Looking for Marshall, Will, and Holly

Barb Sherrill — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:34:05 -0700

Will Farrell's Land of the Lost opened this weekend.

I have a confession to make: I was a huge fan of the original Saturday morning tv's Land of the Lost as a kid. A huge fan.

So huge, in fact, that my friends and I would play Land of the Lost with our Barbies. We'd gather the requisite Barbies (usually two Kens and a Skipper), put them in their Barbie-sized raft (I had a Barbie camping set--complete with blow-up raft, tent, and dune buggy...awesome!), and sing "Plunged them down a thousand feet below!" from the theme song as we pushed the Barbies in their raft over the side of the bed.

I loved growing up in the '70s.

The SciFi channel recently ran a Land of the Lost marathon, where you could once again see the adventures of Marshall, Will, and Holly--and Cha-Ka and the Sleestaks and that dinosaur they befriended whose name I can't remember.

I had to tune in.

Let me tell you, though, this is one television show that has not stood the test of time.

I was actually able to watch for all of, like, 90 seconds before I had to turn it off. Between the bad acting, writing, sets, props, and pretty much everything else associated with that show, I couldn't watch.

After having caught a glimpse of my childhood tv fav again, I told a friend that I'm going to hold on to my "younger day" memories of Land of the Lost (when I would sing that theme song over and over and over at the top of my lungs and couldn't wait for Saturday mornings to come) and not let my 21st-century sensibilities sour my feelings about that doomed routine expedition.

You see, there was something clumsy and fun and organic and completely imperfect about that show in the '70s--and we kids loved it. Marshall, Will, and Holly were not telling us how to dress, or how much money we should have, or how cool we should be. I'm not sure kids get the same kind of charming (innocent!) entertainment anymore. I watch tv for the under-12 crowd sometimes, and it all seems very shiny and perfect and polished these days, which doesn't seem to leave much room for kids to be clumsy and fun and organic and completely imperfect.

I'm not one to glorify the good ol' days (good grief, there was a lot going wrong in the '70s too), but I do think we could use a little more organic and imperfect and just plain ol' fun in what we watch.

After all, when was the last time you sang a television theme song at the top of your lungs?