The Sci-Fi Channel is showing a Land Of The Lost marathon, and I watched ‘Elsewhen’. The acting is pretty bad. Even when I was a kid I thought it was a bit overdone. But the story didn’t seem to be that bad, taking into account that it’s a kid’s show. In ‘Elsewhen’ the Marshalls are separated in a cave, and Holly is visited by a woman named Rani. Of course it’s pretty obvious who Rani is. The interesting thing to me was when Rani tells Holly to appreciate her family, since they won’t always be there. Sort of an adult thing to say in a show made for children.
I have an episode on now that was co-written by Larry Niven.
I had forgotten this was going to be on today, and just tuned in at 7:00 (Central).
The episode where they passed on killing a pig for food because most of it would go to waste got me to thinking about how a show even mentioning killing an animal for meatfood nowadays would be picketed, protested and eventually banned by tree-huggers, hippies, PETA, SPCA, and vegans.
Been watching it on and off all day with my son. My son had little desire to see the new movie. After seeing the source material he now has ne desire to see it. Me? I didn’t plan on seeing the new movie but I still like the show, in all its full cheesy gloriness. Not something I would sit and watch today but it takes me back.
I saw an episode where they elect not to put an iguana in their ‘stone soup’, but they eventually did when the Pakuni offered one.
There’s an episode I’m watching now (I decided to start up the DVR for the nostalgia factor) where they use meters. Of course this was when the U.S. made its abortive start on going metric.
Slight hijack - but I love the thowaway line in the latest Subway commercial where the sleestack is trying to order a sandwich, and as the sleestack is leaving the manager says something like “nice to see you again”. Ha!
Land of the Lost made a huge impression on me when I was a kid. Rick Marshall, the father, was always having to hold them together during a crisis while dealing with the sibling bickering. My own father, while a good man, was not very smart and easily flustered, especially in a crisis. Now that I am a father of two, one boy, one girl, I often find myself inspired to be more like Rick Marshall. Kids fighting? WWMD?
That aside, 1976, I’m seven years old, Saturday morning and an eternity before Monday morning school, Land of the Lost on the tube and a bowl of Honeycomb cereal… it never got any better than that.
Is Slee still a member of this board? Where is he at?
Anyway, I was flipping through the channel when I saw this show on. I thought to myself “No fuck’n way”.
I only watched about five episodes before I got bored with it, but man, what a trip down memory lane!
One intresting thing I noticed is Will (the brother) really threw himself into the script. The rest however; well, I’ve seen better acting in porn movies.
For a childrens show they really did have some intresting story lines. Kudo’s to the writters of that show.
Damn! I knew I knew that name from somewhere! When I was watching the show today I saw this name come up in the credits. I couldn’t help thinking I knew that name from somewhere. Thanks.
I recorded a few episodes based on descriptions, and I managed to find the one that had the creature that scared me so bad as a kid. The episode was called “Gravity Storm”, and at one point in the episode there’s this godawful ostrich-like robotic thing that looks like a two-legged alligator. It had big round lights for eyes, clanked when it walked, and made the most horrible screeching sound. Too much for my four-year-old self. The alien who made it called it “Fred”.
I recorded a few of these just for kicks and I was surprised how well the show held up. I was expecting to think it would be too cheesy for me to tolerate now, but I found that while the acting was a bit “wooden”, the special effects were very convincing for the time and the storylines were more adult than most of the Sid and Marty Kroft shows were (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, anyone??)
I didn’t get to any Sleestak episodes yet…those guys are hella scary!!!
I knew even as a kid that most of Land Of The Lost was a cheesy mess. But there were bits of gold among the dross.
Fer example ‘I have been wrong all this time. The Sleestak are not what my people once were. They are what we will become’. It’s a great line and very well-acted.
In the original episode order, you gradually find out that the Land of the Lost is an artificial universe, a bubble of spacetime about thirty miles in circumference. IIRC, the episode where Holly meets “Rani” is also the one where Holly finds the point at which up meets down. That’s- that’s Science Fiction by thunder! At least for the first two seasons, someone cared about the quality of the writing.
Hm. Continuity error. In ‘Stone Soup’ the Pakuni ate an iguana. In ‘A Nice Day’ Will, trying to catch a fish, keeps saying to Chaka, ‘Oh, that’s right! You’re vegetarian! You don’t eat meat!’
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