The Return of the Sleestak

But Atlanta didn't clean up downtown for another two decades, so the theme park closed after seven months. At one point Marty took a friend's advice and visited a bankruptcy lawyer, who told him he didn't have enough cash to make bankruptcy worth it. The brothers also produced variety shows, including Donny and Marie and a comedy show with the Bay City Rollers.

Their two flops: The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (Marty: "Word of mouth killed it.") and Pink Lady, featuring two Japanese girl rockers who sold more albums than the Beatles ... in Japan. "Fred Silverman from NBC told us they spoke English."

Their last big hit, D.C. Follies, was a political satire that featured life-size puppets of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Norman Shwartzkopf and Ted Koppel. It aired late Friday or Saturday night, depending on the market, from 1987 to 1989 and wove itself into pop culture. One day Marty answered the phone in his office. It sounded like Randy Credico, one of the voice guys, pretending to be Reagan. Marty told him to cut it out. "I'm not Randy," said the president. "This is Ronald." Reagan, whose son worked with the Kroffts on another show, had called to tell Marty that everyone in the West Wing watched the show and spent Monday mornings gossiping about its caricatures.

For the last 15 years the brothers have hustled to get their shows made into movies. Disney commissioned a Lost script that was too serious. Another attempt fizzled when Sony disbanded its family division the day the writer delivered the screenplay. Then three years ago the Kroffts' manager hooked them up with some fellow clients, a pair of TV writers who authored the current version, which got another client, Ferrell, on board.

The movie will preserve some of the campy aesthetic--the Sleestaks look much as they did 30 years ago--but little Holly has been replaced by a Cambridge-educated linguist in tight denim shorts. Ferrell is now a disgraced scientist instead of a park ranger, and the PG-13 rating means there'll be one or two curse words.

Sid and Marty are getting a $1 million producer's fee and 4% of the movie's profits. Marty says someone's already interested in making feature versions of Pufnstuf and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. If he had listened to Sid, he says, they would have sold the rights to their shows long ago. Now he estimates those rights are worth $25 million. Among the people who offered to buy them out was pop singer Michael Jackson. "Thank God that didn't happen," says Marty. "The minute you cash the check, then what? That'll kill you in a month."

© 2008