Land of the Lost (1974-1976) was a groundbreaking Saturday morning series that brought viewers to a Lost World of dinosaurs, Sleestak, and mysterious Pylons! The series was created David Gerrold and developed with Allan Foshko. Gerrold is known for writing the classic Star Trek episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles" (1967). This series was produced by Sid & Marty Krofft who usually had puppets and costume characters in their series. They produced a rebooted series in 1991-1992 which followed the Porter family. The brothers also produced the comedy film, Land of the Lost (2009). The Lost Land concept has a long history that may have started with Jules Verne’s novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Professor Lidenbrock explores a volcano in Iceland, travels deep underground finding a subterranean river, and discover a world of dinosaurs and an apeman. There were many films and tv movies made of the novel including the 2008 Brandan Fraser film.
Next, The Lost World (1912) by Arthur Conan Doyle. The expedition led by Professor Challenger in South America finds a plateau with dinosaurs and ape people. There was a memorable 1960 movie directed by Irwin Allen and a syndicated series in 1999-2002. Finally, there was Edgar Rice Burroughs’ At The Earth’s Core (1914) which had David Innes traveling in an iron mole to reach the Hollow Earth of Pellucidar. It is ruled by deadly Mahars, flying reptile people, and their servants, Sogoths, gorilla men. In 1976, there was a movie starring Doug McClure as Innes and Peter Cushing as Abner Perry. The series pilot, “Cha-Ka” written by David Gerrold starts with the intro. We are introduced to the Marshall family; The father and forest ranger, Rick Marshall (Spencer Milligan), his son a teen about 17 years old, Will (Eure), and 13 years old preteen daughter, Holly (Kathy Coleman). Milligan was in the first two seasons and then Rick's brother, Jack (Ron Harper) joined his nephew and niece's adventures.
The Marshall family is setting out on a raft on a Wyoming river when the “greatest earthquake ever known” strikes! The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale! This is realized with miniatures and chroma key which may look dated, but is still fun! They plunge down into the mists, “a thousand feet below”! The family is wakened by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dinosaur effects were stop motion and puppets for close-ups. The Marshalls run and find refuge in a cave with the T-Rex roaring in frustration. The theme song is sung by Wesley Eure! This truly was Jurassic Park (1993) for me as a small kid. We see the landscape of the Land of the Lost with the eerie music of Jimmie Haskell. The land is seen by the Marshalls in the bushes who hear the roar of the T-Rex and start to run. A coelophysis, a theropod dino, dubbed Spot by Holly, manages to escape the T-Rex that Holly nicknames Grumpy.
The family manages to get cover and Rick explains that they are in another world. He saw at night that there are three moons in the sky! Rick continues that they fell on an endless waterfall and thought they fell through a “hole in space.” I like the sci fi idea of a time and space vortex since you simply can’t travel in the mountains and find the Land of the Lost. They hear Grumpy roar and run again. Rick heads back to the cave to see if it is safe. He has Will watch over his sister, Holly hears a sound, they both catch the sounds of chanting. Holly heads there with Will following and he discovers there is a strange, three-sided Pylon. Will finds that the Pylon feels like he is “touching nothing” and they are distracted by the voices. Inside are crystal pads that control the time vortexes. Hiding behind a fallen tree, they look over, and see three hairy people repeating, “Ota”, Pakuni for fire. A Pakuni Dictionary was developed by Victoria Fromkin. There is a larger one, a father later known as Ta (Joe A. Giamalva), and two young ones including daughter, Sa (Sharon Baird). Basically, a reflection of the Marshall family.
Will and Holly wonder about these people. Then, they hear Grumpy roar as it looms over the ape-people. One of the young ape men (Philip Paley) has fallen and Holly sees that the T-Rex is closing on him! It chases after the other two. Will wants to escape, but Holly wants to help the wounded ape boy so Will picks him up and they start to run. Grumpy turns to chase after the trio, but gets caught between two trees. When they get to safety, Holly offers the ape boy her canteen, Will pours water from it to give to the ape boy. They try to introduce themselves to the stranger. He points to himself and says, “Chaka.” Will tries to show Chaka that they are human and he responds that he is a Paku (Pakuni is plural). Rick joins them and wants to take Chaka to the cave. Rick and Holly lower the basket from the cave and Will helps with Chaka. They are interrupted by Grumpy. Will takes Chaka from the basket and the T-Rex goes to Holly and Rick at the mouth of the cave. They escape into the cave and Grumpy tears up the basket. Will and Chaka take cover behind a rock.
Holly remarks that the T-Rex has a brain of a walnut, dino facts!, and Rick has them get the “flyswatter.” This is a sharpened wooden pole that they run into Grumpy to drive him away. Rick fashions a rope to pull up Chaka. A pterandon flies overhead. Later, Rick tells Holly to get water to clean Chaka’s wound. Holly has her father’s lighter for a pot at the fire. Wesley jokes that his sister could burn fire, sibling rivalry love it!, so his father has him cook for the next two days! We see the three moons at night. Rick cleans the wound and then has sticks with hankerchiefs tied around them to act as a brace around Chaka’s leg. The survivalist aspect of the show was really helpful when I was a kid. A version of Survivor well before that series began. We later get the Lost City of the Swa-Lu, this is an early name for the reptile men called the Sleestak. They have green scales, a yellow chest and belly, fringes on their neck, wide mouths, bulbous, black eyes and horns at the top of their heds. Another character is Enik (Walker Edmiston), who looks a bit like his later Sleestak descendants, but is an Altrusian, wears an orange robe, and is intelligent. Land of the Lost is a clever and thrilling series that has relatable characters, and elaborate world building!
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