Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost was a cooperative venture between Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg and the team of Sid and Marty Krofft. The show aired on Saturday mornings back in the good old days. Unlike other Saturday morning fare such as Challenge of the Superfriends and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Land of the Lost was a cautionary tale of nature gone horribly wrong.

The pilot episode focused on the Marshall family, which consisted of a father, his two teenaged children (one of whom was played by future Detroit Red Wings center Bill Laimbeer), and a mysterious, black-outfitted mathematician. When a mysterious electromagnetic pulse causes their flight from Australia to crash, they end up trapped on an island by mysterious scientist John Hammond (played for some reason by Marlon Brando). As a result of some very complicated scientific stuff that nobody really understands, Hammond was able to bring the Age of Dinosaurs back to life. Over the course of the next 3 seasons, the Marshalls were forced to reverse the effects of Hammond's actions, all the while spouting out incomprehensible (and possibly drug-induced) gibberish about "chaos theory" and "humans messing around with nature". Despite the weaknesses inherent in the show's plot, Land of the Lost became one of the more popular children's television shows of its era.

After the show ended, both Crichton and Spielberg tried to capitalize on the fame of Land of the Lost. Their attempt, which ended up as the book and the theatrical movie Jurassic Park, failed miserably. The Krofft's 1991 remake of the show, Lost--which aired on ABC for two years--was far more successful.