Though UFO may have an ever-so-slight edge with me, it remains true that the coolest boss neato keen TV series of all time may well have to be Land of the Lost. This early 70's offering from Sid and Marty Krofft was basically a space-age redo of the old Turok comic books. The Marshall family (father Rick, son Will, and daughter Holly) run across a warp in time and space and awake to find themselves trapped in a contained universe where dwells living dinosaurs, monstrous lizard-men called Sleestak, and futuristic technologies scattered about ancient ruins. Existing outside of time and space, the Land of the Lost seems to be a sort of depository for everything that has no other place to be. Enik, a scientist from a futuristic race known as the Altrusians, has found himself trapped as well. Believing the Sleestak to be an ancestor race, Enik discovers them to actually be the descendants of his people, mutated and made savage over countless centuries. Thus, Enik too is trying to escape the Land of the Lost in order to warn his people, and he becomes an occasionally-antagonistic ally. Spencer Milligan starred in the first two seasons, but decided to split and was replaced by Ron Harper as Uncle Jack -himself fallen into the Land of the Lost when an earthquake causes an accident that returns Rick to the real world. The third season episodes changed up a lot of elements, but it remained a fine series. It was cancelled before a fourth season could come about. I dream of making a movie that follows up on the series. A newer version of the property was brought to television in 1991, but it's the original version that people remember.
I'm a lover of this fantastic little series too. It was a honeypot of fantasy when such material was rare in the wide world. The movie they made several years ago with Will Farrell was a woeful affair, best forgotten, but sadly will forestall anyone wanting to do a legit advance of the story.
ReplyDeleteRip Off