The Champions episode 1

Yes -I can call to mind a few, and I'm sure there must be quite a few others, though one has to interpret the setting somewhat broadly, of course.

The most crass, to my knowledge, was 'Bridge of Time' (? a South African TV Movie -set in Africa, at any rate) where the 'High Lama' turns out to be a black woman and the Conway figure a white one (Susan Dey, I think)! There are some other plot-deviations, but it is clearly very much derived from the original masterpiece. I believe there was an episode of Star Trek that was a sort of remake/tribute, and I have seen reference also to an Audrey Hepburn vehicle set in the S. American jungle. I did once think that it might be amusing to collect these attempts, but abandoned the idea when I realised that all they achieve is to show up the incompetence and tastelessness of the imitators!

The Hepburn title is 'Green Mansions' (1959) and although I see that it was based on a novel, it may be that the author was (unconsciously) influenced by Hilton's brilliant concept.

I was also interested to see (courtesy of IMDb) that there was a TV musical version called 'Shangri-La' in 1960 with, somewhat surprisingly, Claude Rains as a rather unlikely High Lama -though whether he was called upon to sing is unclear!

It certainly would be an amusing trip into wierdness if someone could assemble a list of all the LH derivatives, but I suspect a great many are somewhat less obvious than 'Bridge of Time'. This raises a very interesting and far more serious consideration: this is that when very great literary conceptions and myths are born (e.g. not only LH, but cf. Moby Dick, Frankenstein, etc.) their influence is so thoroughgoing and eternal that it infuses literally hundreds of succeeding productions, very often completely silently: they are 'haunted by all the best ghosts' to quote an old tutor of mine. Any fool can see Moby Dick in 'Jaws' and 'The White Buffalo', but who traces it as far as 'Predator'? Tibet in LH is partly a literary device to ensure the enduring purity of Shangri-La. Thus, remoteness can just as easily be achieved in the African Velt, outer space, the S. American jungle, a desert island, etc., etc.

I would be interested to hear of any further discoveries.

Another addition: 'Legend of the Hidden City' (1997). Someone on IMDb has blamed this one on us, the British, but there seem to be plenty of S. African accents which suggest that we should be absolved! The cultural affiliations seem to be vaguely ancient Egyptian, and the costumery beggars description, except to caution visually-sensitive viewers against the fruit-salad colour schemes. This is presently showing on UK's Mov4men2+1 satellite channel.A further African-located example stongly influenced at the outset is 'Congo' (1995), which, as with 'Bridge of Time' uses a DC3, though this time the hardy souls actually bail out!

I have a hunch that anyone with a strong enough stomach to go LH-derivative hunting would find the most productive field in old Sci-fi series, from Flash Gordon onwards: here you have 'everything laid-on'-i.e. remote 'otherness', widely divergent moral codes, strange aesthetic qualities, etc.