Unintentionally creepy childhood TV characters

[vakkotaur]

Sometime last week I saw a thread on Fark about creepy TV characters from childhood. I couldn't really recall any that really creeped me out. There might have been one or several, but if so I simply do not recall them. I do recall that there was a commercial that I found scary when I was quite young. I suspect it was for some hot cereal, but I have no idea what it was. It was a cartoon and some creature was playing a pipe organ and the huge pipes seemed to have faces and talk/sing as they apparently steamed. Those huge talking organ pipes were scary. Now I wonder what, exactly, that commercial was for.

Many characters where mentioned in that Fark thread, and I can certainly understand some of them creeping people out. Slim Goodbody, with his insides seeming to be showing, I can certainly understand as being disturbing. Yet there were also things that didn't really bother me, that I can much recall. There were several claims of "anything Krofft" and a few had links to clips on youtube.

I don't recall Lidsville or Sigmund and the Seamonsters but I know I watched (or is it "was exposed to"?) HR PufnStuf. I watched bits of these, at least the intro sequences, on youtube and while the production values are... well, they pretty much aren't, I don't really find them disturbing or nothing triggered any old reactions, with perhaps one exception: a boat.

The blue and yellow boat in the intro sequence of HR PufnStuf is somehow disturbing. I don't know if it's just that boats shouldn't be alive (yet everything on that show was alive, it took place on Living Island after all) or if it was that it was deceptive as it was a bit of Witchiepoo's enchantment. (That's another thing, I had heard the name "Witchiepoo" from time to time and until recently had forgotten where the name came from.) Or if it was something else still, or a combination of things.

Recall any TV characters that (unintentionally) creeped you out as a kid?

Comments

[aedifica]

I'm told I used to be really scared of the Sesame Street aliens ("Yepyepyepyepyepyepyep uh-huh uh-huh" with their lower jaws occasionally covering their upper faces). Now, I enjoy them, especially when they decide the ringing telephone is intelligent and try to talk to it.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I recall there were a few people who said they were creeped out by the YipYips.

[ladyniniane.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten about Lidsville. That one showed up when son-&-heir was little, and I felt queasy about it then; as I recall, he wasn't very fond of it, either (or maybe he just picked up on the fact that I was creeped by it).

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

I think the World of Sid and Marty Kroft in general made me rather queasy. More for lack of quality than anything else.