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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Scientists caught with their pants down, again
Category: Humor
Posted on: June 15, 2009 8:29 AM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: tsig | June 15, 2009 8:43 AM
You can cut it's hair to look like a lion but it's still a dog.
Posted by: maddogdelta | June 15, 2009 8:48 AM
I thought both were obliterated by their own massive gravitational pull of suck, creating an object with so much suck that no light of creativity can escape....
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 15, 2009 8:51 AM
Well at least the former was what it was. A campy 70's kids show.
I haven't and won't see the movie. It looks terrible and Will Farrell grates on my nerves.
Posted by: TGAP Dad | June 15, 2009 8:55 AM
There were (consumer) videotapes in 1976? We were early adopters, and got our first Betamax in 1977. And the only tapes you could buy were blank.
Posted by: maddogdelta | June 15, 2009 8:59 AM
@RevBigDumbChimp #3
Good point... however, as an official old fart, I will point out that it never came anywhere near the standards of "Schoolhouse Rock", "Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner hour" or "Johnny Quest"
Now get off my lawn!
Posted by: Mike K | June 15, 2009 9:01 AM
Can someone please explain that pop-culture reference to some poor schmuck from Germany? I don't get it.
Posted by: MPG | June 15, 2009 9:08 AM
Ah, but Land of the Lost is on DVD, and there were no DVDs in the 1970s! In fact, DVDs were not launched as a consumer product until 1996. Clearly this is evidence of a young Earth. I have just proven you Darwinists wrong!
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 15, 2009 9:12 AM
True, but it did fall right in line with the Sid and Kroft's other offerings, namely Sigmund and the Seamonsters, the Bugaloos and HR Pufnstuff.
Nothing was as good as the Bugs Bunny / Roadrunner hour.
Posted by: Zeno | June 15, 2009 9:14 AM
It's Jonny Quest, not Johnny. (And here I thought I was among experts!)
Posted by: maddogdelta | June 15, 2009 9:20 AM
@RevBigDumbChimp #8
Oh, yes....the era of "while tripping on acid, I thought of a new kid's TV show...
@Zeno #9
It's Jonny Quest, not Johnny. (And here I thought I was among experts!)
Dammit....
Posted by: Boudica | June 15, 2009 9:23 AM
Well, as long as we're correcting misspellings...it's Will Ferrell, not Farrell....
Posted by: Victor
|
June 15, 2009 9:27 AM
Well, I was a fan of Land of the Lost. Since I was 5 and into sci fi and dinosaurs, it pretty much had my name written all over it. I rented the DVDs sometime last year and watched them on Saturday morning while eating a big bowl of sugary cereal. Good times ...
No intention of seeing the movie, though. Has Episode 1 taught us nothing?
Posted by: Jim Vermouth | June 15, 2009 9:29 AM
VHS : Betamax :: YHWH : Baal.
Now it all makes sense.
Posted by: lordshipmayhem
|
June 15, 2009 9:30 AM
And here I thought I was among experts!
Whenever I'm accused of being an 'expert', I remind the person giving me the misguided compliment of what the definition of an 'expert' is:
"ex": has-been
"spurt": drip under pressure.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
June 15, 2009 9:30 AM
Hey, I liked the first season of the original Land of the Lost. It was kinda spooky and mysterious, unlike pretty much all other kid's shows at the time. (And I was a kid, so, yeah.)
And have we all forgotten about the 1991 Land of the Lost? *tsk tsk*
Posted by: damnedyankee | June 15, 2009 9:52 AM
Hahaha! Thanks for getting my day off to a good start, PZ.
Mike K, Land of the Lost was a live action kids' tv show in the 1970's that showed on Saturday mornings. It was about a family of explorers who ended up marooned in a land of dinosaurs, cavemen, and lizard people. The extremely cheesy special effects made the average episode of old school Doctor Who look like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but that was state of the art for 1970's kids' shows anyway back then.
Trivia tidbit: According to Sid and Marty Krofft, the original title of the series was going to be Lost. But they thought that was too minimalist, so they changed it.
Posted by: JSW | June 15, 2009 9:57 AM
Can't we reach a compromise and simply place the show in the early '90s?
Posted by: Jeff Eyges | June 15, 2009 10:15 AM
If they'll give PhD's to Kurt Wise and Marcus Ross, why not Will Ferrell?
As annoying as he can be, he still contributes more to humanity.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
June 15, 2009 10:17 AM
@JSW #17: Nope, the '90s show is a transitional fossil, leaving two more gaps.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 15, 2009 10:21 AM
I can't remember which thread it was but Janine and I had a massive "70's kids show"-off. There are lots of prime examples there.
Probably in one of the threads that will not die threads.
Posted by: Richard Smith | June 15, 2009 10:28 AM
As an aside, no matter how much "evidence" might be offered to the contrary, it will never change my opinion that Pufnstuff is not a dragon.
Posted by: Acronym Jim | June 15, 2009 10:32 AM
Jeff Eyges@18
I know that every time I hear a new Will Ferrell movie is coming out, the first phrase that pops into my mind is "oh, the humanity"!
Posted by: varlo | June 15, 2009 10:39 AM
Doddering old fools like me had no TV to watch while we were growing up, but we had Jack Armstrong and Captain Midnight on the radio, and a Dick Tracy serial followed by a Hopalong Cassidy movie on Saturdays. Admission: 10 cents. Eat your hearts out, Boomers.
Posted by: Janine, OMnivore | June 15, 2009 10:58 AM
Chimp, the thread was easy to find. All I did was search for The Herculiods. The link goes to when you first brought up Schmoo. But SC, you and me were already linking to strange robotic themed songs. I wish I could blame it on eating too much Crunchberries.
Posted by: Mike K | June 15, 2009 11:03 AM
@16 damnedyankee:
Thank you for the explanation!
Posted by: Michael Simpson | June 15, 2009 11:06 AM
I never watched Land of the Lost. I was too busy writing love letters to Marsha Brady.
Posted by: Blondin | June 15, 2009 11:08 AM
I'm a bit too old to have watched Land of the Lost but I do remember it being on TV. Am I confusing it with something else or did Walter Koenig have some involvement with that show?
Does anybody remember a British kids' space-opera that had these little spherical robots, one of which was voiced by Windsor Davies? Mid '80s I think.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
June 15, 2009 11:09 AM
The controversy raged for a few minutes, then everyone said, chuck it, and it won't matter when it arose.
I still say it was made by the moron who designed our backs, though. No, not that it matters.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Posted by: Bob Carroll | June 15, 2009 11:12 AM
Continuing Varlo's lesson: In addition to the thrills of Jack Armstrong (the All-American Boy!) we had on the radio Tom Mix (actually he was dead at that time, brought to you from the grave by Shredded Ralston,) Terry and the pirates, the Lone Ranger, of course, and The Shadow (The weeds of crime bear bitter fruit...)The transition to TV brought us the joys of Howdy Doody and Captain Video- talk about cheesy effects!)
ah, the grim old days! Bob
Posted by: Ramases | June 15, 2009 11:12 AM
The real question, that no-one so far has had the courage to point out, is how did the programs we have today get here when the 70s ones were so primitive????
No-one is seriously going to tell me that programs like "The Bill" or "Law and Order" evolved from the campy crap of the 1970s!!
The differences are too great, there must have been some kind of inteligent design.
The idea that what we have today evolved from such primitive forms is laughable.
Posted by: littlejohn | June 15, 2009 11:17 AM
Jebus, by the 1970s I was drinking martinis and worrying about my hairline. What is all this crap? Where's my goddamn cane?
Posted by: Julian | June 15, 2009 11:26 AM
Wasnt there a land of the lost remake series in the late 80s/early 90s? I seem to remember waching such a thing as a kid.
Posted by: raven | June 15, 2009 11:28 AM
Don't remember any of those. Wasn't even born then.
How old are you anyway?
Posted by: stogoe | June 15, 2009 11:34 AM
I want JJ Abrams to helm a TV series reimagining of Land of the Lost. Well, besides Lost. If someone could do for LotL what Ron Moore did for BSG, I think it could be really great. Too bad SciFy spends the bulk of their budget on the Saturday Night B-Movie.
The movie wasn't all that good, to be honest. I think Will Ferrell has some great works in his ouvre (Elf, Anchorman, Old School), but this clearly wasn't one of them.
Posted by: Roadtripper
|
June 15, 2009 11:36 AM
The Saturday-morning effects may have been cheezy, but check out the list of scriptwriters for the original show:
David Gerrold
Larry Niven
Norman Spinrad
Walter Koenig
Ben Bova
D.C. Fontana
Theodore Sturgeon
Not bad for a 'campy Saturday morning kiddie show.'
Rt
Posted by: Roadtripper
|
June 15, 2009 11:39 AM
The Saturday-morning effects may have been cheezy, but check out the list of scriptwriters for the original show:
David Gerrold
Larry Niven
Norman Spinrad
Walter Koenig
Ben Bova
D.C. Fontana
Theodore Sturgeon
Not bad for a 'campy Saturday morning kiddie show.'
Rt
Posted by: jj | June 15, 2009 11:39 AM
@32
Sure thing! I remember it very well myself. Good old Saturday morning programming...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Lost_(1991_TV_series)
Posted by: electrichalibut | June 15, 2009 11:42 AM
Blondin@27: That was Terrahawks; one of Gerry Anderson's post-Thunderbirds efforts. Windsor Davies voiced Sergeant Major Zero, who commanded a crack troop of what appeared to be metal footballs.
Posted by: Peter Ashby | June 15, 2009 11:43 AM
Seeing we are discussing children's TV inspired by popping acid, did any of you Americans ever see The Magic Roundabout? And RevBDG thanks for reminding me of HR Pufnstuff, but that was small beer compared to Zebedee and Dylan, not forgetting Brian the Snail.
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | June 15, 2009 12:31 PM
Sleestak were WAY scarier than cylons.
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | June 15, 2009 12:35 PM
oh... and the cheesy 70s kids show I want to see made into a bad movie is Ark 2000. Probably nobody remembers that one.
Posted by: DLC | June 15, 2009 12:45 PM
As none of the other geeks will bring it up :
World of Warcraft has a sort of 'tribute to Land of the Lost' area. Un'goro crater in Kalimdor. Then, moving on to Northrend, you have Un'goro's complement, Sholazar Basin, which has in it a small island on a lake with a metal hatch. The hatch has a series of 6 numbers on it. . .
Obviously computer games evolved from TV shows!
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
June 15, 2009 12:53 PM
@Jafafa Hots #41:
Do you mean Ark II?
I have that DVD set. *blushes*
Posted by: Phrogge | June 15, 2009 1:08 PM
Sky King... Sergeant Preston of the Yukon... Bobbie Benson and the BRB riders... plunk your magic twanger, Froggie!... Little Orphan Annie...
And for your 10 cents, you could stay in the theatre for hours: newsreel, travelogue, cartoons, serials, previews, features; and nobody chased you out if you stayed for the next showings, too, or at least so I recall.
Posted by: Phrogge | June 15, 2009 1:10 PM
Sky King... Sergeant Preston of the Yukon... Bobbie Benson and the BRB riders... plunk your magic twanger, Froggie!... Little Orphan Annie...
And for your 10 cents, you could stay in the theatre for hours: newsreel, travelogue, cartoons, serials, previews, features; and nobody chased you out if you stayed for the next showings, too, or at least so I recall.
Posted by: Phrogge | June 15, 2009 1:12 PM
Dammit, I KNOW not to do that!! Not sure why it happened... jittery finger, perhaps. Sorry!
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
June 15, 2009 1:20 PM
That's okay, Phrogge. We expect the elderly to repeat themselves. ^_^
Posted by: magista | June 15, 2009 1:27 PM
@Blondin, you remember correctly. Walter Koenig is credited as a writer for one episode of Land of the Lost. But that reminds me of another Koenig vehicle...
LotL is practically Shakespearean when compared with the wonder that is the Canadian production, The Starlost (aka The Ark in US syndication). Despite the presence of Keir Dullea (late of 2001) and being the creation of Harlan Ellison - you think he'd have learned after "City on the Edge of Forever"...
I was 8 at the time. I used to get up early on Saturday to make sure that the TV was warmed up enough before it came on. Man, I loved that show...
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | June 15, 2009 1:34 PM
Yes, Ark II (I had a feeling I had the name wrong)
That was one strange show... but to me it epitomizes the 1970s vibe more than anything else.
Posted by: Mark Borok | June 15, 2009 2:19 PM
Land of the Lost was original and well-written, and was possibly the only show to actually use serious science (the idea of space-time being curved, a nifty plot based on the differences in air pressure at two ends of a wormhole causing a hurricane that keeps growing). A real linguist was hired to create the pakuni language. Moreover, the message to kids was the most science-friendly and encouraging to study the world around them. Basically, it was that, no matter how strange things may seem, there is a logic to everything and all you need to do is understand what makes things work. This is pretty much the core of what the scientific, skeptical community is all about. Exploration and discovery in the LotL aren't merely fun, but are necessary to survival.
I re-watched the first season and found it to be pretty much as exciting as I remembered. The second season, with a different creative team, was not as good, IMO. You also have to remember that David Gerrold was asked to create a sci fi show out of a bunch of random pictures the Kroffts cut out of magazines.
Posted by: Die Anyway | June 15, 2009 3:05 PM
The previews I've seen of the Will Ferrell version have put me off completely. I have enjoyed some campy movies but this one is too far gone.
As for the Sid & Marty Krofft version, I was way beyond children's programming by that time. My childhood, like a few others repliers, involved Bugs, Slyvester, Tom & Jerry, and a plethora of cowboys... Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid (Hey Pancho. Hey Ceesco.), Hop-a-long Cassidy and Davey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier.
Posted by: James F | June 15, 2009 3:35 PM
Everybody sing along!
Marshall, Will, and Holly
On a routine expedition
Met the greatest earthquake ever known
High on the rapids
It struck their tiny raft
And plunged them down a thousand feet below
To the Land of the Lost....
P.S.: Anyone remember the episode where the Mirror Man (or whatever his name was, some alien) sends a screeching, bird-like robot after our heroes? "Say hello...to Fred." Scared the hell out of me as a kid.
Posted by: Noadi | June 15, 2009 3:58 PM
I wasn't yet born when the original LotL aired but I grew up watching the '90s remake and it was one of my favorite shows on Saturday morning. I caught some of the marathon of the original series on SciFi and ignoring the cheap effects the episodes I saw were pretty good.
Will Ferrell makes me want to rip my hair out whenever I see him because he always plays the same character so I think I'll skip this one.
Posted by: JJR | June 15, 2009 4:30 PM
There was a 1991 remake? Whoah! Totally off my radar screen. Had to check IMDB to confirm. Had no idea.
More of an early 1980s thing, but I really liked The Tomorrow People when it came over from the UK and got airtime on Nickelodeon. It was my after-school ritual to watch that show. I think it must've whetted my appetite for Doctor Who later on.
Posted by: John | June 15, 2009 5:34 PM
Hey - Anchorman was a classic!
Posted by: John | June 15, 2009 5:35 PM
Hey - Anchorman was a classic!
Posted by: Qwerty | June 15, 2009 6:51 PM
My contribution to this "nostalgia" thread is "Clutch Cargo & His Pals" which had the cheapest animation and was about a pilot of a cargo plane. For more on this:
http://www.toontracker.com/clutchcargo/cargo.htm
I also enjoyed the many Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows as well as all the Warner Brothers cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the cat, et. al.). My oldest sister was greatly amused when Sylvester the Cat cartoons first appeared at the movies palaces (remember those) as our father's name was Sylvester.
Posted by: wprd | June 15, 2009 9:32 PM
What show was "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggie" from. (too tired to look it up.)
In the fiftees the local Chicago channel (WGN Channel 9) showed the Flash Gordon series from the thirties. It was real cheezy but fun. It was also my first introduction to classical music. The used Liszt's Les Preludes as background music.
Posted by: astrounit | June 16, 2009 2:40 AM
I have a quite excellent theoretical reason to suspect that the ENTIRE FRIGGIN' UNIVERSE was created as a WHOLE only a Planck time unit ago (10^-43 second).
EVERY 10^-43 second. Whack whack whack.
Unfortunately I can't get a consensus out of those friggin' particles. Each of them says something completely different.
Steangely, kind of like humans who, in a particular group involving a particular cause, fritter away their commonality in favor of the sanctity of the individual, aka NUMBER ONE.
Posted by: astrounit | June 16, 2009 4:09 AM
I have a quite excellent theoretical reason to suspect that the ENTIRE FRIGGIN' UNIVERSE was created as a WHOLE only a Planck time unit ago (10^-43 second).
EVERY 10^-43 second. Whack whack whack.
Unfortunately I can't get a consensus out of those friggin' particles. Each of them says something completely different.
Steangely, kind of like humans who, in a particular group involving a particular cause, fritter away their commonality in favor of the sanctity of the individual, aka NUMBER ONE.
Posted by: astrounit | June 16, 2009 4:42 AM
DAMN..
Now a double-post I can't even ACCOUNT for!
I'm really beginning to HATE ScienceBlogs. Absolutely spitting hatred.
WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU GUYS???
DON'T YOU LISTEN TO YOUR USERS AS WELL AS YOUR SO-CALLED EXPERTS???
HAVE THEY FIXED ANYTHING YET???
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you ever ONCE listened to to your users?
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a fine mess.
It reminds me of how the people of Iran were treated. Same basic thing - they tried to vote too, and look what they got for their efforts...
SCIENCEBLOGS: GET RID OF THE PROBLEM!!! Isn't that easy enough to understand? It's so SIMPLE!!! What's causing all of the problems is that you've bought into a spiel (no doubt for $$$) that has turned your site into a nightmare.
Do you really expect that you and your newly acquired partners have arrived at a more lucrative situation? When my machine has a 50% likelihood of crashing every half hour???
The only reason why you haven't FIXED IT yet is because you've blundered horribly into an "agreement" that prevents you from withdrawing some of the worst web behavior I've seen since JPL decided to get fancy with their flash presentation on their home page, which hardly worked at all...then tried to ameliorate the problem by KEEPING the flash and trying something "simpler"...except it still doesn't work.
But YOU guys are just as bad, because you don't listen to your USERS either!
Disgust. Absolute loss of trust. You guys blew it. Big time.
Posted by: Robert | June 16, 2009 5:22 PM
astrounit@61:
No, no, don't hold back- tell us how you really feel. :)
Posted by: Thomas A | June 16, 2009 11:13 PM
I love, love, love the original Land of the Lost. It's proof that good ideas can outshine everything else about their presentation. Just about everything about the show was flawed, but it got its ideas across, and they were brilliant.
I wasn't captivated by the 1991 remake; I should take a look at it. I didn't hate the new movie, but I seem to be firmly in the minority there. I wasn't expecting much, and the new movie didn't deliver much, so I was okay.