Land of the Lost: Third Season

The third season of Land of the Lost sadly shows signs that the creators didn't really care any more. The expensive new sets look fantastic, but don't expect any of the thought-provoking or intriguing stories (or big-name writers!) of the first two seasons. In fact, the writers apparently didn't pay much attention to the previous seasons, as there are some serious discrepancies. There is also a tendency to rehash plot points, and some Gilligans-Islandism in the form of mysterious one-shot guest stars who appear and depart.

The extras for the Season 3 are sparse as well. The only commentary is one by the actor who played Uncle Jack, and it mainly consists of his talking about how great the show was.

High Point--The addition of a Cro-Magnon man, Malak, as an alternate villain. Malak is a God-wannabee. The Marshalls have to save the Sleestack from him--interesting twist, and it could have gone in very cool directions with less lazy scripting.

Low Points--

The Marshalls choose to move into the temple in the lost City, basically on the front porch of the Sleestack. Smart move.

Uncle Jack replaced Rick Marshall, and is not as likeable a character. It might have worked better if they had made him a different sort of person, rather than dumping him right in Daddy's shoes. He even wears the same khaki clothes...

Cha-ka switches to full pidgin English, and forgets his grammar so far as to regularly refer to himself as 'a Pakuni' instead of a Paku.

Holly is somehow still wearing the same jeans and shirt she was lost in, in spite of the fact that she's a foot taller and developing a bosom. Months/years of running from dinosaurs and climbing rocks seems to have not worn any holes in the knees or made any stains on the shirt. I bet a lot of parents wish they could buy their kids an outfit like that...

The Sleestack leader is able to talk...but he is apparently not the intelligent Salatch of Season 1, but just a talking Sleestack as ignorant as the others. The Sleestack (including Enik) refer to themselves as 'Sleestack' rather than Altrusians as in Season 2. (They call Enik an Altrusian occasionally, though.) Enik pretty much becomes the errand boy of the Sleestack, and starts channeling Spock in his commentary on what is 'logical' all the time. Every other episode involves the Sleestack going to the library of skulls to ask how to get rid of the Marshalls. I guess too many people said the library was cool!

Apparently having exhausted their store of science-fiction ideas, fantasy elements are added. These include a fire-breathing dino, a two-headed dino, a unicorn, Medusa, the Flying Dutchman, etc. The Marshalls accept this all without so much as a "What the heck?"

And, the kiss of death--Will gets a cheesy-looking home-made banjo and starts singing bad 70's-style tunes with full orchestral accompaniment. Whenever a main character starts singing at the end of the program (or worse, starts a rock band) you can bet that series is on it's last season.

Goodbye, Land of the Lost! You were murdered most foully in Season 3, but still you left your mark on the hearts and minds of a generation of Saturday-morning toon watchers...and the DVDs are proving popular with a new generation, too.

Before buying all 3 seasons on DVD, I read the reviews thoroughly. One of the reasons I became an Amazon reviewer is due to the fantastic warnings against bad items and encouraging words of recommendations for others from reliable reviewers... but I did not follow my own advice on heeding the words of wisdom from so many reviewers that gave this season such a poor review.

These shows are AWFUL! Rick Marshall is gone and we don't know why Spencer Milligan left the show. To explain his absence, a new horrendous theme song is introduced - written by Wayne Osmond of the famed Osmond family... the song explains how during yet another earth quake, another time shift occurs - Rick is playing with the crystals in one of the pylons when the earthquake hits and he is sucked into a time doorway. Instead of chasing after him so they can at least be in the same time period as dear old dad, Will and Holly just stare and scream for their father.

The earthquake has destroyed their home in the cave and as they look for new shelter, they find Cha-Ka all alone - all the other Pakuni are gone - missing, and it would appear Cha-Ka is the last of his species. Conveniently, another familiar father figure falls from the sky - "Uncle Jack" Marshall went looking for his missing brother and niece and nephew and conveniently did so at the same time the earthquake hit and found himself also in the Land of the Lost. Uncle Jack (Ron Harper of "The Planet of the Apes" TV series fame) wears the same outfit as his brother and has similar survivalists skills.

The three family members and Cha-Ka move in together - into a temple in the lost city... new animals are introduced which look like they were put together by Stevie Wonder. There's Lu-Lu- the 2-headed water dragon that has these forked tongues that stick out about 6 feet and then there's Torchy - a dinosaur that breathes fire for no particular reason. He doesn't use it just for defense - but just because he can. In nature, we can observe creatures such as the bombadier beetle which can create chemical explosions, but only when defending itself.

The Sleestak now fiddle with their arms and flap their jaws for no reason. Not only does Enik talk, there is now a "head Sleestak" who also talks - and they are all just a bunch of losers. Enik is no longer just mysterious - he's a jerk... and then there are these horrendous plot lines that are like re-hashed Star Trek episodes - no originality, just cheese.

The only thing I did enjoy seeing was the tremendous improvement in acting ability with these actors, especially Kathy Coleman. She was good before, but she is so believable, even with these ridiculous stories, she should have been given other big roles on the small screen and large screen. She was analgous to the Tina Majorino of the 90s and the Dakota Fanning of today in stellar child acting. I also appreciated how brother and sister were no longer showing themselves as competitors, but overtly showed their love and concern for one another in these episodes.

The commentary and interview with Ron Harper is eye-rolling. He praises this season as the best and the direction as stellar. Did Ron do mushrooms during the filming of these shows? It was the 70s after all. Actually, he struck me as being more nostalgic and star-struck than honest about his appraisal of the shows. In at least 2 episodes where Will Marshall sings his home-spun ballads with a home-made mandolin or whatever instrument that is, and Uncle Jack looks so annoyed and disgusted - you can almost read his thought bubble, "My agent said I would be the big star in this show. How in the hell do I get out of this contract?"

The only thing, and I do mean the only thing, that would have saved this DVD set from being so awful was if every episode had a commentary track from Kathy Coleman and Wesley Eure - because you know they would be laughing their butts off at these plots. My theory is that they probably did do comment tracks, but were so inflammatory against the director of the 3rd season that Rhino cut them to prevent being sued.

These are still labeled as Krofft productions, but the life in these shows are long gone. Were it not for Kathy Coleman's acting, the entire set would lose yet another star and basically be toilet worthy. Land of the Lost was awesome because of the stellar sci-fi writing, and the lackluster plot lines of the 3rd season are why the show falls on its face. It's no wonderr that the season was cut short and this was the end - by the 2nd episode, most of the fans that were old enough, probably drank themselves into oblvion, drowning their sorrows in booze or other substances. I only vaguely remembered these shows - I think because I must have blocked them from my memory to protect the purity of the first two seasons. I cannot get over how awful these shows are, whether or not they are compared to the previous 2 seaons... even without comparisons, they do not stand up on their own. In a word: BLEH!

Wow, this is awful. It's bad, but not in a fun nostalgic way, just bad. I love season one and two. To be honest I couldn't wait for this one. I remember being a little kid in the 70's and watching this show and loving it. I have to say that I never remembered the "Uncle Jack" character. I would have to think in the later seventies when reruns were shown season three was avoided, and for good reason. From the second it starts and the opening song is different, it just feels wrong. The new song is horrible. Not that the season one and two song wasn't laughably silly, but it was catchy and stuck in your head. Not this one. It sounds like they had to explain where Dad went without having to rely on Spencer Milligan, so they explain it in the opening song. A song that isn't catchy, but rather sloppily thrown together. Just like season three. I don't need to rehash what has already been stated in the other reviews above. What I can say is that if you are a completist, then it doesn't matter what anyone else says, you're gonna buy it either way. But if you love this show and loved seasons one and two and want to avoid a real disappointment, you may want to think twice about picking this one up. By the way it says in the editorial that it is three discs with 17 episodes. That is wrong, it is two disc with thirteen episodes.