LAND OF THE GIANTS

The worst Irwin Allen show after Lost in Space, but as I have discovered, Land of the Giants (1968 - 1970) has quite the fan following. Fox Home Video recently released the final 60s Irwin Allen show on DVD in one big box; with both seasons included. Unlike the previous releases of Allen fare, the Giants set gets the star treatment: There are lots of so-called extras. Of great appeal to the die-hard fans, this set has to be to shake off its steep sticker price. You get what you pay for. (I understand there are extras on some of the other related boxed sets but they are limited in comparison to Land of the Giants.)

The premise of Giants is as follows: The suborbital spaceship Spindrift is en route to London from New York city when it passes through a cloud and lands on a planet of giant people.

Exciting stuff.

I was living in Europe the time that Land of the Giants played on ABC in first run. As there were only two years worth of episodes, 'stripping' this series (that is Monday to Friday at 5 p.m., sort of thing) was problematic. Giants would end its run in just over two months. This is the reason why I did not see it until 1983 when CKVR ran the show late at night that summer.

After taping and watching a couple of episodes, I could readily figure out why Giants was all but forgotten. It was deadly dull! The characters were empty souls -- and essentially duplicates of the Lost in Space characters -- amongst some impressive scaled-up props and outstanding optical mattes. These qualities do not make a show, however.

Land of the Giants did have an above average Johnny Williams (by now, "John") theme tune. I remember seeing the beginning of an episode on BBC-2 in England a few years ago where I was not only reminded of the clarity inherent in the PAL television system but was also treated to a different -- and excellent -- opening title sequence and musical theme. I did not realize this series had a different opening treatment in its second year, and a super-charged one at that. You learn something every day.

I guess the producers were trying to spice up and hyper-energize the second year, figuring the audience was cold to the lack of character development and scripting in the first.

Check out the first season opening title sequence from Land of the Giants... (I love that tremolo tuba!)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pC_FlESYtjI