*Read John Williams’ biography here
Land of the Giants
I couldn’t do a series on John Williams’ work without acknowledging his TV scores. Land of the Giants was a one hour long television series that lasted two seasons over 1968-1970. Created and produced by Irwin Allen, this science fiction show starred Gary Conway.
Along the lines of Gulliver’s Travels but in space, the series followed the adventures of the seven crew and passengers of a commercial rocket ship that unexpectedly enters a space warp while travelling from New York to London and finds itself on an Earth-like planet in the future (1983!) where everything mirrors Earth but at twelve times the size.
John Williams composed the music for Irwin Allen’s previous series Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel. In addition to the theme for The Land of Giants Williams’ also scored the pilot episode. As for his previous work on Lost in Space Williams’ composed a new theme for each series.
The two themes are quite different and commentary seems quite split about them. Overall it would seem the second theme is considered the better of the two, however I much prefer the first. I really like the brass motif (a series of descending notes) in the first series theme – I find it quite catchy.
The two themes are below. Which is your favourite?
April 14, 2019 at 1:05 am
I’ll have to check that on Netflix.
April 14, 2019 at 9:20 pm
You’ll have to let me know what it’s like, Jacqui.
April 14, 2019 at 2:45 am
I was hoping you’d pick up Williams’s TV themes as well. Another good one for L would be “Lost In Space.”
I prefer the original open and theme. The other is a little too dramatic. By the way, Stefan Arngrim’s sister is Allison, who played Nellie Olesen on “Little House on the Prairie.” Don’t know if you’ve seen that…
April 14, 2019 at 9:22 pm
I did consider doing Lost In Space John, but thought I’d go with one that wasn’t quite as well known. Plus I like the series one score for this series =)
Didn’t want to miss acknowledging his TV work (even if my theme is his movie scores).
I do have another later in the alphabet which is also a bit of a divergence from my theme, but very well justified.
April 17, 2019 at 7:17 am
Very similar sounding. Considering the shows, makes sense.
April 17, 2019 at 8:06 am
That’s true, Liz. Even though they are different scores there are similarities.
April 18, 2019 at 4:59 pm
I only ever saw a few episodes of this series, as a child, but when I came to the conclusion it was basically Americans who happened to be giants, I lost interest. I did watch Lost In Space and Time Tunnel. LIS also had music by Alexander Courage of Star Trek fame. 🙂
April 23, 2019 at 8:31 am
Have you watched the most recent remake of Lost in Space? I lost interest in it, but the Barbarians really enjoyed series 1.