bugaloos and force them to play music for Benita inside the music box.

Fortunately, Nutty Bird is able to inform Sparky about Benita’s capture of the Bugaloos, and he’s off to the rescue

Alas, there’s no new song in this week’s episode of The Bugaloos to enliven the proceedings.

Instead, audiences get the high-concept of the week: a shrink device. This shrink ray -- the zapper gone haywire -- is essentially an early version of the device we see in the Kroffts’ Dr. Shrinker (1976).

Indeed, the shrinking effects are achieved through the same technique in both series: chroma key.

The plot of the week involves Sparky, once more, making trouble. He fails badly on his first flight, and runs away. Fortunately, he saves the day because when he returns to the forest he learns what has happened to the Bugaloos.

And what has happened?

Benita’s minions have captured and shrunken the group to perform inside Benita’s favorite music box, which the minions accidentally broke.

The episode also ends with a familiar twist. The weapon of the villain (in this case the shrink ray), is turned don that villain. So we end, here with a “bitsy Benita.”

Next week “The Bugaloo Bugaboo.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "On a Clear Day"

Peter Platter plans a Rock Festival in Tranquility Forest, but refuses to let Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) perform at it. 

In a fit of pique, she decides to hold a competing a Rock Festival at her juke box.  She has trouble, however, getting any rock groups (such as “Blood, Sweat and Soap”) to renege on their arrangements with Platter.

Benita and Funky Rat hatch a plan, however, to ruin the festival. Using her smoggy car, the duo unleashes pollution and smoke into Tranquility Forest, making it unsuitable for a concert.

The Bugaloos discover Benita’s plan, and contact the local fire department to help them suck up the smog, and re-direct it to Benita’s juke box.

“On a Clear Day” is a sort of environmentally-themed episode of Sid and Marty Krofft’s The Bugaloos. 

In this case, Benita attempts to pollute Tranquility Forest to cancel a rock festival. This act would favor her own competing festival. The vehicle for the most is Benita’s car.

The problem is rectified when the local fire department lets the Bugaloos use a smog “sucker” to save the forest and re-route the toxins to Benita’s juke box. 

There are some fun touches in this episode, including the rock band called “Blood Sweat and Soap.”  

One gag that does not work too well, however, is the fortune-telling machine at Benita’s house that asks “Would you believe?” in the manner of a cheap Don Adams imitator.  This machine reappears in future episodes, again with the Don Adams shtick.

I wonder, did The Bugaloos get permission to use his (or Arte Johnsons’?) material on a recurring basis?

Leaving such matters aside, our song for the week is “If You Become a Bugaloo,” and here it is:

Next week: “Today I am a Firefly.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Help Wanted - Firefly"

In “Help Wanted – Firefly,” the clumsy Sparky (Billy Barty) makes a nuisance of himself trying to be useful to the Bugaloos. 

Finally, he decides he should apply for a job uptown, but it is up to the Bugaloos to get him one. After some persuading, Peter Platter agrees to hire Sparky as an assistant at his radio station.

Meanwhile, however, Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) is furious that Platter still refuses to play her latest album.

When he tells her she needs her own radio station, she gets a fiendish idea. Benita re-wires the radio station to transmit from her own juke box!  Now she has a platform for her own (terrible) music.

Sparky proves useful by helping the Bugaloos set the matter straight.

Sparky’s lack of self-confidence is the impetus, once more for a plot-line on The Bugaloos.  In this case, Sparky wants to help his friends -- as they work on the buggy, paint, or set the table for dinner –- but he proves himself a disaster. “I’m a failure. I give up,” he announces.

The truth is, and the episode doesn't really suggest this, is that Sparky just needs to know himself (and his limitations), more honestly.  I suppose the transmitted message, for kids: don't worry if your parents are busy, and don't try to help, or you could make things worse!

Once more, the Bugaloos try to help their friend, but he falls into the clutches of Benita Bizarre who realizes -- before the modern age of the pro-sumer, ironically -- that she must take a hand in her own career; owning a radio station for herself.

The disguise of the week involves the Bugaloos pretending to be part of Benita’s fan club, and the song of the week is “Castles in the Air,” a distinct improvement over last week’s song (“Gna, Gna, Gna, Gna, Gna…”).

Here it is:

Next Week: "On a Clear Day."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos "Now You See 'Em, Now You Don't."

In ‘Now You See ‘Em, Now you Don’t,” the Bugaloos attempt to work Sparky (Billy Barty) into a new song. The result is “Gna Gna Gna Gna Gna.”

Peter Platter is so impressed with the composition that he decides to work the Bugaloos -- with Sparky --into his upcoming telethon show.

Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) gets winds of Sparky’s new sound, and wants to steal it for herself.  To do so, she forges adoption papers, and takes Sparky as her own son. 

Sparky is moved from Tranquility Forest to the Juke Box, and then forced to sing with Benita.

The Bugaloos team up with an absent-minded professor/magician, who has developed a magic wand that can create invisibility. 

All the Bugaloos are rendered invisible, so that they can infiltrate Benita’s home, and bring Sparky home.

Last week, a beauty contest. This week, a telethon. And Benita Bizarre is once again up to no good.  

So, in other words, it’s business as usual in Tranquility Forest in this installment of The Bugaloos.

One thing to note: I’ve enjoyed most of the songs on the series, thus far.  

This week’s song, “Gna, Gna, Gna, Gna, Gna” is the ear-rattling exception.

Here it is in its entirety:

My son watched this episode with me, and he will, to torture me, break out into this song periodically.  

I love that kid. 

But not the song.

One point of interest this week is that The Bugaloos, while a fantasy, has largely adhered to its own universe and rules of Physics. This week, however, a magician can turn people invisible, which is a clear break from the standard format.

Still, the break in format sets up another instance of the format: the last minute rescue of a Bugaloo (or Sparky) from Benita Bizarre’s juke box.  That pretty much happens every week.

Next week: “Help Wanted – Firefly.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Benita, the Beautiful?" (December 26, 1970)

In “Benita, the Beautiful?” Peter Platter holds a beauty contest Uptown.

The winner will become a movie star in Flicker Town, starring in a movie musical. Naturally, Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) enters the contest, and plans to eliminate all the competition.

On the night of the contest, Gina Lolla Wattage and Joy (Caroline Ellis) fail to show up as contestants, and the Bugaloos realize that they have met with foul play at the hands of Benita and her minions.

The male Bugaloos and Sparky (Billy Barty) rush to Benita’s Jukebox and find the duo tied and gagged beneath a trap door.

The Bugaloos race to the contest, and then realize that they should let Benita win the contest after all. 
If she does win, she’ll be out of their hair, in Flicker Town. 

The Bugaloos decide to campaign for Benita to win, but at the last minute, another contestant enters the pageant: Funky Rat’s sister, Brumhilda.

Well, the plot of this episode is, basically, the same as the one we saw in “Our Home is our Hassle.” A contest of some type is in the offing, and Benita wants to win it. The variation occurs in the telling of this particular tale. In “Benita the Beautiful” viewers aren’t privy to the specifics of the villain’s plan. 

We don’t know what has happened to Joy or Gina, or where they are trapped.

The other twist in the story is that the Bugaloos act in a more tactical fashion than is usually the case. They decide to let Benita have her way -- winning the contest -- so that they will be rid of her once and for all. 

Of course, Benita doesn’t seem like she would make a good “Miss Out of this World.”

The episode enlarges the “world” of the Bugaloos in some ways, both successful and not. 

On the former front, the episode discusses “Flicker Town,” a place beyond the forest and uptown where movies (starring insects?) are made.

On the latter front, we meet some audience members and denizens of Uptown in this story, and they are white-board cut outs. These cut-outs are obviously two dimensional, and lacking the detail of color.  They look shoddy against the colorful wardrobes and sets.

The song of the week “Flicker Town” is all about Joy entering the beauty contest.  Here it is in its entirety:

Next week: “Now You See ‘Em, Now You Don’t.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Lady, You Don't Look Eighty" (October 24, 1970)

In “Lady, You Don’t Look Eighty,” Joy (Caroline Ellis) is upset because it is October 12, and her friends have apparently forgotten that it is her birthday.

In truth, they are planning a surprise party.  The boys also trick Sparky (Billy Barty) into believing that Joy is actually an old woman who is eighty years old.  They also claim they are seventy years old!

Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) overhears this practical joke, and believes that the Bugaloos have discovered a fountain of youth. She wants it for herself, and captures Sparky. She will make a trade: the firefly for the elixir of youth.

The Bugaloos make a fake elixir of honey and water, and then, to demonstrate that it works, pretend to be old, themselves.

It’s pretty much business as usual on The Bugaloos (1970-1971) for this installment. The Bugaloos have something that Benita Bizarre thinks she wants -- this time the Fountain of Youth -- and captures one of the gang (Sparky) to get it.  To rescue their friend, the Bugaloos must get in disguise, and outsmart their nemesis.

One intriguing element about “Lady, You Don’t Look Eighty” is that it is established, as it was in the series’ second episode, that Joy is responsible for household chores in the forest.  Here, she is understandably grumpy about the division of labor. The boys don’t have to chip in?

Even in 1970, in an enchanted forest, the patriarchy was in firm control, apparently.

But this episode shows Joy acting crankily about having to clean up after everyone and the boys respond by calling her “granny,” and saying that she sounds old. Nice.  Yet not one of them lifts a finger to help her.

The song of the week? “Older Woman!”  That’s adding insult to injury, I would say.

Next week: "Benita the Beautiful."

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "If I Had the Wings of a Bugaloo (October 17, 1970)

In “If I Had the Wings of a Bugaloo,” Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) becomes obsessed with the act that the Bugaloos possess wings, and can fly.

She hires Funky Rat’s sister, Brumhilda, to make her bat wings, but they fail to give the diva the lift she wants.  She realizes that she must steal the wings of a bugaloo if she wishes to fly.

Benita goes to Tranquility Forest, pretending to be Heddy Ho-Down, and tricks I.Q. (John McIndoe) into coming with her back Uptown to her jukebox.  The other Bugaloos attempt to rescue him, but are trapped in Fly Paper!

The Bugaloos (1970-1971) crosses a threshold this week that Lidsville (1971-1972) also crossed at about the same point during its run. Specifically, the villain here officially becomes the most intriguing personality on the series, and the most-utilized character too.

Here, Martha Raye’s Benita Bizarre motivates all the action, and appears in virtually every scene. The Bugaloos are a practical after-thought, appearing only for the routine (and weekly) capture/rescue business.

What’s intriguing about Benita is that she is not an out-and-out monster, like Witchiepoo or Hoo-Doo. Instead, she’s a (fairly-typical) “D” list celebrity. She’s self-obsessed, narcissistic, and a bit pathetic. She’s a diva, a Norma Desmond-type, who cares only about her own self-glorification.  This week, she motivates the action because she wants wings, and wants to fly.

That desire just hits her, and because she is rich, and infamous, ostensibly -- and surrounded by yes-men -- she tries to get them.

In this way, The Bugaloos is actually about something more than bug-people on a sub-textual level: the quest for continuing fame, and the way that some people can’t let it go. Last week, I mentioned Sunset Boulevard (1950), and yes, The Bugaloos is a Saturday morning version of that story, as seen through the unique eyes of Sid and Marty Krofft.

This week, however, Benita goes from being merely misguided and narcissistic to monstrous, as she tries to cut off I.Q.’s wings, an act which can’t be undone.

The scene of surgery is actually fairly gruesome. I.Q. lays stomach down on a table, wriggling to break free from restraints, while Funky Rat reads from an instruction manual (Do It Yourself Surgery) and takes a giant clipper to the Bugaloo.  Fortunately, the surgery is never completed.

This week, there are two songs to make note of. Benita -- as Heddy-Ho-Down -- sings one for I.Q. before capturing him.

And The Bugaloos sing about “friends…if you need someone to help you…”

Next week: “Lady, You Don’t Look Eighty.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "The Love Bugaloos" (October 10, 1970)

In “The Love Bugaloos,” Sparky (Billy Barty) develops a crush on a pop star firefly, Gina Lola Wattage, and Joy (Caroline Ellis) arranges a meet-up between the lightning bugs.

Unfortunately, Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) is also hatching a nasty scheme. She realize that if Gina doesn’t show up for her gig on Peter Platter’s show, he will need Benita to replace her. Benita thus captures Gina, and plots to make her TV debut.

Sparky finds his courage by taking on Funky Rat and rescuing Gina.  When it comes time to go on, however, Gina is unable to perform, and the Bugaloos must step in.

This episode of The Bugaloos (1971-1972) sees Sparky finding his courage to romance a firefly pop star who talks like Mae West, but is named Gina Low Wattage (Gina Lollobrigida).  One running theme in the series is about Sparky’s lack of courage/bravery in the face of danger.

Funky Rat also gets a large role in the episode, and he’s a nutty character in both concept and design.  

Today, I don’t think a Nazi rat would likely be considered an appropriate character on a kid’s show, but that’s what Funky Rat is, essentially. Sure, he’s a variation on Max Von Meyerling (Erich Von Streiheim) from Sunset Boulevard (1950), the butler to faded star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). 

But he also assumes the catchphrase of Arte Johnson’s Nazi soldier (from Laugh-In [1966-1973]): “Verrrrry interesting,” and wears a uniform.  I don’t particularly find the costume, or the shtick very funny, but I am amazed the series got away with cribbing Johnson’s catchphrase.

Here’s the song of the week: “It's New to You:”

Next week: “If I Had the Wings of a Bugaloo.”

Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: The Bugaloos: "Courage Come Home" (October 3, 1970)

In “Courage Come Home,” Benita Bizarre (Martha Raye) fires Funky Rat and all her other minions after an incident with a runaway vacuum cleaner. While these incompetent minions picket the juke box, Courage (John Philpott) unexpectedly falls from the sky in a storm, and is separated from the rest of the Bugaloos.

Benita finds Courage, and learns that he has amnesia. She tells him that he is her cousin -- and house keeper -- Melvyn Bizarre.  The Bugaloos attempt to rescue Courage, but he now believes he is really Benita’s cousin.  Instead of going home to the Tranquility Forest with them, he holds the Bugaloos captive.

In the ensuing scuffle, Courage falls, and gets a second bump on the head, which cures his amnesia.

Benita is also injured, and she develops amnesia. This condition allows her rejected minions to return and pretend that she is their housekeeper.

This week’s installment of The Bugaloos (1970-1971) opens with the song of the week. Some of the lyrics include: “Fly away with us in space and far beyond.” It is sung by the group, in mid-air, before Courage succumbs to amnesia.

Here’s the number:

Other than a memorable song, this episode contends in a very familiar TV cliché: amnesia. In particular, one bump on the head causes amnesia, and a second bump cures said amnesia. Courage gets amnesia this week, and thinks he is related to Benita Bizarre even though, as he rightly notes, she doesn’t have wings like he does.

This episode feels a lot like one of the series’ key inspirations, The Monkees (1966-1968), especially during the sequence in which Joy dresses as a French maid, I.Q. becomes a butler, and Harmony (Wayne Laryea) becomes a chef. The costumes, and the mad-cap nature of the action all recall The Monkees, though in an enjoyable, fantasy-based manner.

Lidsville (1971-1972) later did a story similar to “Courage Come Home” in which Hoodoo (Charles Nelson Reilly) got amnesia, and his minions convinced him that he was their servant, not vice versa.

Next week: “The Love Bugaloos.”