Mary and Mark Ritts Puppets

Mary and Mark Ritts were puppeteers and came up with some very unique puppet friends that had entertained children for decades. One of their first tv series in the 1950's, was a show called "In the Park."  A guy goes for a walk in the park and has fun conversations with Mark Ritt's Puppet friends, such as Magnolia the Ostrich, Sir Jefforey the Giraffe, etc. This was way before my time, however it wasn't until the 1970's, when I was in elementary school, that  a film was shown in the classroom featuring Mark's Puppets.  I'm pretty sure it was live action, as it took place in the park and in color, and featured an assortment of Mark Ritt's animal puppets. the movie was titled "For the Love of Fred." Whom was a caterpillar friend of the animal puppets, and they took very good care of him and got amazed when he turned into a butterfly. I never saw that film much since, but strongly remember  seeing the Ritt's puppets on Saturday mornings in various commercials for kids in the 1970's from the Better Business Bureau. They were short live action clips teaching kids the importance of saving power, energy, eating right, and saving and spending your money wisely. They added another puppet character for their commercials which was Abominable, a friendly snow monster. I started to think that I was crazy for remembering these things, and spent years searching the internet for anything about Mark Ritts puppets.
           Turns out, the commercials are all on Youtube, various press photos of the puppets are sold on Ebay, and I even once saw a Mark Ritts coloring book being sold. With all the merchandising, you figure that may have been tied into these characters, I looked for books, saw records, and continue searching for more. A website I came across offered a DVD transferr of a live action movie called "Puppets are Creepy", and even included a copy of the 1970's in the park live action movie featuring Mark Ritts Puppets. I also remember reading that this movie had once aired on NBC as part of a childrens film festival type of tv show, as they showed children's movies. To this day, sadly both Mark and Mary Ritts have passed on, and their work is still nostalgic and talked about on Tv Party.com There are no plans to release the For the Love of Fred movie onto DVD or other Mark Ritts works, except for his last work in the tv series Beakman's World. Other than that nothing. But it was my childhood memory and I wanted to see that movie again, but I can't as it's only available a movie and probably can only be purchased or rented by a school. Kids these days are so lucky, as for the tv shows they remember seeing as a kid, and no longer air, they can easily go and get it on DVD.