Saturday Morning Cartoon

Will Ferrell's Land Of The Lost opened this weekend and the reviews are baaaad. It's a shame--I had high hopes for this one (and I do mean high--more on that in a bit). The original '70s Saturday morning show was a classic. To a little kid in 1974 it was one of the few dependable sources of dinosaurs on TV. (Well, there was this, but it only lasted a year.)

And these were some great dinosaurs. The original Land Of The Lost had special effects ranking up there with Spielberg's Jurassic Park movies. Take a look!




I know I've never seen a more convincing T-Rex. But for the cheerful banjos children like me probably would've been too scared to watch.

Anyyyway, The show ran for several years. Eventually Will and Holly Marshall got a new "dad"--some uncle flung down the same waterfall-wormhole they'd originally passed through.



Pretty sad that their "real" dad got lost forever in some alternate dimension. But as long as those jaunty banjos kept playing fans like me knew everything would be fiiine.

Dinosaurs and banjos weren't LOTL's only appeal. I don't know what it was with the show's creators Sid and Marty Kroft (theory: loads of drugs) but they synthesized a weird and unique Edgar Rice Burroughs/ Cthulu/ space crystal /summer-camp-on-acid genre. If you've got about six minutes, check out this clip:



What, exactly, was in that lizard-dude's fear-smoke, I wonder? Perhaps some ultra-potent prehistoric THC?

Gotta love the 1970s. No wonder America elected Reagan after the decade ended.

Voyage in peace, Rick Marshall, wherever you are.


All clips via YooToob and copyright violation.