Sleestak!

It was Saturday.  It was early...but I was up, with the T.V. on...waiting.  As the promotional commercials had predicted, a new show was coming...and it had dinosaurs in it...

On September 7th, 1974, it began...

Marshall, Will and Holly, on a routine expedition...

I was only four years old  but I remember it like it was yesterday.  There had been nothing like it for my generation.  Yes, we had Sigmund the Sea Monster, New Zoo Review and a room to romp in with Miss Nancy...but never before had a blow-up raft negotiated waterfalls so deftly, straight down without even tipping over and dumping the crew.  Never before had a father and his kids been able to evade hungry dinosaurs to find that perfect cave in which to set up permanent camp, and never before had any lost survivor sported such groovy, polyester clothing...clothes that never seemed to tear or get dirty.  This was..."The Land of the Lost".

Of all the cool stuff this new show had to offer, most iconic were the Sleestak.  Seven foot tall, strong as oxen, but slower than molasses, these lizard men scared a generation of latch-key kids...they were the stuff of nightmares.  Michael, Jason and Freddy were no match for the black...dead eyes, green scaly skin...and a hiss that made goosebumps form when drizzled out from the T.V. set's mono speakers.  

Of everything Land of the Lost offered, only a few things remain to spark memories of the show...the opening lines of the title song, Cha-Ka (the Pakuni monkey boy), and Sleestak...the reptilian beasts.

The Sleestak were once known as Altrusians, a race that was peaceful, artistic, scientific, productive and inqusitive...an all around awesome bunch of bright lizards. They built all the massive structures that you see in the series, from the pylons to the Lost City. Then something happened, we are not really sure what...and these brilliant lizards degenerated into a rabble of shuffling iguanas, armed with "crossbows" made from paint sticks, string (and a wad of bubblegum), unable to go out into the light and relegated to moving about in twilight and darkness.

There is always the exception.  His name was Enik.  He was a smart lizard from the distant past, when Altrusians ruled the width and breadth of the Land of the Lost, and actually explored here, there and everywhere...building something that was worth a damn.  Enik figures prominently in the show, interacting with the Rick, Will and Holly...bemoaning the horror of his race's degeneration into a gaggle of cave dwelling geckos, who worship a God that no one ever sees...for all we know that deity could be a poodle or a furry little tribble with a big bark, we never get to see.

Enik truly is the "shiz"...he speaks good English and he wears a golden, shimmering toga that would be the envy of Studio 54.  And let's not forget the groovy golden pendent around his neck...was this the 1970s or what?  This "cool cat" is the Sleestak "daddy mack"...any old Sleestack may be lower than a snake's hiss, but Enik, with his smarts and style...he could have been King of the Iguanas.

A couple of other Sleestaks could speak our lingo as well.  The Leader, while not completely fluent, could communicate with the Marshalls well enough, and S'latch, an anomaly who was actually smart, unlike his dull contemporaries, was probably a throwback to the good ole' Altrusian days when the horned lizards could build cities and make crystal laden kiosks that opened time doors.

It's nice to know the original 1974-76 Enik costume still exists, has been restored, now residing in a private collection....well taken care of...http://www.tomspinadesigns.com/restoration/film-tv-props/enik-land-of-the-lost-costume-restoration-and-display/

What's in a Name?

Sleestak....it rolls off the tongue, feels and sounds reptilian, all in all it was a brilliant stroke by the producers of the show...and it has a back story...

You've watched the show and you know many different individuals from different time periods fall within the grasp of Land of the Lost.  We know how some got trapped, some we don't.  Peter Koenig and Harry Potts, Privates in General George Washington's Continental Army, take a detour from the American Revolution and wind up fighting a different sort of lobster-back.  For many years these two adventurous Rebels explore and journal about their new home, providing many clues about the Land of the Lost for the Marshall family when it becomes their turn.  Had it nor been for Koenig and Potts, our main characters would never have been cognizant of the danger of the Sleestak...they might very well have been killed had not Koenig written that warning outside the lost city...Beware of Sleestak. 

Potts and Koenig reveal that they named the Sleestak...Sleestak, in honor of Major Joshua Sleestak...presumably their commanding officer. I don't know if it's a compliment or a condemnation.  Both our Rev War heroes never made an on camera appearance, Potts possibly found a way out, and Koenig died deep within the Lost City, but not before making his uniform into a diversionary scarecrow to lure lizards, and leaving three journals chocked full of all he'd learned in this strange land.

I'm pretty confident the character Peter Koenig was named for Walter Koenig, who was very active behind the scenes of the show...if you don't recognize the name...Chekov from the Star Trek franchise might jog your memory...

There were only three Sleestaks in the show, out of a stated population of 9000 .  Budget constraints kept the number of costumes for the lizard critters minimal...and you needed really tall guys to fit out the suits.  Not a problem, any old high school or college basketball player...or three of them...could fit the bill.  You'll see more on screen for the show, but it's a clever camera trick that worked.  One Sleestak notable, who went on to NBA glory, was Bill Laimbeer.

The costumes themselves were hot.  They were constructed around wetsuits, and neoprene can make for sweaty work.  Add in a full head mask and now have an actor torture chamber.  Still, it was probably really cool to do. I believe one mask still exists, floating around on the Internet...for sale.  Despite the low-budget, Land of the Lost really had some creative stuff going for it.  It was cheesy...no doubt, but it was effective and memorable to those who watched...and if you didn't, well, now you know what a Sleestack is...