If you’ve watched any TV in the past month, there is a pretty good chance that you’ve seen commercials for “The River.” With its debut on Tuesday, it will join FOX’s “Alcatraz” as the two shows currently on air trying really hard to become the new “Lost.

Ah, the land before time existed, home to various reptilian and pre-mammalian creatures, and fathomed by Steven Spielberg himself! Hold on a second. Did I say “Steven Spielberg,” implying that this man, the creator of “E.T.” and so much else, had something to do with “The Land Before Time”? Your eyes do not deceive you, dear reader.