Top Cave Please

Top Cave Please

November 2, 1974 TV Episode Valley of the Dinosaurs

Studio
Hanna-Barbera Studios

Synopsis

Valley of the Dinosaurs is loosely based on the same format as the popular TV show Land of the Lost, where a modern-day family gets sucked into a whirlpool in the Amazon River and is transported to a land that time seems to have forgotten. Its new home is an inescapable valley, complete with cavemen and dinosaurs long thought extinct.

Characters

John Butler, Kim Butler, Katie Butler, Greg Butler, Gorak, Gara, Tana, Lok

Credits

Directing

Director
Charles Nichols (as Charles A. Nichols)

Producing

Producer
Zoran Janjic (Associate)
Executive Producers
William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Creative Producer
Iwao Takamoto

Voices

Voice
Melanie Baker (Tana), Shannon Farnon (Kim Butler), Joan Gardner (Gara), Jack Haley (Greg), Alan Oppenheimer (Gorak, Narrator), Mike Road (John Butler), Kathy Gori (Katie Butler), Frank Welker (Lok, Glump), John Stephenson (Digger the Pet Dog), Andrew Parks, Stacey Bertheau

Music

Music
Hoyt Curtin

Art Department

Production Design
Bob Singer
Character Design
Marty Murphy
Backgrounds
Zophia Mylonas, Sue Spear, Milan Zahorsky, Snr, Richard Zaloudek
Storyboard Editors
Clark Haas, Cullen Houghtaling, Lew Marshall, Paul Sommer, Irv Spector, Howard Swift
Executive Story Consultant
Myles Wilder
Color Design
Paul Julian
Ink and Paint Supervision
Billie Kerns

Editing

Editor
Larry Cowan (Supervising Film Editor)

Sound

Sound Effects Editor
Terry Moore
Sound Direction
Richard Olson, Bill Getty

Music Department

Music Editor
Pat Foley
Musical Supervisor
Paul DeKorte

Casting

Recording Director
Wally Burr

Production Management

Production Manager
Art Scott
Production Supervision
Victor O. Schipek
Post Production Supervision
Joed Eaton
Assistant Production Manager
Jayne Barbera

Crew

Titles
Iraj Paran
Negative Consultant
William E. DeBoer
Production Co-Ordination
Elly Kennedy

Companies and other credits

  • A Hanna-Barbera Production
  • © 1974 Hanna-Barbera Productions
  • Inc

Production notes

Debuting on the same day as Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost, Hanna-Barbera's animated Valley of the Dinosaurs told the story of a family unwittingly transported back to the Stone Age. While rafting on the Amazon, John Butler, his wife Kim and their two children, Katie and Greg, were sucked into a whirlpool, only to emerge in a strange, prehistoric world.

The Butlers were taken under the wing of a Neanderthal family- Gorak, Gera, Tana and Lok- whose ages closely paralleled their own. Even the Butler's dog, Digger, found a counterpart in Lok's pet Stegosaurus, Glomb.

The episodes dealt largely with the relationship between the two clans. At first both families were reluctant to trust each other, but they finally came to accept and ultimately learn from one another. The cave family had to shed its distrust of others and learn to use common sense, while John had to learn patience and respect before he could teach the cave family what he knew about civilization.

While Valley of the Dinosaurs didn't have the staying power of Land of the Lost, it did outlast Hanna-Barbera's other 1974 prehistoric program, the live-action Korg: 70,000 B.C.