Behind-The-Scenes Pix #43: LAND OF THE LOST

One of Gene Warren's animators brings stop-motion "life" to the Marshall family's pet brontosaurus, Dopey, for the 1974 Saturday morning science fiction series, Land Of The Lost. When I was a kid, I loved that baby dino....

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #24: LAND OF THE LOST

One show that I originally intended to write about here at Space: 1970 a lot more than I have (especially, as I haven't written about it yet, really) is the 1974-76 Saturday morning children's adventure series, Land Of The Lost. During its three-season run, it was probably the most imaginative sci-fi show on television, and certainly the one with the most special effects per episode.

I really need to start giving this show some of the attention that it deserves.

This cast shot certainly demonstrates just how extensively the show relied on chroma-key/bluescreen compositing. Series stars Spencer Milligan (as Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (as Will Marshall) and Kathy Coleman (as Holly Marshall) pretend to navigate their raft down a river - a miniature river and landscape that would be shot seperately and matted in behind them for airing.

I have to say, though, looking at their expressions (especially Milligan's and Coleman's) makes me wonder what they thought they were supposed to be seeing...

Cover Gallery: DYNAMITE Sci Fi

Back in the distant mists of prehistory - the 1970s - grade school kids across America were first exposed to the concept of "pop culture magazines" with the monthly publication called Dynamite. Sort of an Entertainment Weekly for pre-adolescents, the colorful magazine showcased the hottest stars, TV shows, and movies of the day.

If your school participated in the Scholastic Book Club, you'd get an order form for your parents to order an assortment of children's paperback books. Some were pretty cool: I still have a few of my old Scholastic purchases, including a really cool time travel adventure by Lester Del Rey and a Martian sci-fi adventure by Robert Silverberg. The order form also offered Dynamite, and as far as I know, it was only available through Scholastic's club. Because of the order form, you always knew in advance who or what was going to be on the cover, and there were tons of cool games, puzzles, comics, articles and Shaun Cassidy posters in every issue.

I guess the magazine - and club - lasted into the early 80s. I remember that Marvel had their own Dynamite clone, called Pizzazz, and I vaguely recall another similar magazine called Bananas, but I never read either of those. I did get Dynamite every month, though, and except for those Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers issues (I was too old for the club by then, having moved on to Junior High), I'm pretty sure I had all of the other ones shown above. I specifically - and vividly - remember the Space: 1999 and Logan's Run covers.

LAND OF THE LOST (1974-6) Episode-by-Episode Commentary

My internet pal Michael May has been writing a series of episode-by-episode commentaries and analyses of the mid-70s Sid & Marty Krofft Saturday morning sci-fi adventure series, Land of the Lost.

Land of the Lost is one of my favorite television shows ever, and I intend to write about it here on the site. The world that the writers - specifically David Gerrold, as first season story editor - created for the show was layered and utterly fantastic. You also couldn't complain about the writing (especially in year one), with noted science fiction scribes like Larry Niven, Norman Spinrad and Ben Bova (among others) contributing scripts. It may have been a kid's show, but it was one of the best genre series of its era.

But, as I haven't gotten around to writing about the show yet, and Michael's been doing such an exhaustive job of it over on his own blog, I thought Space: 1970 readers might like to read his articles for themselves.

Links below:

Season One. Part One.

Part Two.

Part Three.

Season Two. Part One.

Part Two.

And Michael's just starting on Season Three now.