HOLLYWOOD -- The fuzzy memories are all coming back for Phillip Paley, but sometimes it's still hard for him to talk about his days as America's favorite monkey-boy.

''It just changes the way people look at you, once people find out that you were Cha-Ka,'' the 45-year-old said of his long-gone career as a child actor on the television show Land of the Lost. ``I don't tell too many people. But, well, I guess that's all changing now.''

It's changing because Land of the Lost has been found once more -- and Paley, who now works as a litigation support manager at a Santa Monica law firm, is embracing his past.

Land of the Lost was a 1970s children's show that became famous (or infamous?) for its cheesy charms and low-budget special effects. Now the brand name is back with the Universal film that hit theaters last week. This time there's a major star (Will Ferrell), and there are lavish special effects for the re-imagined tale of three human travelers dumped into a mysterious landscape populated with dinosaurs, lizard-men and the Paku, a sort of ape people.

The most memorable of those hirsute Pakunis was Cha-Ka, played by young Paley and, in the new film, revived by Saturday Night Live alumnus Jorma Taccone.

Like so many child actors, Paley's found out how ephemeral fame can be. His face was on lunch boxes in the 1970s, but his memorable spot in pop-culture history is still a small one.

``Everybody spells my first name wrong (with one L). It was wrong in the credits of the show, believe it or not, and it's misspelled all over the Internet. That's just how it goes, I guess. . . . ''

Born in Los Angeles, Paley was discovered by a talent agent at 11 months old when his mother was pushing him in a stroller, and he appeared in a national television spot for Gerber baby food. Then in 1973, he earned his black belt in karate at 9 at the Chuck Norris karate school, an accomplishment that made him a bit of a celebrity.

''I went on The Tonight Show with Chuck, and I flipped Johnny Carson,'' said Paley, who still has the muscular build of a martial-arts enthusiast. ``Going on that show at that age and that time, that was like an out-of-body experience.''

Paley's tumbling skills won him a role on the quirky Land of the Lost, which was one of the many surreal Saturday morning creations churned out by Sid and Marty Krofft.

Paley remembers the three seasons as if they were chapters in a story that lost its appeal as the pages turned. The first season was all Hollywood magic for the youngster. The second gave him a sense that he was learning the profession even as the work intensified. The third was pure drudgery.

''I was so ready to be done. It was really hard work, and all my friends were out doing stuff, and I was a guy with a job,'' Paley said.

Paley's Cha-Ka was an innocent but impish little ape-boy, and he spoke an invented language; late linguistics professor Victoria Frompkin actually created a language and dictionary, which Paley still owns.

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