Ken and Horrorbuzz.com on a routine expedition…

Before Jurassic Park gave us a more realistic image of Dinosaurs, the closest thing we generally experienced “giant” monster wise, was created with stop motion animation.  Ray Harryhausen would give us amazingly realistic Greek mythical monsters for Jason and Hercules to fight, though it was strange the heroes could never land a single sword blow. Sid and Marty Krofft brought what was probably their most scary television production to stop motion “life” in 1974.

The premise was simple a father (Will Marshall played by Spenser Milligan) and his two children (Will, and Holly played by Wesly Eure and Kathy Coleman) set out on a routine camping trip and encounter a huge earthquake while rafting along a river, a chasm opens up and they plunge not only down a waterfall, but through a dimensional portal that sends them back millions of years to a time and a world filled with dinosaurs.

I remember vividly watching the episodes (it was originally part of a Saturday Morning package of Krofft shorts called the “Supershow”) hoping that Marshal, Will, and Holly would make it home before one of the dinos got them.

But it wasn’t the dinosaurs that were the most frightening part of the show. It was actually a strange race of large glassy eyed lizard men named Sleestack that scared the daylights out of me.  And honestly they moved and hunted the Marshals much like zombies do in horror films…slow, direct, hive like, and unrelenting.  The images of the rubber masks and their claw-like hands still give me the creeps.

The show was a real stretch away from the somewhat comical and whimsical pieces that surrounded the Krofft universe, it was a fantasy tale, and a family centered show at the same time. Holly does manage to “adopt” a baby brontosaurus which she named “Dopey” and they also encounter early cavemen (yeah it wasn’t a science show by any stretch of the imagination) who want them dead, except for one small (ewok like) youngster they name Chaka.

This series also suffered from the did they ever make it home Krofft curse.  Although we know the elder Marshall did, and actually opened the time portal that trapped them there in a time paradox trying to get them all home.   I know it was a lot for a six year old to take in as well at the time) And he was replaced by Uncle Jack (Ron Harper) who had been spending all his time searching for them all.

I also am still in therapy learning to forgive Will Ferrell for his comic “attempt” to turn the series into a movie.  At least it had none of the characters from the original, and there was one scene where a giant bug is sucking massive amounts of blood from him, which is kind of how my soul felt watching the whole thing.

Here for your viewing pleasure are some scenes from the original (and greatest) Land of the Lost:

https://youtu.be/VOa2sVws-m4