Land of the Lost - The Complete First Season
Land of the Lost DVDs
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While these shows originally aired on Saturday mornings, I
never knew about them showing at that time slot - I grew up seeing
them re-run after school and during the summers in the afternoons.
Of all the shows on television, this was my all time favorite and
one of my most fondly remembered.
One thing I really appreciated about these shows even at age 6 when
they first aired, was how deep, engaging and non-patronizing they
were. These were not simply "kid" shows. This was real in-your-face
science fiction at full throttle - where kids were treated with
respect. I never felt talked down to as an audience member or as a
child watching these shows. They were mentally engaging and it was
easy to overlook some of the less-than-stellar effects which were
still pretty advanced for their time.
At age 6 I knew that the dinosaurs were claymation. Heck, Grumpy the
T-Rex didn't even have a throat and he had a mouth more like Kermit
the Frog than a menacing dino - but I didn't care. The sound
effects, the music, the eyes - all gave me the creeps.
The show's premise is utterly brilliant: a family is on a camping
expedition and has all their camping gear above their raft as they
paddle "high on the rapids." An earthquake hits and they plummet
down a waterfall to certain death only to find they have somehow
entered a time-door of sorts to another time and dimension where
even the weather and gravity are artifically controlled, dinosaurs
run amok and the veggies are freakin' huge.
Rick Marshall, his son Will and daughter Holly are alone in this
utter wilderness with no telephone, no TV, no toilets... somehow
they manage to survive for years without threadbare or
stained/ripped clothes and even find time make friends with the
natives and learn the Pakuni language.
It's not just a 1970s Jurassic Park, either - there are all sorts of
weird things going on - the half-insect/half-lizard "men" known as
the Sleestak are second only to the Tiki god in "Trilogy of Terror"
on the fear meter. Their eerie hisses made my heart go a flutter.
There are exploding crystals, astronauts parachuting in, all sorts
of interestingly whacky sci-fi stuff.
The acting of Spencer Milligan, Kathy Coleman and Wesley Eure cannot
be overstated. Their unique abilities to be believable made the show
believable. Were there cheesy scenes? You bet! A bit over acting
here & there? Yes! BUT - this was a believable family doing the best
to stay sane in an insane environment.
The DVD has commentaries from the stars that will have you holding
your gut laughing. An interview with the now adult Kathy Coleman and
Wesley Eure is awesome. They loved working on the show and cherish
the memories as much as those of us who grew up watching the series.
The back stories on what went on behind the scenes as well as their
take on certain themes and characters is utterly priceless.
For decades, I have pined for this show and whenever I've run into
30-somethings and the topic of this show would come up, I have
always heard the comments of either "I LOVED THAT SHOW!" or "Those
Sleestak scared the pee out of me!" or both.
The show was so well thought out. Professional voice talent went
into the masked/make-uped characters. A linguist from UCLA invented
the Pakuni language to make it grammatical and believable.
Basketball stars of the 70s played the Sleestak... and the best
sci-fi writers of the era wrote for the show, including D.C. Fontana
and Walter Koenig.
The commentaries are a hoot, and priceless in my own estimation. I
love this DVD set! I had gotten the VHS version of the shows, but
quickly replaced them when this DVD set came out with the
commentaries and interviews with the cast. The only thing I'd like
to see would be out-takes, home movies and period photos of the cast
out of make up, etc. Other than that, flawless - a fantastic job by
Rhino - God bless them one and all. I cannot say enough how much joy
and nostalgia these shows have brought into my home.
Season one
