Land of the Lost (1974 television series)

Land of the Lost (1974–1976) is one in a variety of popular, uniquely produced children's television series created and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. The prolific Krofft team was very influential in children's television, producing many oddly formatted, highly energetic, and special-effects heavy programs.

Production

Land Of The Lost is notable in large part for its epic-scale concept, which suggested an expansive world with many fantastic forms of life and mysterious technology, all created on a children's series limited production budget. The series intention was to create a realistic fantasty world, albeit relying heavily on childrens' non-critial eye for detail. Though many adults and later-era viewers find the production design to be quaint and humorously artificial, the show played effectively to children and was an ambitious narrative project, introducing an unusually complex fantasy storyline. It was a marked departure from the Krofft team's previous work, which mostly featured extremely stylized puppets and sets such as those in H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville.

Related Topics:
H.R. Pufnstuf - Lidsville

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The series was shot on a modular indoor soundstage, which made economical use of a small number of sets and sceneic props which were rearranged frequently to suggest the ostensibly vast jungles, ancient cities, and cave systems. Additional locations were often rendered using scale miniatures. Non-human characters were portrayed by actors in latex rubber suits, or with heavy creature make-up. Dinosaurs in the series were created using a combination of stop motion animation miniatures and rear projection film effects, and special effects footage was frequently re-used. Additional visual effects were achieved using manual film overlay techniques, the low-tech ancestor to current motion control photography.

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