Land of the Giants

Did You Know?

• In Region 2, Revelation Films released the entire series on DVD in the UK, with season one and two released on March 28 and June 13, 2011, respectively.
• In Region 4, Madman Entertainment released season one on DVD in Australia on August 20, 2014, and season two on November 12 of the same year.

Series overview

Set in 1983, the series follows the passenger aircraft Spindrift, which is lost during a suborbital spaceflight from Los Angeles to London. Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the plane is dragged through a dimension lock and crashes on a planet similar to Earth except that everything is twelve times larger. The shipwreck is hidden in the woods outside a city inhabited by a humanoid race the Earthlings call Giants. The Giants are indistinguishable from Earthlings aside from size, and their society resembles the United States of the 1960s, with a police force, hospitals, prisons, a governor, radio and television, a zoo, jazz clubs, and a racetrack. They speak English, drive American-style cars, attend Vaudeville-style theaters, and play chess, but live under an authoritarian government that tolerates full freedoms within a capitalist system while refusing to allow political change. The Giants are familiar with Earth and little people due to prior ill-fated ships. Their technology exceeds 20th-century Earth in some areas—including cloning, cybernetics, force fields, magnetic stunners, androids, and teleporters—but lags in others, lacking microelectronics, hearing aids, and crewed space flight.

Cast

Gary Conway played Captain Steve Burton, pilot of the Spindrift. Don Matheson portrayed Mark Wilson, a multimillionaire engineer. Stefan Arngrim played Barry Lockridge, a recently orphaned boy traveling with his dog Chipper. Don Marshall was Dan Erickson, co-pilot. Deanna Lund played Valerie Scott, a wealthy heiress. Heather Young portrayed Betty Hamilton, a flight attendant. Kurt Kasznar played Commander Alexander Fitzhugh, a thief who had stolen $1 million. Kevin Hagen appeared as the recurring character Inspector Kobick. Guest stars included Jack Albertson, Michael Ansara, John Carradine, Yvonne Craig, Charles Drake, Alan Hale Jr, Jonathan Harris, Lee Meriwether, Larry Pennell, Warren Stevens, Glenn Corbett, and Ron Howard.

Production

Irwin Allen created the show, which set a new record with a budget of US$250,000 per episode. Actors had to be physically fit for stunts such as climbing giant curbs, phone cords, and ropes. Don Marshall credited his football, track, and pole-vaulting background for helping with the stunts. Elements from Allen's Lost in Space recur, notably the relationship between the foolish, greedy bank robber Commander Alexander Fitzhugh and the young boy Barry Lockridge, paralleling that of Doctor Smith and Will Robinson. Kasznar was billed contractually like Jonathan Harris had been on Lost in Space—last in the opening credits but as Special Guest Star. Gary Conway received solo star billing, with other regulars receiving also starring billing. Originally intended as a midseason replacement in spring 1968, the first 12 episodes were shot in fall 1967, but the show premiered in September 1968. The network screened episodes in a different order from production, causing continuity lapses; in the first 12 filmed episodes the Giants moved slowly and hardly spoke. Production costs were immense due to special optical effects for matting little people into shots with giants, oversize sets and props, and futuristic spacecraft sets. Episodes were filmed in pairs using the same sets for efficiency.

Merchandise and licensing

The pilot episode was the subject of a View-Master reel and booklet set in 1968 (GAF Packet # B494). One difference between the aired episode and the reel set is an image of the Spindrift flying through the giant forest in daylight, whereas in the aired episode the arrival and forest flight occur at night. In 1968, Pyramid Books published an extended novel adaptation of the pilot by Murray Leinster. The novel invents details such as the Spindrift remaining operational after the crash with enough atomic power for months, and two other ships—the Anne and Marintha—that disappeared by the same phenomenon. A female survivor of the Anne, Marjorie, joins the castaways in the novel but does not appear in the series. Leinster wrote two further novels, The Hot Spot and Unknown Danger (Pyramid, 1969). World Distributors published two UK-only novels in 1969, Slingshot for a David and The Mean City, credited to James Bradwell (a pseudonym for Arthur William Charles Kent). A hardback children's novel, Flight of Fear by Carl Henry Rathjen, was published by Whitman. Gold Key Comics published a five-issue comic-book version from November 1968 to September 1969, reprinted as a hardcover by Hermes Press in 2010.