Schedule Rewind: When Land of the Lost Premiered on Saturday Mornings during the 1974-75 Season, There Was Very Little Sci Fi TV in Prime Time

Schedule Rewind: A look back at the Prime Time schedule from seasons past and network decisions impacting sci fi and fantasy shows.

Land of the Lost was a Saturday morning live-action series that followed a family who fell through a dimensional doorway that led to another universe inhabited by dinosaurs and the remnants of an ancient civilization. It was a cheesy, low-budget affair, but it offered some interesting world-building and brought in sci-fi writers, with Star Trek veteran David Gerrold onboard as story editor (you can read more about the show at Cult-SciFi.com). Young genre fans, myself included, tuned into the show, and it would become a staple for them across its three-season run. Even older viewers started to take notice, in large part because there was very little in the way of sci-fi TV in Prime Time that season. The early and mid-70s had a dearth of genre entries, and the few that did make it to the schedule often disappeared rather quickly. But Saturday mornings (which were quite a big deal for young viewers at that time) had some options, and sci-fi fans took solace in shows like Land of the Lost.

Prime Time

ABC

The Six Million Dollar Man (Fridays 8:30 PM EST/9 PM EST)
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Fridays 10 PM EST/8 PM EST)

The Six Million Dollar Man was in its second season on ABC, though not drawing as many viewers. It had been the eleventh most-watched show in prime time during its first year, but it dropped out of the Top 30 by its second. Still, it performed well enough to become the most successful sci-fi show of the 1970s, running for five seasons. It also set the template for what network execs would accept from the genre with a Prime Time-friendly formula featuring a superhero character fighting crime each week (you can read more about the show at this link). That model would be repeated throughout the decade with other successful entries like The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, and The Incredible Hulk.

Also on Friday nights, Kolchak: The Night Stalker haunted the schedule. That show followed two successful TV movies featuring the intrepid reporter who had a knack for encountering the supernatural and paranormal. But Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows) and Richard Matheson (The Twilight Zone)—who had helmed the movies—were not onboard for the series, and it quickly devolved into a monster-of-the-week formula. Ratings did not match the popularity of the films, and even series star Darrin McGavin wanted out by the end of the season. So ABC cancelled the show after its first year (you can read more about that at this link).

CBS

Planet of the Apes (Fridays 8 PM EST)

The Eye Network had the only other sci-fi show on prime time that season, also airing on Friday nights. The Planet of the Apes films had proven quite popular in theaters and performed well in their broadcast premieres on television. So for CBS execs, it certainly seemed like the next logical step was to create an ongoing series from the franchise. The network had actually considered picking up Gene Roddenberry’s post-apocalyptic Genesis II (which aired as a TV movie in spring 1973), but instead went with the Planet of the Apes series. The show started out with decent ratings, but those slipped as the season progressed. It was also quite expensive to produce with all the ape makeup, and the network cancelled it after just fourteen episodes (you can read more about it at this link).

NBC

The Peacock Network—the same one that had cancelled Star Trek five years earlier—had no interest in sci-fi on its Prime Time schedule during the 1974–75 season. In fact, it aired no genre entries the prior year either, and would only offer up the short-lived The Invisible Man the following season (a show that leaned heavily on The Six Million Dollar Man formula). NBC would try a few more sci-fi shows later in the decade, but none that lasted very long.

Saturday Morning

Korg: 70,000 B.C. (ABC, 10:30 AM EST)
Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (CBS, 9:30 AM EST)
Valley of the Dinosaurs (CBS, 10 AM EST)
Shazam! (CBS, 10:30 AM EST)
Land of the Lost (NBC, 10 AM EST)

The list above shows new Saturday morning series for the 1974–75 season, and there were also returning favorites like Super Friends on ABC, Scooby-Doo on CBS, and Star Trek: The Animated Series on NBC. While NBC avoided sci-fi in prime time, they took a chance on Land of the Lost for their Saturday lineup, and it turned into a hit. The series ran for three seasons totaling 43 episodes—an impressive run for a kids’ show—and later enjoyed a successful syndication life.

Prehistoric adventures seemed to be the trend that year, as two other new shows had a similar theme. ABC’s Korg: 70,000 B.C. was a live-action series about a Neanderthal family living during the Ice Age, based on then-current research about ancient humans. It had an educational bent and was fairly interesting, but it only lasted one season. Over on CBS, the animated Valley of the Dinosaurs was much closer to Land of the Lost as a family on a rafting trip falls through a whirlpool into a prehistoric world where humans coexist with dinosaurs. It blended comedy with action and some educational moments, and it aired opposite Land of the Lost at 10 AM EST. It ended up losing the battle of the lost worlds, though, and was cancelled after one season.

Also on CBS, the hour-long live-action Shazam! premiered and became a Saturday morning staple, following the adventures of Captain Marvel with each story wrapped up by a nice, tidy moral. The show later added the Egyptian-inspired hero Isis and was retitled The Shazam!/Isis Hour.  Also on CBS, the family of pop-rockers that had vied with The Brady Bunch for top family-friendly sitcom in Prime Time during the first half of the decade got animated and went into a very Jetsons-like future. Even kids were not that interested, though, and Partridge Family 2200 A.D. did not stick around too long.

Prime Time in the 1970s was a bad time for sci fi TV unless the show followed a formula similar to The Six Million Dollar Man (and even some of those did not last long). But Saturday Mornings did offer some solace to genre fans with shows like Land of the Lost, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Ark II, Jason of Star Command, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, and more. Later in the decade, the networks would take a chance in Prime Time on more expensive shows like Battlestar: Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, but those would not stick around very long either (in part due to tinkering from those very same networks). And as the 1980s arrived, sci fi TV once again was given only minimal attention on the Prime Time schedule (more on that at this link).

More Schedule Rewinds At This link

Keep up with the status of all the current sci fi and fantasy shows as well as news and updates on new and upcoming shows at CancelledSciFi.com.

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