LAND OF THE GIANTS! - Where Are You? (1 Viewer)

[Michael Rogers]

I have the Time Tunnels and I like them (although I haven't gone entirely through the second set yet)

 

[Regulus]

When I was a Kid, (In some ways I still am one ) I ENJOYED the Irwin Allen Sci-Fi Shows (And still do). One thing I noticed was how he used some of the same props in several differant Shows and even in his movies. (For Example The Computer in "The Cyborg" Episode of VTTBOTS also nade Cameo Appearences in Lost in Space, The Made-for-TV Movie City Beneath the Sea (I still get bummed when I think "Why didn't they make a series of this one?") and I think it also made an appearence in LOTG (I won't be able to confirm this for another 3 weeks yet) I also enjoyed his Disaster Movies (I have both The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno on DVD and yes, there are some props on both of them that look "Familiar" These shows are still fun to watch, even in their zanyness. (IMO They're A LOT BETTER than 99.99 Percent of the stuff the Networks put out today!)

 

[DeWilson]

Same here! Irwin Allen was the last of the great producers! He put out tv shows and films that were entertaining and fun!

 

[Joe Kelly]

Finished watching Disc #2, guess I lucked out, both sides played fine, smooth sailing. I liked "The Weird World" episode, battling the giant gopher was a classic scene.

 

[Richard_Gregory]

More than that - the Flying Sub stars in a lot of scenes in that film, and if you look closely, one of the submarines evacuating the city is in fact the Seaview!

They also reused footage from IA's "Lost World" movie a *lot* in Voyage

 

[Harry-N]

Well, LAND OF THE GIANTS, the expensive full series release has been out for awhile now. I thought I'd check to see how the experiment is doing. Recall that nearly all of the other Irwin Allen TV releases have been half-season sets, the only exception being LOST IN SPACE season one, which, by all acounts sold poorly enough at its higher price point to prompt all subsequent releases to be half-seasons.

Anyway, here are the current rankings on Amazon.com of the Irwin Allen series that are out or announced:

RankSeries1406VTTBOTS 3.51496VTTBOTS 3.02266TT 1.02651LIS 12759VTTBOTS 1.03146TT 1.54274VTTBOTS 2.54335LIS 2.54969VTTBOTS 1.54979LIS 2.05667LIS 3.05762LOTG5952LIS 3.56395VTTBOTS 2.0

As you can see, the expensive full-series release is predictably pretty low on the current totem pole, coming in ahead of only the last (and poorly mastered) LOST IN SPACE Season 3, Volume 2, and surprsingly the first half of Season Two of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

Harry

 

[Corey3rd]

the quality of the transfers on Lost In Space keeps me from buying them.

 

[FrancisP]

To determine how well it sold on Amazon, you would need to see the rankings since it came out. If I am not mistaken, it ranks the sales for the current period in time. It does not have an overal ranking that encompasses all the sets that were sold. I also bought mine from DeepDiscount so it would not include my set.

 

[Harry-N]

I realize that - and that Amazon's rankings are supposedly updated hourly.

Still, this list indicates how big the interest is right now in a recent set and how it is doing compared with the interest of both older and newer sets from the same producer that were offered in smaller chunks.

It tells me that merely a month in, interest has waned, at least as far as Amazon sales go. It's not a perfect measure, and it's perhaps not even good, but it's at least some info that is obtainable.

Harry

 

[david_hu]

Amazon Gold Box Deal Of the day! 9/5/07

$99.99.

 

[Harry-N]

Groovy! Just ordered! Thanks!

$99.99 makes it well worth the price - $50 per season, and $25 per half season, putting it in the realm of the half-season sets for the other Irwin Allen series.

Harry

 

[Randy Korstick]

You'll be glad you did its a great set. It was worth the $139.99 Deep Discount price and its a steal at $99.99.

 

[Jeff Willis]

I think you guys "sold me" on this one. I was one of the holdouts for the original $ but, Gord just posted it up at TSoD for a 1-day sale only at Amazon.

Gord, You da Man

Harry-N: "Groovy"? Man, that's going back a ways (like me)

 

[Nick Zbu]

I thought I missed the train when I didn't bother getting it from DDD when it was going for $130. When the price jumped, I put it on my November sale list and felt like I missed a good deal.

But Gord came through today. I just emailed a few of my professors who are deeply (and I mean DEEPLY) into classic TV, about this and they're bound to get it. Drool! You guys are driving me into debt, you monsters.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

I was waiting for DD's next big 20% off sale, but Amazon's one-day sale price easily trumps that, so I staked a LAND OF THE GIANTS claim today! Huzzah!

 

[Harry-N]

My set arrived in today's mail. I looked at a sample on a couple of the discs - magnificent, just like the VOYAGE and TIME TUNNEL mastering jobs.

A pretty good bargain!

Harry

 

[david_hu]

Got mine too. Quite an extravagent looking set. Luckily, I got it for the Amazon $99 deal. I don't think I'd buy for the $199 mark. You wonder why they didn't just release it in bare bone packaging, and at a more reasonable price for the public. As it is few will probably fork out $199.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I got my set today! Pretty fast shipping for Amazon considering I ordered it exactly one week ago and chose FREE shipping. The set is very impressive looking. Comes in a real wood trap box like the one used on the show to capture the little people. I think it is a bit overdone. They usually reserve this deluxe treatment for a more popular series like I Love Lucy or Star Trek. TLOTG wasn't THAT good, but at $99, I couldn't pass it up considering I paid that much more a few years ago when I got the series through Columbia House. Luckily, I unloaded those dvds on ebay and got my money back when I heard about this new set.

 

[Harry-N]

I've spent a fair amount of time this past week watching the first seven or so episodes of LAND OF THE GIANTS - the first seven "in production order" - not the order on the DVD set.

I think the air-date order is what has always soured me on this series. In the past, both on the ABC original run, and on the SciFi channel reruns in the '90s, I've attempted to "get into" this last of Irwin Allen's '60s science fiction/adventure series, to no avail. After about three or four episodes I'd invariably lose interest and give up - ignoring it on the ABC schedule or forgetting to set a VHS tape for it on the SciFi reruns.

Finally with this DVD set, and armed with Jon Abbott's book, Irwin Allen Television Productions, 1964-1970: A Critical History of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants (Hardcover), I'm watching the series in the order in which it was produced, giving early emphasis to the earlier-produced episodes that were sheparded by Anthony Wilson, and I'm finding that it's making a lot more sense. The characterizations of the main principles in the cast are developing at a better, more natural, pace. When ABC aired these, they apparently had no regard for such things, and ended up showing episodes from much later in the scheme of things very early in the network run.

The way the giants are portrayed develops over a period of time too. Early on the production run, the giants are seen as very slow-moving, lumbering creatures, with limited or no dialog that's intelligible to the castaways. We also see a written language that's clearly not English on product labels.

Later on, the written language becomes English, the giants begin to "dialog" more with the little people, and eventually our heroes begin to aid the friendlier members of the large civilization, and we also get to glimpse the odd political make-up of the giant world, a totalitarian-type society.

Those may seem like typical Allen inconsistencies, and they probably are, but still, having them morph over time seems like a better way to handle it than the ping-pong effect of the ABC-aired order. Many of these inconsistencies are thrown at the viewers in the ABC-aired order, not making much sense. By viewing the series in production order, we see early on that not only are the giants aware of other little people from before the series began, but that they offer a reward for capture of these little people. In the ABC order, we get lost when the Fitzhugh character is mellowed out in one episode and back to his more arrogant self from an earlier-produced effort. Similarly, in the earlier-made episodes, the Don Matheson character starts out rather arrogant, fighting Gary Conway's Captain Burton at every turn, later becoming more a member of the team.

So, bottom line is, I'm enjoying this run much more, happy with my purchase at the Amazon one-day sale price.

Harry

 

[Jeff Willis]

Harry, great info on this as a viewers tool. I passed on this one for now but am waiting for a lower price or maybe an eBay buy. It's not in my top list but when I get this one I'll remember your info.