I'm disappointed in McD's... but it explains a lot about what happened to all their characters and what happened to H. R. Puffinstuff. I loved both as a kid, but like the video says, I never really distinguished the two. They were all just fun characters that I enjoyed watching. It's really terrible that a company that boasts to be so child friendly is really low life scum.
Not too surprising considering that the franchise was basically stolen from the original creators, the McDonald's brothers, by the so-called founder Croc. He had few scruples, even stealing the wife of a business partner. He got away with theft once, and apparently got away with it afterwards too. I'm not a fan of McDonald's for that and numerous other reasons.
"Children wouldn't understand the difference?" Umm, I was a child at that time, watched HR Puffenstuff and the others, and not once confused the McDonald's characters with the Kroft shows'. On has to wonder if those making said decisions actually confirmed with children that they were confused or not?
Despite the opening statement of this video, it was WAY before the late 1960s that children were recognized as a potent target for advertising and marketing. By 1930, Disney was already licensing Mickey Mouse merchandise and a few years later, Ovaltine was making big money by sponsoring the national "Little Orphan Annie" radio show, as just one example. All this only increased when TV broadcasting took off in the early 1950s, when the performers in kids' shows would interrupt the story to recite commercials while on the same sets and dressed in the same costumes. "And remember, boys and girls, the next time mother goes to the store, make sure to ask her to ALWAYS buy..."
The thought that H. R. PuffnStuff has been relegated to a footnote and the characters from Mcdonaldland have become cherished icons is a bit of an overstatement , if not downright wrong. It's been 41 years since the end of the lawsuit, aside from Ronald McDonald most children today do not know any of the Mcdonaldland characters.
Not at all. MSG in foods depletes B6. You need B6 in order to run the metabolism. With B6 deficiency the metabolism does not run well and fat accumulates as the food is not properly used as energy for the body. And High Fructose Corn Syrup HFCS also depletes B6 as well, and then B6 depleted mothers give birth to B6 depleted children who are already at deficiency levels from their moment of birth and thus are more susceptible to weight gain even if they do not eat too much processed food.
Yeah, no. I didn’t see it as a copy when I was a kid, and I see McDonaldland even more so as its own property now. Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica share a similar story, yet can coexist. I wish they’d bring back the characters and world, even though I only eat there a few times per year.
Well now I don't feel so bad. Back in the late 70's the McDonald's gang came to our local restaurant for a big shindig with the community. They were all there - Ronald, Mayor McCheese, The Hamburgler and...Grimace. Oh, we had plans for Grimace. A friend and I went up to the big purple blob of whatever he was and started jacking him/her up. Left hooks! Bolo punches! Kidney punches to its big ol' gut! Grimace started to stagger. He was stunned. Then my cohort jumped up and ripped the left eye off of Grimace's face. We bolted after that looking back expecting to see the McDonald's gang chasing us but they were tending to Grimace. A sad day for McDonald's characters but a glorious day for 8 year old delinquents everywhere.
The McDonald brothers sold the franchising rights to Kroc. They wanted to just operate their business locally. McDonald's had a similar situation with the Tripple Ripple ice cream cone. They settled when McD canceled them for soft serve machines 1976.
Totally not surprised and at the same time disgusted and appalled because this same formula of thievery is what made McDonald's popular to begin with! The movie, "The Founder" is the true story about how a failing salesman convinced 2 trusting brothers to allow him to franchise their burger joint and then proceeded to literally steal their entire concept, name and all, from up under them. When they sued he settled with them for 1 million dollars and eventually he put their original burger joint out of business. What a horrible man!
It's a shame that it dosen't feel a children place anymore. The new McDonald looks modern and adults place rather then kids. I work at McDonalds and i can see the transformation from old to new. Heck, i remember there used to be a playground before they removed and renovated earlier this year. I am sure that it was one of the last old interior around 2006 ish here.
It seems like when they remodel they take out the play places. Our town is so small, but there is a McDonald's 25 miles away that had an awesome play place. We would take our kids there for a treat when visiting the city. Unfortunately last time we took the kids there they had a remodel and all the kids stuff was gone. Even the McDonald's in town I grew up in got rid of the play places too.
@@MartyrMachine I'm 19 and yeah i agree with you. I've been working there as a part time for almost a year. I am trying to find another job for a while now. I prefer more of a outside then inside if you know what i am talking about. Also, standing for 7 hours is really making me insane sometimes. I like the crews but not the job itself.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the dragon Pufnstuf was surgically altered as part of his testimony deal against the Krofft brothers' excessive drug use?
Sid and Marty Kroff had more of an impact in the early years than I had thought. Never knew McD stole their characters, voice and costume designers. I would have liked to see a continuation of "The Founder" where Michael Keaton steals from H.R. PuffnStuff, LOL.
Dang, I always wondered what happened with all those McDonaldland characters, they were still around on the art and playgrounds when I was a kid in the 80's but sorta disappeared after a while.
As a young child who watched these, I didn’t recognize any connection between the two. Sid and Marty Kroft had their shows, McDonalds had advertising characters meant to sell hamburgers, and we weren’t dumb enough to be fooled into believing anything else.
BURGER CHEF RESTURANT.Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States and at its peak in 1973, had 1,050 locations.[1] The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers. In the early 1970s, the chain introduced the Funburger and the Funmeal, with packaging that included stories about Burger Chef and Jeff's adventures and friends (including the magician Burgerini, vampire Count Fangburger, talking ape Burgerilla, and Cackleburger the witch), with riddles, puzzles, and small toys. When McDonald's introduced their Happy Meal in 1979, the chain sued, but ultimately lost.
Rossygrossy they were paid over a million dollars in 1970's money... That would be a lot of cash in todays currency. It was a dick move but McDs is still in business...
@@ravenstrahd5234 $4.2 million today, in actuality, no that's not a lot considering what McDonalds makes a day. Mind you back then it would have been worth more when it comes to cost of living, opening a business, taxes, etc. Reference: in 1977 my parents bought their first house for about $30,000 (it is worth $650,000 today). Imagine having a million then? You would still have about $950,000 left after taxes. Nowadays you get $4 million, pay a ton of tax, buy a house for $1.5 million and are left with say $2 million. That's only $1 million and change more than what you're left with from the 70's AND you've accumulated interest on that so you probably have more than the $2 million and change anyways. Sorry I just went off on my own there.
I was born in 1967, I grew up watching HR and other Sid and Marty shows on Saturday mornings, as well as loving these McD characters, and I still don't see anything more than a passing resemblance. Guy dressed like a dragon is a mayor just doesn't equal guy dressed as a cheeseburger to me.
McDonald's ripping off the Crofts does not surprise as they did the same thing to Willard Scott who originated the Ronald McDonald character here in the Washington DC area in 1963, the only difference being that Willard did not realize he could have copyrighted the Ronald McDonald character so for that reason there was nothing he could do when Ray Kroc stole the character from him.
Some of the footnotes in this video are subjective, if not opinionated, but, I mean, when's the last time we've actually seen Grimace or Hamburglar (or _any_ of those McDonaldland characters) in any McDonald's-related material? H.R. Pufnstuf, meanwhile, may not be known by the masses, but he and related characters certainly have a massive cult following, and even newer generations of kids are discovering them now that Sid & Marty Krofft are back in action; Pufnstuf even appeared on an episode of their Nick Jr. show MUTT & STUFF.
Could I just say that Mayor McCheese is not "almost identical" to the titular dragon in the pictures shown? They look completely different. The only thing I could say they have in common is their general body shape, but they don't even have the same number of fingers.
So basically it is pretty damn close to the Pokémon Card Game originally made by Wizards Of The Coast. Nintendo then ended licensing to print the cards on their own. Same game but WOTC laid down all the major ground work and how the game is played to this day. What a wildly bold and clearly greedy thing both of these companies did. A joint effort production turned solo because the licensee suddenly said, “Okay, we don’t want to share profits from what we made together anymore. We got it from here.”
I can’t believe this Mc Donald’s stole the idea from The Krofts for their characters and Mc Donald’s pay for it Whao that’s tough luck Mc Donald’s l don’t like the food there any way
I want to know whatever happened to McDonalds. Used to be fun places that kids actually wanted to go...now they all look like McStarbucks with their interiors.
"The children? I don't care about the children! I just care about their parents' money. Ah, the fact that their feeble minds are easily manipulated by cheap playgrounds and talentless clowns is no skin off my nose!"
I remember a certain car company stealing the idea of the alternating wipers from the inventor in the same fashion,the classic- let me see-oh nevermind, look what we invented scenario. They had a movie about that one as well.
I loved H.R. Puffenstuff. Always wondered what happened to the series. Had no idea that McDonald's McDonaldland killed H.R. Puffenstuff. And $1 million dollars for a lawsuit? Not even close to fair. Maybe $1 billion would be closer to fair. But McDonald's stole the Kroft's intellectual property rights. That kind of damage is hard to undo. Even if all of H.R. Puffenstuff was fully trademarked. McDonald's infringed on their trademarks. It's egregious. It was good for McDonald's that Ray Croc understood franchising. Bad how Croc dealt with theft of trademarks and stole concepts lock stock and barrel. (Without a soul basically.)
And $5,000 per commercial and usage of any McDonaldLand character. So it probably does amount to a billion dollars. I still think HR Pufnstuf is more recognizable than McDonaldland, which just faded into existence. The music of Pufnstuf lives on.
This is the first time I heard anyone say McDonald's killed pufnstuf. The Krofft's had the habit of only doing one or two seasons of any of their shows before moving on to the next project. So the bad deal they got had nothing to do with ending the show, they were working on the next. The Bugaloos was the same, even though they had marketing deals and even record deals set up, they dropped the show and let the cast go.
I think you have it backwards. No kid is ever going to mistake Mayor McCheese for Puff n Stuff. It's only adults who get them confused and the kids who actually like the characters never understand how anyone can confuse the two.
I REMEMBER MY GEN X YOUTH PLAYING IN THE HAMBURGLAR SPIRAL SLIDE, the Big Mac cop with the ladder leading to face holes in his hat and a crawl area in his sandwich head, the Fry Guys ground mounted swings, and the Grimmace jumping cage.
THANK YOU!! I am a huge Kroft. Bros fan, grew up on them, still have my Tin HR PfS Lunchbox bought when we went to the amusement park on the way back up to Ohio from Disneyworld in FLA. I was 4 years old. Anyhows...I have seen many documentaries online, and my reaction always includes "Look into how McDonalds nailed their coffin!" (A coffin that could have been blasted apart , giving new life into The Kroft industry, when they needed it!) Again, Thanks...
I recognized it as copied from Pufnstuf as a kid. That's how you get to be a megacorp: Ruthless exploitation of others. You should see how they treat their employees at the meat processing plants.
Oh yes when I was a kid back in the seventies I didn't know the difference between the McDonald's characters Mayor McCheese or the mayor of living Island H&R pufnstuf
I remember these guys even though I was not born in the 70s. I loved them so much. I was sad when they got rid of all the old playplaces. I like to collect a lot of this old merchandise. I liked the show also but didn't have a lot of exposure to it
They also got rid of McDonaldland cookies which were delicious. NEWSFLASH TO MCDONALDS' BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND EVERY OTHER FAST FOOD CHAIN: If I want to eat healthy, I don't eat at your restaurant. However, when I want something for actual flavor, I go straight to you.
I never, ever thought they were of the same universe, just as I never thought Speed Racer or Starblazers or Battle of the Planets or Marine Boy were in the same continuity... I DID however understand that Mayor McCheese had a big blue ribbon and that him and Puf N Stuf were both mayors in their world. The cops were similar too, but come on... one's a tv show, one's a commercial with GIANT hamburgers for heads.
Good story. I always thought the H.R. stood for "He's really"........y'know? as in 'He's Really Puffin' Stuff'......(wow, even as a kid I thought that)
As a kid in 1971 Nobody I knew cared about HR PuffnStuff. Can one blame McDonald's for that? I tried again and it does nothing. Peppa Pig, Teletubbies, SpongeBob, and Sesame street sketches are far more interesting.
Ah yes, kids wouldve been horrified if they could only understand their crappy HR Puffnstuff had been replaced, and boycotted mcdonalds on principal. Gotta love lawyers.
a lot of people frequent those shity fast food restaurants so it's no wonder marketers view the General Public as stupid and most ad campaigns reflect that people are generally stupid
This is wrong. They might have tried to make a deal with the Krofts, but Red Barn already had similar advertising characters and setting in the 1960s. To wit, Chicken Hungry, Hamburger Hungry, and Big Fish Hungry.
Mcdonald's was probably like we will use food characters and trademark are own brand instead of those characters, which is a better business strategy, but they may have made there characters similar to the familiar popular brand already established to help them, but who knows?
I watched HR Pufnstuf as a kid and thought it was trippy colorful fun. I saw all those McDonalds commercials when they aired and thought they were slapstick style silly fun. The McDonalds dolls and train playsets they put out were in fact some of my favorite toys. There was never any confusion or thought in my young mind that the McDonalds characters were a part of the HR Pufnstuf world or vice versa even as a very little kid. Both were there own bag and both were a joy to see as a kid. I never watched HR Pufnstuf and thought I was watching a McDonalds commercial or vice versa. I'll go on record and say that any kid who did think those two separate entities were part of the same universe was a complete moron (I guess Mack Sennett's estate could have sued HR Pufnstuf then for ripping off their bumbling Keystone Cops?). If noticing that certain fads or types of characters are popular with kids (and adults) and then taking the basics of those popular fads and putting your own spin on them (often improving them) to cash in on hot crazes and then succeeding at that is a crime, then TONS of things people have come to love (often much more than the original) in all categories under the sun (music, movies, books, comics, food, computers, video games, phones, clothes, tv shows, etc.) are all guilty of this "crime". I also remember cartoons getting in trouble for airing commercials for their own lines of toys during their programs. I think that practice got banned because people were claiming the shows were nothing but a means to sell more of the toys the show was based on. Well, that's why kids watched those shows in the first place. Any show, movie, or book based on a franchise that has toys could be accused of swaying kids to buy more toys. I always thought those kinds of lawsuits were lame and/or that adults must've had real low opinions of their children's intellectual capabilities. I actually have less respect for HR Pufnstuf after seeing the above video. Sounds to me like the HRP folks were originally on board with McDs about partnering up with them to do commercials but then got mad when McDs reneged and decided to do them on their own (and also that they "stole" some of the same people who worked on HRP like Katy Perry "stole" Taylor Swifts backup dancers... are those "stolen" workers copyrighted too?). When McDs mascot characters took off like a rocket and HR Pufnstuf's show and characters faded into the same oblivion as the drug fueled hippy 60s folk music scene that it came from did, the HRP crew pulled the old "I'll sue" to try to vampire suck on McDs now much more successful cash cow to make up for that fact that its own show had lost its initial "wtf is this wack show" appeal to kids who then moved onto other things as kids are want to do. Trendy things come and go while basic concepts remain and are constantly updated, changed and recycled to fit the times and specific audiences. There's no crime in that.
elfhermie - Give me a break... maybe you need to go back and watch the video a second time(?) the video clearly mentions the fact that McDonalds consulted with the creators of HR Puff & Stuff and then totally BALKED/Dropped them! Wouldn't have been a problem if McyD's had gone a completely different route but McyD's very clearly did not. It's just wayyy too coincidental how McyD's consulted w/the creators of HR P&S, suddenly dropped them and created a style that was so close, especially "after" consulting/obtaining insight and info on the HR Puff & Stuff concept. Incidentally, kids are too innocent to notice when someone rips off someones intellectual property... thankfully the adults on the jury totally noticed and they got the verdict right.
@@__WJK__ Nope, I don't need to watch the video again. I don't care if McDs originally was going to partner with them and then reneged on the deal and went ahead with the idea anyway. That's business. Happens all the time. Apart from the bare bones basic concept of big headed mascots (which is NOT a concept that can be owned/coyprighted by anybody) the McD characters that were created had their own unique personalities and outfits. HR Puffenonstuff did not create the mascot concept. Those types of characters have been around for ages (can China sue HR Puffenstuff because they had people dressed up as dragons first? nope). McDs cashed in on a craze that they saw HR Puffenstuff also cashing in on at the time. Just because they originally wanted the Kroft people to help them and then decided to go it alone doesn't mean they owed them anything. You can't copyright something that basic. You can't copyright the basic concept of cookies and sue somebody when another person comes up with their own cookie line even if the next guy saw the first guy cashing in on cookies and decided to hop on board the money train (look at all the generic brand cereals out there that are almost identical to name brand ones, but they change the names and ingredients enough to be their own entity.. heck sometimes even the names they come up with are super similar!). Nobody including HR Puffenstuff can copyright a basic idea like colorful costumes with big heads despite the fact that McDs spoke with them and decided to cash in on that craze. Sesame Street, The Muppets, Barney, etc. all have characters that are similar to McD's and HR's, too. Courts get things wrong a lot of the time. Look at the "adults" on the OJ trial and Casey Anthony trials. Now had McDs stolen direct plots/dialogue or the same exact design but just changed colors or something, then I'd agree.
@@elfhermie - This isn't about "I'm" right or wrong or "you're" right or wrong... or about ego. You're totally overlooking the facts/evidence surrounding the actual trial. If McDonalds would NOT have consulted/partnered with HR Puff & Stuff (to actually create characters for McyD's) then there would be no issues, no case and no trial but because McyD's collaborated with HR P&S and then balked/walked away from the collaboration... the jury clearly noticed something about as fishy as a McyD's filet-o-fish sandwich and thus ordered McyD's to pay HR P&S $1 Million+ for the intellectual property right violations. You can't go consult with someone, copy parts of their business model and ideas, then leave half way through the consultations and put out something close in appearance a few short months later...lmao...you'll lose every time but hey, if you think it's perfectly fine to do so lol please, be my guest and try it someday!
I can’t believe I thought that McD hamburgers tasted good, way back when. Today, a McD burger tastes like a sawdust bun, a piece of high fat content meat, you can see through. My uncle was a meat provider to fast food chains. He would only eat at Wendy’s because they bought a much better grade of beef. Burger King is as bad as McD. In and Out as well as Whataburger didn’t have stores in the area. I prefer a Whataburger to any fast food, it’s by far the best burger.
Yes and do you realize that about a year ago McDonalds laid off all of the Ronald McDonalds? No more restaurant appearances, school appearances no Ronald McDonald House visits. They then hired back just a few to do big national events. They certainly want to change their image to more of a millennium place with their Lattes and Frappes and the new stainless steel no character remodels. And look at how chuck Fil a is thriving with the cow, playgrounds and lots of restaurant family events.
People should be able to steal others ideas, but at a cost. So much of their earning should go to the one how came up with it. I hate the fact once one person has an idea no one else can use it.
I had completely forgotten this entire chapter. The Krofts were real creative geniuses, law didn't protect them. I'm thinking about Kimba and Lion King. Law doesn't help once you've been really screwed, Justice is a fallacy.
As a kid, I hated all the McDonald's characters and didn't like the food because it was too greasy and everything had tomatoes (slimy raw kind) and smelly azz onions everywhere. It was gross. It was obvious to me even as a 7 year old they were trying to sell crap food to kids that didn't like it to begin with.
McDonald's might have gotten away with it if they hadn't made use of the same personnel who contributed to HR Pufnstuf. After all, nobody ever cornered the copyright market on the notion of outsized grotesque costumes and props.
But McDonald Land characters lived on well into the early 90s I remember many commercials I remember the playgrounds where Mayor McCheese and officer Big Mac were well-represented and I also remember McDonald's restaurants being decorated with them. I was born in 1977 so they definitely were used long after the lawsuit was settled
![Tee Grizzley - Detroit (Feat. 42 Dugg) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aeKfTtt0x14/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your thoughts on this chapter in McDonald's history?
UK children are ignorant. so say the courts.
Capitalism as usual
I'm disappointed in McD's... but it explains a lot about what happened to all their characters and what happened to H. R. Puffinstuff. I loved both as a kid, but like the video says, I never really distinguished the two. They were all just fun characters that I enjoyed watching.
It's really terrible that a company that boasts to be so child friendly is really low life scum.
I remember all of the playplace items. The characters you could ride on, the characters you can climb on, etc. I miss my childhood memories!
Not too surprising considering that the franchise was basically stolen from the original creators, the McDonald's brothers, by the so-called founder Croc. He had few scruples, even stealing the wife of a business partner. He got away with theft once, and apparently got away with it afterwards too. I'm not a fan of McDonald's for that and numerous other reasons.
"Children wouldn't understand the difference?" Umm, I was a child at that time, watched HR Puffenstuff and the others, and not once confused the McDonald's characters with the Kroft shows'. On has to wonder if those making said decisions actually confirmed with children that they were confused or not?
Being stuck in Mayor McCheese on a hot day in 1988 has fueled my nightmares to this day.
My Grandma was the original Hamburglar. She used to show up in costume at Chicago area McDonalds and "steal" burgers before handing them out to kids
I done belive you
i dont believe you i mean
Mayor McCheese murdered my father in 1987
@@raydeathray6245 oh okay man
Gamer929andminecraft W.I.P. wow that's awesome McDonalds sucks now
I loved the McDonaldland characters when I was a kid. We collected all the glassware and toys. the playground was fun. The good ol days..
Despite the opening statement of this video, it was WAY before the late 1960s that children were recognized as a potent target for advertising and marketing. By 1930, Disney was already licensing Mickey Mouse merchandise and a few years later, Ovaltine was making big money by sponsoring the national "Little Orphan Annie" radio show, as just one example. All this only increased when TV broadcasting took off in the early 1950s, when the performers in kids' shows would interrupt the story to recite commercials while on the same sets and dressed in the same costumes. "And remember, boys and girls, the next time mother goes to the store, make sure to ask her to ALWAYS buy..."
The thought that H. R. PuffnStuff has been relegated to a footnote and the characters from Mcdonaldland have become cherished icons is a bit of an overstatement , if not downright wrong. It's been 41 years since the end of the lawsuit, aside from Ronald McDonald most children today do not know any of the Mcdonaldland characters.
I know what they look like but your right,I know none of the macdonald land names.
*Puffnstuf
Ah, so that's why it resembled HR Pufnstuf, well, I can't say I hate it knowing this now.
Probably not a coincidence that this is also around the time child obesity rates started going up.
So in another universe, McDonald’s sales go down and H.R. Puffnstuff is as popular as ever?
Not at all. MSG in foods depletes B6. You need B6 in order to run the metabolism. With B6 deficiency the metabolism does not run well and fat accumulates as the food is not properly used as energy for the body. And High Fructose Corn Syrup HFCS also depletes B6 as well, and then B6 depleted mothers give birth to B6 depleted children who are already at deficiency levels from their moment of birth and thus are more susceptible to weight gain even if they do not eat too much processed food.
Yeah, no. I didn’t see it as a copy when I was a kid, and I see McDonaldland even more so as its own property now. Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica share a similar story, yet can coexist. I wish they’d bring back the characters and world, even though I only eat there a few times per year.
Well now I don't feel so bad. Back in the late 70's the McDonald's gang came to our local restaurant for a big shindig with the community. They were all there - Ronald, Mayor McCheese, The Hamburgler and...Grimace. Oh, we had plans for Grimace. A friend and I went up to the big purple blob of whatever he was and started jacking him/her up. Left hooks! Bolo punches! Kidney punches to its big ol' gut! Grimace started to stagger. He was stunned. Then my cohort jumped up and ripped the left eye off of Grimace's face. We bolted after that looking back expecting to see the McDonald's gang chasing us but they were tending to Grimace. A sad day for McDonald's characters but a glorious day for 8 year old delinquents everywhere.
Well the guy who made mcd what it is today STOLE the company from the original owners so I’m not surprised 🤷🏻♀️
The McDonald brothers sold the franchising rights to Kroc. They wanted to just operate their business locally.
McDonald's had a similar situation with the Tripple Ripple ice cream cone. They settled when McD canceled them for soft serve machines 1976.
Ava, you would enjoy _The Founder_ on Netflix about Ray Kroc and how he got control of McDonald's. He was smart, but slimy as hell, too.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere Well there was some karmic revenge
(pause for effect)
He owned the San Diego Padres
@@Staszu13 I'm not a big baseball fan, so I don't get the reference.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere Suffice to say they're a lousy team
Totally not surprised and at the same time disgusted and appalled because this same formula of thievery is what made McDonald's popular to begin with! The movie, "The Founder" is the true story about how a failing salesman convinced 2 trusting brothers to allow him to franchise their burger joint and then proceeded to literally steal their entire concept, name and all, from up under them. When they sued he settled with them for 1 million dollars and eventually he put their original burger joint out of business. What a horrible man!
It's a shame that it dosen't feel a children place anymore. The new McDonald looks modern and adults place rather then kids. I work at McDonalds and i can see the transformation from old to new. Heck, i remember there used to be a playground before they removed and renovated earlier this year. I am sure that it was one of the last old interior around 2006 ish here.
It seems like when they remodel they take out the play places. Our town is so small, but there is a McDonald's 25 miles away that had an awesome play place. We would take our kids there for a treat when visiting the city. Unfortunately last time we took the kids there they had a remodel and all the kids stuff was gone. Even the McDonald's in town I grew up in got rid of the play places too.
@@MartyrMachine I hate it tbh. I actually want to resign but finding another job is hard here.
@@MartyrMachine I'm 19 and yeah i agree with you. I've been working there as a part time for almost a year. I am trying to find another job for a while now. I prefer more of a outside then inside if you know what i am talking about. Also, standing for 7 hours is really making me insane sometimes. I like the crews but not the job itself.
To be honest, I kinda like the remodel..
I kind of miss the old interiors from my childhood (though I try not to eat there too much...). Most of the playgrounds are still around.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the dragon Pufnstuf was surgically altered as part of his testimony deal against the Krofft brothers' excessive drug use?
Sid and Marty Kroff had more of an impact in the early years than I had thought. Never knew McD stole their characters, voice and costume designers. I would have liked to see a continuation of "The Founder" where Michael Keaton steals from H.R. PuffnStuff, LOL.
Dang, I always wondered what happened with all those McDonaldland characters, they were still around on the art and playgrounds when I was a kid in the 80's but sorta disappeared after a while.
As a young child who watched these, I didn’t recognize any connection between the two. Sid and Marty Kroft had their shows, McDonalds had advertising characters meant to sell hamburgers, and we weren’t dumb enough to be fooled into believing anything else.
BURGER CHEF RESTURANT.Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States and at its peak in 1973, had 1,050 locations.[1] The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers. In the early 1970s, the chain introduced the Funburger and the Funmeal, with packaging that included stories about Burger Chef and Jeff's adventures and friends (including the magician Burgerini, vampire Count Fangburger, talking ape Burgerilla, and Cackleburger the witch), with riddles, puzzles, and small toys. When McDonald's introduced their Happy Meal in 1979, the chain sued, but ultimately lost.
They weren’t paid nearly enough for what McDonald’s did 🤦🏻♀️
Happens all the time. The companies with more money win, go figure.
Rossygrossy they were paid over a million dollars in 1970's money... That would be a lot of cash in todays currency. It was a dick move but McDs is still in business...
Watch the movie about Founders of McDonalds
..they paid in a lifetime supply of Happy meals!!!!!....
@@ravenstrahd5234 $4.2 million today, in actuality, no that's not a lot considering what McDonalds makes a day. Mind you back then it would have been worth more when it comes to cost of living, opening a business, taxes, etc. Reference: in 1977 my parents bought their first house for about $30,000 (it is worth $650,000 today). Imagine having a million then? You would still have about $950,000 left after taxes. Nowadays you get $4 million, pay a ton of tax, buy a house for $1.5 million and are left with say $2 million. That's only $1 million and change more than what you're left with from the 70's AND you've accumulated interest on that so you probably have more than the $2 million and change anyways.
Sorry I just went off on my own there.
I was born in 1967, I grew up watching HR and other Sid and Marty shows on Saturday mornings, as well as loving these McD characters, and I still don't see anything more than a passing resemblance. Guy dressed like a dragon is a mayor just doesn't equal guy dressed as a cheeseburger to me.
McDonald's ripping off the Crofts does not surprise as they did the same thing to Willard Scott who originated the Ronald McDonald character here in the Washington DC area in 1963, the only difference being that Willard did not realize he could have copyrighted the Ronald McDonald character so for that reason there was nothing he could do when Ray Kroc stole the character from him.
Some of the footnotes in this video are subjective, if not opinionated, but, I mean, when's the last time we've actually seen Grimace or Hamburglar (or _any_ of those McDonaldland characters) in any McDonald's-related material? H.R. Pufnstuf, meanwhile, may not be known by the masses, but he and related characters certainly have a massive cult following, and even newer generations of kids are discovering them now that Sid & Marty Krofft are back in action; Pufnstuf even appeared on an episode of their Nick Jr. show MUTT & STUFF.
Could I just say that Mayor McCheese is not "almost identical" to the titular dragon in the pictures shown? They look completely different. The only thing I could say they have in common is their general body shape, but they don't even have the same number of fingers.
Yes you can indeed say that, and you speak the TRUTH.
LOL Kroc stuffed his fingers into the mayors puckerhole. "Your mine bitch Kroft Cartoon"
Abandoned Void, or tails
Abandoned Void totally thought the same thing. I don't see any similarity
@Big Bubba Not at all. It looks just like these microwaveable mini-burgers I used to eat.
So basically it is pretty damn close to the Pokémon Card Game originally made by Wizards Of The Coast. Nintendo then ended licensing to print the cards on their own. Same game but WOTC laid down all the major ground work and how the game is played to this day.
What a wildly bold and clearly greedy thing both of these companies did. A joint effort production turned solo because the licensee suddenly said, “Okay, we don’t want to share profits from what we made together anymore. We got it from here.”
I can’t believe this Mc Donald’s stole the idea from The Krofts for their characters and Mc Donald’s pay for it Whao that’s tough luck Mc Donald’s l don’t like the food there any way
I want to know whatever happened to McDonalds. Used to be fun places that kids actually wanted to go...now they all look like McStarbucks with their interiors.
"The children? I don't care about the children! I just care about their parents' money. Ah, the fact that their feeble minds are easily manipulated by cheap playgrounds and talentless clowns is no skin off my nose!"
Torgo1969 Mr. Krabs
Of course, because this is what Ray Kroc was best at - stealing ideas. Hell, the whole idea of McDonalds to begin with was stolen by Ray Kroc.
That's why today, when someone says something that is thought to be untruthful, they say:
That's a Kroc...........
I remember a certain car company stealing the idea of the alternating wipers from the inventor in the same fashion,the classic- let me see-oh nevermind, look what we invented scenario. They had a movie about that one as well.
I loved H.R. Puffenstuff.
Always wondered what happened to the series.
Had no idea that McDonald's McDonaldland killed H.R. Puffenstuff.
And $1 million dollars for a lawsuit?
Not even close to fair.
Maybe $1 billion would be closer to fair.
But McDonald's stole the Kroft's intellectual property rights.
That kind of damage is hard to undo.
Even if all of H.R. Puffenstuff was fully trademarked.
McDonald's infringed on their trademarks.
It's egregious.
It was good for McDonald's that Ray Croc understood franchising.
Bad how Croc dealt with theft of trademarks and stole concepts lock stock and barrel.
(Without a soul basically.)
Ray kroc was a great man
Don't make business deals while high on drugs, children. (sarcasm)
When I was a little kid I think I throw a toy at the TV and broke it when I watch that show lol
And $5,000 per commercial and usage of any McDonaldLand character. So it probably does amount to a billion dollars. I still think HR Pufnstuf is more recognizable than McDonaldland, which just faded into existence. The music of Pufnstuf lives on.
This is the first time I heard anyone say McDonald's killed pufnstuf. The Krofft's had the habit of only doing one or two seasons of any of their shows before moving on to the next project. So the bad deal they got had nothing to do with ending the show, they were working on the next. The Bugaloos was the same, even though they had marketing deals and even record deals set up, they dropped the show and let the cast go.
I grew up in early 2000’s the last 3 characters was still around in my country until like 2005, I miss them
I think you have it backwards. No kid is ever going to mistake Mayor McCheese for Puff n Stuff. It's only adults who get them confused and the kids who actually like the characters never understand how anyone can confuse the two.
I saw this in my recommended and (as you can probably tell) knew exactly what this video was gonna be about :D
I REMEMBER MY GEN X YOUTH PLAYING IN THE HAMBURGLAR SPIRAL SLIDE, the Big Mac cop with the ladder leading to face holes in his hat and a crawl area in his sandwich head, the Fry Guys ground mounted swings, and the Grimmace jumping cage.
McDonald’s “stole characters”? The “Hamburglar” is so appropriate. 😂
THANK YOU!!
I am a huge Kroft. Bros fan, grew up on them, still have my Tin HR PfS Lunchbox bought when we went to the amusement park on the way back up to Ohio from Disneyworld in FLA.
I was 4 years old.
Anyhows...I have seen many documentaries online, and my reaction always includes "Look into how McDonalds nailed their coffin!" (A coffin that could have been blasted apart , giving new life into The Kroft industry, when they needed it!)
Again, Thanks...
Hmm so that's why I don't see the characters anymore... Well that's unfortunate
I recognized it as copied from Pufnstuf as a kid. That's how you get to be a megacorp: Ruthless exploitation of others. You should see how they treat their employees at the meat processing plants.
Slayer mccheese must be delighted ☺
I'm still loyal to the Dragon.
HR Puff N Stuff.❤
Lol 😁. Was just telling my son and grandson about the old McDonald's characters while in the car as we drove past one. Grew up with HR PufnStuf too😊
Why do you gotta do my boy McCheese dirty like that?
Oh yes when I was a kid back in the seventies I didn't know the difference between the McDonald's characters Mayor McCheese or the mayor of living Island H&R pufnstuf
I always thought that the Pacman monsters looked like hose french fry things.
Mayor McCheese is surprisingly light on the cheese.
Wow, I had no idea of any of this. Thanks for posting this!
As a kid I sometimes got Krofft characters and McDonalds confused.
Thought I was on an acid trip watching this! 😆😂
I actually think both are now just footnotes in history. McDonald's rarely uses the characters anymore.
I was the Grimace for McDonalds for a day, but I never got any triple-thick milkshakes. Does that seem right?
I want a Mayor McCheese ventriloquist doll, ya know.
I remember these guys even though I was not born in the 70s. I loved them so much. I was sad when they got rid of all the old playplaces. I like to collect a lot of this old merchandise. I liked the show also but didn't have a lot of exposure to it
They also got rid of McDonaldland cookies which were delicious.
NEWSFLASH TO MCDONALDS' BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND EVERY OTHER FAST FOOD CHAIN: If I want to eat healthy, I don't eat at your restaurant. However, when I want something for actual flavor, I go straight to you.
I don't think they stole the idea but definitely inspired
At least we know that if Kids ever do get TV shows again at least they will get them for the right reasons.
The fact they thought kids are too stupid to see how different the characters were. 💀
I was a kid during this and that show was watchable............ WE DID KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
The films of HR Pufnstuf seemed to be better preserved than McDonaldland.
I'll never forgive McDonalds for ruining the Hamburglar's face. It's hideous, now
I never, ever thought they were of the same universe, just as I never thought Speed Racer or Starblazers or Battle of the Planets or Marine Boy were in the same continuity... I DID however understand that Mayor McCheese had a big blue ribbon and that him and Puf N Stuf were both mayors in their world. The cops were similar too, but come on... one's a tv show, one's a commercial with GIANT hamburgers for heads.
H.R puffnstuff: exists
McDonald's land: hippity hoppity your land is now my property
It's so tired though
And Grimace became Barney.
yet another reason to boycott this evil corporation
wow! So instead, Mickey D's knew they were wrong and still profited from the commercials. Giving a small fee of fines to PuffnStuff!
Good story. I always thought the H.R. stood for "He's really"........y'know? as in 'He's Really Puffin' Stuff'......(wow, even as a kid I thought that)
I wouldn't say that they stole the characters from HR Pufnstuf, but they took their Ideas and molded them into their own characters.
H.r puff was the creepiest shit I had ever seen as a kid. The witches scared the hell out of me
He's still handsome.❤
As a kid in 1971 Nobody I knew cared about HR PuffnStuff. Can one blame McDonald's for that? I tried again and it does nothing. Peppa Pig, Teletubbies, SpongeBob, and Sesame street sketches are far more interesting.
TIL we can all thank McDonald's for curtailing the nightmare fuel that is H.R. Pufnstuf lol
I’ve never even freaking heard of hr puffistuff.
Ah yes, kids wouldve been horrified if they could only understand their crappy HR Puffnstuff had been replaced, and boycotted mcdonalds on principal. Gotta love lawyers.
a lot of people frequent those shity fast food restaurants so it's no wonder marketers view the General Public as stupid and most ad campaigns reflect that people are generally stupid
This is wrong. They might have tried to make a deal with the Krofts, but Red Barn already had similar advertising characters and setting in the 1960s. To wit, Chicken Hungry, Hamburger Hungry, and Big Fish Hungry.
Mcdonald's was probably like we will use food characters and trademark are own brand instead of those characters, which is a better business strategy, but they may have made there characters similar to the familiar popular brand already established to help them, but who knows?
my argument is a kid is not going to look at mcdonalds and think , hey iit s puffinstuff,,, they just want they happy meal and toy..lol
I think the Hamburglar Broke into my house
Oh gosh
I watched HR Pufnstuf as a kid and thought it was trippy colorful fun. I saw all those McDonalds commercials when they aired and thought they were slapstick style silly fun. The McDonalds dolls and train playsets they put out were in fact some of my favorite toys. There was never any confusion or thought in my young mind that the McDonalds characters were a part of the HR Pufnstuf world or vice versa even as a very little kid. Both were there own bag and both were a joy to see as a kid. I never watched HR Pufnstuf and thought I was watching a McDonalds commercial or vice versa. I'll go on record and say that any kid who did think those two separate entities were part of the same universe was a complete moron (I guess Mack Sennett's estate could have sued HR Pufnstuf then for ripping off their bumbling Keystone Cops?). If noticing that certain fads or types of characters are popular with kids (and adults) and then taking the basics of those popular fads and putting your own spin on them (often improving them) to cash in on hot crazes and then succeeding at that is a crime, then TONS of things people have come to love (often much more than the original) in all categories under the sun (music, movies, books, comics, food, computers, video games, phones, clothes, tv shows, etc.) are all guilty of this "crime". I also remember cartoons getting in trouble for airing commercials for their own lines of toys during their programs. I think that practice got banned because people were claiming the shows were nothing but a means to sell more of the toys the show was based on. Well, that's why kids watched those shows in the first place. Any show, movie, or book based on a franchise that has toys could be accused of swaying kids to buy more toys. I always thought those kinds of lawsuits were lame and/or that adults must've had real low opinions of their children's intellectual capabilities. I actually have less respect for HR Pufnstuf after seeing the above video. Sounds to me like the HRP folks were originally on board with McDs about partnering up with them to do commercials but then got mad when McDs reneged and decided to do them on their own (and also that they "stole" some of the same people who worked on HRP like Katy Perry "stole" Taylor Swifts backup dancers... are those "stolen" workers copyrighted too?). When McDs mascot characters took off like a rocket and HR Pufnstuf's show and characters faded into the same oblivion as the drug fueled hippy 60s folk music scene that it came from did, the HRP crew pulled the old "I'll sue" to try to vampire suck on McDs now much more successful cash cow to make up for that fact that its own show had lost its initial "wtf is this wack show" appeal to kids who then moved onto other things as kids are want to do. Trendy things come and go while basic concepts remain and are constantly updated, changed and recycled to fit the times and specific audiences. There's no crime in that.
Jesus you're really into puppets!
elfhermie - Give me a break... maybe you need to go back and watch the video a second time(?) the video clearly mentions the fact that McDonalds consulted with the creators of HR Puff & Stuff and then totally BALKED/Dropped them! Wouldn't have been a problem if McyD's had gone a completely different route but McyD's very clearly did not. It's just wayyy too coincidental how McyD's consulted w/the creators of HR P&S, suddenly dropped them and created a style that was so close, especially "after" consulting/obtaining insight and info on the HR Puff & Stuff concept. Incidentally, kids are too innocent to notice when someone rips off someones intellectual property... thankfully the adults on the jury totally noticed and they got the verdict right.
@@__WJK__ Nope, I don't need to watch the video again. I don't care if McDs originally was going to partner with them and then reneged on the deal and went ahead with the idea anyway. That's business. Happens all the time. Apart from the bare bones basic concept of big headed mascots (which is NOT a concept that can be owned/coyprighted by anybody) the McD characters that were created had their own unique personalities and outfits. HR Puffenonstuff did not create the mascot concept. Those types of characters have been around for ages (can China sue HR Puffenstuff because they had people dressed up as dragons first? nope). McDs cashed in on a craze that they saw HR Puffenstuff also cashing in on at the time. Just because they originally wanted the Kroft people to help them and then decided to go it alone doesn't mean they owed them anything. You can't copyright something that basic. You can't copyright the basic concept of cookies and sue somebody when another person comes up with their own cookie line even if the next guy saw the first guy cashing in on cookies and decided to hop on board the money train (look at all the generic brand cereals out there that are almost identical to name brand ones, but they change the names and ingredients enough to be their own entity.. heck sometimes even the names they come up with are super similar!). Nobody including HR Puffenstuff can copyright a basic idea like colorful costumes with big heads despite the fact that McDs spoke with them and decided to cash in on that craze. Sesame Street, The Muppets, Barney, etc. all have characters that are similar to McD's and HR's, too. Courts get things wrong a lot of the time. Look at the "adults" on the OJ trial and Casey Anthony trials. Now had McDs stolen direct plots/dialogue or the same exact design but just changed colors or something, then I'd agree.
@@elfhermie I agree with you 100% on this, elfhermie.
@@elfhermie - This isn't about "I'm" right or wrong or "you're" right or wrong... or about ego. You're totally overlooking the facts/evidence surrounding the actual trial. If McDonalds would NOT have consulted/partnered with HR Puff & Stuff (to actually create characters for McyD's) then there would be no issues, no case and no trial but because McyD's collaborated with HR P&S and then balked/walked away from the collaboration... the jury clearly noticed something about as fishy as a McyD's filet-o-fish sandwich and thus ordered McyD's to pay HR P&S $1 Million+ for the intellectual property right violations. You can't go consult with someone, copy parts of their business model and ideas, then leave half way through the consultations and put out something close in appearance a few short months later...lmao...you'll lose every time but hey, if you think it's perfectly fine to do so lol please, be my guest and try it someday!
I LOVE HR Puffnstuff!!!
Me to!❤️
:O Mcdonalds were screwed up from the start
Back when McDonald's used to good commercial and actually had Ronald Mcdonald and Friends in them.
I can’t believe I thought that McD hamburgers tasted good, way back when. Today, a McD burger tastes like a sawdust bun, a piece of high fat content meat, you can see through. My uncle was a meat provider to fast food chains. He would only eat at Wendy’s because they bought a much better grade of beef. Burger King is as bad as McD. In and Out as well as Whataburger didn’t have stores in the area. I prefer a Whataburger to any fast food, it’s by far the best burger.
This dates around the 70s. I grew up in the 80s and remember seeing these characters into the early 90s. Someone please explain how.
History can be a messy puddle of information
1:12....I don’t see it
Your not the only one.
same lol, the only thing i can see being similar between both is the nose
Yes and do you realize that about a year ago McDonalds laid off all of the Ronald McDonalds? No more restaurant appearances, school appearances no Ronald McDonald House visits. They then hired back just a few to do big national events. They certainly want to change their image to more of a millennium place with their Lattes and Frappes and the new stainless steel no character remodels. And look at how chuck Fil a is thriving with the cow, playgrounds and lots of restaurant family events.
My second wish is to open the front door and finding a McDonald's Happy Meal 😊
People should be able to steal others ideas, but at a cost. So much of their earning should go to the one how came up with it. I hate the fact once one person has an idea no one else can use it.
3:08 oof
McDondland was more Disney magical, especially in the 80s, and 90s.
HR "Puffing Stuff" was more of a stoned hippies wet dream.
I rather prefer the McDonald Land characters then the Kirby as the new Happy Meal box .
I had completely forgotten this entire chapter.
The Krofts were real creative geniuses, law didn't protect them. I'm thinking about Kimba and Lion King. Law doesn't help once you've been really screwed, Justice is a fallacy.
As a kid, I hated all the McDonald's characters and didn't like the food because it was too greasy and everything had tomatoes (slimy raw kind) and smelly azz onions everywhere. It was gross. It was obvious to me even as a 7 year old they were trying to sell crap food to kids that didn't like it to begin with.
McDonald's might have gotten away with it if they hadn't made use of the same personnel who contributed to HR Pufnstuf. After all, nobody ever cornered the copyright market on the notion of outsized grotesque costumes and props.
Oh puffinstuff...why did you get rid of my hamburger land... Please keep the fun in the food why must y'all take our whimsical.
Mayor mccheese was mayor of CHICAGO at one time was a dam good one too
But McDonald Land characters lived on well into the early 90s I remember many commercials I remember the playgrounds where Mayor McCheese and officer Big Mac were well-represented and I also remember McDonald's restaurants being decorated with them. I was born in 1977 so they definitely were used long after the lawsuit was settled
And Ronald McDonald’s was best known for its scary clown, and it goes “Ran Ran Ru!”
Thank god. HR Puffinshit was a thing of nightmares.
I know another company that commits this kind of theft: Disney.
So McDonald's robble robbled Sid and Marty Krofft
Yet another reason I refuse to give Mc Donalds a penny