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This long-awaited release of Irwin Allen's last TV show of the 1960's,
does not disappoint!It was the most expensive show on Television at the
time of it's initial airing and is, what seems to be the most expensive
TV show released on DVD thus far! This is an ultra-nice special edition,
though!The extras are very nice, very well done.The most important thing
to me is the quality of the episodes themselves, though.
As another reviewer noted, these are superior to the
Columbia House DVD releases of a couple years ago.
I can tell you it is far superior!!!
The visual image quality makes this show so riveting, I can't turn away
from the it!This show should definitely be watched at night to appreciate
it in the best way.The earliest episodes(probably #'s 1-19, or thereabouts),
best showcase the strange planet's atmosphere and the environment that the
seven castaways of the Spindrift find themselves within.The forest that they
have landed in has a strange, enchanting, magical feeling to it-very dark and
mysterious.The vivid, bright colors of the outfits that the cast wear(and their
spaceship, the Spindrift), stand out intensely amid the dark surroundings.
As stated in an earlier review, the episodes make the most sense when watched
in the production order they were originally made in.These are as follows
(for the first 19 episodes):
01.The Crash
02.The Weird World
03.The Trap
04.The Bounty Hunter
05.The Golden Cage
06.The Lost Ones
07.Manhunt
08.Framed
09.The Creed
10.The Flight Plan
11.Underground
12.Double Cross
13.On A Clear Night-You Can See Earth
14.Ghost Town
15.Brainwash
16.Terror-Go-Round
17.Sabotage
18.Genius At Work
19.Deadly Lodestone(sequel to The Creed).
The ABC network/and or 20th Century Fox, made a tremendous mistake in not airing
these episodes in the proper sequence, as there is important character develop-
ment in so many of these("The Bounty Hunter" was the 15th episode shown
and doesn't make a whole lot of sense that far in, when it was the 4th
episode filmed!"The Trap", is another obviously early entry).
The second season of Giants(filmed on a somewhat decreased budget), although
done in a different way, is still very fascinating.
There are alot of the kind of the same sort of stories
about helping various giants out of fixes(like in the first season),
but more interestingly than that, a more science fiction, technologically
oriented approach with some fantastic entries:("A Place Called Earth",
"Land Of The Lost","The Secret City Of Limbo" and "Graveyard Of Fools" come to
mind most strongly), that advance the geography and weird possibilities that are
to be found on this strange planet.It doesn't seem to be just a repeat of what
went before in the first season and that in itself is a good thing.
Of the filmed extras on the set, the interviews(from the time of the filming of
"The Fantasy Worlds Of Irwin Allen"), are more expansive and encompassing than
what was seen in that previous documentary.Gary Conway's,Deanna Lund's and
particularlly, Stefen Arngrim's are the most insightful and revealing,
with Arngrim's being especially hysterical at times and his reflections
on what he thought this weird planet and the themes of the show, were supposed
to be about(for example: a parallel world much like earth, only bigger).Gary
Conway is very earnest and serious about the show, which I think has always been
evident, and his comments are very much appreciative of the show.One of the best
things about this set, in my opinion,are the silent home movies on Irwin Allen's
direction of the filming of "The Crash".After a rather flat opening sequence with
many of Irwin's(unidentified) crew sitting around in Allen's Production room,
things get decidely more interesting and revealing.There is an extended sequence,
of the filming of an ending for "The Crash",
that was clipped from the final version of the aired episode,
in which the men are busying themselves trying to repair the ship's
radio,as the rest of the cast
sit nearby.It seems to involve a gag where Chipper
(Barry's dog), has a wad of cash from Fitzhugh's briefcase that was filled with an
ill-gotten million dollars and is trotting around with it in his mouth.There are
scenes of men pouring out fog from machines into the atmospheric forest set and
scenes of various cast members going through dress rehearsals and discussion of
their scenes to be filmed.I really love the way they show the forest set,which looks
like it is bathed in black-lights and everything that is in color looks like it is
standing out in a sort of day-glo, dream-like manner.....too cool!
Great scenes of the Spindrift there, too.An odd, but funny thing, is the goofy looking
green planet(with a patch on it in the bottom corner),which was fortunately, optically
altered to look like a pulsating, shifting other-dimensional transparent green mist that
the Spindrift passes through in the finished pilot.The final scene on the home movies,
is a bizarre shot of a mock-up of the interior of the cockpit of the Spindrift being
pushed through the fog-filled set by about a half-dozen men(detailed in the rare and
out-of-print 1969 book by John Gregory Dunne, "The Studio", where in 19 pages within
the book, he relates the behind-the-scenes filming of Land Of The Giants pilot
"The Crash" and other Irwin Allen sroductions, being filmed and in the planning stages.
In the book, this particular scene is related as such:
"The shot was finally ready, and Allen, still drinking orange juice, checked the camera.
A cut-out of the spacecraft's cockpit was canted on a platform that the crew would roll
forward through the giant-sized underbrush, simulating the crash landing.Allen's camera
was placed to the rear of the platform and would photograph the crash over the space
ship's control panel and out of the cockpit window.Allen was in good humor and began
feeling the muscles of the crew members who would push the platform.'Okay fellows',
he said, 'When I say go, shake, rock, roll and return.This is jiffy productions,
instant crashes of ultramodern space ships.'He yelled for some fog and a prop man
laid a coverlet of artificial fog over the set.'Action', Allen shouted.
Shake, Rock, Roll ,Return.'The crew pushed the platform, their muscles straining.
the spacecraft scuttled through the underbrush and the fog.'Cut', Allen said.
he stood with his hands on his hips, a look of displeasure on his face.'Fellows',
he said deliberately, 'it wasn't fast enough.This is a spaceship.It is not a Spad.
You remember the Spad.It's an old World War I airplane.A Spad is not supposed to go
faster than a spaceship.But it just did'.He beamed.'You've got to push, fellows.
you've got to put your hearts into it'The cockpit was rolled back and the greenery
replaced.The old fog was blown away and new fog laid down.The bell rang and the stage
went silent.Allen called for action and the platform moved slowly forward,
the crew straining, the ship gathering speed.'Push', Allen shouted.'Push, put your
heart into it, think of the beer tonight, push, push'.The platform ground to a halt.
Beautiful', Allen said.'Print it.One spaceship crash'.
Another great scene detailed in the book is where Allen is directing Conway and
Lund in the laboratory scene when they are about to be captured by the giants and
scotch-taped to some glass slides to be dissected.The scene where they are up on the
counter-top with the needle and thread, about to
shimmy down the side of the table to make their escape goes like this:
'Let's run through this from the top',Allen shouted down.
Conway and Deanna Lund started across the desk top.It was so large that it took up
nearly a third of the sound stage.'Good,good',Allen said.'Now up on the drawers.
Good.Start knotting the thread.Deanna- now!You hear the giant.Hide,hide,hide.
Beautiful, beautiful. Behind the jar now'.Allen was peering through the camera.
I'm picking up your fanny, Gary.Move in farther.Deanna, I've got your fanny now.
It's lovely, but not for home consumption.Beautiful, we get this in the master,
we're a bunch of geniuses'.
priceless!
Unfortunately, this scene is not in the home movies.How cool would that be, to see
Irwin mouthing the words to all of this and being able to know exactly what was being
said?Also, in the book, there is a part where the casting director has found 'a man
with a pipe and a boy with a toy gun', and they say that they will be 'using them
later'.They are referring to the opening scenes of "The Weird World", the next episode
to be filmed.Very fascinating stuff).
Needless to say, the also included 'unseen pilot', has some revealing things in it also
at the beginning and end - scenes that were not used in the final version of the pilot,
including some hysterically funny things with Deanna Lund).Though, the majority of it
is seen in the later(better, tighter)finished version.It is still worth having - and
it looks absolutely flawless!The theme song is completely different, very low-key and
sort of beatnik-y.The later themes that they used are much more dynamic and exciting,
conveying a magnificent scope of gigantic-ness.The music within each episode of the series is sometimes jazzy,
many times forlorn and at times,lumbering, moody and somnambulent....which moves things
at a sometimes slow-moving pace, at other times,
with a faster-moving, dynamic, exciting thrust to it,
propelling things forward.The music seems to play a strong part
in the series, enhancing the atmosphere.After not seeing this series
for 17 years and having fond memories of it visually, I finally saw it in 1987 and
was really surprised at how good the show actually was and how well it was written.I was
very surprised by it.Not that every episode is great, because they are not all.
But in what TV show is every single episode great?
To sum things up, all in all, a very worthwhile and lovingly well- produced set.Worth it to
every true fan of the series.I paid $150.00 for it.I know that it is expensive, but I think
Worth it.If you download this show from an on-line source, such as Amazon, you will not get this kind of visual quality, depth and brilliance.
Hopefully in the near future, Fox will re-release Lost In Space in
a re-mastered, restored format with(thus so far unseen)color home movies from that series pilot,also!
Happy future viewings to all!
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Reviews with images
Older tv series ,very watchable .
Arrived today, brand new and in excellent condition, thanks . Is region 2/PAL dvds , but not a problem for me , I have a multiregion DVD player
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