Land of the Lost

We ordered this on Netflix for our 8 year old who loves dinosaurs. He loved it just as much as we did, back in the day. My nine year old daughter liked it too. Tried doing a lookup on the main character actors - doesn't seem they did much in the way of movies or TV after the show. Can't believe we made our parents watch this - love the special effects now ... how the three of them are in a raft and the size of the river looks to be about 8 inches across, and the bricks slam down on it, then they're in the same jungle scene time after time, and its always dusty ... :D Didn't know that Walter Koenig wrote an episode - his commentary is on the Disc 1 features - kind of funny to here him without a Slovak accent. Brings back some nice memories.

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.

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.

This was an intriguing Saturday morning TV series created by Sid & Marty Kroft. The Marshall family;father Rick,son Will,& daughter Holly are out on a camping trip when the raft ride they take plunges down a waterfall & into a crevasse following an earthquke.In this unknown world they encounter prehistoric animals,the remains of a very old city carved out of stone,a race of humanoid lizards,& mysterious pylons located throughout the jungle.Wonderful stop motion animation was used in this show,a special fx rarely seen on television shows.There was also some terrific matte work depicting this lost land.The actors were appealing,& David Gerrold,Larry Nivan,D.C.Fontana,& Theodore Sturgeon were some of the top flight talent contributing scripts to the show.It was a kids show that aspired to bring spectacle,nifty fx,& quality writing to each episode.