Land of the Lost

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.

Yes! This is the BEST Sid and Marty Kroft show that ever was. The first two seasons are brilliant from the great theme song ("Marshall, Will, and Holly on a river expedition ran into the greatest earthquake ever knoooooooown....." to the above average scripts, special fx, and acting.

However, the third season really fell apart and the two kids on the show starting singing these horrible musical numbers. Also, their dad left the show to be replaced by their uncle and the scripts got hokey and contrived.

All that being said...My overall of the opinion of the show remains really favorable though. The Sleekstacks scared the doo-doo out of me as a kid although they never could move any faster than in a shuffle. For a kid's show, this one was REALLY good and I will remember it forever.

Forget the 1991 remake...It is stupid beyond belief isn't even worth comment.

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

I used to argue with my brother over this show. I wanted to watch 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' and he wanted to watch this one. To tell the truth, he was in the right, and I never did watch Valley on a regular basis.

It still has some corn to it, the acting was over the top from all three players, but I just took it that they took after their father. This was about the only show that it never bothered me that there were unanswered questions about things that happened, like the pylons, the skylons and sleestax (the way it was written on the wall). I used to think they had enough to contend with with Grumpy and Big Al and Big Alice without getting sleestax on top of it. Definitely one of the better of the Sid & Marty Krofft shows, if not the best, better than Pufnstuf. The show may have held on if Spencer Mulligan, as Dad, had not left. It wasn't the same show.