ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

"Land of the Lost" was a 30-minute TV series that ran on Saturday mornings for three seasons on NBC from 1974 to 1976 for a total of 43 episodes.

Premise } Rick Marshall (Spencer Milligan) takes his two children teenager Will(Wesley Eure) and young daughter Holly (Kathy Coleman) on a camping trip. While rafting a river they are caught up in churning rapids and sent over a huge waterfall.

They awaken to discover that they have somehow journeyed through a dimensional portal and into a bizarre pocket universe.

They find themselves in a jungle that had dinosaurs, hostile lizard beings known as Sleestak, an abandoned city carved from rock, metal obelisks called Pylons. and 3 moons in the sky.

The Marshalls take up residence in a cave where they attempt to survive in this unknown land and explore its mysteries.

Noted science-fiction author David Gerrold created the show and acted as both writer and story editor.

He was able to recruit many acclaimed sci-fi authors to write scripts for the LOTL. Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, Ben Bova, Norman Spinrad, D.C.Fontana, and Walter Koenig would all provide scripts for the series.

Such talent elevated the stories for the show and made this a compelling one to watch.

The special/visual effects for the era were quite decent.

Stop-motion animation was utilized for the dinos such as the threatening Tyrannosaurus Rex, Grumpy.

In the third and final season Rick Marshall is accidentally transported back to Earth while his brother Jack who has been frantically searching for the family is transported to the Land of the Lost.

Uncle Jack Marshall was played by Ron Harper who played an astronaut on the TV series "Planet of the Apes."

In the third season Uncle Jack, Will, and Holly would leave the cave home and relocate in an abandoned temple.

A fun and entertaining weekend show that provided better-than-average visuals and scripting.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I'm amazed by that list of science fiction writers who contributed scripts to this show. Impressive!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Read Kathy Coleman's autobiography "Run, Holly, Run" written along with Steven Thompson & Dave Smitherman.

Interesting details about the "Land of the Lost" TV show on which she co~starred. However, her life after the end of the series was compelling as well as some serious highs & lows along the way.

Fortunately, she is doing well these days.

[Pow]

Some "Land of the Lost" Fun Facts.

Well known s-f author ( ST:TOS "The Trouble with Tribbles") David Gerrold was a co~creator and scriptwriter of LOTL.

Gerrold created the Sleestaks. There were only 3 Sleestak costumes created for the show.

LOTL had a number of notable writers for the show. Ben Bova, who was the editor of Analog & Omni magazines. Bova won 6 Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor.

D.C.Fontana was a writer on ST:TOS where she became story editor. Later she worked on Star Trek : The Animated Series where she wrote "Yesteryear" which is considered the best episode from ST:TAS.

Theodore Sturgeon who was one of the finest s-f authors and wrote the ST:TOS classic episodes "Shore Leave," and "Amok Time."

Hugo Award winner & author of Ringworld Larry Niven.

Another Hugo Award winner, Norman Spinrad, who served twice as President of the Science Fiction Fantasy Writers of America. He is remembered for his exciting ST:TOS episode "The Doomsday Machine."

I cannot recall that many prime time s-f TV series accumulating that many outstanding s-f writers for their shows.

Ph.D Victoria Fromkin of UCLA developed a 330-word vocabulary for the LOTL natives, the Pakuni.

Famed makeup artist Michael Westmore was on staff.

Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall) would leave the show after the second season due to a dispute regarding receiving a larger cut from all the merchandising sales.

Ron Harper (Uncle Jack Marshall) would replace Spencer Milligan in season #3 of the series. Harper had co-starred on the s-f TV series "Planet of the Apes."

Kathy Coleman would audition for LOTL a total of 9 times.

Jodie Foster & Kristy McNichol were both considered for the role of Holly Marshall.

Although LOTL was a half-hour show, the hours were long and ran from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm for this 30-minute TV series.

General Services Studio was the location for the first 2 seasons for LOTL. Samuel Goldwyn Studio was where filming took place for the third and last season of the show.

Two soundstages were utilized for the show. One soundstage was for the pond, jungle set, pylon, hiding rock and High Bluff set.The other soundstage held the cave that the Marshall's occupied, along with the tunnels and Sleestak Pit.
The second soundstage also had the Chroma-key wall for the show's visual effects.

For season three of the series the Marshalls would leave their cave and relocate to an abandoned Sleestak temple.

[ralfy]

Kathy Coleman Creature Features promo from last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlVJ7Kx44k

I think she was part of the Mike Curb Congregation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDS33q9FgZI

[Pow]

Sid & Marty Krofft asked noted SF author David Gerrold to create a television series that would have dinosaurs in it, as well as elements of Swiss Family Robinson.

DG established the Land of the Lost being inside a closed or pocket universe. When the Marshalls plunged down the waterfalls in their raft, it went through a hole in space.

If the Marshalls tried to leave the valley, the mountains that bordered the valley would bring them back to where they started, forming a dimensional loop with no obvious escape.

The valley was created as a transfer point by beings who used the pylons to travel between other worlds and time itself.

[Pow]

DYK? David Gerrold (creator/story editor/writer) approached his friend, noted writer Harlan Ellison, to write a script for the show.

As a joke, Ellison submitted two-thirds of a "brilliant outline," according to David. But he refused to give me act three unless I bought it immediately.

The story had the Marshalls exploring deep in an underground cavern --- but it stopped short of revealing what was actually inside of it. Ellison said, "I tie up everything neatly in the third act, trust me." Under the circumstances, David was unable to purchase Harlan's script.

Sidebar: What a pity. Being a HE script, I'm sure it was as outstanding as David reported it was. Probably rules from the Writer's Guild of America would have prevented any television series from buying an incomplete script. A rule that Harlan would have well known as a member of the W.G.A. Even if the author had, in fact, finished it, but was holding the final act back from the production, the producers of the series would most likely not want to do business this way.

I guess it was indeed a joke by Ellison. A cruel one in my opinion. David was his friend. This was David's first big assignment as a creator, story editor, and writer on a television show. To pull such a childish stunt as this one makes me think less of Harlan.

[Bud Brewster]

_____________________________________________

I agree!

Wouldn't it be rich if they'd bought Harlan's incomplete script . . . and then rejected his own final act after getting somebody else to write a different conclusion!

Kinda show old mister know-it-all that he was not indispensable!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)