‘Land of the Lost’ Star Kathy Coleman on Sleestaks, Her Crazy Pony Story & Meeting Fans (Exclusive)

Land of the Lost’s Kathy Coleman loves meeting and talking to fans, and The Hollywood Show is one of her favorite places to do it. The former child star and author of Run, Holly, Run!: A Memoir by Holly From 1970s TV Classic “Land of the Lost” took some time out from signing memorabilia to share some of her favorite memories of the freaky, fun series.
“The 1970s and children’s television was a really special time for a lot of people that are in my age group,” shares Coleman, about her fans. “They are so grateful. They’re so sweet and kind with the things that they say and career choices that they made because of the show and the effect our show had on them. This show in particular, The Hollywood Show, is like a homecoming, and we get to interact with the other celebrities, and fans get a chance to really talk to us. I love doing these shows. They’re a blast. And the fans could not be kinder to us.”
One of her favorite fan encounters was meeting a couple who was blind and found common interests through their shared love for Land of the Lost. “I got to meet them and they just wanted to touch me and the Sleestak [those green alien/reptilian humanoids] head I had on my table to bring back memories. I have had some obscure ones, but they’re all very moving people.”

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Land of the Lost, created by Sid and Marty Krofft and Allan Foshko, aired for three seasons (1974-77) on Saturday mornings and followed the Marshall family’s adventures. Coleman played the blond and braided Holly Marshall, opposite Wesley Eure as her older brother Will and Spencer Milligan as their widowed father Rick. They were constantly in battle with those Sleestaks, Grumpy the Tyrannosaurus Rex and other unworldly beings, as well as finding new adventures dabbling with those mysterious stones and helping their ape-boy friend Cha-Ka.
As a Child Actor, the Monsters on the Show Didn’t Scare Her, But One Thing Did
Coleman was friends with most of the “monsters” on set, so she didn’t really think much of them, especially the Sleestaks.
“They were UCLA and USC basketball players,” tells Coleman of the skinny men in those Sleestak costumes. “One of our Sleestaks was Bill Laimbeer [who went on to greater NBA fame on the Detroit Pistons]. We had these young guys who all were in college, and they would walk like surfers who wear their wetsuits halfway pulled down. That’s how they were on the set. Those costumes were so hot that we could only shoot them for about 60 seconds at a time, and then they had to unmask.”

Everett Collection
Growing up, Coleman’s mother always told her that if she ever landed a role on a series, she would buy her a pony. Her mother stayed true to her word, too, as the day she was cast on Land of the Lost she went out and got that pony.
“My mom took me out that very day and got me my pony,” she says. “And I talked about it so much I made everybody crazy on the set that the writers actually put his name [Comanche] into the script so I got to say it on an episode.”
That pony also called for a longer commute to the set.

Everett Collection
“We had to live on the outskirts of Los Angeles because of the horse. So, we would have to get up an hour early to get to the set, and then it would take me an hour to get home,” Coleman shares. “I would get home late and then have to learn my lines. So the scariest thing for me was getting my lines memorized for the next day. That’s what was scary to me. My God. The Sleestaks no problem. The dinosaurs — piece of cake. It was the damn lines.”
Nothing to worry about Kathy, you always seemed to get it right.

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