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"Make My Day"
Written by Jules Dennis and Richard Mueller
Directed by Len Janson
Original airdate: November 14, 1992 |
Kevin comes across an old
laser-gun which he uses to seek revenge on the Sleestak.
Didja Know?
The title of this episode is from the quote made famous by Clint
Eastwood as Detective "Dirty Harry" Callahan in the film
Sudden Impact. Callahan uses the phrase twice in the
film, both times daring a violent criminal not to surrender so
he will have an excuse to shoot them.
Through the course of this episode, we get allusions to several pop
culture characters: Dirty Harry, the Man with No Name and Rambo.
All three characters are largely known for solving their
problems with their guns.
Didja Notice?
In both this episode and last, we see that Princess is hanging
around the Porter tree-house instead of Christa's cave. Is she
becoming more fond of them than of her frequently missing
master?
At 1:08 in the episode, we see that the Porters have a squirt
gun among their possessions.
There are several instances of a brief acoustic guitar riff in
this episode. These are meant to be reminiscent of the so-called
"spaghetti western" films of Sergio Leone from the 1960s and
'70s with music frequently composed by the great Ennio Morricone,
particularly the three films starring Clint Eastwood as the Man
with No Name,
A Fistful of Dollars,
For a Few Dollars More, and
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
When the Porters discover that Tasha is teething, Kevin gives
her a bone to chew on. Do herbivores really gnaw on bones to
relieve teething? In fact, later it is even implied that Tasha
has eaten the bone!
At 3:34 in the episode, Keeg asks Nim, "What of Shung's crystal
(unintelligible)?" I think the unintelligible word must be knife
or blade, referring to the crystal dagger destroyed by Christa
in "The Gladiators". It seems the two Sleestak henchmen (henchstaks?)
are searching for a new crystal for Shung when they are
sidetracked by Kevin's footprints and scent.
Big Guy sure is a handy dinosaur to have around. He has helped
the Porters and Tasha out of scrapes in previous episodes and
here he seems to go out of his way to frighten off the Sleestak
who have captured Kevin. Maybe he was raised by humans and feels
a loyalty to them...Dopey anyone? (Of course, LOTL90 seems to
take place in a different Land of the Lost than the one seen in
LOTL70.)
Although less obvious during the actual abduction scene in the
teaser, when Kevin reminisces about it at 7:35 in the episode,
it appears that there is a small mat under actor Robert Gavin
(to protect his rump and legs) as he is dragged through the dirt
by the Sleestak.
Apparently the Porters have taught Stink knock-knock jokes
because when Kevin asks him, "Don't you ever knock?", Stink
responds "Who's there?" with his trademark Paku laugh.
The laser gun that Stink and Kevin find in the old
Sleestak ruins looks like it's just a slightly modified
power-drill! (On photo #4 below, even the hole in the
grip where the power cord used to be installed is
visible!) Kevin assumes it is an old Sleestak weapon,
even noting that it has some Sleestak writing on it
(though the viewer never gets a close enough look at it
to see the writing). But, notice that the trigger guard
is made for fingers of human proportions...a Sleestak
finger would not even fit through the guard! Later in
the episode, Shung does fire the now depleted weapon,
but it's clear that his huge finger is not actually
inside the trigger guard to pull it! |
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At 10:16 in the episode, Kevin is applying war
paint/camouflage and wears a bandana and tank top shirt,
looking like a wanna-be John Rambo from the Rambo films
of Sylvester Stallone. Stink also gets in on the act! |
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When Kevin is ready to lead his raiding party of Stink and Tasha
to find the Sleestaks, he says, "All right, boys. It's time,"
even though Tasha, of course, is female.
At several points in the episode, an electric guitar music queue
is played that is reminiscent of George Thorogood's song "Bad to
the Bone." This song has become almost a must play for any movie
introducing a character who has taken on a bad-ass demeanor. I suppose the Land of the Lost budget
could not afford to license the actual song, so series composer
Kevin Kiner came up with a similar-sounding riff. "Bad to the
Bone" was also used in the previous year's blockbuster
Terminator 2: Judgment Day as Arnold Schwarzenegger's
terminator character emerges from a biker bar having just kicked
biker ass and taking one biker's leather clothes and, soon
thereafter, the bartender's sunglasses; it's possible the
sunglasses worn by Kevin and Stink were inspired by the
Terminator franchise; in fact, Kevin and Stink later on
refer to themselves as the Kevinator and Stinkinator.
The second act opens at 11:12 with a cool shot of a pterodactyl
soaring from the foreground, above camera, over the lake with
Big Guy looking on.
The entrance to the Sleestaks' cave is
different than what we saw in the first season episodes.
Now there are some pillars present and the boulders near
the temple mouth are missing. Is this a secondary
entrance? Or did the Sleestak move to a new ruin? |
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Old temple entrance from
"Shung the
Terrible" |
New temple entrance |
When Tasha seems to express reluctance at the plan to force a
confrontation with the Sleestak, Stink calls her a chicken. As
we learned in the LOTL70 episode
"Babysitter", the Pakuni use
iguana (ekonga) instead to refer to someone as a coward.
At 12:20 in the episode, Keeg catches a fly in his claws and
eats it.
Besides "make my day" (which he uses earlier in the episode),
while confronting Nim and Keeg at the Sleestaks' lair, Kevin
paraphrases another famous Dirty Harry line when he says,
"Feeling lucky, punks?" In Dirty Harry, Callahan asks a
couple of violent criminals, once near the beginning and once at the end
of the film, if they feel lucky as he dares them to pick up a
nearby gun, unsure if his own .44 Magnum six-shooter has already
fired all six shots.
At one point during the confrontation, Kevin tells the Sleestak
to "freeze or you're a handbag," a reference to various
lizard-skin handbags made on Earth.
At 15:31 in the episode, Kevin asks Scarface, "Lookin' for me?
I'm the only one here." This would appear to be a paraphrasing
of Robert De Niro's famous line from the 1976 film Taxi
Driver, "You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here."
De Niro's character in the film also obtains a gun with which he
plans to seek revenge against a list of imagined foes.
For the second time, we see that Scarface seems to have a glass
jaw. First he was knocked out with just two punches from the
cyborg in "Future Boy" and, here, he is brought down by one shot of Kevin's
laser gun. While he felt pain, Keeg earlier took a blast full on
the chest without going down!
At 20:20 in the episode, Shung says a sarcastic "Oops!" when he
throws Stink to the ground. Seems like an odd word for a
Sleestak to use in any situation! It does, however, make a nice
setup for Kevin to say the same thing when he chucks the laser
gun away as Shung makes a grab for it.
At 21:49 in the episode, as Kevin lowers his head sheepishly
while being chastised by his father for playing with a firearm
like it was a toy, notice that Stink, in his usual mimicking
manner, sees Kevin's actions and lowers his head sheepishly as
well!
Pakuni translations |
Time in
episode |
Pakuni |
English |
6:43 |
Stink says,
"Malu! Malu!" |
"Bad! Bad!" |
7:50 |
Stink says,
"Acuba ne, Kevin Porter." |
"Greetings, Kevin Porter." |
7:58 |
Stink says
"nabuka" |
banana |
8:10 |
Stink says,
"Malu. Malu caku." |
"Bad. Bad
light." |
8:28 |
Stink says,
"Malu." |
"Bad." |
8:58 |
Stink says,
"Malu." |
"Bad." |
9:22 |
Stink says,
"Tasha, anu!" |
"Tasha, no!" |
10:09 |
Stink says,
"Malu!" |
"Bad!" |
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Episode Studies
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