I thought my kids needed a little culture this weekend, so I introduced them to the television I watched at their age. This DVD I found at the library made it easy to do.
I was a big fan of Land of the Lost (and I thought Sigmund and the Sea Monsters was pretty good too). I used to set a timer so that I could play outside during H.R. Pufnstuf and make it back in for Land of the Lost. And what was I playing out in the yard while waiting for Land of the Lost? Land of the Lost, of course.
This particular DVD has all the pilot episodes of these shows, which are probably even more terrible than the average show in each of these series. Land of the Lost's pilot was pretty horrible, lacking Sleestaks (SO SCARY) and any sign of good acting. Will's open shirt and gold necklace made me laugh, and what was up with Holly's enormous front teeth? She could barely talk around those!
When I told my mom that I thought the episode I watched was really bad, she said, "Now you see what we went through when we had to watch that stuff with you!" In my memory, though, that show was great. I'm still hoping that I can find another episode of the show that includes better acting and some sense of scale involving the dinosaurs. That's probably not going to happen.
Still, when I told The Girl that I used to play Land of the Lost in the backyard, she wanted to do just that as soon as the episode was over. Even The Boy joined us to act as Grumpy the "Tyrnanasore" for a few minutes. Classic.
If you have no idea what the original Land of the Lost show even was, or if you just want to check out great 70's television, click below.
When I told my mom that I thought the episode I watched was really bad, she said, "Now you see what we went through when we had to watch that stuff with you!" In my memory, though, that show was great. I'm still hoping that I can find another episode of the show that includes better acting and some sense of scale involving the dinosaurs. That's probably not going to happen.
Still, when I told The Girl that I used to play Land of the Lost in the backyard, she wanted to do just that as soon as the episode was over. Even The Boy joined us to act as Grumpy the "Tyrnanasore" for a few minutes. Classic.
If you have no idea what the original Land of the Lost show even was, or if you just want to check out great 70's television, click below.
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Because I am curious, I just visited the wikipedia page for Land of the Lost and learned lots of interesting things. When it started, I was only three, so I'm thinking I probably mostly watched the show in reruns. They used the rerun the hell out of shows, didn't they?
Anyway, that is all. Hope you all dream of fake dinosaurs and ssssscary Sleestaks tonight!
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Holy cow! I forgot about THIS Sid & Marty Krofft classic!
I'm pretty sure I was Dyna Girl for Halloween one year.
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Wow! That was a total blast from the past! My brothers and I loved Land of the Lost. I will just have to hope I watched it in reruns as well. :) And man, are those special effects just hideous, or what?
ReplyDeleteI liked the way that in just watching the pilot and the one link I put up on youtube, I recognized at least one special effect as being used twice. LOL!
ReplyDeleteLove it! Thanks for reminding us :) - you did forget to mention that classic dramatic music and the "banjo" sequences, though!
ReplyDeleteI thought the girl and boy would be too sophisticated for this kind of puf n stuff! But I guess it doesn't have to have CGI animation and a script written by Shakespeare to be fun!
ReplyDeleteWe did talk about how terrible it looked and I told them how this was the best they could do back then, with no computers and whatnot. The Girl found it scary anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes. I loved this show. I need to get this on DVD.
ReplyDeleteApparently the whole show is available on DVD, and I think there are even some DVDs with commentary. That would be awesome!
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