Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Folks, It's a Limited Edition, July 26, 2007
I'm reading the reviews about people complaining about the price and I won't dissagree that it is too high. However the package is stamped as a limited edition which means that the series might be re-issued in individual packages like the other Irwin Allen shows after a while, but who knows. My guess is that a good part of the price is simply the packaging. The extra's are not a big deal, but this is the stuff you get with limited editions, so if you think it's to high you may want to wait it out and one of two things can happen. Either they re-issue it later at a lower price or not at all. It's anyone's guess.
I've checked some of the discs and I own the original Columbia House DVD's as well, and these look better than what Columbia released. The picture quality is excellent! That said there is a problem that another reviewer mentioned, and that is the first 3 episodes of the second season have the wrong theme music on them. 'The Mechanical Man' 'Six Hours to Live' and 'The Inside Rail' all have 2nd season intro's with the 1st season music. These episodes are available on the Columbia House versions and the intro's on those discs are correct.
Except for that, I've found that these discs play well and look good, but I've still to see the entire run. Except for the price, this is not a bad set and if you can get it cheap I recommend it.
Note: Land of the Giants is best enjoyed in production order rather than broadcast order. These discs as well as others always list the shows in broadcast order and often the network that originally aired the show (abc) screwed up the order terribly. I'm a long time Irwin Allen fan and I know he is not the best at character development or continuity, but what little there is is lost when the episodes are run out of order.
Try this: The first 5 episodes should run like this - 'The Crash' 'The Weird-World' 'The Trip' 'The Bounty Hunter' and 'The Golden Cage.' The character of Mark especially changes gradually and you see them slowly adapting to there new surroundings. Because the series was originally aired out of order the second episode 'Ghost Town' is way out of place. It is actually the 14th episode!
If you are a die hard fan this doesn't matter, but if you only marginally like the show try watching it in production order. It will make a difference!
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A show this BIG deserves the full treatment!, September 30, 2007
The year was 1968 and producer Irwin Allen had already taken TV viewers on a "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," gotten them "Lost in Space," and thrown them through "The Time Tunnel." He decided that it was time now to go a journey to a "Land of the Giants."
Fans and critics alike feel that Allen was influenced by the respective films "Dr. Cyclops" (1940) and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) and that is a fair assessment. The show deals with the crew and passengers of a suborbital flight in the year 1983 that is somehow transported to a realm where they are "six inch oddities" in a land of gargantuan proportions. The setting allowed the creative staff to place the seven principal cast members in all sorts of situations/dangers, making for possibly Allen's most visually striking and "serious" endeavor. Though geared toward a young audience, the show occasionally showcased more adult themes than either of the producer's other three television efforts. Such change may have been the result of the influence of NBC's "Star Trek" which was in the last season of its three-year run when "Land of the Giants" debuted.
It also appears that some aspects of the show were more innovative than it was then perceived. One is in the casting. Don Marshall, who played co-pilot "Dan Erickson," was one of the few black Americans on network television with a pivotal role. The character was sometimes allowed to be the decision maker and shared close quarters with white female co-stars Deanna Lund ("Valerie") and Heather Young ("Betty"), something that was revolutionary in the late sixties-early seventies. Allen may not have considered that in his hiring of Marshall but it does elevate the actor to "trailblazer status."
Also, Young's real-life pregnancy was obvious in the second season, leading to speculation that her character and one of the male characters may have been doing more than just "struggling to survive." She was conveniently filmed standing behind other characters or with some prop hiding her "development" or she was conveniently absent from the story line altogether.
The "little people," as they were referred to by the inhabitants of this unusual realm, encountered friendly giants, sadistic giants, life-threatening balloon rides, hallucination-inducing mushrooms, mad scientists, diamond/jewelry thieves, as well as the usual assortment of "silver-suited" aliens common to Allen productions. The land in which the Earthlings found themselves was a police state, of sorts, and they found themselves relentlessly pursued by Inspector Kobick, well played by Kevin Hagen, a frequent performer in Allen productions.
Not only did the seven principals have to make their situation believable, they had to endure the physical challenge of running, climbing, and handling giant props and impressive set designs...and did the creative staff give them a lot with which to work. Some oversized objects included hydrants, cameras, a dog's leash, a menacing mop, test tubes, a hungry chicken, drains, a horse's rein, anything that the storyline imagined.
It is obvious that each of them, including the fifty-something Kurt Kaszner ("Commander Fitzhugh"), was in pretty good shape.
The show's production values included inspired casting in most episodes. There were actors that were in Allen's staple and they could be seen in all of the producer's series. These included John Carradine, Lee Meriweather, John Crawford, Warren Stevens, Nehemiah Persoff, Malachi Throne, Michael Ansara, Paul Fix, Jonathan Harris, and his future wife Sheila Matthews. In addition to those familiar faces, Oscar winners Broderick Crawford and Jack Albertson appear in one installment, respectively.
Boxers-turned-occasional actors Sugar Ray Robinson and Jerry Quarry find themselves featured as giants on the show, too.
Also, years before they hit it big in their signature roles, "Land of the Giants" showcased the efforts of future stars Susan Howard ("Dallas"), Vic Tayback ("Alice"), and Sam Elliott ("Lifeguard," "The Hulk," and the upcoming "The Golden Compass").
Even a certain Oscar-winning director by the name of Ron Howard pops up as a "special guest star" in one episode!
The nine-disc (four two-sided and a single) showcases the fifty-one installments with much better sound and picture than their original airings, a plus for an almost forty-year-old show. On the ninth disc are found insightful reflections from stars Gary Conway ("Steve"), Don Matheson ("Mark"), Lund, Marshall, and Stefan Arngrim ("Barry").
The Gold Key comic is a great addition, especially for those of us fortunate to have read one during its publication.
Besides the nifty carrying case, a true bonus is the addition of the UNAIRED original pilot, minus John William's outstanding score. Though the pilot featured the composer's music written for "Lost in Space," the revamped pilot, "The Crash," takes on a much more exciting dynamic with the music that he composed for the actual premiere episode.
Though it may not go down as one of the great shows of all time, "Land of the Giants" is still a remarkable bit of television production and this GIGANTIC compilation set does it justice.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The LITTLE PEOPLE are here !!, July 26, 2007
Picked up the LAND OF THE GIANTS collector's set at Best Buy on Tuesday. It was kind of steep, about $170 on sale, but I had birthday gift certificates so I guess somebody figures I'm worth it. The box is really cool, constructed of sturdy wood with a rope handle top and wire mesh door over a 3-D picture of the little people (looks like tin). The wire-mesh door slides up to reveal the contents: 5 DVD cases which fit nicely in slots cut in the wood, and the extras - A little packet containing a Spindrift keychain and LOTG crew patch, postcards with a weathered look (Deanna Lund's is a knockout), a little colector's book, a really cool miniature comic book, and a coupon for $ off on other Irwin Allen DVDs.
Yeah, it's pricey and the discs are double-sided as countless people have pointed out. But I'm not getting any younger and could get run over by a bus tomorrow, so I will enjoy watching my favorite show of all time for the remainder of my years.
In addition to the cast interviews, one of the extra features is the unaired pilot of "The Crash". It looked great to me, the colors are crisp and clear, bold and bright. You could see the beads of sweat on the Captain's and Co-Pilot's faces, and the 2 women never looked more beautiful. The differences I noticed in the unaired pilot were the music and some extra scenes. They used a lot of LOST IN SPACE music (I thought the GIANTS music/theme song featured in the aired pilot and series was better), and there was a lot of extra footage before the actual crash of the Spindrift. I guess these scenes were cut or shortened to get to the crash and the action quicker.
This is an outstanding set and collector's item. I only hope the same will be done for LOST IN SPACE someday, during my lifetime.
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