Land of the Lost

[Qonundrum]

Anyone else out there have a fondness for this classic sci-fi show from 1974? The first season is somewhat special as it was written in (and also created in part) by David Gerrold. Quite a few Trek alumni wrote for it. Which explains why kids of all ages can enjoy it, among other things...

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https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q84AbOw63Uk
(The DC Fontana clip is in that portrait mode format. Can't display it here. )

Season 1's ending was written vaguely as a time loop, should the show not be renewed. It also loosely explains some of the odd happenings and sightings you'd see occasionally seen prior in the season...

I have to rewatch seasons 2 and 3. From what I recall, season 3 had of those format changes with genuinely talking Sleestaks .

For a bonus, play four in separate windows simultaneously. Anyone can be Data for ten minutes? Or ten seconds, cuz I just tried it and it's annoying as heck. And for a real thrill, try watching all 4 videos in different browsers simultaneously on a computer built in 2004. Betcha it'll run too slow...

 

[Redfern]

LOVED "Land of the Lost"! I remember seeing the earliest promos for the series in the late summer of '74 (meaning I was roughly 10 and a half, the target age for this show). While I did yet know exactly how stop-motion was achieved, I immediately recognized it when I saw it, having seen several Harryhausen flicks on TV, as well as Gumby and Davey and Goliath. The motion possessed an unearthly quality that I found hypnotic, so of course I had to watch it when it finally premiered.

Funny, while the stop-motion effects pulled me into the story, the used of video CSO (color separate overlay), the quality of which reminded me of the local weather report always shattered the illusion. When both effects were applied to a given shot, I experienced a kind of dissonance. Still, I tuned in week after week because, well, dinosaurs! Stop-motion dinosaurs! Stop-motion dinosaurs chasing hapless people!

I was probably too young, or maybe just too "dense" to understand and appreciate the notion of a "pocket universe" or continuum in which light, time and gravity warped and looped upon itself. I recall a scene in which the trio ascend one of the highest mountains to survey the realm. They see something upon a distant alp and they use their binoculars. They see the backs of themselves! That freaked out me big time! Years later when I got a better handle on those bizarre concepts associated with Relativity, I appreciated just how clever DC Fontanna and David Gerrold really were. For as strange as it was, it provided a far more reasonable explanation why the Marshalls could not escape compared to the plight presented in LotL's conventionally animated competition, "Valley of the Dinosaurs". Those schmucks apparently couldn't climb out of, well, a freakin' valley!

Anyway, a few years ago, I digitally modeled my very own Altrusian (the Sleestak's smart ancestors) space/time Pylon and staged it with some Poser coded 3D assets, including a T-rex. It proved something of a hear trying to morph the more contemporary conception of a theropod into a Charles R. Knight, erect standing, tail dragging "lizard". I could warp the skull only so much before the polygons started crimp and fold upon themselves, but, here we are, a wee tribute to the show.

 

[Anwar]

Oh dear, I thought this was going to be about the 90s remake that was on....ABC in the early 90s I think?

 

[FreezeC77]

Oh dear, I thought this was going to be about the 90s remake that was on....ABC in the early 90s I think?

I thought it was going to be about the Will Ferrell movie (or another attempted remake/reboot)

I watched this as a very young kid in syndication and the sleestak sound/movement was probably one of the creepiest things to me at that time lol

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[Qonundrum]

ROTFL, my apologies and condolences for making anyone think I was going to bring up the remake. The 90s had a knack of taking 60s and 70s shows and trying to make them into comedies, of which very few even began to work - or feel sincere. Nothing's beat the original, which says a lot.

 

[Qonundrum]

LOVED "Land of the Lost"! I remember seeing the earliest promos for the series in the late summer of '74 (meaning I was roughly 10 and a half, the target age for this show). While I did yet know exactly how stop-motion was achieved, I immediately recognized it when I saw it, having seen several Harryhausen flicks on TV, as well as Gumby and Davey and Goliath. The motion possessed an unearthly quality that I found hypnotic, so of course I had to watch it when it finally premiered.

Aye, definitely 9~13 year-olds, but it never really talked down at us... while aimed for younger kids, there's this odd appeal that seems to work for kids of all ages. There's almost a comforting feel to it.

Stop motion can be hit or miss, but Harryhausen and LotL definitely made something that is above and beyond their limitations and still believe in the proceedings and not be taken out of them. Huge kudos.

Funny, while the stop-motion effects pulled me into the story, the used of video CSO (color separate overlay), the quality of which reminded me of the local weather report always shattered the illusion. When both effects were applied to a given shot, I experienced a kind of dissonance. Still, I tuned in week after week because, well, dinosaurs! Stop-motion dinosaurs! Stop-motion dinosaurs chasing hapless people!

Yeah, the mix of filmed elements with videotape definitely has a visual discontinuity.

The dinosaurs were pretty cool. Who can't love berry-poppin' Dopey? Indeed, the acting is really good and that never hurts - and the direction and camerawork just show how much storyboarding have had to have happened to get everyone looking as close to perfect as possible.

At the time, I loved it for the mysticism, Enik, and the crystals more than anything. In rewatches, there's far more to love - and made by the same people who gave us "The Lost Saucer" and "ElectraWoman and DynaGirl", for which I'm not sure which has dated the worst, but the latter at least had some fun enemies.

I was probably too young, or maybe just too "dense" to understand and appreciate the notion of a "pocket universe" or continuum in which light, time and gravity warped and looped upon itself. I recall a scene in which the trio ascend one of the highest mountains to survey the realm. They see something upon a distant alp and they use their binoculars. They see the backs of themselves! That freaked out me big time!

Ditto.

Years later when I got a better handle on those bizarre concepts associated with Relativity, I appreciated just how clever DC Fontanna and David Gerrold really were. For as strange as it was, it provided a far more reasonable explanation why the Marshalls could not escape compared to the plight presented in LotL's conventionally animated competition, "Valley of the Dinosaurs".

Those schmucks apparently couldn't climb out of, well, a freakin' valley!

Anyway, a few years ago, I digitally modeled my very own Altrusian (the Sleestak's smart ancestors) space/time Pylon and staged it with some Poser coded 3D assets, including a T-rex. It proved something of a hear trying to morph the more contemporary conception of a theropod into a Charles R. Knight, erect standing, tail dragging "lizard". I could warp the skull only so much before the polygons started crimp and fold upon themselves, but, here we are, a wee tribute to the show.

Nice layout and render!

Been forever since I used Poser. Might be fun to load up Terragen and see if it can import objects (I think it can do Lightwave). Dinosaurs would be easy to find, for pylons - perhaps not as readily so...

 

[Redfern]

Been forever since I used Poser...Dinosaurs would be easy to find, for pylons - perhaps not as readily so...

My continued use of Poser makes be something of a Luddite. Most people in that corner of the 3D community have switched to DAZ Studio.

I'll be glad to share my "twee" lil' Pylon mesh if you want it. I normally generate .OBJ format versions of my crap so they have "cross suite" comparability. It has a "door" assigned with a separate material zone that one can readily make opaque or "invisible" as needed for a scene. The grooves are true geometry as opposed to bitmap based bump map textures.

If you're interested, I can toss it upon a MyDrive page and share the link via PM.

 

[JD]

I watched a few episode of the original when they were showing it, and HR Puffinstuff on MeTV a few years ago. I liked it, definitely had some cool sci-fi ideas to it from what I saw.
I was a huge fan of the '90s remake when I was a kid though, of course at the time I had no idea it was remake. It's one that I would love to revisit now as adult.

ROTFL, my apologies and condolences for making anyone think I was going to bring up the remake. The 90s had a knack of taking 60s and 70s shows and trying to make them into comedies, of which very few even began to work - or feel sincere. Nothing's beat the original, which says a lot.

The '90s series wasn't a comedy, it was a more serious adventure show, the tone was pretty close to the original. Of the three versions the only one that was an outright comedy was the Will Farrell movie,

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I watched the original series, when it first aired. I thought it was pretty cool stuff for the mid 70's, still do.

It was memorable enough that the Farscape producers had John Crichton call the Scarran leader "Emperor Sleestak" most of the time

 

[JD]

I just stumbled across a streaming service called Cineverse that has both series streaming for free. 1970s, 1990s

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, I loved it as a kid.

My favorite episodes would be "Circle" and "The Pylon Express."

It's very corny when I watch it today, but also still very entertaining.

 

[Forbin]

I have a "best of" DVD set which I watch every now and then. My wife sat with me the last time (watched during breakfast), and told me to never ask her to sit thru that again.
Aw c'mon, hon, it's such fun!!

 

[Forbin]

Oh, the 90s remake series - the only thing I remember about that is that they had a video camera that never ran out of tape or batteries, and an SUV that never ran out of gas.

 

[The Lensman]

Loved this show as a kid (the original). One of the things I loved about it was the same thing I love about certain episodes of Space:1999.....they didn't always explain everything. This added to the mystery of the place. Like the message Holly see's when she's dimension traveling in one episode. She thought Rick or Will left the msg, but they didn't. Sometimes the sparcity of sets mixed with fog is really effective for mood. I have all the episodes and I'd forgotten that season one ends on a timeloop where the Marshall's actually leave the Land Of The Lost. The show, like Space:1999 does a little re-invention in season 3 with the arrival of Uncle Jack, the loss of High Bluff, Enok's change in personality as he becomes a Spock clone fixated on "logic", the Sleestak Council of Skulls (or whatever it was called), the introduction of more fantastical beasts like Medusa and Torchy (I think that was the firebreathing monsters name).

Not quite as jarring as season two of Space:1999, but certainly not as good as the first two seasons, especially with the "Will sings a song" thing they introduced. Seems like every 70's kids show had to have a musical number. The upshot of time loop finale of season one is that if you really don't care for the Uncle Jack episodes, you can watch that as the last episode of season 2 and it works just fine as a series finale, wrapping up the story of the Marshall's with them getting home. While there was some nice continuity in the show, most eps didn't require viewing of previous eps like most shows back then, so that finale can be slotted into the end of season 2 just fine.

I've always loved the concept and thought that an updated version would rock. I'd support an increase in the size of the Land, but keep everything else with some expansion to the lore. I'd make it all ages but with a degree of seriousness on par with the original Star Trek. Sure, throw in some comic relief, but overall a serious tone but not dark and gritty.

I didn't care for the 90's remake and was mixed on the movie but enjoyed it for what it was. I remember being bummed out that it was going to be a comedy because I'd heard that Will Farrell was a huge fan of the original show so I was surprised it went that way. I don't know if that was his insistence or if it was because the studio demanded it would be a comedy because he was in it. I was surprised to find out that the Kroft's were involved with the film, but also happy that they said they didn't know it was going to be a comedy because the stuff they had seen (or they had been led to believe) wasn't. They're apparently trying to get something more inline with the original done and I hope they do.

I am surprised that with the plethora of comic tie in's to animated properties over the years (GI Joe, Transformers, TMNT, Battle of the Planets, etc) that there's been no comic or book tie ins to sort of reintroduce the characters and concepts. Online comic or e-book probably the most economically feasible route vs print. Still, I love the concept and would love to see it done with more love and affection.

Would also love to see an updated version of Fantastic Journey as well.