Land of the Giants is a one-hour American science fiction television series that aired on ABC for two seasons, beginning on September 22, 1968, and ending on March 22, 1970.

[3] Set in 1983 (at that time, 15 years in the future), the series concerns the passenger aircraft Spindrift, which is lost during a suborbital spaceflight from Los Angeles to London.

They speak English, have a combination of alien and Earth-like names, drive American-style cars, attend Vaudeville-style theaters and play chess, but they are dominated by an authoritarian government which tolerates full freedoms within a capitalist system, refusing to tolerate any effort to effect political change, even with repeated dissident activity.

However, while some of the Giants' technology exceeds that of 20th century Earth, Includes cloning, cybernetics, force fields, magnetic stunners, androids and teleporters while remaining slightly behind in others.

However, the ship's captain, Steve Burton, places a higher priorty on preventing the Giants from obtaining the means to travel to Earth.

The penultimate episode, "Wild Journey", presents a time-travel plot in which the Earthlings go back into the past to prevent the Spindrift flight, but instead create the circumstances that cause the ship to be lost.

Land of the Giants guest stars included many familiar faces from other 1950s and 1960s sci-fi/fantasy and adventure series, including Jack Albertson, Michael Ansara, John Carradine, Yvonne Craig, Charles Drake, Alan Hale Jr, Jonathan Harris, Lee Meriwether, Larry Pennell, Warren Stevens, Glenn Corbett and Ron Howard.

Don Marshall, who played the part of Dan Erickson, credited his previous football, track, and pole-vaulting work for helping him with the stunts required.

[4] Elements of Allen's Lost in Space series recur in Land of the Giants, notably the relationship between foolish, greedy, on-the-run bank robber Commander Alexander Fitzhugh (Kurt Kasznar) and the young boy Barry Lockridge (Stefan Arngrim), paralleling the relationship on Lost in Space between Doctor Smith and the young Will Robinson.

Because of the enormous cost, filming episodes in pairs using the same sets was more efficient and cost-effective, so writers were informed about what giant-sized props were available, which they could incorporate into their storylines.

[5] To save on production costs, Allen was not above using the same device he had employed on The Time Tunnel – reusing stock footage from 20th Century Fox's film library.

For instance, in the episode "Collector's Item", footage of Wayne Manor from Batman is recycled as the luxury mansion home of a rich giant.

A break in production occurred after 12 episodes were in the can (enough for a short run as a midseason replacement), until the show received the green light on the decision to launch it as a full season the following fall.

LaLaLand Records subsequently released "Land of the Giants - 50th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection: Limited Edition, a deluxe 4-CD box set featuring the original music from the series.

[11] One notable difference between the aired episode and the reel set is an image of the Spindrift flying through the giant forest in apparent daylight.

Another invention for the novel is the knowledge that two other ships, the Anne and Marintha, disappeared by the same mysterious phenomenon that sends the Spindrift to the Giants' planet.

[25] MeTV began airing Land of the Giants in September 2016 to complement its Saturday-night sci-fi line-up of other Irwin Allen series: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, and The Time Tunnel.

The Horror Channel in the UK aired the series in full from September 19 of the same year,[26] showing one episode a day on weekdays, for 10 weeks.