O Elo Perdido

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.

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!

Cheesy music, sets and acting don't detract from the excellence of some of the stories in this TV series, some co-written by Science Fiction greats like Larry Niven. This series was one of my favorites as a kid and helped spark a lifetime interest in Science Fiction... and eventually science as well. I didn't end up a scientist per-se, but some of these stories are great and still watchable (and some are just plain dumb). No specific names or numbers to recommend... watch 'em if you can find 'em and try not to wince at the cheese of the "special effects" and weird mix of banjo and synthesizer music.