Lost and Lost Again
I have always imagined a thoughtful dream where the Land of the Lost was populated by Fox News goon-bags like Glenn Beck and Megan Kelly along with Republican hounds like Rush Limbaugh where the dinosaurs would use them for toothpicks. And they might use Limbaugh for a healthy meal.
Sadly, that would never be the case on television. But it would make for a pretty good segment of Faux proportions with a rather satisfying conclusion.
However, we are getting the Land of the Lost television series on the DVD treatment finally. Though it’s coinciding with the movie hitting the big screens. I hate that kind of stuff. When they try to package it with a blow-for-blow for commercial stunts. Not for justified reasons.
Never mind that. I always did have a soft spot for the old Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning serials that ran in the mid-seventies.
It was pretty good stuff if you didn’t mind stop motion action model shots with the dinosaurs, very limited resource of creatures at every corner and southern folk music. If that didn’t get to you, then you wouldn’t let it bother you much. If you didn’t mind a series with dinosaurs nicknamed Dopey and Grumpy, then it’s not so bad. Actually, the series knew for what it was, a kid’s entertainment with an intelligent touch of stories. Not a big budget movie turned into comedy.
And it was a series at a very imaginative stretch. And they knew how to hire very an excellent gallery of science fiction writers to get the run for their decent stories. They certainly had a long list of good science fiction writers. Let’s start with David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, Theodore Sturgeon and Norman Spinrad from Star Trek writing fame, and Ben Bova and Larry Niven to name a few more.
Not only that, Gerrold functioned as the story editor. So you’re getting some pretty good concept writers even if you had to deal with the Saturday morning kid’s stuff. There are even guest writers such as Walter Koenig who penned one story “The Stranger.”
The stories. Here, they did run through some interesting time and space concepts concerning doorways to other worlds along with the garden variety of strange alien technology and certain crystals that function as a sort of gateway keys to crack open more portals that managed somehow to trap a Civil War soldier and a Marshall family. The science fiction mammoth surrounding family ideals.
Ah, yes, the Marshall family. Who could forget with a nostalgic tripping of Rick Marshall, Will and Holly? Not to mention Uncle Jack who came later in the third season, played by Ron Harper, after the father tumbled over something that sent him whirling back home.
The series had their run of strange gorilla type creatures such as Cha-Ka which may have interesting throw-backs to the evolution of other worlds, perhaps where humanity might have branch off, and the lizard-like monsters in the form of the Sleestak. Thanks to the ingenuity of science fiction writers, we were given the internal mythology of alien temples, a formidable array of dinosaurs in loving respect to the old Ray Harryhausen films and extravagant narratives that only made you wonder how they managed at all with a shoestring budget. But they did.
This was living proof that imagination can be a positive tool in the world where low budget crunches could be felt during the series and where studios were often shot at and small scale miniatures were created in effort for savings costs. And the stories revolved the long-term possible solutions of finding a way home for the stranded Marshall family.
Much of this really hit the old soft spot of the heart that makes you remember many of the old wobbly sets and characters that was far away better than the idiotic garbage of the new film that was making its way into the theaters at this very moment.
But if the new film of writers were using the Krofft brothers as the co-producers, then why the hell did they not bother to make a final conclusion to the original series? This was a missed opportunity on a much grander scale, with the high budget, it could have been a great way to make a final note to the much loved series. What of the possibilities? It would have been easy to re-introduce characters.
What of several loose threads that could have been easily tied up if they were to make the film in the proper fashion? And the young boy and girl who played the children were still around. And I’m certain the actors playing the father and uncle would still be around. Much older, perhaps. But still capable of telling the story of the Marshall family.
Since they forgot entirely the science fiction authors of yesteryear, they instead went for sappy stories with eye candy for special effects. And very dumb characters.
It would have been nice to see how the children evolved, as they were much more intelligent characters than the lame bunch in the film. What an incredible waste. A waste of money, a waste of talent and a waste of time. A huge blow. There could have been many ways of telling a further story of the original series. But they opted out. Stupid, eh?
Stick with the original run of the series. You’re more than willing to share a nostalgic warmth of that made me like it all over again. See the Marshall family caught in time and space. And see how they were able to fend for themselves against all the strange creatures in the Land of the Lost. After a while, the series might not have seem so dopey after all.
Find out maybe the old stories were pretty spectacular to the Nth degree. You’ll find out how far they’ve gone rather than some high-minded movie that grossed $7.1 million on the first weekend in a pretty embarrassing comedy mode. The new film really does suck it. Stay with the old science fiction stories of the seventies. You might do better with those.
Sadly, that would never be the case on television. But it would make for a pretty good segment of Faux proportions with a rather satisfying conclusion.
However, we are getting the Land of the Lost television series on the DVD treatment finally. Though it’s coinciding with the movie hitting the big screens. I hate that kind of stuff. When they try to package it with a blow-for-blow for commercial stunts. Not for justified reasons.
Never mind that. I always did have a soft spot for the old Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning serials that ran in the mid-seventies.
It was pretty good stuff if you didn’t mind stop motion action model shots with the dinosaurs, very limited resource of creatures at every corner and southern folk music. If that didn’t get to you, then you wouldn’t let it bother you much. If you didn’t mind a series with dinosaurs nicknamed Dopey and Grumpy, then it’s not so bad. Actually, the series knew for what it was, a kid’s entertainment with an intelligent touch of stories. Not a big budget movie turned into comedy.
And it was a series at a very imaginative stretch. And they knew how to hire very an excellent gallery of science fiction writers to get the run for their decent stories. They certainly had a long list of good science fiction writers. Let’s start with David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, Theodore Sturgeon and Norman Spinrad from Star Trek writing fame, and Ben Bova and Larry Niven to name a few more.
Not only that, Gerrold functioned as the story editor. So you’re getting some pretty good concept writers even if you had to deal with the Saturday morning kid’s stuff. There are even guest writers such as Walter Koenig who penned one story “The Stranger.”
The stories. Here, they did run through some interesting time and space concepts concerning doorways to other worlds along with the garden variety of strange alien technology and certain crystals that function as a sort of gateway keys to crack open more portals that managed somehow to trap a Civil War soldier and a Marshall family. The science fiction mammoth surrounding family ideals.
Ah, yes, the Marshall family. Who could forget with a nostalgic tripping of Rick Marshall, Will and Holly? Not to mention Uncle Jack who came later in the third season, played by Ron Harper, after the father tumbled over something that sent him whirling back home.
The series had their run of strange gorilla type creatures such as Cha-Ka which may have interesting throw-backs to the evolution of other worlds, perhaps where humanity might have branch off, and the lizard-like monsters in the form of the Sleestak. Thanks to the ingenuity of science fiction writers, we were given the internal mythology of alien temples, a formidable array of dinosaurs in loving respect to the old Ray Harryhausen films and extravagant narratives that only made you wonder how they managed at all with a shoestring budget. But they did.
This was living proof that imagination can be a positive tool in the world where low budget crunches could be felt during the series and where studios were often shot at and small scale miniatures were created in effort for savings costs. And the stories revolved the long-term possible solutions of finding a way home for the stranded Marshall family.
Much of this really hit the old soft spot of the heart that makes you remember many of the old wobbly sets and characters that was far away better than the idiotic garbage of the new film that was making its way into the theaters at this very moment.
But if the new film of writers were using the Krofft brothers as the co-producers, then why the hell did they not bother to make a final conclusion to the original series? This was a missed opportunity on a much grander scale, with the high budget, it could have been a great way to make a final note to the much loved series. What of the possibilities? It would have been easy to re-introduce characters.
What of several loose threads that could have been easily tied up if they were to make the film in the proper fashion? And the young boy and girl who played the children were still around. And I’m certain the actors playing the father and uncle would still be around. Much older, perhaps. But still capable of telling the story of the Marshall family.
Since they forgot entirely the science fiction authors of yesteryear, they instead went for sappy stories with eye candy for special effects. And very dumb characters.
It would have been nice to see how the children evolved, as they were much more intelligent characters than the lame bunch in the film. What an incredible waste. A waste of money, a waste of talent and a waste of time. A huge blow. There could have been many ways of telling a further story of the original series. But they opted out. Stupid, eh?
Stick with the original run of the series. You’re more than willing to share a nostalgic warmth of that made me like it all over again. See the Marshall family caught in time and space. And see how they were able to fend for themselves against all the strange creatures in the Land of the Lost. After a while, the series might not have seem so dopey after all.
Find out maybe the old stories were pretty spectacular to the Nth degree. You’ll find out how far they’ve gone rather than some high-minded movie that grossed $7.1 million on the first weekend in a pretty embarrassing comedy mode. The new film really does suck it. Stay with the old science fiction stories of the seventies. You might do better with those.
posted by K.M. Paters at 11:13 AM
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