io9
J.J. Abrams' Lost returns to television tonight, and you'll finally be able to find out what happens when those crazy Losties leave the island. But we're more interested in another (albeit smaller) group of castaways who were busy trying to get out of their own personal hell over 30 years ago. No, we're not talking about Gilligan and company. We mean Marshall, Will, and Holly. They were just a family on a routine expedition, who met the greatest earthquake ever known. It struck their tiny raft and plunged them down a thousand feet below, to the Land of the Lost. Find out more than you wanted to know about this terrific Sid and Marty Krofft show inside, including its connections with Lost, Doctor Who, and Star Trek.
- The Marshalls were stuck in a place that existed outside or normal space and time. During their stay in the Land of the Lost, they encountered a Confederate soldier, found the bones and diary of a soldier from the Revolutionary soldier, a glider pilot from the future, the weird invisible, telepathic alien named The Zarn, and Holly even met a future version of herself.
- There were Pylons scattered around the Land (hatches, anyone?) that were larger on the inside than the outside (TARDIS, anyone?). Their sole purpose was to house these funky crystal matrix chessboard tables which did everything from control the weather to open time doorways. Sadly, the Marshalls never really figured out how to work them right.
- The Sleestaks had a Library of Skulls, which contained the sentient skulls of their ancestors, who could still speak and dispense knowledge, despite being just a skull. They could also predict the future, show visions, and annoy the hell out of people who just wanted a straight answer. Plus they ran things for the Sleestaks and told them what to do. Kind of like that mysterious Jacob ghost/spirit/whatever the hell thing on Lost.
- If you screwed up a Pylon or it started malfunctioning, these bizarre flying shapes would appear in the sky and flash the colors that you'd need to arrange on the matrix table in order to fix things. Rick Marshall dubbed them Skylons, and they appeared to be some form of automated repair units with limited artificial intelligence. Black smoke monster, anyone? Bueller?
- The Sleestaks were descendants of the Altrusians, an alien race who lived a thousand years before the Sleestaks. They were shorter than them, had an extra digit on each hand, and had limited psionic abilities. Plus they weren't nearly as creepy.
- The Land of the Lost existed inside its own closed universe. The Marshalls once tried to take the river out of the land, but found that it looped around and put them back right where they started. In another episode, Holly descended into a pit on a rope, and found herself dangling upside down over the Land. Just like the Hotel California and the island on Lost, you can check in, but you can never leave.
- David Gerrold's backstory for the series explains that the Altrusians actually built the Land as a way-station intended to let travelers cross between various places. The time doorways are gateways which allow users to cross into the Land on their way to their destination. The reason that travel through the time doorways is unpredictable, at best, is that the Land has fallen into disrepair in the time since it was built.
- While the Sleestaks might have been scary as hell, they only had three of those rubber suits, so they couldn't have more than that on the screen at the same time. The producers had to rely on the miracle of editing whenever they wanted it to seem like a Sleestak army was on your ass. Fairly ironic because the Library of Skulls says that the Sleestak number about 7,000.
- The furry Pakunis on the show actually had their own language, created by Professor Victoria A. Fromkin from UCLA, who also created the vampire language for Blade. Keep in mind, this was a Saturday morning kids show that had its own invented language. Not too shabby.
- Sleestaks were played by UCLA basketball players, because they were tall enough to fit the suits. Future Detroit Pistons star Bill Laimbeer famously played a Sleestak for awhile.
- Harlan Ellison submitted a treatment for a Land of the Lost script, but it was never produced. However, you can read a copy of it here.
- David Gerrold who wrote "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode of Star Trek and science fiction writer Larry Niven of Ringworld fame were both writers on the series. Gerrold even served as story editor.
- The intelligent and friendly Sleestak named Enik first appeared in a script written by Walter Koenig of Star Trek fame, and was supposed to be named Eneg. This was a tribute to Gene Roddenberry, since it was his name spelled backwards, but the producers nixed it.
- In order for something to leave the Land of the Lost, something of equal mass had to enter. The show used this in both clever and idiotic ways. At the end of Season One, the Enik explains to them that they can leave, but in doing so they also cause the event that brings them into the Land of the Lost in the first place, so they're stuck inside a repeating loop forever. They did this in case the show didn't get picked up after its first year, but then they never explained how they broke the loop in Season Two. That's the fairly clever way.
The dumb way was in that the actor who played Rick Marshall left the show after Season Two, so in Season Three an earthquake accidentally knocks him into a time doorway (it was actually one of the producers seen from behind and wearing a wig) and he vanishes. However, moments later the Marshall's Uncle Jack (Rick's brother) appears. Seems like he's been looking for them since they vanished. How very convenient.
- If reading this has made you want to go back and rewatch this entire series, or maybe see it for the first time (like it did for me), you can pick up all three seasons in a DVD box set for fairly cheap. Just don't blame us when you get sucked in.
Image by The UncredibleSkulk
Comments
I loved--LOVED--this show when I was a kid. So much that I'm actually afraid to watch it now. I don't want it to turn out to have been, in fact, awful and have its memory be ruined. That's already happened a few times.
I had no idea it was that well thought out!
All I remeber is the early-90's remake. It didn't last long.
Great job on the photoshop. For a second I really thought the Sleestak were on Lost. I really need to start watching Lost so I can go back and read this post.
Marshall, Will and Holly, on a routine expedition, met the greatest earthquake ever known!
I love having an office. I get to sing theme songs from 1970s children's shows!
David Gerrold was involved in that? No wonder it was so god-awful.
Plus, AFAICT, the Krofts have been continually high since birth.
-Kle.
Funny this comes up the day after our Sleestak coin bank arrives!
We didn't get it from here, but the pic link works:
[www.monstersinmotion.com]
The thing is AWESOME.
We have seasons 1 and 2 on DVD.
(We will not be seeking out season 3.)
Season 1 is the one worth getting not only because it actually offers a plausible ending with the last episode "Circle", but because the commentaries are really entertaining too, especially Larry Niven's interviews.
("My precious prose" is a memorable line.)
Thanks for reminding me!
I ripped season 1 to DivX a while back and only just this week got an 8GB SDHC card to make further use of the awesome PMP my "opened up" MioC230 GPS turned out to be!
The episodes are copying over as we speak. :)
BTW, if you want to score some geek cred on the street: When someone asks you what you are doing, tell 'em you're watching season 1 of Land of the Lost on your hacked GPS.
It'll either spark an interesting conversation or they'll walk away shaking their heads.
I effing loved this show but it also scared the daylights out of me and gave me an unreasonable and lasting phobia of traffic cones, the Washington Monument, and other Pylon-shaped things.
The title sequence alone is worth watching and re-watching. "The laaand of the looost!" The Sleestacks terrified me when I was a kid - those huge eyes, those hissy sounds - to the point where whenever I see a photo of one, looking so cheesey, I think "That CAN'T be the same monster that was so scary when I was five."
OMG, a Lost/Land Of The Lost crossover would be awesome. Especially if they kept the same special effects as in the 70s version. They could at least throw in a Pylon or two--those were cool.
If the writers strike keeps on keeping on, maybe they can just splice bits of LotL into new Lost episode. I'm sure at least a couple people won't be fazed. (Yes, folks, it's true--"Jacob" is the Sleestak King!)
[www.youtube.com]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
(daddy DO something!)
This explains why, when I watched the show as a kid, I had no damn clue about what was going on.
First of all, I want that headline on a t-shirt.
But this awesomeness just makes me sadder about the upcoming Will Farrell spoofremake.
Why is it that the worst special effects are also, somehow, often, the most brilliant?
@92BuickLeSabre: The headline and pic would make a very cool shirt indeed. :D
ive been sucking in the sacred smoke for years now.
Still no telepathy
All that talent and forethought involved.
Yet it still wasn't good. Even as a cheesy kids show.
And I LOVE the Kroffts.
"The Sleestaks had a Library of Skulls, which contained the sentient skulls of their ancestors, who could still speak and dispense knowledge"
Sounds more like Futurama's Head Museum. Well, except for the visions.
@Plague: Blasphemy.
I was so excited when I got these on DVD. I sat my son (who is 4) down to watch with me, knowing he would be blown away. Well I was wrong. He hates it. So that makes Land of the Lost, and the Muppets. WERE HAVE I GONE WRONG?!?!?
Maybe I can win him over with Hatland and Sigmund...
Somebody described a Sleestak as "COOL SLEESTAK" over at Wikipedia. Mildly amusing.
Also it was on after Wonder Woman, and the Superfiends hour. When you combined all of them it was like herion for 6-year-olds.
@btgoss:
Hatland?
Do you mean Lidsville?
I watched a DVD of 3 episodes I got for my wife, who loved the show when she was little. It was awful.
Even WORSE was an interview on the DVD with the actress that played Holly, all grown up now. She is a complete and total skank now, right down to the smoker's raspy laugh and the shakey meth-freak mannerisms. It was awful.
I've maintained for years to anyone who will listen (a forever shrinking group of unfortunates) that the first season of Lost should have ended with them pulling away the overgrowth to reveal, not a hatch, but the scrawled words...
"Beware of Sleestak"
@EBone: Was it the "Stak Attack" DVD?
@Kevin Kelly: I'm not certain, I'm currently at work. I know it was not a full season, and I know the DVD package boasted of the "Special Features" interview on the back.
To make it even creepier, she was hanging all over the now-grown up guy who played her brother, and it was pretty apparent in the interview she was pushing herself on him in a way a sister shouldn't with her brother.
We noticed that too, but we were amused.
@btgoss: you should be proud that he has his own mind. Maybe he will turn you onto some cool new stuff. but if you prefer a cog you could always try the Ludovico technique.
thank you. That "Lost" on "Land of the Lost" image is now my new wallpaper. If only the two could merge into one show. *Dreams*
oh and what confused wee lad feelings I held for Wesley Eure (Will Marshall)
[www.a8maestro.com]
What's a sleestak?
I remember another fact mentioned above.
The smart Sleestak named Enik always knew that he was from a different time period from the other Sleestaks. He always assumed he was from the future, being a more evolved version. But in one episode it was revealed that he was from the past; the Sleestaks had actually devolved into the hissing savages that they were in most of the series.
I have nothing but good feelings for Holly (the kind a young boy gets when watching Saturday morning shows) so I've got my fingers in my ears saying "NYANYANYA I can't hear you..."
I live next door to the Friendly Golden Sleestak. He's just as nice as he was on the show, but he has a little dog that barks all the damn time. I don't complain about it, though...access to the weather control pylon is too handy
@Seth L: All I remeber is the early-90's remake. It didn't last long.
Didn't one of the networks trot out the original series shortly after the demise of the remake? Or are my memories of the early 90s too far gone?
I've always said [when the subject comes up] Seasons 1 & 2 were good. Season 3 was crap. The 90s remake was utter horse-pucky!
As fairly bright kids, we were aware of most the stuff listed above [except for the Altrusian backstory]...
"Yeni chin!"
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