For those who haven't already picked up the three complete season boxed sets of the Krofft Brothers' beloved seventies kids show, Land Of The Last, Rhino has seen fit to bundle them all up and slap'em inside a fancy boxed set so that you can own the complete series in one convenient package! Let's get this out of the way right now – there's nothing in this set, save for the box that holds the three season sets, that isn't included in the individual sets. There's no reason to shell out for this set if you bought the earlier sets as they came out, unless you're really into boxes.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it followed the adventures of Rick Marshall (Spencer Mulligan) and his two kids, Holly (Kathy Coleman) and Will (Wesley Eures), who, while out on a rafting voyage, got smacked outside the head by a giant earthquake that sent them tearing down a waterfall into a strange land where dinosaurs ruled the earth once more. To make matters worse for the three family members, this strange land also happens to be overrun by a race of nasty bug-men known as the Sleestak, and by some friendlier by no less bizarre sasquatch like monkey-men known as the Pakuni. The opening theme song more or less sets this all up for you in about a minute's time, and it gets you up to speed with all you need to know right out of the starting gate.

Each and every week, Rick, Holly and Will would try and figure out how to get out of the Land Of The Lost without getting eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Grumpy and make it back home to the land that they came from. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a series if that was an easy task, so no matter how hard they tried to make it out of there, things just didn't work out for them.

The three unwilling but intrepid explorers tried to make the best of their time in the strange world they found themselves in. They made friends with a younger Pakuni named Cha-Ka (Philip Paley) and with a baby brontosaurus that they came to know as Dopey. They learned to harvest the giant sized fruits and vegetables that grew in the area so that they were able to have something to eat, and fresh water was available in abundance.

Despite what are now some very obviously dated and low budget special effects, the first season of the show is pretty creative and offers up some original ideas on what is basically a science fiction retelling of The Swiss Family Robinson. The Krofft Brothers were smart enough to hire on a few noted science fiction types to bring some fresh ideas to the series, notably Walter Koenig and Larry Niven, and while the premise isn't breaking any new ground, some of the ideas that were executed within the seventeen episodes of the inaugural 1974 season did.

The interesting mix of live human actors, claymation critters, puppet monsters and blue screen effects on top of some creative, if repetitive, sets gave the show a very fresh look that even today, despite the fact that it's kind of hokey looking by modern standards, just looks plain cool. The acting might be a little cheesy, but this was a kid's show after all and it is certainly no worse than most of the children's television programming that was on the air in the seventies. The three leads were likeable enough and we're able to feel for them, which makes their adventures a little more interesting than they would be otherwise.

Highlights from the first season include the first episode in which the Marhsall's meet Cha-Ka and the Pakuni for the first time. It isn't the strongest opening the series could have had but it introduces us to many of the main characters well enough. 'The Sleestak God' is interesting in that we meet the bug-men for the first time as the Marhsall's find out the hard way that, yes, they are quite hostile. The Sleestak were some of the coolest bad guys to be featured in the show and their first appearance here is a good one. In 'Downstream' Rick decides to follow the river in hopes of getting out of the time warp but instead winds up in a cave with a crazy old Civil War veteran – interestingly enough in this episode they mention how certain mushrooms can have strange properties – read into that what you will. Enik shows up later in the series, and his appearance in 'The Search' is a lot of fun as we find out more about this time traveling Sleestak from the past who first appeared in 'The Stranger.'

When the first season came to a close with 'The Circle' Enik shows up to tell the Marhsall's that the reason they cannot get home is that they're caught in time warp. In order to get out, they'll have to relive the events that they've just gone through, which makes the re-runs that would follow between this episode and the first episode of the second season kind of make sense from a continuity perspective.

The complete episode listing for the first season of Land of the Lost is as follows:

Cha-Ka
The Sleestak God
Dopey
Downstream
Tag-Team
The Stranger
Album
Skylons
The Hole
The Paku Who Came To Dinner
The Search
The Possession
Follow That Dinosaur
Stone Soup
Elsewhen
Hurricane
Circle

The success of the first season lead to the show getting picked up again, and all of the main characters returned for more fun in the swamps but this time around, a lot of the originality that made the first season so enjoyable was gone and the show was starting to get repetitive. This time around, the seasons had thirteen episodes instead of seventeen, but there are still some shining moments in here that fans of the show will definitely appreciate.

The Marhsall family is definitely more comfortable and at home in the second season. They've been here a while now and are starting to know the in's and out's of the Land of the Lost. The writers threw in some new supporting characters and a few new locations and sets to explore, but most of this second season is more of the same.

Highlights this time around include 'The Zarn' where the Marhsall's discover a massive swamp to explore. When they enter the swamp they find a spaceship made of light that houses some intelligent aliens known as The Zarn. In 'One Of Our Pylons Is Missing!' the Marhsall's discover that something in the area is swallowing up rocks, stones, or whatever else it happens to find – including the Marhall's themselves! In 'Babysitter' Rick and Will go for the bright idea of leaving Cha-Ka in charge of Holly while they go exploring. Things obviously go wrong, proving that it's just not very bright to leave a child under the not so watchful eye of a monkey-man. In 'Split Personality' the Marshall's meet an alternate universe relative when a giant earthquake rocks their world.

At the end of the second season, in the 'Blackout' episode, Rick Marshall would disappear after the Sleestak sabotage the pylon and send the land into darkness. Enik tries to help but it's too little too late. The loss of Rick would really hurt the show when it got renewed again for a third, and completely lackluster season of thirteen more episodes as Rick would be replaced with the likeable but rather dull Uncle Jack (Ron Harper).

The complete episode listing for the second season of Land of the Lost is as follows:

Tar Pit
The Zarn
Fair Trade
One Of Our Pylons Is Missing
The Test
Gravity Storm
The Longest Day
The Pylon Express
A Nice Day
Baby Sitter
The Musician
Split Personality
Blackout

In the season opener, 'Aftershock,' with Rick sucked into a time portal, Will and Holly see something fall from the sky. They go to investigate and find out that it's Uncle Jack and soon enough it's business as usual for the Marshall family.

With Dad replaced and Uncle in check, the adventures continued for twelve more episodes but that was to be the end of it, Land Of The Lost did not come back for a fourth season and the noticeable drop off in quality this time out inferred that maybe that was for the best. That being said, again, there are some moments in the third chunk of the story that are fun. In 'The Orb' Will finds himself with an unusual problem – he's turned invisible! To make matters worse, the Sleestaks are running around doing the evil bidding of their god, Malek (played by Richard Kiel from Moonraker). In 'Cornered' Will finds himself the lucky winner of a poisoning, thanks to an oddball dinosaur that is able to breathe fire. More Sleestak mayhem makes for an enjoyable episode. Malek returns in 'The Flying Dutchman' and this time, he's messing with a pirate ship that has somehow managed to work its way into the storyline. 'The Abominable Snowman' is another fun episode, as Cha-Ka and Holly decide to get domestic and bake cakes while Jack and Will befriend a unicorn while an abominable snowman runs around. It doesn't make much sense, but a lot happens and it's never dull.

It all winds down when the final episode of the series, 'Medicine Man,' comes rolling around. A completely stereotypical Native American Indian shows up and brings a soldier along with him for the ride. They're both sick and at each other's throats a bit but the manage to sort out their differences before the ending, which leaves the family there for good and closes on a musical note with Will busting out a song that brings it all to a rather lackluster close.

The complete episode listing for the third and final season of Land of the Lost is as follows:

After-Shock
Survival Kit
The Orb
Repairman
Medusa
Cornered
Flying Dutchman
Hot-Air Artist
The Abominable Snowman
Timestop
Ancient Guardian
Scarab
Medicine Man

In the end, the good outweighs the bad for Land of the Lost. Not every episode is a classic and in fact, a few of them are downright terrible but the series remains a lot of fun, even if a large part of where that fun stems from is the nostalgia that the show brings home. If you enjoyed it as a kid you'll more than likely still get a big kick out of this material and if you've never experienced it before, the series still stands as a unique forerunner to a lot of would could and would be done with animation and live action mix mashing in the future. As a kid's show, it does work, even if it is on a rather primitive level, and the fact that it's cult following has endured and even strengthened a bit since it went off the air almost thirty years ago is a testament to how enjoyable it really is.

Video:

The fullframe 1.33.1 image is merely adequate, and hardly spectacular. The opening credits effects look pretty rough mainly because the effects work is so painfully obvious – but that's half the charm of the series. Once you get to the actual episodes, things do improve a bit, but still aren't exactly reference quality. The show was shot on tape and it shows, as the image is quite soft and slightly faded with some ghosting evident here and there. Thankfully there aren't any serious problems with print damage, dirt, or debris on the episodes. The colors look like they could have been bumped up a bit in the brightness department and the skin tones look just a tad too pale in a couple of spots but you won't have any issues watching this stuff – it looks as good as it ever has. The retro style effects have never been more obvious than they are here on these DVDs, but again, that's half the fun.