EXCLUSIVE! Wesley Eure of TV's "Land of the Lost" Comes Out

AE: Why'd they even invite you?
WE: That's the whole point. I'm like, "Why am I here?" And sure enough, there was a section with a lot of the people who'd had their time in the sun. They sort of filtered in: Johnny Whitaker, Butch Patrick, that gang. So we're all sitting up there and I'm fuming. I'm thinking, "Why did I drive all the way in from Palm Springs and wear black tie? Why are we here?"

So they drag the producer up from the red carpet, all the way up to the nosebleed seats, and he's apologizing, saying, "I'm so sorry." And I say, "Why did you invite me? What's the point?" He says, "There's a tribute to the Kroffts, and wait till you see the montage and the dance!" And I said, "Yeah, that's all great, but I can watch that on TV."

We made the best of it. We had a ball. There were a lot of old friends, we were taking pictures.

Sid & Marty Krofft accepting their TV Land Award

Photo credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

AE: Did you know that crowd? Butch Patrick and all those...
WE: Oh sure! Johnny Provost, the original Timmy from Lassie. It's that whole gang of people. Even Sid and Marty's third brother Harry Krofft and his daughter Patty were sitting behind us.

AE: Incredible.
WE: The show was great. Neil Patrick Harris, unbelievable. So it comes to the Kroffts, and they open the montage with me singing. I sang the theme song and the closing song for Land of the Lost.

AE: I didn't know that!
WE: Yeah. So they open with the closing song, and there I am sitting in the very back of the place with my voice being piped in, and I'm thinking, "What's wrong with this picture?" So they did this great montage, and then there's this big production number with fifty dancers, and Clint Black is singing the theme song from Land of the Lost, and Cyndi Lauper comes out.

Barry Williams comes out, which I used to do concerts with Barry, and he did something. And then they had a guy playing me, there were people playing everybody. There was a cute little dancer with curly red hair playing Johnny Whitaker from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. I poke Johnny and go, "How does this make you feel?" [laughs] We were laughing. It was just the oddest night.

AE: I'm just curious, and you don't have to answer this, but do you get royalties from the show?
WE: No, not at all. Back then, in the 70s on the morning kids' shows, there was no royalties, at least for the first two seasons. By the third season, I think the royalties clicked in, so the Krofft's never aired the third season until the marathon started.

AE: Uh! Well, what are you gonna do? When you were filming Land of the Lost, did you have any idea it would last as long as it has?
WE: No. I don't think anybody really knew. It was just such a great job. I was doing Days of Our Lives, which I did for nine years, at the same time. In the morning, I'd be on Days of Our Lives crying that my wife was dying of leukemia, and then in the afternoon, I'd be running from dinosaurs. I had this very schizophrenic life for a few years. [laughs]

AE: Whose decision was it to have Will unbutton the third button of his shirt? That sure got my attention!
WE: [laughs] I think that was the 1970's decision.

AE: Well, I don’t think your TV dad did. Somebody had made the decision to present you as a hunk, and that's how it came across.
WE: I appreciate that. I'm flattered. The gold chain I wore was my partner's at the time. He gave me the gold chain, and I wore it the first two days of shooting. When Marty Krofft saw it for the first time, he came running over and said, "Wesley, you've got to take that chain off. What is that chain?" And I said, "Marty, it's been there for two days. Do you want to reshoot the first two days?" And he goes, "All right, you can keep it in."