History Series / LandOfTheGiants

* ArtMajorPhysics: The premise of the show of course required ignoring the SquareCubeLaw.

* CharacterDevelopment: Fitzhugh starts out as a near-absolute JerkAss (he even threatens the others with a gun at one point!), but his experiences over the course of the early episodes do turn him into a better person. He'll always be the [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong Complainer]] and SourSupporter, but (unlike [[Series/LostInSpace Dr. Smith]]) he becomes a reasonably dependable asset to the team.

* CharacterDevelopment: Fitzhugh starts out as a near-absolute JerkAss (he even threatens the others with a gun at one point!), but his experiences over the course of the early episodes do turn him into a better person. He'll always be the [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong Complainer and SourSupporter, but (unlike [[Series/LostInSpace Dr. Smith]])]] he becomes a reasonably dependable asset to the team.

* FungusHumungous: The mushrooms are normal size for their world, but humongous to the tiny eErthlings stranded there. In "The Unsuspected", exposure to giant mushroom spores cause Steve to go crazy and he captures his fellow shipmates one by one.

* HumungousFungus: The mushrooms are normal size for their world, but humongous to the tiny eErthlings stranded there. In "The Unsuspected", exposure to giant mushroom spores cause Steve to go crazy and he captures his fellow shipmates one by one.

* ContinuityDrift: Early on, the heroes are completely unable to understand the giants. One episode features a giant putting them in a jar hooked up to a complicated listening device so he can communicate with them. The writers quickly realized how much this limited the kinds of stories they could tell and, without explanation, changed the giants to be perfectly understandable. This is the kind of thing you could get away with back then. Since the first season episodes are aired out of production order, this makes things very confusing.
** Also, in the first season, the giants have alien names (in "The Flight Plan", a giant criminal named Logar poses as an Earthling by the name "Joe", and his cohorts laugh on how weird "Joe" sounds) and their own culture (for example, the "Night of Thrombeldinbar"). However, in the second season, many giants have average English-sounding names (like Joe Simmons, Bertha Fry, Doctor North), while others still have alien names (often in the same episode); and their culture is much more Earth- / American-like. For example, they use dollars as currency and elect senators (which is weird, given they live in a dictatoric state). "Our Man O'Reilly" features a "giant Irishman" by the titular name, who mistakes the Earthlings for Leprechauns.

** However, due to inconsistent writing, especially in the second season, the giants' society has several elements clearly modeled after American culture. They use dollars as a currency, elect senators and has profit-oriented movie studios.

* FiveManBand:
** Steve: TheLeader
** Dan: TheLancer
** Mark: TheSmartGuy (could be considered another {{Lancer}})
** Fitzhugh: TheBigGuy
** Betty and Valerie: [[TheChick The Chicks]]
** Barry: TagalongKid
** Chipper: TeamPet

''Land of the Giants'' (1968-1970) was an Creator/IrwinAllen science fiction TV series that can be summarized as the inverse of both ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' [[note]]Gulliver ''did'' travel to a land of giants called Brobdingnag in his second voyage; however, PopculturalOsmosis rarely mentions any parts of the book other than Lilliput.[[/note]] and ''IncredibleShrinkingMan''. In the near-future (year 1983), a commercial suborbital spacecraft enters a spacewarp and is transported to a world where the people on that world are all sixty feet tall, a skyscraper is two miles high, and when they're found out, the government wants them for scientific research.

''Land of the Giants'' (1968-1970) was an Creator/IrwinAllen science fiction TV series, can be summarized as the inverse of both ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' [[note]]Gulliver ''did'' travel to a land of giants called Brobdingnag in his second voyage; however, PopculturalOsmosis rarely mentions any parts of the book other than Lilliput.[[/note]] and ''IncredibleShrinkingMan''. In the near-future (year 1983), a commercial suborbital spacecraft enters a spacewarp and is transported to a world where the people on that world are all sixty feet tall, a skyscraper is two miles high, and when they're found out, the government wants them for scientific research.

* DirtyCommunists: The giants' society is portrayed pretty much as a Soviet-type dictatorship, with the Special Investigations Department (S.I.D.) serving as a KGB-type secret police. Much like in Stalin's Russia and Mao's Red China, "good citizens" are expected to report suspicious activities. An underground resistance movement also appears in a bunch of episodes.

* {{Expy}}: Fitzhugh is an obvious copy of Dr. Smith, the BreakoutCharacter from Allen's previous series ''Series/LostInSpace''. In the second season, Kurt Kasznar was billed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Star", just like Jonathan Harris was in ''Lost In Space''. Barry was supposed to stand in for Will Robinson.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted by the cast; there are two Dons (Marshall and Matheson). It's kind of interesting, actually--on ''Lost in Space'' there's a Don played by a Mark; on ''Land of the Giants'', there's a Mark played by a Don.

* TheCastShowOff:
** In "The Marionettes", both Heather Young and Kurt Kasznar got their chance to show off their singing talents. Kasznar was well-known for his roles in Broadway musicals (including ''The Sound of Music'').
** In "The Creed", Fitzhugh's knowledge of German comes in handy when our heroes need to read a book written on that language. German was the native language of Austrian-born Kurt Kasznar.

* DirtyCommunists: The giants' society is portrayed pretty much as a communist dictatorship, with the Special Investigations Department (S.I.D.) serving as a KGB-type secret police. Much like in Stalin's Russia and Mao's Red China, "good citizens" are expected to report suspicious activities. An underground resistance movement also appears in a bunch of episodes.

** Also, in the first season, the giants have alien names (in "The Flight Plan", a giant criminal named Logar poses as an Earthling by the name "Joe", and his cohorts laugh on how weird "Joe" sounds) and their own culture (for example, the "Night of Thrombeldinbar"). However, in the second season, many giants have average English-sounding names (like Joe Simmons, Bertha Fry, Doctor North), while others still have alien names (often in the same episode); and their culture is much more Earth- / American-like. For example, they use dollars as a currency and elect senators (which is weird, given they live in a dictatoric state). "Our Man O'Reilly" features a "giant Irishman" by the titular name, who mistakes the Earthlings for Leprechauns.

* TwoGirlsToATeam: Valerie and Betty, until Betty was written out, and once again when she was written back in.

** In "Wild Journey", Steve and Dan steal a device from two time traveling aliens, zap themselves back to Earth on the day of their departure, and try to prevent their flight taking off. However, the aliens soon find them, and desperate to prevent tampering with history, shrink them. Hence, now their own planet seems like the Land of the Giants to our heroes.

* HideYourPregnancy: Before the character was written out for part of the second season, Betty was strategically positioned behind foliage and wore baggy clothing to conceal Heather Young's pregnancy.

You have the pilot, the co-pilot, the pretty but spoiled jetsetter, the pretty but serious stewardess, TheSmartGuy, the ConMan, [[ABoyAndHisX the little boy and his dog]].

* TokenMinority: Subverted with the casting of African-American actor Don Marshall as co-pilot Dan Erickson, even though Dan is the only African-American principal in any 60s Irwin Allen production. His race has nothing to do with his characterization; he's just another character rather than the black character.

* WholeCostumeReference: A reuse of the [[PrettyInMink fur-trimmed]] [[WomanInWhite white dress]] from ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheThreeStooges'' in the episode "Collector's Item."
* YouHaveToBelieveMe

* JohnWilliams: Composed the pilot score and both theme tunes. Credited in this series as "John", not ''Johnny'' like he was for ''Series/LostInSpace'' and ''Series/TheTimeTunnel''.

'''''Land of the Giants''''' (1968-1970) was an Creator/IrwinAllen science fiction TV series, can be summarized as the inverse of both ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' [[note]]Gulliver ''did'' travel to a land of giants called Brobdingnag in his second voyage; however, PopculturalOsmosis rarely mentions any parts of the book other than Lilliput.[[/note]] and ''IncredibleShrinkingMan''. In the near-future (year 1983), a commercial suborbital spacecraft enters a spacewarp and is transported to a world where the people on that world are all sixty feet tall, a skyscraper is two miles high, and when they're found out, the government wants them for scientific research.