Land of the Lost (1974 TV series)

Overview

The Marshall family—father Rick and his children Will and Holly—find themselves stranded in an alternate dimension or time warp after their routine trip is disrupted by a massive earthquake and a plunge down a thousand-foot waterfall. This world is home to dinosaurs, a primate-like group called the Pakuni, and the Sleestak, aggressive humanoid lizard creatures often compared to insects. The family’s main goal is survival and finding a way back to Earth, but much of the story also involves exploring the strange beings and landscapes around them. The Marshalls were brought here through a dimensional portal, a device that plays a key role in the series’ mythology. In the episode “Circle,” a time paradox is resolved when Rick Marshall himself opens the portal from Enik’s cave, allowing his family to return home and also letting Enik travel back to his own era.

The Krofft team, known for their energetic, effects-heavy live-action children’s shows, usually followed a “stranger in a strange land” formula. Most of their programs were comedic, but Land of the Lost took a more serious tone, especially in its first season, though the drama lessened as the series went on. The show attracted respected science-fiction writers for its first two seasons, including Larry Niven, Theodore Sturgeon, Ben Bova, and Norman Spinrad, as well as Star Trek veterans like D.C. Fontana, Walter Koenig, and David Gerrold. Gerrold, Niven, and Fontana later provided commentary for the first season’s DVD release. Years later, renewed interest in a feature film version was noted, with studio executives and stars recalling watching reruns of Krofft shows on shag carpeting between 1969 and 1974. Marty Krofft mentioned that the heads of Universal and Sony Pictures were fans of his programs.

Production

Land of the Lost stood out for its ambitious, large-scale concept, hinting at a vast world filled with strange creatures and advanced technology, all achieved within the tight budget of a children's show. To strengthen the show’s internal mythology, the producers hired linguist Victoria Fromkin to invent a language for the Pakuni. She drew from the sounds of West African speech and designed the language to be introduced slowly, episode by episode, so viewers could pick it up over time. The series aimed for a believable fantasy setting, even if it sometimes counted on kids to overlook small inconsistencies. In a 1999 interview, David Gerrold, the first season’s story editor and writer, said he essentially built the show from a book of science-fiction images given to him by Sid Krofft and Allan Foshko. This project was a big shift for the Krofft team, who were known for highly stylized puppets and sets in shows like H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville.

For its first two seasons, the show was filmed on a modular indoor soundstage at General Service Studios in Hollywood. The crew made clever use of a limited number of sets and props, rearranging them often to suggest sprawling jungles, ancient ruins, and cave networks. As is common in effects-heavy scenes, miniatures and scale models were used to insert live-action footage, and additional locations were created with scale miniatures and chroma key technology.

Spencer Milligan left the show at the start of the third season due to money issues. He wanted a raise and also felt that he and the rest of the cast should be paid for the use of their images on merchandise. This included rack toys from Larami (like a generic pack of toy dinosaurs thought to come from Taiwan), a Whitman Publishing coloring book, a Little Golden Book, View-Master reels, and a Milton Bradley board game. His character, Rick Marshall, was replaced by his brother Jack, played by Ron Harper. For a brief scene showing Rick being transported home, a stand-in wearing a wig was filmed from behind.

Release

The show first aired on NBC during Saturday mornings, a time slot filled mostly with cartoons for kids. From 1978 to 1985, it ran in daily syndication as part of the "Krofft Superstars" package. In 1985, it moved to late Saturday mornings on CBS, filling in for the canceled "Pryor's Place," another Krofft production. It briefly returned to CBS in the summer of 1987. During the 1990s, reruns aired on the Sci Fi Channel. More recently, MeTV broadcast it on Saturday mornings, and the episodes are available for streaming anytime on MeTV's website.

Between 2004 and 2005, Rhino Entertainment controlled the rights and put out season one through three, plus a complete series set. These releases included bonus features like commentaries. In 2004, the DVD set earned a Saturn Award nomination for best retro TV series release. On May 26, 2009, Universal Studios issued two complete series sets: one in standard packaging and another inside a replica of a vintage 1970s "Land of the Lost" lunchbox. The only extra feature on those was a look at the Will Ferrell movie. On October 13, 2009, Universal released each of the three seasons individually, with the same content as the complete series boxes. (The Region 4 version of the 2009 box set, however, includes the commentaries and interviews but omits the Ferrell film feature.) The series is also available in digital format.

Remakes

The 1974 series Land of the Lost ran for 43 episodes, which was almost twice the standard 22-episode order for a children’s show at the time, allowing it to thrive in syndicated reruns. This success led to a 1991 remake that lasted two seasons and also enjoyed years of reruns. In 2009, a feature film spoofed the original for adult audiences, directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, with the Krofft brothers as co-producers. By 2015, Sid and Marty Krofft were reportedly developing a reboot, referring to the 2009 film as “that other movie.” In a 2018 podcast, they confirmed they were still working on an updated version, now planned as an hour-long series. Marty Krofft passed away in 2023 before production began, and Sid died in 2026. On June 17, 2025, it was announced that a reboot was in early development at Netflix, in partnership with Legendary TV.