Why so many writers for Land of the Lost?

The crew of the Land of the Lost (1974-1976) had a large number of writers:

In fact, there were almost as many writers as all the other crew members combined. Is this normal? Why would the series have so many different writers?

Best Answer

This is/was entirely normal.

It's likely that the writers were only responsible for writing perhaps a single episode or two...or perhaps just consulted on script/story re-writes.

See the same list on IMDB

Individual writers would often pitch or be contracted for a single episode. If you are a SF reader you'll recognise many of the names on the list of contributors.

...the same was true of Star Trek-TOS

Recall that these episodes are usually written for a weekly broadcast and were pushed out at a remarkable rate and number. It just makes sense that you field the largest "team" possible.

Single episode writers wouldn't have been "on-staff"...they would have been contracted. There would have been a core of staff writers who would take the submitted scripts and fit them into the show format.