Krofftverse: Land of the Lost (1974)

After specializing in comedy-fantasy for 5 seasons, Sid & Marty Krofft decided to try something a wee bit different. While Land of the Lost still had the same dime-store production values as its stablemates, like H. R. Pufnstuf, for example, it was more of a dramatic series. PufnStufProductions uploaded this clip to YouTube:



Soap star Wesley Eure (Days of Our Lives) was given top billing, though only on a first name basis early on. Eure was a regular subject of the teen magazines of the day, right up there with pop stars like Tony DeFranco and actor-singer David Cassidy (The Partridge Family). Land of the Lost lasted 3 seasons on NBC, and in the final season, Spencer Milligan left the series over a salary dispute (what else?), resulting in Ron Harper (ex-Planet of the Apes) being brought in to take his place. Land of the Lost developed enough of a fan base such that when CBS dropped another Krofft show, Pryor's Place, halfway through the 1984-85 season, they picked up Lost reruns to fill the slot. This, in turn, led to Lost being revived in 1991, this time on ABC, with a new cast, headed by Timothy Bottoms. Not only that, but this Land was filmed instead of videotaped, which improved the production quality. Here, courtesy of BaptistKitty, is the open to the 1991 version:



Last year, Lost was revived again, this time as a comedy-adventure feature film starring Will Ferrell ("The Other Guys") in the role of Rick Marshall (Milligan's character from the original series). Unfortunately, the combination of a bad script and the presence of Ferrell, an acknowledged fan of the series, resulted in mostly negative reviews and a less-than-stellar performance at the box office. Ferrell, of course, has rebounded with "The Other Guys", but it may take some time before the Kroffts can adapt any of their other properties to the big screen.

The 1991 Lost was the superior version, in this writer's opinion, largely because of the improved production values, and it also spent some time in reruns on Nickelodeon later in the 90's. The original series' cable rights were previously held by SyFy, but I don't know who has them now.

Rating: (1974) B; (1991) A-.