Land of the Lost (1991 TV series)


Land of the Lost is a half-hour Saturday-morning children's series that debuted on ABC in the fall of 1991. Re-runs were later picked up by Nickelodeon from 1995 to 1997. Tiger Toys received the license to produce a toyline based on the series, which included regular and "talking" action figures, several dinosaurs and playsets, an electronic Crystal Sword, as well as an electronic LCD game and a board game.

Synopsis

Motivated by the success in syndication of the cult 1974 series Land of the Lost, Sid and Marty Krofft created a new version of it. The new Land of the Lost had advanced special effects and a lighter, less survivalist-oriented tone. Frequent writers Len Janson and Chuck Menville had previously crafted numerous scripts for assorted Filmation series, while producer Jerry Golod had earlier collaborated with George A. Romero on Tales from the Darkside.
The series ran for 26 episodes spread over two seasons, with each season consisting of 13 episodes. It featured the Porter family - father Tom, son Kevin and daughter Annie - trapped in a parallel universe after their Jeep Cherokee fell through a time portal while exploring the back country. They soon meet another human, a "beautiful" jungle girl named Christa who came from 1960s San Francisco. Christa became trapped in the Land of the Lost when she was very young and grew up alone.
The Porters live in a large "treehouse" that the family built after they realized their tents provided little safety from dangerous dinosaurs. After their first encounter with the Scarface, they devised an alarm system by stringing up a series of empty tin cans surrounding the treehouse perimeter that would shake and make noise if Scarface were to show up again.
Intelligent natives of the Land of the Lost include the chimpanzee-like Pakuni and the lizard-like Sleestaks. Also, many species of dinosaurs fill the jungle. A Paku named Stink and a baby dinosaur named Tasha were befriended by the Porters. Acting as antagonists were a trio of exiled Sleestak criminals named Shung, Keeg and Nim. Shung is their leader and possesses a powerful Crystal Sword. Another major obstacle faced by the Porters was a one-eyed Tyrannosaurus Rex named Scarface, who lived near the area where the family made their home and frequently chased after them in an attempt to eat them.
A sorceress named Keela with genuine magical powers was introduced in the second season and appeared in two episodes. Another character added in the second season was Namaki, a strange fish-like humanoid who befriended Christa when she was just a little girl.
12 episodes of Season 1 were released onto videocassette at two episodes per video. As of 2020, the series has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.

Characters

The Porters

Like its 1970s counterpart, the inhabitants of the Land of the Lost are mostly dinosaurs. An iguana can be seen occasionally. A creature, called an "osongi", which resembles an iguana, once bit Tom. A spitting viper called the "shika" is seen in the Valley of Death, and it blinds Kevin temporarily. Termites have also been found.
A Triceratops named Princess is sometimes used as transportation for Christa and Stink. Christa named her after a dog her family once owned. Princess is distinct from the other Triceratops in that her right horn is broken in half. A male Triceratops was seen in "Siren's Song" and "In Dinos We Trust".
A Stegosaurus named Spike fought with Scarface. Shung once used his crystal to make Spike fight with Princess. In the Cyborg's debut episode, Annie refers to Spike as a female. When Stink pretended to be injured, Kevin got on top of Spike's back to gather fruit from a tree before Spike fought with Scarface again.
Tasha's mother, a Parasaurolophus was killed by Scarface. Another one, named Momma TwoLegs, appears frequently. An Apatosaurus whom the Porters sometimes call Big Guy also appears frequently, mostly browsing on the vegetation, either at big lakes or at the Porters' treehouse. He is thought by some fans to be Dopey, the infant sauropod from the original series, all grown up. He once helped Annie down from a tree when Kevin took away a ladder, and saved Tasha from the Sleestaks. Big Guy and Momma TwoLegs can sometimes be seen at the lake. In "Life's a Beach", Big Guy is seen with another Apatosaurus, possibly his mate.
A Pteranodon tried to kill and eat Kevin when he diverted the creature's attention while Christa picked some special plants to help heal his dad who was bitten by a poisonous lizard. One also tried to kill Kevin in another episode as he was looking for a birthday present for Christa. It also stole some of the Porters' belongings.
At the beach, there are also dangerous marine predators; something resembling a dolphin-sized cymbospondylus once attacked Kevin, until it was hurt by Tom and Christa and fled. There is also a tentacled creature that dwells within an oil pool seen in "Opah". There is a pack of creatures Kevin calls "Prehistoric Pitbulls", also called "makani", that chase Kevin in "Something's Watching" and Smilodon bones have also been found in the Valley of Death.

Tasha

One of the main dinosaurs in the show is Tasha, an orphaned baby Parasaurolophus. After the death of her mother at the claws of Scarface, Tasha's egg was rescued by Annie. Upon hatching, Kevin was the first person she saw and she immediately imprinted on him. However, possibly because he ignores her, Tasha treats Annie as her mother instead living with the Porters as a pet. What will happen to her if the Porters ever find a way home, is a frequent subject of discussion. Annie names her after her mother. Tasha appears to be quite intelligent for a dinosaur exhibiting almost human behavior at times. Through pantomime, body language, and an extensive range of vocal emotions she is surprisingly capable of communicating with humans. She seems to understand complex commands and inquiries and is even able to grasp and manipulate items in her claws. For a short time, Tasha was given the ability to speak by Keela. Tasha has a voracious appetite for a herbivore and will try to eat almost anything within reach. However, she prefers melons.

Scarface

A Tyrannosaurus, whom the Porters named Scarface lives in the area. He has a scar through his right eye, hence his name, which is a lasting testament to his aggressive nature. Scarface is blind in his right eye because of the scar, leaving him able to see only through his left eye. Scarface is one of the Porters' worst threats, as he could take down their treehouse and has tried to before.
Because of his violent nature, Scarface is an enemy to everybody in the series, including the Sleestaks. When Cy arrived, it was thought that he killed Scarface in their fight, but it was eventually revealed that Scarface was simply unconscious and used mud to heal himself. Also, upon being hit by a "light gun" found by Kevin and Stink in old Sleestak ruins, Scarface quickly recovered.
Some fans speculate that Scarface is actually Grumpy of the original series. In that series, they often encouraged Grumpy to leave their cave by pushing a large sharpened log called the "flyswatter" out of the cave entrance and into Grumpy's open mouth. Some believe that one encounter with the "flyswatter" scarred Grumpy's eye. The Porter family, being new to the Land of the Lost, named the T-Rex for his facial feature, rather than his grumpy attitude. If this were true, it would make Scarface and Christa the only two characters that existed in both TV series

Pakuni

Pakuni are a tribe of hairy, humanoid primates native to the Land. In this series, their appearance is slightly different from the original 1974 series and 2009 movie.
A race of intelligent, reptilian humanoids, the Sleestaks were highly advanced until their own pollution drove them to live in caves to avoid the dinosaurs. The Sleestaks seen in the show are a group of criminals who were exiled to the surface world, their version of the death penalty. Omnivores, they will consume anything and have threatened to eat the Porters and their companions on several occasions. The trio took up refuge in an old, abandoned temple and have only managed to survive because of Shung's power crystal.
According to the toy's "bio", the temple contains a maze of labyrinthine corridors that lead to various openings on the surface cleverly concealed with large rocks. Utilizing these hidden tunnels, the Sleestaks can pop out and surprise hapless prey much like a trapdoor spider. However, these passages were never depicted on the show.
It is revealed when Shung is injured by Scarface that the Sleestaks' blood color is green. According to Shung, when he lived in the Sleestak underworld, there were huge arenas where the best gladiators fought "until only one was left." This may very well have been the illegal activity that resulted in their banishment to the surface world. Their name for Scarface is the "Scarred One". Their appearance is closer to that of the native dinosaurs than the insectoid-like features in the original 1974 series and 2009 movie.
As with its 1970s counterpart, the Land of the Lost exists in an entirely different dimension. It is a world similar to prehistoric Earth but it has three moons. The area in which the Porters live is a tropical jungle, although mention has also been made of a vast desert far away.

Crystals

Unique to this world is a peculiar type of quartz-like crystal that can be found in various caves throughout the Land. The Sleestaks often use Pakuni slave labor to mine these special crystals which can function as an energy source. In "Kevin vs. the Volcano", Kevin falls down a shaft covered in Sleestak markings and finds a huge shard nearly twice his size. Exposure to the sun reactivates this crystal and it causes it to pulsate, exerting a force which draws Kevin towards it when he tries to climb out of the shaft. Tom posits that the Sleestaks probably used these giant crystals to power their underground cities. It also might have been placed as a controlling device for a nearby volcano as its destruction somehow reverses the volcano's eruption. In "Power Play", the Porters use the smaller pieces to act as surrogate "batteries" to run their flashlights and portable devices, but larger crystals are much more powerful.
Even the smaller shards can be powerful when grouped together in a certain fashion. The Porters discover such a grouping hidden inside a stone carving in a cave in "Dreammaker". They find a number of crystals, varying in length, set into a device very similar to the matrix tables of the 1974 series. This particular table is able to create very realistic illusions drawn from one's mind, designed to lure them in to a carefully constructed — but very real — trap. Tom believes that the Sleestaks probably built it to be a psychic weapon.

Dimensional Gates

These often blue swirling mists are portals to other worlds and times. They appear to be triggered by earthquakes and are accompanied by sudden winds just before they open and only for a few moments. In this version of Land of the Lost they seem to materialize at random but can be tracked through their electromagnetic interference using the Porter's portable TV. Tom Porter believes these gates will get them home even though he cannot be sure where or when it will take them.

Crew

Season 1 (1991)

Season 2 (1992)