Lost World series vs. Land of the Lost

[GrumpyBrian]

Has anyone been watching the new syndicated series "The Lost World", allegedly based on the Conan Doyle story? It's supposedly aimed at adults, but the level of the writing is nowhere close to the that of original Land of the Lost, and the dinosaur footage is extremely skimpy (ranging from about 60 sec. an ep at MOST to eps with none at all), and unlike the impressive stop motion dinosaurs of Land of the Lost, Lost World uses very cheesy CGI dinosaurs which don't even look like they're there.

[GrumpyBrian]

Am I the only one on this board who's actually seen this show? Just curious....

[SkylonPilot]

GrumpyBrian,
Yes, I used to watch "The Lost World" TV series when it first came on, and I _immediately_ noticed the similarities between it and one of my most fondly remembered Saturday morning shows. Except, it became tediously boring when I realized that they _were_ basically going to use the same plots and characters as LOTL without the awesome space, time, and dimensional elements. I know it's supposed to be based on Doyle's work, but the characters of TLW series obviously need such "gimmicks" to bolster their flaws. I also agree completely that LOTL's Harryhausenesque stop-motion was far superior to most CGI effects today. Has all of Hollywood completely forgotten about that man's pioneering FX work?! Even the horrendously lame LOTL remake of the early 90's saw the necessity of that device.

[SkylonPilot]

GrumpyBrian,
Yes, I used to watch "The Lost World" TV series when it first came on, and I _immediately_ noticed the similarities between it and one of my most fondly remembered Saturday morning shows. Except, it became tediously boring when I realized that they _were_ basically going to use the same plots and characters as LOTL without the awesome space, time, and dimensional elements. I know it's supposed to be based on Doyle's work, but the characters of TLW series obviously need such "gimmicks" to bolster their flaws. I also agree completely that LOTL's Harryhausenesque stop-motion was far superior to most CGI effects today. Has all of Hollywood completely forgotten about that man's pioneering FX work?! Even the horrendously lame LOTL remake of the early 90's saw the necessity of that device.

[emwhy]

This may off the thread a bit, but did anyone catch "Walking with the Dinosaurs" on The Discovery Channel? The animation in that was actually pretty good, computer generated however. And yes I admit to being a full-fledged geek for admiting to watching The Discovery Channel!

[Fleur de lis]

I must watch way too much t.v.! I was an original fan of LOTL back in the 70's, and I went on to watch Days of Our Lives for 10 years just because Wesley Eure was on it. BTW has anyone noticed his name in the credits of the PBS series "Dragon Tales" currently running, as a developer or co-creator of the series? Anyway, I also watch the Conan Doyle's "Lost World" in the hopes that maybe THIS week I'll see something not ridiculous.... I've read the original story, and I see it as part of a set of books written around the turn of the century. ERB's Pellucidar books, and Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" all have the same kind of idea. I used to wonder if Sid & Marty originally created LOTL based on those novels? The themes of people lost in a prehistoric world, amid civilizations of lizard men and little hairy ape dudes, is too close to ignore.

[GrumpyBrian]

Silly as the show is, I have to admit that The Lost World series has been growing on me. Though it certainly does not have the fascinating science fiction ideas of Land of the Lost, nor does it have the great stop motion dinosaurs LOTL had, which I agree were very much in the Harryhausen mold.

By the way, I did find out that the very skimpy and cheesy dinosaur footage in The Lost World series is not actually CGI, but puppetry dinosaurs shot on a blank soundstage and inserted into the scenes later. Still doesn't come even close to the great LOTL stop motion dinosaurs.

And I do agree that stop motion produced the best dinosaurs in movie or TV history. Look at King Kong for an example. Willis O'Brien's stop motion dinosaurs of the early 30's still look great today!

Still, even with The Lost World's preposterous and corny writing, it's cheesy special effects, stock characters, and absurd lost civilization of the week gimmick, the damn show is still growing on me.

[SkylonPilot]

Certainly, Sid and Marty must have been greatly inspired by Burroughs' "Pellucidar" books, and especially Doyle's original "Lost World"(both of which I'll admit I haven't read, yet, but I'm familiar with their respective backgrounds ), but that doesn't mean the so-called "creators" of said "Lost World" TV series aren't borrowing from LOTL a bit. They _are_ producers, for cryin' out loud! We know how they come across most of their material, anyway; that's just how Hollywood works. Just go watch the one-millionth Disney remake, if you have any doubts. Also, I am not against all CGI work, in theory; I did see parts of "Walking with Dinosaurs", which was brilliantly and beautifully realized. That kind of work would be great for the LOTL movie (Spielberg aside...). I'm just against the kind of CGI where a once-fearsome, sluglike, intergalactic crimelord gets his tail squished beneath the feet of a scruffy smuggler for ridiculous, cartoony comical effect. But, that's just me.

[SkylonPilot]

And why can't great, _real_ SF writers such as David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Ben Bova, D.C. Fontana, et al, write for television like they used to do for LOTL? I'm sure LOTL is one of the only "children's" shows that can claim _that_ distinction.

[Simon4]

emwhy,

I did catch a few minutes of that Walking with Dinosaurs. I thought that was pretty amazing how realistic they looked. BTW, I don't mean to ruffle any feathers here, but I thought the early Godzilla movies were pretty bad aside from their contributions to comedy. Speaking of which, remember Mystery Science Fiction Theatre 3000 where they use to make sometimes witty comments through these types of movies? I'm more of a fan of the horror genre that gave us such classics as Night of the Living Dead.

[Fleur de lis]

Cheesy special effects should not be the sole reason to condemn a show. (Look at Doctor Who!) If the story is good and the actors are exciting, a viewer can forgive a rubber dinosaur on puppet rods.

As a fledgling writer myself, I object to a lot of things being slapped together without much forethought, throw in some weird things or some chick in a skimpy outfit. It's the IDEAS that keep people talking about a show 20 years after it got cancelled.

David Gerrold and all those folks were just beginning their careers back then. They were coming off the "high" of the original Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, when society (and t.v. producers) were open to good quality stuff.

[emwhy]

Here's one for everybody. While we're on the subject of LOTL clones does anyone remember the ABC networks attempt? I'm talking about "Korg 70,000 BC" Yes it was a series on Saturday mornings around the same time as LOTL. There was no Dinosaur footage, I think it was meant to be educational.

[Fleur de lis]

Oh my God, I remember Korg! I used to watch anything remotely prehistoric, of course Planet of the Apes, and I was into this too. It was a family of Neanderthals trying to make their way in the world of hostile mammoths, etc. I think it tried to be realistic, therefore you wouldn't see them trying to spear a pteranodon. The star (the alpha male of the family group) was Alex Rocco who later showed up on "The Facts of Life" as Jo's father.

[GrumpyBrian]

Yeah, I used to watch "Korg: 70,000 BC" too. I do remember it as trying to be realistic rather than fantastic. I was into anything prehistoric too (still am), so of couse I wouldn't pass on watching a show dealing with Neanderthals and their era.

I recall it as being not bad, but as rather humorless and dull though.

[NuclearSnow]

I watch the lost world from time to time,it's not to bad but it uses the old ploy of having LOST civilizations to they can save money on using the computer generated dinosaurs from week to week.and they seemed to tone down the dangers of the massive thunder lizards,ie Raptors don't seem to be the killing machines they are supposed to be,in Jurassic Park (the lost world) they made short work of the army of mercenarys with machine guns yet the party of adventures with nothing but shotguns and pistols seem to always come out on top.Oh well that is Hollywood.

[NuclearSnow]

Oh and on the Lost World..having a beautiful woman in a skimpy Raquel Welch 1,000,000 BC type outfit seems to be thrown in to take the male Sci-Fi fans thoughts away from how skimpy the special effects are...LOL

[GrumpyBrian]

Nuclear Snow -

Yeah, regarding Lost World, just how many lost civilizations can fit on that plateau? And why don't the dinosaurs ever show up once the main characters are within one of those lost civilizations? Some of them have merely been collections of huts, and one of them (a King Arthur society!) lived in tents. A tyrannosaurus could easily make short work of a village of tents! And the various lost civilizations never seem to bump up against one another's teritory, either. Rather incredible, considering that every lost civilization is within easy walking distance of our heros' Tarzan-style treehouse.

Yes, you're right, Veronica aka "Untamed Beauty" is the Raquel Welch character!

The voice over intro to Lost World often reminds me of the intro song of Gilligan's Island, where most of the characters are refered to by their stock character types (the skipper, the movie star, the millionaire, the professor....). In lost world, we get Untamed Beauty, Big Game Hunter, the Reporter, the Heiress, the Scientist, and the Adventurer. Heck, they really didn't even need to give the characters actual names.

All that said, I still enjoy watching it as hokey fun.

~Brian

[NuclearSnow]

Grumpy Brian..

Yeah you are right about how it's odd the dinosaurs never seem to get within the LOST CIVILIZATIONS city limits or the other LOST ones dont come a conquering,only thing I can figure out that long ago the Dinosaurs and the Lost Civilizations got together and signed a Non-Aggression pact and they all respect each others territory.Now these people from the outside world come snooping and finding the lost civilizations and the Dinosaurs..so they have banned together to kill them so they can go back to their peacful lost civilization ways ...

Just a thought..LOL

[Fleur de lis]

The chick from Pacific Blue was not in the original book, by the way.

I'm not so much bothered by the astonishing plethora of aggressive lost civilizations inhabiting a small area and not making war on each other. I worry about how they keep their hair looking so nice in a tropical rain forest, or how they keep their shirts laundered and dry.

[GrumpyBrian]

Anyone catch the season finale of The Lost World? A violent lost civilization of the week, aided by the gift of gunpowder from a previously featured lost civilization of the week, actually was waging war on surrounding villages. Of course they didn't run across any of the *other* previously featured lost civilizaions of the week (like the King Arthur one in tents, LOL), but still, at least the writers were thinking about this question.

So I guess maybe the non-aggression pact between lost civilizations and dinosaurs is breaking down? *g*

Rather comical how they had the *entire* male cast fall off the bridge to their possible deaths at the end. How cliffhangery can you get *g*?

Fleur de lis -

I think the adventurers keep their hair and clothing imaculate the same way the characters on Gilligan's Island did. How? Well solve that mystery......actually come to think of it, we did see Gilligan once useing a pedal powered washing machine, but he still had on his one red shirt. Maybe the old scientist has built one of these washing machines, and the young reporter guy pedels it in order to get in the good graces of Untamed Beauty Chick by washing her leather bikini when she's bathing naked in the river.

~Brian

[SkylonPilot]

Did they ever deal with the question of hygiene on LOTL? Being aired on Saturday mornings and all, I mean. At least they would've taken some realism about the situation into account, like the LOTL fanfic posted on this site. I seem to recall Will or Holly at times saying something along the lines of "Gee whiz, wouldn't it be nice to take a long, hot shower?" Am I remembering correctly, or just confusing myself and the Lost World writers with excerpts from "The Castaways Beauty Handbook"? Come to think of it, I don't remember Will or Penny complaining about the strange aromas coming from Dr. Smith's quarters, either...

[GrumpyBrian]

SkylonPilot - Acutally the issue of laundry on Lost in Space *was* addressed in one episode. Mrs. Robinson dumps a load of dirty laundry into a futurisitc washing machine, which for some reason is set up outside the ship on the planet's surface, and about 3 seconds later she opens the lid and removes perfectly washed and dried clothing, all wrapped up in sealed plastic bags to boot!

[GrumpyBrian]

SkylonPilot - Regarding laundry on LOTL, in "Circle", when the family is swimming in one of the water holes, Rick mentions something about them having come to do laundry, and for the first time, they are not wearing thier usual clothes. Rick is wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, Will is wearing shorts and is bare chested, and Holly has on a two piece bathing suit. So presumably they'd come to bathe and do laundry at the same time.

Of course, they get distracted, when Will discovers an underwater opening to a pool in a cavern which leads to the Lost City.

[Fleur de lis]

Anyone who has gone camping knows that laundry is not merely a matter of "let's smell nice." You want to get ticks out of your socks and poisonous spiders out of your shirts, not to mention scabies and other nasty things that burrow under the skin. I read an article about a white guy archaeologist exploring the Amazon recently in search of the extinct giant sloth, and his calves are riddled with scars where bugs laid eggs in the slightest scratches and then hatched under his skin and had to be cut out.... Ick!

I can understand how in LOTL, a closed universe and an artificial construct (possibly like Dark City?), there may not be leeches in every pool. But the "Lost World" is supposed to be regular Earth but just adventurous. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes seem like they're not in this plateau. Intestinal parasites don't seem to be in the water. But why doesn't the gal with all that long black hair get head lice? Oh, wasn't that a Xena episode?

[GrumpyBrian]

Fleur de lis -

Yes, the Lost World plateau does seem to be deviod of any threats that are too small to shoot with a shotgun. :)

I do recall the Xena ep you're refering to. Xena had head lice, Gabrielle had a peeling skin condition, Joxer was a carrier of stomach flu (which is how they defeated the bad guys), and oh, yes, Gabby ate some poisonous fruit that made her unable to speak without lisping and drooling. It was appropriately called "In Sickness and In Hell".

I guess the Lost World cast has the same immunity from jungle parasites, insects, and diseases as Tarzan, Jane and Boy had. :)

~Brian

[NuclearSnow]

I love how people totally cut off from the modern world can build big tree houses with elevators (wild girls parents)..make bullets..keep all their clothes mended as nice as if they had a tailor shop down the road..keep their faces (men)and legs (women) all smoothed shaven...and did you ever wonder about what going to the bathroom was like there at the tree house at night?..who had guard duty while someone was down in the jungle doing their business???..I didnt see a latrine or a outhouse nearby???hmmm just wondering.I could imagine doing your business and a Raptor comes up..ahhh well....

[Mike M]

Don't forget about supposed wild girls with perfect makeup ;)

[NuclearSnow]

And great golden tans..I wonder if she cut her own hair before the others showed up..if so she is the best solo hair stylist I have ever seen...

[GrumpyBrian]

This reminds me of the Tarzan conundrum too. Even before Jane showed up to help civilize Tarzan just a little bit, he was still clean shaven and had a nice, relatively short haircut. Shouldn't pre-Jane Tarzan have had long, shaggy unkempt hair, both on his face and his head? Or did the great apes cut his hair and shave him?

Also, Tarzan did a remarkable job building an elevator for his treehouse as well. Though why he'd have bothered, when he and Jane and Boy have the ability to swing from vines and climb like expert mountain climbers, I'm not sure. Maybe because Jane was nostalgic for department store elevators in London. But then, Tarzan's elevator was elephant-powered, which meant that a *very* patient elephant had to stand around all day long just in case his services were needed as elevator operator.

All these shows and movies make the life of the LOTL characters look quite plausable by comparison. Though Rick was one hell of a carpenter to have built that huge strawberry cart that Dopey pulled by only the third episode.

~Brian

[NuclearSnow]

Yeah and Elephants are better at the job because they work for peanuts..LOL..I know ,I know but someone had to say it......

[Fleur de lis]

Bottom Line.

What it comes down to is, a writer (or TV producer) has to establish believability. If your reader (or viewer) does not accept that these are real people in a real situation, you're sunk.

We don't need to see latrines or mosquito bites necessarily. We just need the people to act real and the setting to make sense! Land of the Lost accomplished that.