Nostalgic Showcase Presents: Hanna-Barbera Land and The World of Sid and Marty Krofft

This entry is part 20 of 30 in the series Nostalgic Showcase Presents

Nothing is more fun than visiting an amusement park! Rides, live performances, meet-and-greets with our favorite characters, greasy food, and coin munching arcades, there’s something for everyone. It’s no wonder that we feel so nostalgic for our favorite childhood amusement park, and their many themed rides, attractions and costumed characters. Visiting Kings Island with my extended family when I was a kid provided the inspiration for a previous article, and I will forever treasure the memories made in that theme park for years to come. What happens when the amusement parks are shut down before their prime? Or are only open for a couple summer seasons? For our next installment of the Summer of Gaming, I’ve picked out two defunct theme parks that closed far before visitors could experience the fun, based around our favorite nostalgic characters and franchises!

The World of Sid and Marty Krofft

Meet Sid and Marty Krofft, kings of puppetry kid’s entertainment, two brothers behind the iconic children’s entertainment like H.R. Pufnstuf (1969), Land of the Lost (1974-1976), and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975), syndicated on local television channels through the 1970s. I was introduced to the Krofft brother’s works in their puppetry/costume design for Hanna-Barbera’s The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968-1970), an energetic and slapstick live action show featuring cartoons and set designs straight out of a cartoon. A year after The Banana Splits Adventure Hour hit the airwaves, the Krofft brothers would premiere their most popular character, the friendly dragon and major of Living Island, H.R. Pufnstuf! With multiple original franchises enjoyed by thousands of families across America, the Krofft brothers wanted to expand their horizons and establish something more exciting- a theme park!

Before they became known on television for their puppetry, Sid was an active vaudeville puppeteer, performing for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus sometime in the 1940s; born eight years later, Marty would stay home and practice with Sid’s retired puppets. The pair would start to create and perform puppets as a team in the late 1950s, and their first cameo in a nationally broadcast show would come in 1965 with the first episode of The Dean Martin Show. A young Jim Henson was introduced to wider audiences two years prior on The Jimmy Dean Show, with Rowlf the Dog making numerous appearances; Howdy Doody had entertained children since his arrival on television in 1947; and Charlie McCarthy had become synonymous with ventriloquism since his first introduction in radio in 1936. Puppets were gaining popularity, and by the mid-century, they had become a staple of the entertainment business for all ages to enjoy. In the late 1960s, the Krofft brothers were hired to design attractions and walkaround, performance costumes at the Six Flags, and in 1968, the pair were tasked with designing colorful sets and characters for Hanna-Barbera’s newest show, The Banana Splits. These costumes would inspire their original larger-than-life puppets, creating the groundwork for their own projects. The Krofft’s professional relationship with Six Flags would continue into the 1970s, occasionally licensing out their popular characters to the parks, consequently advertising their original shows. There’s no modern day equivalent to the franchises the Krofft brothers produced- low-budget, campy, with a twist of psychedelic imagery and unbound silliness, directed and made exclusively for children.

Theme parks just seemed like a natural progression for the Krofft brand. With big concepts and bigger dreams, all that was left was a location. Sometime in 1974, urban developers Maurice Alpert and Tom Cousins reached out with a proposition and a location – the Omni International Complex in downtown Atlanta, GA. The theme park would be built and experienced entirely indoors, open yearlong, and estimated to attract millions of visitors; the Omni itself would be an attraction, a concrete skyscraper with the world’s longest escalator taking visitors from the first floor lobby up eight floors- and into the first level of what would become The World of Sid and Marty Krofft. It was quoted that the Omni International Complex was like “a city in itself”, built connected to the popularly used Omni Coliseum, and complete with its own inside ice skate rink, restaurants, stores, the Omni hotel, and the theme park. Over the next two years, the Krofft brothers would work on the intricate scenes and experiences their four story theme park would offer guests, a $20 million investment. At the time, downtown Atlanta was in a lurch- urban decay and suburban sprawl caused families to relocate to less populated areas in the suburbs and the downtown area had seen a rise in crime. Alpert and Cousins eased the Krofft’s anxiety, assuring them that the Omni International Complex was the first step in improving downtown Atlanta, and that the additional foot traffic would help to prevent crime in the area.

In 1976, The World of Marty and Sid Krofft was ready to be unveiled. On the same opening day of the Omni International Complex, the new theme park opened its doors to visitors, to much fanfare. It seemed, at least in newspaper announcements and interviews from the time, that everyone was anticipating the Omni and the theme park to exceed expectations and amaze audiences. What opened was certainly an experience. Visitors to The World of Marty and Sid Krofft would have paid $5.75 for adult tickets and $4.25 for their children (approximately $34.97 and $25.84 respectively, today), for an experience that was advertised to last four to five hours. Each floor correlated to a stamped area on the ticket, visitors could not backtrack or return to the floors once the track was finished. Once the tickets were acquired, visitors would take the impressive 125 foot free standing escalator from the ground floor of the Omni to the first of five themed floors of The World of Sid of Marty Krofft, greeted by two 18-foot-tall jester sculptures. The first floor was themed around the circus, named the Fantasy Fair, with numerous one-on-one interactions and performances by clowns, jugglers, puppeteers, mimes, and meet-and-greet costumes of some of the iconic Krofft characters. The second floor, named the Tranquil Terrance, would continue the performance activities, with performative acts and plays on a stage, and place for a rest with restaurants and gift shops, but the main focus on this themed floor was the impressive 47-ton, crystal carousel with rideable Greek mythological creatures. Visitors would then enter the third floor down, which featured an arcade and a pinball machine ride- in which the riders would ride on giant silver pinballs that would zip through a course, bumping against bumpers and flippers and interacting with flashing lights. More concessions were available on the third floor, with a variety of different options; pizza, crepes, tacos, and hamburgers. The fourth floor featured the first Krofft franchise, Lidsville, featuring characters from the show of the same name. Similarly to the top three floors, this floor would feature food stalls and gift shops, and one main attraction- a puppet theater. Ten times a day, a variety musical called Celebration would be put on by performers, including Frankenstein and Jaws parody skits, a puppet ice-skating show, and a finale celebrating America’s bicentennial, known as the Bielectricentennial, featuring an Uncle Sam eagle puppet and a live performance of God Bless America. Visitors would then be shown a behind-the-scenes demonstration of the puppet show. Down to the last and final floor, themed around the Krofft’s most beloved franchise – H.R. Pufnstuf. Named the Living Island Adventure, this last floor was composed of a dark ride in which visitors would take a coal mine shaft around a narrative course, following H.R. Pufnstuf and his tussles against Witchiepoo, the main villain of the show. At the end of the ride, visitors would exit into the lobby of the Omni.

So, what went wrong? Like most defunct subjects in this series, there isn’t just one specific reasoning for the World of Sid and Marty Krofft’s downfall, but many different issues that led to its demise. One of the issues was attendance; while it had been capped at 6,000 attendees to prevent overcrowding, there were few days that got close to that number. In addition, 75% of tickets had to be purchased in advance for reservations leaving just 25% for walk-ups. Another issue were the rides. Because each floor (with the exception of the Fantasy Fair and Lidsville) had one big attraction, when those rides broke down, visitors would simply go on to the next floor, reducing their time in the theme park. Performers would also take elevators to each floor; if an elevator was down or had become stuck, shows would need to be delayed or cancelled. Many visitors complained that the cost of admission was far more than what the experience offered, and the whole park could theoretically be experienced in a couple hours, far from the four to five hours advertised. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft needed 1 million attendees to break even but at the end of its run, the number of visitors was a few over 300,000. The number of employees and performers was also unheard of for a small attraction- maxing at around 600, some relocating from Los Angeles. A refurbishment after four months refreshed the rides and experiences, but most families that had visited had little interest in returning. In a twist of irony, Six Flags Over Georgia, which the Krofft brothers worked with earlier in their careers, became The World of Sid and Marty Krofft’s biggest competition. Six Flags Over Georgia was more affordable, and could offer a full day’s worth of entertainment. Unfortunately, the Omni International Complex could not simply reverse the public perception of Downtown Atlanta, and many families did not feel safe in an area with rising crime rates. In November of 1976, just shy of six months of operation, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft shut its doors for the last time and the location remained vacant for nearly ten years. In 1987, CNN moved into the Omni International Complex, renamed it to the CNN Center, and the rest is history.

The Krofft brothers always wanted to entertain families, and held onto the believe that if their theme park had just a little more time and a little more refinement, it could have been a success. To quote Marty Krofft from an interview in 2001; “The park was the eighth wonder of the world, but we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.” After The World of Sid and Marty Krofft closed, the Krofft brothers poured their time and attention into their shows and upcoming movies, featuring fan favorite characters and franchises. The dream never died, in their hearts. Their numerous franchises have been rebooted in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s; in 2016, a brief reboot of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters premiered on Amazon Prime. In 2023, Marty Krofft passed away, leaving Sid to carry his brother’s legacy; Sid would continue to dream and plan wondrous projects until his own death in 2026. Maybe one day their psychedelic, whimsical and silly characters and worlds will return to entertain children again, until then, they’ll remain forever nostalgic to children growing up in the 1970s.

Hanna-Barbera Land

If you could bring back any defunct franchise from your childhood and theme a whole amusement park around it, which one would you pick? It’s no surprise to the usual readers of my series, or those who have attended the live programs, how fondly I enjoy old cartoons! When I was a kid, I loved to watch Boomerang, a cable channel featuring Hanna-Barbera’s extensive filmography of cartoons and Looney Tunes cartoons. While these cartoons had premiered on television nearly thirty years prior to my childhood, majority were timeless and could still entertain children and their parents across generations. For topics or jokes that required more context, my parents were quick to give me insight on the cultural and societal world of the 70s and 80s, when they were kids and teenagers. Even today, there’s some cartoons from Hanna-Barbera that make me scratch my head- how did this stuff ever get greenlit? How did it avoid censorship? Was it really popular enough to warrant whole sections of amusement parks to be themed around the characters? If you were a kid lucky enough to live close to Houston, Texas between the summers of 1984 and 1985, you may have experienced a one-of-a-kind theme park dedicated to Hanna-Barbera cartoons! We’ll do a deeper dive into the history of Hanna-Barbera’s studio later this year, but now let’s go back to 1966!

Saturday morning cartoons had become an entertainment industry staple, with Hanna-Barbera cartoons entertaining thousands of families. Prior to 1966, viewers could watch H-B’s extensive catalogue of cartoons; The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, Top Cat, The Jetsons, The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show, just to name a few. With a new cartoon releasing nearly every year, followed by syndication or reruns on NBC and ABC, Hanna-Barbera became synonymous with low-budget, quality cartoons. With an ever-expanding workload, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera sold their studio to Taft Broadcasting in 1966, a Cincinnati-based company which could continue to fund and market the shows to channels. Taft Broadcasting had also invested in local theme parks and purchased Cincinnati’s Coney Island amusement park, wanting to move it to a bigger area of land. In 1970, with a plot of land purchased in Mason, OH, construction started on the new theme park. A public contest was held to name the new park, and the name “Kings Island” won, a nod to the Kings Mill area of land and the park’s processor, Coney Island. Two years later in 1972, Kings Island would open its gates for the first time, with numerous rides reused from the old Coney Island, the addition of new rides and the introduction of a brand new kid-focused area themed around Hanna-Barbera characters, named the Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera. This would be the first of many times the popular Hanna-Barbera characters and franchises would be used in the Taft Broadcasting line of theme parks, later added to King’s Dominion and Carowinds in 1975, and Canada’s Wonderland in 1981. Meanwhile, Hanna-Barbera’s franchises continued to expand, introducing Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969, Josie and the Pussycats in 1970, Hong Kong Phooey in 1964, and Jabberjaw in 1976, with television movies and spin-offs in production.

It was clear to Taft Broadcasting, and the newly formed Kings Entertainment Company (KECO), that these cartoon characters attracted attendances to the parks. KECO, a separate entity from Taft Broadcasting, purchased Taft’s theme park division in 1984 with a perpetual license to use Hanna-Barbera characters at all of their current parks. Coinciding with KECO’s establishment was the opening of a brand new Hanna-Barbera themed amusement park in Spring, TX, called Hanna-Barbera Land. This new park would incorporate pre-existing and new rides, attractions and costumed characters from KECO’s other parks, inherited from Taft Broadcasting, but adding new popular franchises to the line-up. Families could meet Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, Fred Flintstone, Smurfette and Quick Draw McGraw as walkaround characters around the park, or performing on stage in musical variety acts. Visitors to the Hanna-Barbera Land could expect a full day of fun, entering the park under a large rainbow archway and greeted by costumed characters and a variety of different rollercoasters, dark rides and stages. Tickets for admission were sold, $6.50 for adults and children ($20.25 per person, today), and one grandparent could be admitted free with each paid admission. More rides were added and pre-existing rides were updated in the 1985 season, including water body slides, but it was an investment that drove the park deeper into debt. After the 1985 season came to a close, the theme park was closed indefinitely. Rides were sold to other amusement parks, renamed and rethemed, the land was redeveloped to a waterpark and traded hands four times before being re-purchased by Six Flags and rebranded to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown. The Hanna-Barbera characters, rides and attractions would remain to just being a part of the established KECO parks, in dedicated children’s areas, until they were completely phased out in the early 2000s and replaced with Nickelodeon cartoon licensing.

So, what happened to Hanna-Barbera Land? Similarly to The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, Hanna-Barbera Land was a promising endeavor and attendance increased right before their closing. Hanna-Barbera Land had the attractions to entertain families for a full day and there was plenty to do around the park, helping to justify the cost of admission. However, the economy hit the pockets of families living around Houston in the early 1980s following an oil bust, and merchandise sales within the park were lower than expected. AstroWorld, which had been a reliable and beloved theme park in the Houston area since 1968, was bought up by Six Flags in 1984. In 1985, their children’s area was themed around Looney Tunes, which had been licensed out to Six Flags, competing directly with Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon characters. AstroWorld would continue to exist, re-theming their children’s area with DC Comics characters in the 1990s, and eventually shutting down in 2005.

Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed reading and learning about these two defunct theme parks! I was so intrigued by their history while researching this article, and I found out that some of the only footage or photos we have of these theme park’s attractions are from home videos uploaded to the internet! Hanna-Barbera Land might have faded into obscurity if not for the few fans who attended the park who uploaded their family’s home videos, providing us with a personal look into the live attractions, rides, and character meet and greets. We’ll never know what could’ve happened if these parks had stayed open for just one more season, if their attendance rates would have improved or if their merchandise could’ve sold better, had the economy been better. These theme parks lasted for just a blink of time, but remain nostalgic for those out there that were fortunate enough to visit, one sunny summer day.

We’ll see you next month for the next (and final) installment of Nostalgic Showcase Presents: The Summer of Gaming!