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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

The Hole

Land Of The LostRick and Will revisit the Sleestak city ruins to get another look at the time portal, leaving Holly at home to clean house; instead she gets a return visit from Dopey. Once inside the city, Rick and Will discover that they’ve come calling while there are still Sleestaks in the city. Rick tackles a Sleestak, giving Will a chance to escape, but Rick is hurled into a pit. He finds himself alone with an unusually talkative Sleestak who warns that they will soon be devoured by the Sleestaks’ god. Will escapes the city and immediately finds himself on the run from “Big Alice,” a hungry allosaurus who hunts near the ruins.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Wina Sturgeon
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Land Of The LostCast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Scott Fullerton (Sleestak), Jack Tingley (Sleestak), Mike Westra (Sleestak)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

The Paku Who Came To Dinner

Land Of The LostMonths after becoming stranded in the prehistoric wilderness, the Marshalls reflect on the changes that their presence has brought to the environment, and to the lives of Cha-Ka, Dopey and the other creatures they’ve met. Holly continues trying to make friends with Cha-Ka and the Paku, but her overtures of friendship meet with mixed results when Cha-Ka’s people kidnap her.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Barry Blitzer
directed by Bob Lally
music by Jimmie Haskell

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Sharon Baird (Paku), Joe Giamalva (Paku), Philip Paley (Cha-Ka)

Land Of The LostNotes: Only ten episodes into its first season, Land Of The Lost was already so far over budget that a “clip show” – an unfortunately common practice where a money-strapped show films a few framing scenes of a story in which the characters “remember” clips of their past exploits – was necessary. Episodes “remembered” by the Marshalls include Cha-Ka, Dopey, and others, with all new scenes shot using existing sets, costumes, and dinosaur miniature scenes, and no guest stars aside from the usual Paku suspects (whose costumes and makeup had already been made for previous episodes).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Elsewhen

Land Of The LostThe Marshalls once again sneak into the Sleestak city to try to work out the operation of the time portal. Growing bored as Rick admits that the number of combinations of colored crystals could be infinite, Holly wanders off; before she is found again, she encounters a woman named Rani who seems to know a great deal about her, including her fear of heights. Rani insists that this fear must be overcome soon if Holly is to save the lives of her family. But can Rani be trusted, or will this latest attempt to investigate the time portal end with another Sleestak attack?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by D.C. Fontana
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Erica Hagen (Rani), Scott Fullerton (Sleestak), Jack Tingley (Sleestak), Mike Westra (Sleestak)

Land Of The LostNotes: Guest star Erica Hagen had a small role in 1973’s Soylent Green, and guest-starred in a two-part episode of Wonder Woman. She had previously appeared in Land Of The Lost as an illusion of Will and Holly’s mother. The time doorway was introduced in The Stranger, and we explored further in The Hole. The plot twist of Rani’s origin is an element that would be borrowed by the 1990s version of Land Of The Lost.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Hurricane

Land Of The LostWill and Holly find themselves cornered by unusually active dinosaurs. Surrounded on all sides, they’re left with no choice but to climb up a rocky mountainside to escape. They’re surprised to find a pylon atop the mountain, and when Will disturbs the controls, glowing lights appear in the sky, and one of them disgorges a parachutist. Will and Holly rush to help, since any new arrivals are unlikely to be prepared for the abundance of dinosaurs. The parachutist is wayward astronaut Beauregard Jackson, and Will worries that he is responsible for the man’s predicament. Worse yet, the time portal that brought Jackson here is still open, allowing hurricane-force winds to build up.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by David Gerrold and Larry Niven
directed by Bob Lally
music by Jimmie Haskell

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Ron Masak (Beauregard Jackson)

Land Of The LostNotes: Actor Ron Masak has appeared in The Twilight Zone, Mission: Impossible, Wonder Woman, and Starman, with movie roles in Ice Station Zebra, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and as the hapless sheriff in the MST3K-worthy sci-fi B-movie Laserblast. Jackson notices that the pylons are bigger inside than outside; as Doctor Who had only premiered in the United States a couple of years earlier in a handful of markets, it is very unlikely that the popular British series with its bigger-inside-than-out time machine was an influence. As the Marshalls take shelter just before Jackson’s escape, the actors’ shadows can clearly be seen on the “sky” behind them on set.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 1

Circle

Land Of The LostWhen Will dives underwater at a watering hole not far from the Marshalls’ makeshift residence, he finds an exit to a dry chamber, full of hibernating Sleestaks. Enik is also there, trapped in this time just like the Marshalls are, but he has a disturbing theory that the Marshalls shouldn’t be here. For anyone to leave through a time portal, someone else must arrive through a time portal, and Enik feels that the Marshalls’ arrival triggered a time paradox, one that only the Marshalls can resolve. But if Enik’s escape depends on getting the Marshalls out of this dimension by any means necessary, can they trust him?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Larry Niven and David Gerrold
directed by Dennis Steinmetz
music by Jimmie Haskell

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Walker Edmiston (Enik), Scott Fullerton (Sleestak), Jack Tingley (Sleestak), Mike Westra (Sleestak)

Land Of The LostNotes: This episode basically loops around to the beginning of the series, implying either a time loop, or at the very least that the Marshalls will experience the same events again before their adventures continue (in the second season, of course).

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

The Invisible ManAfter eight months of working on a teleportation system for the mysterious Klae Corporation, scientist Dr. Daniel Westin has been concealing a second research project, investigating an unexpected side effect of his research: invisibility. Westin and his wife, Dr. Kate Westin, have succeeded in rendering inanimate objects and small animals invisible. When this fact is revealed to Carlson, the director of Klae Corporation, Carlson immediately suggests military uses for the Westins’ breakthrough. Daniel refuses to cooperate further, and the Westins are fired from the Klae Corporation; their home is surrounded by armed agents. Daniel decides to risk sneaking back into his Klae lab to destroy the machinery that makes invisibility possible, but makes himself invisible first so he can escape, fully believing that he will became visible again after a short while.

But the effect turns out to be permanent. Daniel goes into hiding and enlists the help of an old friend, a plastic surgeon, to create a lifelike mask and gloves to simulate Daniel’s real face and hands. Daniel is left with no choice but to return to Klae to offer apologies and to try to piece together his destroyed research so he can someday become visible again. He demands that Carlson call off the armed agents surrouding the Westin home…and then discovers that they have nothing to do with Klae Corporation at all, and that someone else is willing to go to any length, including threatening Kate’s life, to gain the secret of invisibility for themselves.

teleplay by Steven Bochco
television story by Harve Bennett & Steven Bochco
directed by Robert Michael Lewis
music by Richard Clements

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Jackie Cooper (Walter Carlson), Henry Darrow (Dr. Nick Maggio), Alex Henteloff (Rick Steiner), Arch Johnson (General Turner), John McLiam (Blind Man), Ted Gehring (Gate Guard), Paul Kent (Security Chief), Milt Kogan (Doctor), Jon Cedar (Lobby Guard), Tamar Cooper (Receptionist), Lew Palter (Motel Clerk), Richard Forbes (Motel Guest)

The Invisible ManNotes: A 90-minute pilot movie that led to a series in NBC’s fall 1975 TV season, The Invisible Man is only loosely based upon H.G. Wells’ novel. The special effects used in each episode to depict Daniel’s invisibility are done on video, much like a live TV weathercast. Film-based opticals couldn’t be done on a TV timetable, so The Invisible Man shot those scenes on videotape, and then transferred that video to film by syncing a high-resollution monitor to the scan rate of the film camera. Much like contemporary BBC productions that showed little concern about switching from studio video to location film, the change is noticeable, and the process was still costly.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 2

Tar Pit

Land Of The LostTar pits are nothing new where/when the Marshalls come from – dinosaur fossils aplenty have been found there in the 20th century, after all – but they have an urgent dilemma when Dopey finds himself sinking into a tar pit from which he doesn’t seem to be able to escape despite their best efforts. Unless the Marshalls and the Paku can rescue Dopey, the most inoffensive of the local dinosaurs may become a fossil himself.

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Margaret Armen
directed by Gordon Wiles
music by Michael Lloyd

Land Of The LostCast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Phillip Paley (Cha-Ka), Scutter McKay (Ta), Sharon Baird (Sa)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes The Animated Series

Flames Of Doom

Planet Of The ApesThe spaceship Ventura, with its crew of three astronauts, plunges through a time warp as it returns to Earth from a deep space mission to find the whereabouts of a lost expedition (which was itself launched to search for Taylor’s crew). Though it still lands on Earth, its crew has arrived nearly two millennia after they expected to return. The world is now ruled by intelligent apes, and a heated debate rages over whether human beings are dangerous to the dominant ape species, or if they can be preserved as harmless pets. Astronauts Hudson, Franklin and Carter find a settlement of humans, but these humans are primitive at best. The contrast between the native humans and the astronauts attracts the attention of the new rulers of Earth, who consider a more modern human race a threat to their existence, and they set out to capture the three astronauts.

Order the DVDswritten by Larry Spiegel
directed by Cullen Houghtaling
music by Dean Elliott

Voice Cast: Tom Williams (Bill Hudson), Claudette Nevins (Judy Franklin), Austin Stoker (Jeff Carter), Henry Corden (Dr. Cornelius), Tress MacNeille (Dr. Zira), Henry Corden (General Urko)

Notes: It’s nearly impossible to reconcile Return To The Planet Of The Apes with either the movies that started the saga, or the short-lived live-action series that attempted to continue it. It’s probably wisest to view Return as a retelling of the Apes saga for a younger audience, rather than any kind of continuation. The depiction of humans at a stone-age level, the inclusion of Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Zaius, and the mentions of Brent and Nova from Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, are appropriated from the films, but the apes in Return have far more advanced technology, including motorized vehicles and television. The character of General Urko is borrowed from the live-action television series, again serving as a persistent nemesis for the humans. The exterior of the three-person Ventura is represented by artwork of the single-seater Mercury capsules of the 1960s, rather than a depiction that’s anywhere near the vehicles seen in the Apes movies or live-action TV series; the design of the American space shuttle was finalized by the time Return To The Planet Of The Apes went into production, but wasn’t used.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

The Klae Resource

The Invisible ManSome time after the incident that caused him to be rendered permanently invisible, Dr. Daniel Westin and his wife, Dr. Kate Westin, are in the employ of the Klae Corporation, and are hired out as a team of “specialists” to take on particularly difficult tasks. One such task will require both invisibility and cunning: an inventor named Parks has gone missing, and the government is concerned that he might sell his latest energy breakthrough to the highest bidder in the Middle East. His last known location is a Vegas casino hotel, but no one has actually seen him recently…and solving the mystery of his whereabouts will require the skills of someone else who no one can actually see.

written by Steven Bochco
directed by Robert Michael Lewis
music by Henry Mancini

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), Robert Alda (Fielder), Conrad Janis (Homer), Barry Sullivan (Lionel Parks), Scott Walker (1st Guard), Paul Kent (Kelly), Dick Balduzzi (Agent Stern), James Karen (Hotel Manager), Joseph George (2nd Guard), Jackie Russell (Female Operator), David Knapp (Casino Drunk), Dennis Robertson (Technical Expert), Jack Frey (Bellman), Gary Pagett (Croupier), Chuck Courtney (Limo Driver), Richard Geary (Boone)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Land Of The Lost Original Season 2

The Zarn

Land Of The LostTaking shelter in a cave when they’re cornered by a dinosaur, Rick and Will find a vast cavern containing something that may or may not be a spaceship. They find another human being in a coffin-like container, and it turns out to be a woman from Rick’s home town, and they share many experiences and memories from years before he was marooned here. Rick invites her to join the Marshalls for dinner, though Will and Holly are suspicious of their guest, and how quickly she gains Rick’s trust. Is she too good to be true?

Order the DVDDownload this episodewritten by Dick Morgan
directed by Bob Lally
music by Michael Lloyd

Cast: Spencer Milligan (Rick Marshall), Wesley Eure (Will Marshall), Kathy Coleman (Penny Marshall), Brooke Bundy (Sharon), Marvin Miller (Zarn voice), Van Snowden (Zarn)

Land Of The LostNotes: Brooke Bundy has played guest roles on Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Mission: Impossible, Circle Of Fear, Night Gallery, Search, Wonder Woman, and Starman, as well as being the first chief engineer of the new Enterprise in the second episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (whose first season seemed to have a new chief engineer nearly every week). Marvin Miller would go on to be the omnipresent voice of the narrator throughout another Sid & Marty Krofft series, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl a year later.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Planet Of The Apes The Animated Series

Escape From Ape City

Planet Of The ApesBill has been captured by the apes and taken back to their city, where the ape scientists, Cornelius and Zira, express an interest in him. That interest keeps Bill from being subjected to brutal slave labor or taking part in ape war games, but when he learns that Zira and Cornelius plan to perform surgery on his brain, Bill voices his objections…which stuns his captors, who have never met a human intelligent enough to speak. Bill plots not only his own escape, but plans to free the rest of the humans captured by the apes.

Order the DVDswritten by Larry Spiegel
directed by Cullen Houghtaling
music by Dean Elliott

Voice Cast: Tom Williams (Bill Hudson), Claudette Nevins (Judy Franklin), Austin Stoker (Jeff Carter), Henry Corden (Dr. Cornelius), Tress MacNeille (Dr. Zira), Henry Corden (General Urko)

Return to The Planet Of The ApesNotes: The first few minutes of this episode basically repeat some of the major plot points of the original Planet Of The Apes movie; Bill is called “Blue Eyes” (as opposed to Taylor being called “Bright Eyes” in the film), and the revelation that he can speak plays out similarly to that of Taylor in the movie, again making it easier to regard this as a reboot from the ground up, rather than a part of the original film and TV continuity.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

The Fine Art Of Diplomacy

The Invisible ManWhen priceless pieces of art go missing, replaced by forgeries, the Klae Resource is called into action. Daniel is happy to help try to solve the mystery, but he’s less thrilled with the plan that calls for his wife to distract the suspected art thief, a foreign ambassador, by any means necessary. Unfortunately for both of them, the ambassador has quite lethal ideas on protecting his stash of priceless paintings, and evil Daniel’s invisibility may not see things through.

written by James D. Parriott
directed by Sigmund Neufeld Jr.
music by Henry Mancini

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), Ross Martin (Ambassador Diego Devega), Michael Pataki (Tandi), Paul Stewart (Mr. Wood), Vincent Beck (Gregario), Pepe Callahan (Manuel), Gwil Richards (Capitol Guard), Nicholas Lewis (1st Embassy Guard), Raymond O’Keefe (2nd Embassy Guard)

Invisible ManNotes: This is one of the earliest professional writing credits for James D. Parriott, who returned to pen several more Invisible Man scripts. He also wrote episodes of The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and The Six Million Dollar Man before embarking on a stellar career of creating and running his own shows, from Voyagers! to Misfits Of Science to Forever Knight to Defying Gravity.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

Man Of Influence

The Invisible ManThe Klae Corporation is asked to investigate reports that a shady “medium” is holding seances to allow a senator to speak to his dead wife, but is using that illusion to influence the senator’s votes. The Westins go to visit the medium, but when it appears their cover might be blown, Daniel announces that Kate is a powerful psychic with telekinetic powers. He then ducks out of sight and uses his invisibility to lend that claim some credence, winning Kate an invitation to the senator’s next seance…but until then, someone is trying to kill the Westins before they can make another appearance. It’ll be no small matter for Daniel and Kate to expose the fraudulent medium at large.

teleplay by Seeleg Lester and Rick Blaine
story by Rick Blaine
directed by Alan J. Levi
music by Pete Rugolo

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), John Vernon (Mr. Sheed), Gene Raymond (Senator Hanover), Jack Colvin (Mr. Williams), Shirley O’Hara (Margaret Hanover), Loni Anderson (Andrea Hanover), Dorothy Love (Woman), Donald Gentry (Policeman), James Standifer (Policeman), Alan Mandell (Senator Baldwin), Robert Douglas (Dr. Theophilus)

Notes: This is one of the earliest professional acting credits for Loni Anderson, just a few years before she won a starring role in WKRP In Cincinnati.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

Eyes Only

The Invisible ManA woman with access to some of the most sensitive information in Washington is believed to be selling those secrets somehow, and bodies are piling up in her wake. The Klae Resource is called into action, with Kate posing as a would-be employee interviewing for a job, while quietly allowing the invisible Daniel to investigate the leak of vital secrets. He discovers that the “spy” is herself a victim of circumstances being exploited by someone with a much darker agenda…but Carlson insists that, rather than whisking her away to safety, she has to remain visible, and vulnerable, as a decoy to draw the real villains out.

written by Leslie Stevens
directed by Alan J. Levi
music by Henry Mancini

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), Barbara Anderson (Paula Simon), William Prince (Dr. Kenneth Maynard), Bobby Van (Tony Bernard), John Kerr (Kirk), Thayer David (Jack Pierson), Frank Christi (Nick Palanzi), Vince Martorano (Joe Palanzi), Tony Swartz (Guard with dog), William Bronder (Marty), Gregory Bach (Dino), Bob Hackman (Project Worker), Vern Rowe (Cab Driver)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Invisible Man

Barnard Wants Out

The Invisible ManDaniel and Kate are assigned to visit a scientific conference in Geneva, where Daniel’s old mentor, Dr. Barnard, is expected to announce his latest breakthrough. Barnard defected to a Communist country several years ago, but the CIA has asked the Klae Resource to contact him to see if he wants to return to the western world. Going invisible and contacting Barnard is easy for Daniel, but getting himself, Kate, Barnard and his daughter back to America alive is the hard part…especially when it seems that Anna Barnard’s loyalties lie with the country in which she has grown up.

written by James D. Parriott
directed by Alan J. Levi
music by Pete Rugolo

The Invisible ManCast: David McCallum (Dr. Daniel Westin), Melinda Fee (Dr. Kate Westin), Craig Stevens (Walter Carlson), Nehemiah Persoff (Dr. Leon Barnard), Jane Actman (Anna), Paul Shenar (Alexi Zartov), Cliff Osmond (Elevator Guard), George Fisher (Yuri), Joe Rainer (Guard), Peter Colt (Petra), Ralph Anderson (Bell Boy), Charles Stewart (Man), Inga Neilsen (Swedish Bombshell), Macon McCalman (Consul)

LogBook entry by Earl Green