Lots of info here: Land of the Lost. And no, Chaka wasn’t played by Clint Howard (though he did sort of look like him).
Having been a big fan of the original I watched the ‘revival’ show from the early 90s. One episode of that new series probably cost more than the original’s entire run! It had fully animatronic Sleestaks and elaborate FX. Unfortunately it stunk because the writing was terrible.
Even though the original show had cheesey claymation dinosaurs, simple bluescreen special effects, and was shot on videotape (giving it that cheap “Dr. Who” look) it’s stories were great!
I loved the sort of love/hate thing they had with Enik. Mostly he was their ally but sometimes, when push came to shove, he had to side with his own kind even if they were savage.
I remember the episode where they followed a map into the sleestaks cave (they were hibernating) thinking it was a way home. Eventually they find the body of the guy who wrote the map and realize that the sleestak came out of hibernation while he was trapped inside and that the same thing was about to happen to them! That episode gave me nightmares for weeks!
And of course, being around 10 or 11, drooling over Holly! Schwing!
I’m quite pleased to learn that apparently Kathy Colemen did not do a DanaPlato and descend into drugs or video store holdups. But the only notes I can find on her now suggest that she is “in retail”, divorced, with two kids.
Perhaps the secret to such relative success was staying away from showbiz; LotL seems to have been her only TV gig.
I’d be curious to know if anyone has any additional info about her.
Rick
P.S. I admit it: I bought the Playboy in which Dana Plato appeared.
Although that site has a photo of Kathy Coleman as an adult, it appears to be at least ten years out of date. She and Philip Paley (Chaka) are interviewed on the 2000 DVD release, and, well… she comes across as a total cackling looney-tune. Just fruity as a nutcase, but God Bless her, it’s a big world and we all have our distinct personalities. About 38 when she was interviewed for the DVD, she looks at least ten years older, her face heavily lined, and with ragged hair (but that could be on purpose, the “bed-head” look, I think it is called) hanging over her face.
But she said she’s doing fine, and she and Paley even mention Plato and Bridges, and how through their strong families, they never descended into the typical child star pitfalls. I don’t think either has worked in show business since. Both have done a few celebrity autograph shows recently.
Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall) divides his time between a midwestern farm, Texas, and California, and is active in the conservative political arena.
Most people mistakenly “remember” them as falling into the center of the earth or something. It was tachnobabble-explained a few times by Enik that they had simply traveled to a constructed enclosed universe. Everything was built, “sun,” source of light, whatever you wish to call it, Hell it may have been just called a sun, but the reasoning was that it was put there by the Altrusians.
As others have said, this was not your average run-of-the-mill Saturday morning fare. In all actuality, despite what the credits say, David Gerrold created the show. The Kroffts glued pictures of a girl, a monkey, and a bunch of weird art to a piece of poster board, gave it to Gerrold and said “Here, we “created” this show, now you go away and write it for us.”
