LAND OF THE LOST (1991)
(ABC, September 7,
1991-December 5, 1992)
Krofft Entertainment
Timothy Bottoms – Tom Porter
Robert Gavin – Kevin Porter
Jennifer Drugan – Anamarie “Annie” Porter
Ed Gale – Tasha, Magas
Danny Mann – Tasha (voice)
Long before
reboots became the king of entertainment, Sid and Marty Krofft were called
upon to produce a reboot of one of their previous programs: Land
of the Lost. ABC had been monitoring
the success and positive press CBS was seeing
in response to their airings of the original, and how they and NBC found equal
success with their live-action offerings Pee-wee’s
Playhouse and Saved
by the Bell, respectively. Enter the new Land of the Lost, their
first new foray into live-action on Saturday morning.
 |
| The Porter family. |
Like the
original, Land of the Lost centered on a modern family that found
themselves suddenly trapped in a strange, three-mooned prehistoric world of
Altrusia. While on a camping trip, an earthquake opened up a chasm that they
fell into, leading to a dimensional portal they drove through to safety. Replacing
the Marshalls from the original were the Porters: widowed father Tom (Timothy
Bottoms), a lawyer who threw himself into his work after his wife’s death but
tried to make time for his kids with those frequent weekend camping trips;
16-year-old Kevin (Robert Gavin), who was laid-back to the point of being
oblivious to danger and considered himself an adult, often leading to his being
actively disobedient; and 11-year-old Annie (Jennifer Drugan), a vegetarian who
harbored a bit of resentment towards her family always treating her like an
incapable baby (and often proving that perception wrong). Unlike the Marshalls,
the Porters had a lot of gear with them in their Jeep, allowing them to outfit
their lavish treehouse with many of the comforts of home including radios, a
portable television (which allowed them to track portal openings via
electromagnetic interference) and a video camera (used by Kevin to chronicle
their adventure). They also adopted a humanoid Parasaurolophus,
named Tasha (Ed Gale in the suit, Danny Mann voicing) by Annie after her mother
(voiced by Marta DuBois),
after finding her egg.
 |
| Shung |
Returning
from the original series were the villainous humanoid reptile Sleestaks;
however, instead of a whole race focus was largely placed on three that were
expelled from their society. Shung (Tom Allard) was their leader.
He was arrogant and believed himself the ruler of the land. He used a powerful
crystal that gave him telekinetic and telepathic powers to enforce his will Nim
(R.C. Tass & Brian Williams)
and Keeg (Ross
Kramer & Bret Davidson)
were his unintelligent underlings that did what they could to please him. They
used special crystals as power sources, which the Porters would come to adopt
to power their own electronics. To mine for the crystals, the Sleestaks
utilized the slave labor of the Paku; a tribe of humanoid primates basically
wiped out by their servitude. Unlike the original, the Paku were largely
limited to appearances by a single member: Stink (Bobby Porter), who had keen
senses, incredible agility, active curiosity and a wacky sense of humor. The
new series chose to abandon the special Pakuni language developed for the
original, instead making Stink quick to pick-up and adopt English words and
phrases with some Pakuni sprinkled in. Stink’s grandfather, Opah (Jonas Mascartolo), was the only
other Paku seen.
 |
| Stink and Christa. |
Newly
created was the character of Christa (Shannon Day).
Like the Porters, she ended up trapped in the land with her family as a young
girl (Farrah Emami).
Separated from them during an attempt to find civilization, she grew up alone
and came to befriend Stink and a triceratops she named “Princess” after her
dog, which she used as transportation. She had largely blocked out memories of
her past life. Christa and Stink would eventually befriend the Porters and help
them on occasion. Kevin, being a teenaged boy, often fawned over the attractive
Christa while Stink often had a turbulent relationship with Tasha.
 |
| Futuristic cyborg Cy. |
Additionally,
there were a number of dinosaurs seen on the show; in particular a Tyrannosaurus
dubbed “Scarface” because of the scar over his eye. He was extremely violent
towards everyone, and often tried to take down the Porters’ treehouse. A number of guest characters also popped into the land via the portals, including
Sir Balen (Bobby Jacoby), a
squire pretending to be a knight from King Arthur’s Court;
Keela (Adilah Barnes), a
sorceress banished there by evil sorcerer Magas (Gale); Siren (DuBois), a woman
whose vanity led her to be banished and preventing her from joining her loved
ones in the afterlife; and time travelers Simon Cardenas (Danny Gonzalez) and the rancor-like cyborg Cy who
collided with each other and knocked themselves off course.
 |
| Scarface goes after Tom. |
Land of
the Lost debuted on ABC on September 7, 1991. Unlike the previous series,
it eschewed soundstage sets in favor of filming mostly on location in California’s
Descanso Gardens and Leo Carrillo Beach. The series
was written by Len Janson, Chuck Menville, Reuben Leder (as Gary
Perconte), Janis Diamond, Jules Dennis, Phil Combest, Michele Rifkin, Reed Shelly, Richard Mueller and Marianne Sellek, with Janson
and Menville serving as story editors and producers, and Porter credited for the
story of the episode “Opah”. Each
episode was designed to instill a prosocial and ecological message within the
context of its story in order to fulfill the network’s educational requirements
mandated by the new Children’s
Television Act. Chiodo Bros.
Productions, Inc. was brought on to handle the special visual effects needed
for the dinosaurs and portals, with the Chiodo brothers themselves serving as
co-producers. Grey LaVoi
handled the costume designs with Kevin Kiner
providing the series’ music.
 |
| Nim and Keeg steal the family Jeep. |
The new Land
of the Lost proved successful and was renewed for a second season. While
Menville had worked on his portion of the season 2 scripts, he wouldn’t get to
see it through as he passed away that June. The episode “Opah” was dedicated in
his memory. He would continue to have three posthumous credits through 1993
with episodes he worked on for Disney’s
The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series and Batman:
The Animated Series. As for Land of the Lost, ABC opted not to
renew it and kept it running for an additional season of reruns. During its
original run, it was nominated for a Daytime
Emmy and six Young Artist Awards.
Tiger Toys produced
a toyline
featuring every character except Keeg, a pterodactyl and
Scarface, vehicles and playsets, as well as a roleplay
sword and doll
of Stink. Outside of a few dual episode VHS
releases from Republic
Pictures, the complete series hasn’t seen release outside of bootlegs and
digital uploads.
Season 1:
“Tasha” (9/7/91) – The Porters find an egg in the jungle and end up adopting the baby dino that hatches from it.
“Day for Knight” (10/19/91) – Kevin becomes jealous of the knight of the Round Table that ends up in the land.
“The Sorceress” (9/12/92) – Banished sorcerers Keela befriends the Porters, unaware that another sorcerer is about to come for her.
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