Land of the Lost

I love Land of the Lost! I was gripped by the Marshalls attempting to return to the 70s, and I'm sure Marty McFly could have helped them out big time. Anyway, sure the effects were cheesy but still, you were never let down by the suspense in this series.

As a child of the 70's I watched this show religiously! It use to scare me to death every time I saw the dinosaurs or the Sleestak! I recently saw an episode and it brought back so many wonderful childhood memories when I would get up early on Saturday mornings just to watch Marshall, Will and Holly! Oh yea, can't forget the Sleestak and Chaka!

The Land of the Lost was an excellent science fiction series-- especially given that it aired on a Saturday morning. Granted, the third season wasn't as good as the first two, with writers ignoring much of the internal logic that had previously been established, but even the third season was better than much of the Saturday morning fare today.

To clear up some misconceptions about the series, the Marshall family did not travel back in time; they fell through a time doorway which transported them to a small, closed universe, which included, among other things, three moons in the sky. In this small universe, a balance was maintained. In order for anyone to enter, the same number of people had to leave (and vice versa).

The presence of the dinosaurs (one of the attractions of the show for many) may be why people think the Marshalls went to Earth's past. But other features, such as the Lost City and the pylons, which TARDIS-like are bigger on the inside than the outside, are signs of a highly advanced culture; one, which we later learn, built the Land of the Lost. The pylons controlled the environment of the land, and some contained time doorways leading to other dimensions.

Oh, and for the record, the dinosaur named "Alice" is called that because she's an allosaur. It's a nickname.

There was a later version of Land of the Lost in 1992, and while it had better effects and slightly better acting, the original was "Masterpiece Theatre" by comparison. While the original Land of the Lost does have some flaws, it at least had interesting scripts and looked like it was another world; and it had a certain quality to it that the remake-- which was filmed in some park-- lacked.

There are currently eight episodes available on video, with four of them re-released to DVD. Like I said, the Land of the Lost isn't perfect (though many of the eight episodes available are considered among the better ones, especially "The Stranger", "Elsewhen" and my personal favorite, "Circle") but it's better than a lot of the stuff on today.

Rick

NBC would be proud of the Fact that this show was most definitely Must See TV for me in the 70's. I absolutely Looooovvvvveeeed Kathy Coleman as Holly. Wesley Eure (also Mike Horton on Day's of our Lives at the time) sang the title song.

I felt it had great special effects with the stop motion animation on the dinosaur scenes. Although recently On VH1's 70's tribute, I saw some scenes, in pretty bad video chroma-key.

Easily the best Kroft show. Remember, HR Puffenstuff (for crying out loud.) I would hang up on anyone who called me when LoTL was on. In season 3 when Chaka started speaking English and Spencer Mulligan was gone the show went straight into the crapper. But that Kathy Coleman. Love her, Love her, Love her! I last saw her on TV in an Arthur Treachers Advertisement, (God give me strength.) Good times, fer sure. According to imdb she hasn't acted since and tribute sites say the same.

Shame, she was HOT!

This was my favorite Saturday morning program by Sid and Marty Krofft

On a rafting expedition, the Marshall family (Holly, Will and father Rick) fall down a waterfall into a time portal which sent them to the Land of the Lost. The land of the lost was a prehistoric world.

Each week, the Marshall family faced many challenges and shared many learning experiences in the Land of the Lost. It was a story of survival. They dodged dinosaurs and befriended Cha-Ka, who was a prehistoric simian humanoid. Cha-Ka could speak in his native language Pakuni, which was learned by the Marshall Family. It is my understanding that a Pakuni dictionary has been written for those of you who want to learn Pakuni.

For its time the special effects were very good but the acting sometimes was overkill and really fake which made me laugh just because it seemed so stupid. But then again, the actors were often acting to a blue screen and the special effects were added later.

The thing that I remember the most about this show (other than my crush for actress Kathy Coleman who played Holly Marshall) was the Sleestak.

Remember the Sleestak? Those giant walking hissing lizards with those big bug eyes? A few of the Sleestak were played by professional basketball players. They really scared me as a kid and I always remembered that to get rid of them all I had to do was to touch a blue and green crystal together to create a force field.

The settings of the Land of the Lost were very imaginative and unique such as the lost city and the pylons. The background music was both a little corny but eerie too!

There were also many other memorable characters in this show including the Zarn, Enik, Ta, Sa and Malak. The Zarn was the most mysterious and scariest character in the series. The Zarn was often invisible and his presence could be heard and it sounded like wind chimes cutting through the eerie silence.

You can find more information about the show on the Land of the Lost website: www.landofthelost.com

This program had 43 episodes and ran for 3 years (1974-1977). It has been released on DVD. You can buy the DVD series on Ebay.