I loved this show when I was a kid but as I watch the reruns on ME TV you start to realize as an adult how silly this series was. They should have had a movie not too long after they canceled the show of them returning to Earth, Much like the Star Trek TOS Movies. I recently saw Billy mumy In 2 episodes of a Twilight Zone marathon. This was before his lost in space days👽
@@movieswelove99 - The Actor who played Don West (whose name I forgot) said the first Season was the Best. The First Season was much more serous and dark. I remember there was a 2 Parter with some Alien who like to take or Kidnaps 2 creatures from every world to take to this planet. He ended up kidnapping Penny and Will Robinson. Those were pretty dark episodes if I remember. Also, the Dr. Smith character was a real Evil Villain capable of Murder , not a Comic Bufoon in the Later Seasons. The Don West actor says in the later seasons it just became Will, the Robot and Dr. smith especially the Robot and Dr. Smith exchanging comic Barbs. I was dissapointed by the William Hurt MOvie. I thought it could have been better. I was also dissapointed by the Netflix Series which I think made a mistake when thye made it a very Family Friendly PG Series. I think a darker not PG take would have been better.
I love the robot and flipped over the Jupiter too. The first season was very good, but after that, it was a little more than a cartoon for Saturday morning.
@@gljm - Thank you for the information. I think he had a small part and so did the Actress who played the older Daughter in the William Hurt/Gary Oldman Lost in Space Movie.
A bit of trivia: Both the opening and closing theme music was composed and conducted by none other than legendary conductor John Williams, who is perhaps best known for award winning films as Sugarland Express, Jaws, Poltergeist, and of course All the STAR WARS & INDIANA JONES franchise In Lost In Space, he is credited as Johnny Williams 🎼🎶🎬🎥🎞️📺
Angela Cartwright was the sister of Veronica Cartwright, who appeared in the movie ALIEN, she played science officer Brett. And she also played the mother in FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR
My parents wouldn't let me watch Lost in Space until I ate all of my broccoli. I went through the same torture nearly every week. It it wasn't broccoli, it was beets, or some other vile weed. I held fast until I heard the theme song come on and I could stand it no more. I shoveled the crap down my maw and did what I needed to do. I LOVED this freaking show.
The first two black and white episodes of Lost In Space are serious episodes and great scifi. The attack of the vegetable people got a little silly. Definitely had a crush on Penny though. Eventually, the robot's speaking light was triggered by a switch in the left "hand" of the robot. If you watch closely, every time the robot speaks you can see a slight twitch in the left hand of the robot as the button is pressed. Interesting also is the fact that the second season of L.I.S. almost didn't make it. Groucho Marx was a huge fan and paid a decent sum of money out of his own pocket to make sure it got on air.
One of the best series ever. Was watching it a few months ago. Freaked me out when I saw how it parallels certain events happening today. Teri Woolum LeFevers.
@@garylefevers - Do you know where I can watch Babylon Five. I watch Babylon 5 before I got Cable and before DVR in the late 1990's. on Broadcast TV so I watched episodes here and there. When it moved to TNT for its last season, and I didn't have CAble at the time- I wasn't able to watch it at all. Where can I watch Babylon Five? I have standard Cable and it doesn't seem to be at all on Standard Cable. My building has a special discount or bulk rate with my Cable Provider so I get Showtime, Starz and Staz/Encore, but they also don't have Babylon Five. Do you know where I can watch Babylon Five hopefully for free? Thanks!
I just remembered seeing Billy Mumy in an episode of Matlock. Not so surprisingly he was a young (30 maybe) scientific genius, recluse who somehow was involved in the southern lawyers case. Matlock (Andy Griffith) tried to inspire the young genius with minimal social schools to ask out his young assistant. anyways it is usually good to see Mumy accepting/receiving an acting gig.
Don't be so critical in the second and third season. Don't get me wrong. The writers did mess with it quite a bit and not in a good way. However, if you're a fan as I am season, 2 had quite a handful of decent well. Written episodes such as prisoners of space. The android machine was good, deadly games of gamma six the wreck of the robot, the Dream monster, the golden man trip to the robot and a few more third season did pretty well but again, they went back to some not good episodes, but that's like with any TV series. You're gonna have the good. You're gonna have the bad, but you can't say a show. Was that bad if it's lasted 60 plus years. That's pretty good
I've automatically fallen in love with any woman who shows up in a spacesuit. Cartwright, however, got the edge over sexier Kirsten, with her portrayal of the most awesome First Contact expert in all SF 😊 .
Pity they never crossed paths, now that would have beeen an episode (actually a double as the story could be shown from both the 'Lost i Space' and 'Star Trek' angles)
Although I have been a sci/fy fan ever since the mid 50's, I could never seem to get interested in either Star Trek or Lost in Space, finding them both too boring and predictable. The movie, "Dark Star" is much more suitable for me. (Like an in depth philosophable discussion with a live and very intelligent bomb) Also, "It came From Outer Space", "Invaders from Mars", and "The Day the Earth Stood Still." BHE
@@blackholeentry3489 I enjoy the campiness of "Lost in Space". I was just a kid when these shows first came out. But even today I find "Star Trek"'s stories very cool. So, to each his own.
@ Yes, you're right...I just found Star Trek way too easily predictable and boring, finding movies like Dark Star, It Came from Outer Space and the 1953 classic, Invaders From Mars, so much more to my taste and liking....but then, I recently turned 84.....and, have had three "Up close and in my face" encounters with crafts NOT made upon this earth. It is said our government is fully aware of this phenomena, but has been withholding Full UFO Disclosure from happening out of fear of upsetting the ''Delicate Religious"....that we are NOT the only intelligence within this vast 400 billion star galaxy, which is in, of itself, just one galaxy of a Hubble Proven two trillion other galaxies. BHE
@jackcarvis3668 I thought Jonathan Harris was very good in the first few episodes. Legend has it he would have to been killed off the show but Irwin Allen kept him permanently.
The comic, Space Family Robinson, was created 3 years before the TV series and had no connection to the series. When the TV show became popular Gold Key considered filing suit due to the similarities between their comic and the TV show. They decided against doing that since they were also publishing the "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" comic which is based on another Irwin Allen TV series. After some discussion they reached an agreement and added the sub title "Lost In Space" to the comic in hopes of boosting sales. Irwin Allen based the Robinson Family on the book Swiss Family Robinson, the original concept did not have the Robot or Dr. Smith and had the Robinson family marooned on an unknown alien world with no hope of rescue.
Harris turned LIS into his personal clown show, apparently with the hearty approval of Irwin Allen. While they left behind some marvelous camp, it was a disappointment at the time.
Ditto. That's why the complete series of Lost in Space is currently sitting in my pile of videos to sell to Second & Charles. I just couldn't accept that Dr. Smith would be allowed to live. He was a drain on resources, he continuously endangered everybody else through his selfish scheming, he even sabotaged the entire mission and caused them to be 'lost in space' in the first place. And he never learns. He never grows. I could buy his presence if he'd had some sort of actual value but in a survival situation, his shenanigans simply couldn't be tolerated. His presence far exceeds what can be accepted under suspension of disbelief. But I never thought of it as a COMEDY. Maybe that was where I went wrong, I tried to take it moderately seriously, like I would star trek. Still, he's a fundamentally unlikable character and, as you said, only so much of him can be taken at one sitting.
@@ericatkinson5433 Yes. Unfortunately his character degraded from the evil bad guy in the beginning to more of a petulant child, less mature than Will or Penny. More to be pitied than feared.
Trivia: Angela Cartwright appeared in an episode of the TV series “Medical Center” titled “Operation Heartbeat" (1969). In the episode, she played the role of a teenager named Angela.
It was a time when "The Love Generation" society wanted to either 'kill off mom and dad' or tone "them old fashioned fogies" down to "just another choice out there, but it's not really that important!". TV shows like this portrayed what honest family units were all along. "The Sexual Revolution" tried to destroy "Mom and Dad" but it didn't have real legs to stand us on. It even gave us horrible diseases. That's when Miami Vice and Crack took over to try to destroy "Mom and Dad" all it could and a whole stronger sexual revolution was established, one that would have made the 60's and 70's kids blush and turn red. There is not one single thing wrong with a mother acting like a mother and a father acting like a father by working hard on the job to support the family. Nowadays they'd probably want to stone you if you said a mother should cook for her family while the father holds a steady job. It's honest living though. Always was, always will be... Mom, Dad, kids. That "individual personal choice" stuff needs to simply leave mom and dad out of their equations because they don't have any honest 'family' skin in the game, so judging is merely pointing an easy finger as they'll angrily portray themselves as pure innocent societal "victim".
In 1966 when I was 6 years old I saw Jonathan Harris in his car driving out of the parking lot at the Pigly Wigly market on Ventura Blvd. in Encino. He looked at me, and smiled, a waved... I was terrified! A true TV villian.
Irwin stole the idea from the Space Family Robinson comic book there was a lawsuit and the agreement was Gold Key were allowed to re-title their comic book Lost in Space but Irwin totally stole the concept from Gold Key.
There's an alternate universe somewhere where for 3 years, Dr. Smith ruins rescue attempts of the SS Minnow castaways, and Gilligan continually screws things up for the crew of the Jupiter 2.
When I was in college my math professor always called me Dr. Smith. When I finally asked him why he said, “Because you’re lost in space”. To this day, over 50 years later my friends from that time still call me that.
Jonathan Harris didn't want to change his character so much because it was "uninspiring", but because as an unwanted stow away, he didn't feel he was likely to be kept on the show for very long. Your are correct, however, that the producer did (eventually) encourage him to do so, although it was reportedly just Harris's idea initially until the producer realized what was going on and liked it.
I absolutely loved to hate Doctor Smith as a kid. It's not until re-watching clips on UA-cam 40 years later that I appreciate how good his acting was. Hard to believe he was married! TV was corny back then. Like Batman. Star Trek was the outlier which is why it aged so much better.
That's the same little boy that was in that Twilight Zone episode telling that guy " You're a bad man " many times then turning him into a jack - in - the box..
Don't forget Star Trek and LiS had sets near each other and they mingled off camera from time to time. Lots of pictures of them interacting. Batman, that influenced the camp turn, also. 🛸👾🤖. 🤓😎✌🏼 Also, Tybo, (Stanley Adams)the Space Carrot, also hawked a Tribble to Lt Urura.
Star Trek was filmed at the Desilu/Paramount studio it didn't share sets with Lost in Space which the filmed at the 20th century Fox studio. Batman and Lost in Space did film at Fox at the same time.
Cyrano Jones....in "Trouble with Tribbles"...one of the best episodes of the Star Trek series !........and the only comedy of the series...very, very well written....
"Giant sentient carrot"...just like James Arness in the original The Thing . I am SO glad that John Carpenter redid The Thing; he did justice to a decent short story by one of the greatest editors in SF history, John W Campbell.
Billy Mummy also stared a couple of years after Lost in Space in a movie called " Bless the beasts and the children ", as a school kid at the time remember it being an important movie for teenagers when discussing ethics.
I thought this show lasted for several years, loved watching it as a kid but Dr. Smiths character was so annoying, i was hoping they left him behind on one of the planets they landed on just to rid of his character
@Gregory-sm9pf Yes Smith was on it until the end. He wasn't in the pilot .Jonathan Harris. They considered Eddie Albert, and Carrol O Connor for the part. A decision was made to keep kids fascinated, and the funny side of Smith, was to lighten up the monsters . It ran against Batman , and held its own..
@danteardenz2670 Carrol O'Connor as Dr Smith? Lmao,,, who would he be calling meathead, can't be the robot, it was made of metal, seriously never knew that, that's funny, glad he didn't, might not have had him in All in the Family, thanks dude
@Gregory-sm9pf Carrol.O Connor was known as a serious Shakespearen actor at the time! Low spoken , cultured! His Archie character the opposite. Shows what a great actor he was . Jonathan Harris built the role , as the original more serious, type of show was failing. It's doubtful O Connor would of done that
I just recently watched all three seasons in a row. I never realized as a kid that the girls and the mother had virtually no screen time very little dialogue. They were barely in the show.
When I was a boy, I couldn't get enough Sci-Fi. Lost In Space was one of my favorites along with Star Trek and the real old stuff When Leslie Neilson did serious roles.
I would say Star Trek has become much bigger than Lost in Space. Even though their original runs lasted the same, Star Trek is much more iconic having multiple reboots, etc. one would think that Star Trek has a long run in its original series.
I wouldn't call them reboots,just spin off series-TNG-DS9-Voyager-Enterprise,Picard,Discovery,Strange New Worlds and 3 animated series. Plus: 6 original TOS films and-4 TNG movies,easy to say Star Trek is the more popular sci-fi series.
The craziest thing I remember was their 'Solar Batteries', These were No 6 cells, painted black, with 'Solar battery' written on them, but the worst part was them were 'installed' inside a box - so no 'solar' at all... One of the craziest episoldes I say had a cord type telephone switchboard with it's cords out attacking them!, crazier I thought than the 'Great Vegetable Rebellion' Maybe the show got canned as they could see the writers were hitting the bottom of the barrel and seemed to have no idea on where to go.
Mrs. Robinson: What did you just do, robot? Robot: I was vibrating dust off my chassis, Mrs. Robinson. Mrs. Robinson: It seems to have worked. Robot: I can vibrate 400 different ways. Mrs. Robinson: JOHN! I'm going on a patrol with robot-- be back in the morning!! .
Incorrect about the "Torso Light". Bob May triggered the light using a button in his left hand. You can almost always see his left hand twitch when the robot is speaking. It twitches in unison with the flashing of the light.
Instead of canceling “Lost in Space” they should have crash landed them on “Gilligan’s Island”! Silly hijinks of a combined cast would’ve been hilarious!
I still watch the reruns, but Only season 1, and most of Season 2, Season 3 is out of the question, because at my age I am Not staying up until 2:00 a. m to be made a fool of by some inane bad acting vegetable aliens
Thats... an interesting idea. But I suggest that Gilligan was reasonable, likable character and Dr. Smith was not. Gilligan works because, survival situation or not, he always has good intentions and much of the havoc he causes isn't really his fault per se. Dr, Smith on the other hand was cowardly, selfish, greedy, incompetent, and for lack of a better way of saying it, stupid. And he never learned or grew as a character. Gilligan's antics never endangered anyone's life whereas Dr. Smith almost got everyone killed every episode. You'd likely end up with a scenario where Gilligan and Dr. Smith cancelled each other out. Dr. Smith would see Gilligan as an easily manipulated lackey and would try to use him in his boneheaded, greedy, dangerous schemes which would be foiled because of Gilligan's innocent accident-prone-ness. Meanwhile, with Gilligan being tied up accidentally thwarting Dr. Smith's schemes, there would be no one to keep the Professor's attempts at getting them rescued from succeeding and everyone would be rescued in short order. Still, it's an interesting idea. But you'd have to somehow strip all the technology away and most likely lose the robot too in order to make it work, and the robot was Lost in Space's most redeeming aspect.
Another weird fact about "Lost In Space" is that the "special effects" budget for each show was an average of $29.95 - about the cost of an Earl Scheib paint job in the 1960's.
Our old Chevy station wagon, "The Green Dragon", got an $29.95 Earl Scheib paint job. The only thing they covered was the glass and lights. Everything else, included the chrome, was painted the same color green.
People tend to forget lost in space. Had tremendous heart and when a show has that you can't kill. It proves my point 60 years later. It's still doing well whether you stream It or on. D v d or blu, ray, it's there now that computes
Agreed, Bill. I'm sure other, perhaps more interesting plot lines would have been written without the "convenient problems" provided by a drama-queen perv.
Thanks for giving (another) change to comment upon the show. Unlike Star Trek, where there are soooooo many hardcore fans, there are less to Lost in Space fans that jump to comment before I do. BTW, it was rumored/reported that Mark Goddard, who played Don, said that they show just got too silly because it made no sense that he and Judy were the only viable breeding couple amount the colonist on board... But in real life, I asked Mark Goddard what he thought happened to the show during one of his many convention appearances and the response was "Well, in the beginning it was what it was. Then later, it still was what it was"... I think that was Mark's way of saying "It started stupid and remained stupid, but I'm not going to come out and use the word 'stupid' because I want fans to keep paying to see me at conventions without hating me." ;-p In practice, if Mark didn't watch the actual show, and you take an OBJECTIVE look at just the scenes he appeared in, perhaps the bulk of them were always him threatening to wring Smith's neck and the rest were mostly just action scenes that weren't very different at the start or end of the series.
I have e seen two different pilot episodes and they were both very intelligently done with the crew looking for water which is something that even as a kid I always wondered where people in scifi series got food and water from.
Loved Lost In Space TV series which was repeated time and again in the 1970s. By the Great Vegetable Rebalian there must have been plenty of Green stuff about the studios - it was 1967 and summer of Love!
Even though it is said the Neil Peart is the voice who at the end of 2112 who calls out, "Attention all planets of the solar federation! Attention all planets of the solar federation! Attention all planets of the solar federation! We have assumed control, we have assumed control, we have assumed control." The voice of the robot sounds incredibly the same, especially on the reboot clip.
Whilst it is true that the show was directly based on the comic “Space Family Robinson” (which I read avidly) , the true roots of the show are to be found in the novel “Swiss Family Robinson” (Johann David Wyss - 1812), which was adapted by Disney in a film of the same name in 1960.🤗
I have heard that the show went campy at the same time that the Batman show came out which was after the first year of Lost In Space. It was trying to compete with Batman.
There was no mention of the very good Netflix series reboot or that Mark Goddard made a cameo in the 1998 Lost in Space film. Also, what about Judy and Mom.
Marta Kirsten was hotter than the J2's, (only seen once), Power Core. The less said about the on-screen abortion known as the 1998 movie, the better. 😓🤮
A friend of mine got to have a long chat with Marta Kristen at a comic convention because her area wasn't that busy at the time. But he forgot to ask her if she knew the answer to a trivia question he always wondered about which was what happened to the "plant Judy" at the end of the episode where she's replaced by the duplicate that came out of the giant flower she slept inside! Haha! I had wondered about Penny having that short bob in the final season because another friend gave me this interview Angela Cartwright at around age 16 and her hair was long again! A trivia page cleared that up saying she wore a fall to slightly age the character to look more like a teen!
About Angela. From what I read, Irwin Allen wanted her hair to be cut short for the third season, and she wasn't going for it. Eventually, it was decided Angela would wear a short wiglet so she could keep her long hair the way she wanted it. In only one episode do we see her lovely long locks in the third season, and that is the first episode entitled "Condemned of Space".
Thank you for the flashback... (at least most of it:) I didn't know about the "comic book" connection Moo-me? I've been saying Mum-me for decades. My bad I REALLY didn't now about the "Will - Penny" connection. I'm glad I didn't Fish Heads! One of my favorites (don't tell anybody). I had no idea One thing is for sure. Right after this show I had to go to bed That music still gets me!
I was five-years-old when this first aired and I loved it. I had the worst crush on Billy Mumy though I always wished Penny Cartwright was featured in more episodes. I hated Dr. Smith. I never saw it after it was aired so I don't remember much about the details. Only that I loved it.
It was SILLY and CAMPY then and it is now. THAT'S WHY I LOVE IT. First of all,there's Johnathan Smith, one of the campiest actors ever, and he is thoroughly outcamped by the robot. Who knew Data's grandfather was gay?????
Me and my little brother watched Lost in Space religiously - What a great production it was!
Yeah, my favourite show as a kid!! Except the ending left us all wondering, and we're still wondering 50 yrs later!!
Loved this show when I was a child ❤
Me too! I wanted to be Will Robinson. Bill Mumy has had ana amazing career and life. I admire him a lot.
Penny was so beautiful and one of my first childhood crushes.😊
I love coming home from school and watching this when I was a kid! It broke my heart the day that it ended…
I WATCHED EVERYONE OF THEM OVER AND OVER . LOVE THEM ALL !
68 & GREW UP WITH LOST IN SPACE & LOVED THE KURT RUSSELL EPISODE!
I loved this show when I was a kid but as I watch the reruns on ME TV you start to realize as an adult how silly this series was. They should have had a movie not too long after they canceled the show of them returning to Earth, Much like the Star Trek TOS Movies. I recently saw Billy mumy In 2 episodes of a Twilight Zone marathon. This was before his lost in space days👽
I know what you mean... I loved it too... but now it seems beyond corny.
@@movieswelove99 - The Actor who played Don West (whose name I forgot) said the first Season was the Best. The First Season was much more serous and dark. I remember there was a 2 Parter with some Alien who like to take or Kidnaps 2 creatures from every world to take to this planet. He ended up kidnapping Penny and Will Robinson. Those were pretty dark episodes if I remember. Also, the Dr. Smith character was a real Evil Villain capable of Murder , not a Comic Bufoon in the Later Seasons.
The Don West actor says in the later seasons it just became Will, the Robot and Dr. smith especially the Robot and Dr. Smith exchanging comic Barbs.
I was dissapointed by the William Hurt MOvie. I thought it could have been better. I was also dissapointed by the Netflix Series which I think made a mistake when thye made it a very Family Friendly PG Series. I think a darker not PG take would have been better.
@@HoldenNY22 Mark Goddard was the actor's name.
I love the robot and flipped over the Jupiter too. The first season was very good, but after that, it was a little more than a cartoon for Saturday morning.
@@gljm - Thank you for the information. I think he had a small part and so did the Actress who played the older Daughter in the William Hurt/Gary Oldman Lost in Space Movie.
A bit of trivia:
Both the opening and closing theme music was composed and conducted by none other than legendary conductor
John Williams, who is perhaps best known for award winning films as Sugarland Express, Jaws, Poltergeist, and of course
All the STAR WARS & INDIANA JONES franchise
In Lost In Space, he is credited as
Johnny Williams 🎼🎶🎬🎥🎞️📺
Brilliant piece of music. Hated when they changed the theme in the third season.
@kenvaughan6694 the music and Angela were the best part of the show❤️
Angela Cartwright was the sister of Veronica Cartwright, who appeared in the movie
ALIEN, she played science officer Brett.
And she also played the mother in
FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR
@@biglongcadillac Especially Angela.
@@kenvaughan6694 You left out The Birds (1963).
My parents wouldn't let me watch Lost in Space until I ate all of my broccoli. I went through the same torture nearly every week. It it wasn't broccoli, it was beets, or some other vile weed. I held fast until I heard the theme song come on and I could stand it no more. I shoveled the crap down my maw and did what I needed to do. I LOVED this freaking show.
@@swiftlytiltingplanet8481 Bet you've never had a bite of broccoli or beets since becoming an adult.
@@FreyaTait Beets? Yuck. Broccoli, tolerated if roasted. ;)
The first two black and white episodes of Lost In Space are serious episodes and great scifi. The attack of the vegetable people got a little silly. Definitely had a crush on Penny though.
Eventually, the robot's speaking light was triggered by a switch in the left "hand" of the robot. If you watch closely, every time the robot speaks you can see a slight twitch in the left hand of the robot as the button is pressed.
Interesting also is the fact that the second season of L.I.S. almost didn't make it. Groucho Marx was a huge fan and paid a decent sum of money out of his own pocket to make sure it got on air.
Billy Mumy also had a lead role in the Sci0Fi Series- Babylon Five. Very underrated Series which is not as well known as it should be.
Agreed.
One of the best series ever. Was watching it a few months ago. Freaked me out when I saw how it parallels certain events happening today. Teri Woolum LeFevers.
@@garylefevers - Do you know where I can watch Babylon Five. I watch Babylon 5 before I got Cable and before DVR in the late 1990's. on Broadcast TV so I watched episodes here and there. When it moved to TNT for its last season, and I didn't have CAble at the time- I wasn't able to watch it at all.
Where can I watch Babylon Five? I have standard Cable and it doesn't seem to be at all on Standard Cable. My building has a special discount or bulk rate with my Cable Provider so I get Showtime, Starz and Staz/Encore, but they also don't have Babylon Five. Do you know where I can watch Babylon Five hopefully for free? Thanks!
I just remembered seeing Billy Mumy in an episode of Matlock. Not so surprisingly he was a young (30 maybe) scientific genius, recluse who somehow was involved in the southern lawyers case. Matlock (Andy Griffith) tried to inspire the young genius with minimal social schools to ask out his young assistant. anyways it is usually good to see Mumy accepting/receiving an acting gig.
Mr.Billy Mumy was in a T. V. series along with Kirsty Ally called " Sunshine " in (1974).😊
Lost in Space = Serious in the Black & White episodes!
Lost in Space = Corny Space Farce in the Color episodes!
Thanks to Johnathan Harris. He turned it into a joke
Like the Beverly hillbillies. It was a lot better in black and white but got stupid when it went color 😮
@@lonniemonroe2714 Just as well he did. It would not have lasted another two season otherwise.
Don't be so critical in the second and third season. Don't get me wrong. The writers did mess with it quite a bit and not in a good way. However, if you're a fan as I am season, 2 had quite a handful of decent well. Written episodes such as prisoners of space. The android machine was good, deadly games of gamma six the wreck of the robot, the Dream monster, the golden man trip to the robot and a few more third season did pretty well but again, they went back to some not good episodes, but that's like with any TV series. You're gonna have the good. You're gonna have the bad, but you can't say a show. Was that bad if it's lasted 60 plus years. That's pretty good
@anthonymessina9672 You make a very valid point. Yes there were some good episodes. I was making a generalization as a whole.
2:25 Don't blame Bill. I carry a space torch to this day for Cartwright.
Dude "obtained his drivers' license" at *14*?!
I've automatically fallen in love with any woman who shows up in a spacesuit. Cartwright, however, got the edge over sexier Kirsten, with her portrayal of the most awesome First Contact expert in all SF 😊 .
@@yellowrose0910 I got my restricted one at 15 in Florida, so it's not out of the question. California may have had different laws back then.
I was in to Judy!
@@stephenbladt99 lol
Did love that robot!
The robot always had the best comeback lines! "Henceforth, I want to be known as "Golden Boy"!
Oh bah! Golden Boy indeed!
Great show and cast!
"Star Trek" was cool, but "Lost in Space" was groovy.
Pity they never crossed paths, now that would have beeen an episode (actually a double as the story could be shown from both the 'Lost i Space' and 'Star Trek' angles)
Although I have been a sci/fy fan ever since the mid 50's, I could never seem to get interested in either Star Trek or Lost in Space, finding them both too boring and predictable.
The movie, "Dark Star" is much more suitable for me.
(Like an in depth philosophable discussion with a live and very intelligent bomb)
Also, "It came From Outer Space", "Invaders from Mars", and "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
BHE
@@blackholeentry3489 I enjoy the campiness of "Lost in Space". I was just a kid when these shows first came out. But even today I find "Star Trek"'s stories very cool. So, to each his own.
@ Yes, you're right...I just found Star Trek way too easily predictable and boring, finding movies like Dark Star, It Came from Outer Space and the 1953 classic, Invaders From Mars, so much more to my taste and liking....but then, I recently turned 84.....and, have had three "Up close and in my face" encounters with crafts NOT made upon this earth. It is said our government is fully aware of this phenomena, but has been withholding Full UFO Disclosure from happening out of fear of upsetting the ''Delicate Religious"....that we are NOT the only intelligence within this vast 400 billion star galaxy, which is in, of itself, just one galaxy of a Hubble Proven two trillion other galaxies. BHE
I hated the Dr Smith character when I was 8 years old and still do today at 67
My older brother used to cuss him out every time he was on.lol
@jackcarvis3668 I thought I was the only one who wished he wasn't there
Yep, Dr. Smith was an old ankle grabber from way back.
So did i..and still do too. He ruined that show
@jackcarvis3668 I thought Jonathan Harris was very good in the first few episodes. Legend has it he would have to been killed off the show but Irwin Allen kept him permanently.
The comic, Space Family Robinson, was created 3 years before the TV series and had no connection to the series. When the TV show became popular Gold Key considered filing suit due to the similarities between their comic and the TV show. They decided against doing that since they were also publishing the "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" comic which is based on another Irwin Allen TV series. After some discussion they reached an agreement and added the sub title "Lost In Space" to the comic in hopes of boosting sales. Irwin Allen based the Robinson Family on the book Swiss Family Robinson, the original concept did not have the Robot or Dr. Smith and had the Robinson family marooned on an unknown alien world with no hope of rescue.
The comic would have been better on TV than the crap we got from Irwin Allen.
@@TheCrossroads533 yeah, IA cranked out some serious crapola.
"What a maroon"!
I remember reading the comic. I came across a copy in a used book store.
@@macwyll one of my favorite BB sayings.
I love the episode where (Billy Mumy) Will Robinson made it back to earth and best I remember he had a chance to stay.
Hatfield Four Corners. A classic!
Lost in Space and Star Trek are both excellent, but cannot be compared to each other.
Are you saying Lost in Space is much better than Star Trek?
@@stellarspacetravelerprobably no one was a comedy the other a drama
Harris turned LIS into his personal clown show, apparently with the hearty approval of Irwin Allen. While they left behind some marvelous camp, it was a disappointment at the time.
He made the show a success. No disappointment at all.
Allen approved of the change because of the popularity of Batman, another campy show.
Yeah, Harris ruined it for me as well
@@williamwilson6499 Exactly. I don't think the show would have been successful if there was no Dr Smith!
@@williamwilson6499 People don't get you need an antagonist in every show. You aren't supposed to like them. He played that role well.
I like binge watching series television, but I cannot do that with Lost In Space. I can only take so much Dr. Smith at one sitting...
Ditto. That's why the complete series of Lost in Space is currently sitting in my pile of videos to sell to Second & Charles. I just couldn't accept that Dr. Smith would be allowed to live. He was a drain on resources, he continuously endangered everybody else through his selfish scheming, he even sabotaged the entire mission and caused them to be 'lost in space' in the first place. And he never learns. He never grows. I could buy his presence if he'd had some sort of actual value but in a survival situation, his shenanigans simply couldn't be tolerated. His presence far exceeds what can be accepted under suspension of disbelief.
But I never thought of it as a COMEDY. Maybe that was where I went wrong, I tried to take it moderately seriously, like I would star trek.
Still, he's a fundamentally unlikable character and, as you said, only so much of him can be taken at one sitting.
@@ericatkinson5433 Yes. Unfortunately his character degraded from the evil bad guy in the beginning to more of a petulant child, less mature than Will or Penny. More to be pitied than feared.
Oh, the pain. The pain.
Pretty good video! Bill Mumy also wrote & recorded as a solo artist & wrote several songs for the band America in the 1990's & 2000's.
Ohh the pain, the pain my dear boy.
I used to think it was silly how much Smith complained about his back pain, nowadays not so much.
Trivia: Angela Cartwright appeared in an episode of the TV series “Medical Center” titled “Operation Heartbeat" (1969). In the episode, she played the role of a teenager named Angela.
Angela Cartilage was also on The Sound of the Music
@@dalecooper9942...she was also briefly in "My Three Sons"....
@@keithbrown8814 And she was wearing a hot costume in that one too
Medical center, Night stalker, the Immortal , dark shadows...I was ten....no wonder I'm so " different " 😂😂😂
Now as an adult I can’t believe that June Robinson who had an extensive education was relegated to making coffee and doing laundry.
It was a time when "The Love Generation" society wanted to either 'kill off mom and dad' or tone "them old fashioned fogies" down to "just another choice out there, but it's not really that important!".
TV shows like this portrayed what honest family units were all along. "The Sexual Revolution" tried to destroy "Mom and Dad" but it didn't have real legs to stand us on. It even gave us horrible diseases. That's when Miami Vice and Crack took over to try to destroy "Mom and Dad" all it could and a whole stronger sexual revolution was established, one that would have made the 60's and 70's kids blush and turn red.
There is not one single thing wrong with a mother acting like a mother and a father acting like a father by working hard on the job to support the family. Nowadays they'd probably want to stone you if you said a mother should cook for her family while the father holds a steady job. It's honest living though. Always was, always will be... Mom, Dad, kids. That "individual personal choice" stuff needs to simply leave mom and dad out of their equations because they don't have any honest 'family' skin in the game, so judging is merely pointing an easy finger as they'll angrily portray themselves as pure innocent societal "victim".
In 1966 when I was 6 years old I saw Jonathan Harris in his car driving out of the parking lot at the Pigly Wigly market on Ventura Blvd. in Encino. He looked at me, and smiled, a waved... I was terrified! A true TV villian.
Awww... that is too cute!
Loved this as a kid. Actually all these years later I still like watching series one.
There was a new Lost in Space series that lasted either one or two seasons,I have the first season on dvd,don't know if there was a 2nd season tho.
The Robot always made my mother laugh, with his singing and comebacks at Smith. He was my favourite character, too.
…and the Gold Key comic was of course based on the classic “Swiss Family Robinson” adventure novel 😉
Irwin stole the idea from the Space Family Robinson comic book there was a lawsuit and the agreement was Gold Key were allowed to re-title their comic book Lost in Space but Irwin totally stole the concept from Gold Key.
That was my immediate speculation when the video mentioned the comic.
There's an alternate universe somewhere where for 3 years, Dr. Smith ruins rescue attempts of the SS Minnow castaways, and Gilligan continually screws things up for the crew of the Jupiter 2.
When I was in college my math professor always called me Dr. Smith. When I finally asked him why he said, “Because you’re lost in space”. To this day, over 50 years later my friends from that time still call me that.
That's great! Sounds like me too... when it comes to math. Love it!
LIS started so well - pity it became so rancid ...
Exactly. I loved the show the first year or two and hated it by year three. I still can't believe the direction it took.
Exactly, they should have kept Dr Smith's character as a villain, and not the sniveling coward
All at the feet of Jonathan Harris
Jonathan Harris didn't want to change his character so much because it was "uninspiring", but because as an unwanted stow away, he didn't feel he was likely to be kept on the show for very long. Your are correct, however, that the producer did (eventually) encourage him to do so, although it was reportedly just Harris's idea initially until the producer realized what was going on and liked it.
I absolutely loved to hate Doctor Smith as a kid. It's not until re-watching clips on UA-cam 40 years later that I appreciate how good his acting was. Hard to believe he was married! TV was corny back then. Like Batman. Star Trek was the outlier which is why it aged so much better.
Why is it hard to believe that Jonathan Harris was married?
Dr. Smith was the first queen in space.
@@steveschmidt5156 Not. In Dr. Smith's voice, "How dare you!"
HUGE fan here. LIS had some really well-written episodes in season I & II. The last season sucked for the most part. I watched anyway.👍🏽
Agreed! My favorite was the ep that took place inside the robot. I was fascinated for years with that one!
You're wrong imho.....season 2 sucked only s few episodes were decent.....season 3 was a big improvement over 2.....only a few episodes stunk...
My favorite show Of All Time!Just Subscribed!
Great!🤩
That's the same little boy that was in that Twilight Zone episode telling that guy " You're a bad man " many times then turning him into a jack - in - the box..
"Wish him into the cornfield, Anthony. Wish him into the cornfield."
Loved every episode.
Don't forget Star Trek and LiS had sets near each other and they mingled off camera from time to time. Lots of pictures of them interacting. Batman, that influenced the camp turn, also. 🛸👾🤖. 🤓😎✌🏼 Also, Tybo, (Stanley Adams)the Space Carrot, also hawked a Tribble to Lt Urura.
Star Trek was filmed at the Desilu/Paramount studio it didn't share sets with Lost in Space which the filmed at the 20th century Fox studio. Batman and Lost in Space did film at Fox at the same time.
@@EJDW He was probably thinking the Brady Bunch, which briefly shared studio space with Star Trek.
Cyrano Jones....in "Trouble with Tribbles"...one of the best episodes of the Star Trek series !........and the only comedy of the series...very, very well written....
I had such a crush on Penny
Yeah, you and about 60 million other dudes!
when mumy was on DS9 his character was killed, when the scene ended the producer called
out "Star trek just killed will robinson!"
That's GREAT! Thanks for sharing that.
But he lived on in Babalon 5.
Absolutely loved the show
I loved this show after school, and my brother laughed he loved it. The best times.
Can’t believe he sang Fish Heads!?!
Never knew it myself til now
ikr?!
OMG! I loved this show as a child!
"Giant sentient carrot"...just like James Arness in the original The Thing . I am SO glad that John Carpenter redid The Thing; he did justice to a decent short story by one of the greatest editors in SF history, John W Campbell.
Billy Mummy also stared a couple of years after Lost in Space in a movie called " Bless the beasts and the children ", as a school kid at the time remember it being an important movie for teenagers when discussing ethics.
I thought this show lasted for several years, loved watching it as a kid but Dr. Smiths character was so annoying, i was hoping they left him behind on one of the planets they landed on just to rid of his character
It was dying without him .
@danteardenz2670 I thought he was on it til the end, no?
@Gregory-sm9pf Yes Smith was on it until the end.
He wasn't in the pilot .Jonathan Harris.
They considered Eddie Albert, and Carrol O Connor for the part.
A decision was made to keep kids fascinated, and the funny side of Smith, was to lighten up the monsters .
It ran against Batman , and held its own..
@danteardenz2670 Carrol O'Connor as Dr Smith? Lmao,,, who would he be calling meathead, can't be the robot, it was made of metal, seriously never knew that, that's funny, glad he didn't, might not have had him in All in the Family, thanks dude
@Gregory-sm9pf Carrol.O Connor was known as a serious Shakespearen actor at the time! Low spoken , cultured!
His Archie character the opposite.
Shows what a great actor he was .
Jonathan Harris built the role , as the original more serious, type of show was failing.
It's doubtful O Connor would of done that
NASA has the robot at their visitor center, Hall of Heros.
I just recently watched all three seasons in a row. I never realized as a kid that the girls and the mother had virtually no screen time very little dialogue. They were barely in the show.
I remembered one episode I watched there was some sort of a emergency, going on, and misses Robinson was cleaning the windows
And in others she was fixing the family a nice breakfast.
@@michaelt2974yes, with those funky looking Tupperware
Well, of course. Women were just for 3 things; cooking, cleaning, &... therapy.
@@michaelt2974Don't forget doing the laundry.
Yeah... I always hated Dr. Smith. Maybe that's one reason why I remember the show. We tried to watch it in color at my grandmother's house.
Loved this show as a kid, and over 50 years later I own the box set and once in a while relive my childhood.
When I was a boy, I couldn't get enough Sci-Fi. Lost In Space was one of my favorites along with Star Trek and the real old stuff When Leslie Neilson did serious roles.
I would say Star Trek has become much bigger than Lost in Space. Even though their original runs lasted the same, Star Trek is much more iconic having multiple reboots, etc. one would think that Star Trek has a long run in its original series.
Trek writing is far superior.
Well....the producers wanted to stuff a few more skillion $$$ into their pockets!
I wouldn't call them reboots,just spin off series-TNG-DS9-Voyager-Enterprise,Picard,Discovery,Strange New Worlds and 3 animated series. Plus: 6 original TOS films and-4 TNG movies,easy to say Star Trek is the more popular sci-fi series.
I liked it the first season. When it got silly, it became asinine.
The craziest thing I remember was their 'Solar Batteries', These were No 6 cells, painted black, with 'Solar battery' written on them, but the worst part was them were 'installed' inside a box - so no 'solar' at all...
One of the craziest episoldes I say had a cord type telephone switchboard with it's cords out attacking them!, crazier I thought than the 'Great Vegetable Rebellion'
Maybe the show got canned as they could see the writers were hitting the bottom of the barrel and seemed to have no idea on where to go.
I watched the show as a little kid, & can't decide if I'm happier or sadder that I don't remember the attacking telephone episode.
Star Trek: the first inter-racial kiss on American TV
Lost in Space: Giant sentient carrots
The black and white was the best, then it was bad. Should have gotten rid of Dr. Smith,UGH!
Mrs. Robinson: What did you just do, robot?
Robot: I was vibrating dust off my chassis, Mrs. Robinson.
Mrs. Robinson: It seems to have worked.
Robot: I can vibrate 400 different ways.
Mrs. Robinson: JOHN!
I'm going on a patrol with robot-- be back in the morning!!
.
Incorrect about the "Torso Light". Bob May triggered the light using a button in his left hand. You can almost always see his left hand twitch when the robot is speaking. It twitches in unison with the flashing of the light.
I may be wrong... but I heard that at first he had to use his head... but later on they installed a switch by his hand.
@@movieswelove99 No. Watch the very first episodes. Watch the robot's left claw. It's very obvious.
Instead of canceling “Lost in Space” they should have crash landed them on “Gilligan’s Island”! Silly hijinks of a combined cast would’ve been hilarious!
Love it!!😂
Yeah....after two seasons, Gilligan's Island became trite and boring....could have used an interstellar twist and boost!
I still watch the reruns, but Only season 1, and most of Season 2, Season 3 is out of the question, because at my age I am Not staying up until 2:00 a. m to be made a fool of by some inane bad acting vegetable aliens
@@Murray-wj7uc Season three, you need LSD. That way the inane bad acting vegetable aliens are hilarious enough to want to watch.
Thats... an interesting idea. But I suggest that Gilligan was reasonable, likable character and Dr. Smith was not. Gilligan works because, survival situation or not, he always has good intentions and much of the havoc he causes isn't really his fault per se. Dr, Smith on the other hand was cowardly, selfish, greedy, incompetent, and for lack of a better way of saying it, stupid. And he never learned or grew as a character. Gilligan's antics never endangered anyone's life whereas Dr. Smith almost got everyone killed every episode.
You'd likely end up with a scenario where Gilligan and Dr. Smith cancelled each other out. Dr. Smith would see Gilligan as an easily manipulated lackey and would try to use him in his boneheaded, greedy, dangerous schemes which would be foiled because of Gilligan's innocent accident-prone-ness. Meanwhile, with Gilligan being tied up accidentally thwarting Dr. Smith's schemes, there would be no one to keep the Professor's attempts at getting them rescued from succeeding and everyone would be rescued in short order.
Still, it's an interesting idea. But you'd have to somehow strip all the technology away and most likely lose the robot too in order to make it work, and the robot was Lost in Space's most redeeming aspect.
I like Billy Mumy, I had a crush on Angela Cartwright too.
I think you could have worded that better 😅
@joeforest8633 That's very true 😊
Thank you for not assuming everyone is totally ignorant as do many. I did know some, but not all! Thanks for sharing!!
This is a great trip down memory lane! I'd never thought of Robbie being a costume.
Another weird fact about "Lost In Space" is that the "special effects" budget for each show was an average of $29.95 - about the cost of an Earl Scheib paint job in the 1960's.
Our old Chevy station wagon, "The Green Dragon", got an $29.95 Earl Scheib paint job. The only thing they covered was the glass and lights. Everything else, included the chrome, was painted the same color green.
When I was young I used to wonder if The Time Tunnel could bring The Robinson back
they resolved that in the movie
you cant go back and mess with time
It was always pitched correctly - I loved it. Same with Batman really, it lost its mojo when it became dark and serious in the subsequent films.
People tend to forget lost in space. Had tremendous heart and when a show has that you can't kill. It proves my point 60 years later. It's still doing well whether you stream It or on. D v d or blu, ray, it's there now that computes
68 & GREW UP WITH LOST IN SPACE! LOVED THE KURT RUSSELL EPISODE!
Every iteration of Lost in Space would be better without Dr. Smith.
Without Dr Smith the show would have been real boring
Oh the pain!
He was the cause of all their problems every one
This is true but I couldn't imagine the show without him
Agreed, Bill. I'm sure other, perhaps more interesting plot lines would have been written without the "convenient problems" provided by a drama-queen perv.
As a child strangely enough I was in love with the robot.
Good video!
Thanks for giving (another) change to comment upon the show. Unlike Star Trek, where there are soooooo many hardcore fans, there are less to Lost in Space fans that jump to comment before I do. BTW, it was rumored/reported that Mark Goddard, who played Don, said that they show just got too silly because it made no sense that he and Judy were the only viable breeding couple amount the colonist on board...
But in real life, I asked Mark Goddard what he thought happened to the show during one of his many convention appearances and the response was "Well, in the beginning it was what it was. Then later, it still was what it was"...
I think that was Mark's way of saying "It started stupid and remained stupid, but I'm not going to come out and use the word 'stupid' because I want fans to keep paying to see me at conventions without hating me." ;-p
In practice, if Mark didn't watch the actual show, and you take an OBJECTIVE look at just the scenes he appeared in, perhaps the bulk of them were always him threatening to wring Smith's neck and the rest were mostly just action scenes that weren't very different at the start or end of the series.
As a kid growing up i had a HUGE CRUSH on Angela Cartwright ❤ !
I have e seen two different pilot episodes and they were both very intelligently done with the crew looking for water which is something that even as a kid I always wondered where people in scifi series got food and water from.
WOW! that cartoon part was among the funniest things I ever heard! My laugh mussels hurt... still!
I as a kid of the 1960s loved the voice of the robot and his great words danger will Robinson danger
Loved Lost In Space TV series which was repeated time and again in the 1970s. By the Great Vegetable Rebalian there must have been plenty of Green stuff about the studios - it was 1967 and summer of Love!
Batman influenced LIP. LIP went camp because of Batman. This is a fact.
Even though it is said the Neil Peart is the voice who at the end of 2112 who calls out, "Attention all planets of the solar federation! Attention all planets of the solar federation! Attention all planets of the solar federation! We have assumed control, we have assumed control, we have assumed control."
The voice of the robot sounds incredibly the same, especially on the reboot clip.
Whilst it is true that the show was directly based on the comic “Space Family Robinson” (which I read avidly) , the true roots of the show are to be found in the novel “Swiss Family Robinson” (Johann David Wyss - 1812), which was adapted by Disney in a film of the same name in 1960.🤗
I believe the comic had the same roots as well.
One of my favorite shows. 🙂🥴👽👾🌚👻🌞🌝
67 year old who played lost in space when I was a kid! Thanks for the video.
I watched the first season and into the second, but when Dr. Smith "took over", I HATED it!
Dr. Smith's campy, drag queen performances killed the show for me.
LIS scared the crap out of me as a kid. Something about these human sized monsters that Irwin Allen dreamt up.
I have heard that the show went campy at the same time that the Batman show came out which was after the first year of Lost In Space. It was trying to compete with Batman.
addendum to #4. Bill also wrote a story arc for DC Comics' version of "Star Trek" about a group of spacefarers similar to the Robinsons.
1960's TV astronauts always looked like a Swanson's Frozen Dinner - always wrapped in aluminum foil.
Unfortunately the series went south after the first series
No, it went south in episode 9, The Oasis. The first episode that elicited sympathy for Dr. Smith.
There was no mention of the very good Netflix series reboot or that Mark Goddard made a cameo in the 1998 Lost in Space film. Also, what about Judy and Mom.
Mom was Lassie’s mom.
The movie was the best version.
Marta Kirsten was hotter than the J2's, (only seen once), Power Core. The less said about the on-screen abortion known as the 1998 movie, the better. 😓🤮
The Netflix reboot was woke trash
@@macwyll I don't care for either one of them either.
I loved the campy humor of Lost in Space 😅
A friend of mine got to have a long chat with Marta Kristen at a comic convention because her area wasn't that busy at the time. But he forgot to ask her if she knew the answer to a trivia question he always wondered about which was what happened to the "plant Judy" at the end of the episode where she's replaced by the duplicate that came out of the giant flower she slept inside! Haha! I had wondered about Penny having that short bob in the final season because another friend gave me this interview Angela Cartwright at around age 16 and her hair was long again! A trivia page cleared that up saying she wore a fall to slightly age the character to look more like a teen!
About Angela. From what I read, Irwin Allen wanted her hair to be cut short for the third season, and she wasn't going for it. Eventually, it was decided Angela would wear a short wiglet so she could keep her long hair the way she wanted it. In only one episode do we see her lovely long locks in the third season, and that is the first episode entitled "Condemned of Space".
Thank you for the flashback... (at least most of it:)
I didn't know about the "comic book" connection
Moo-me? I've been saying Mum-me for decades. My bad
I REALLY didn't now about the "Will - Penny" connection. I'm glad I didn't
Fish Heads! One of my favorites (don't tell anybody). I had no idea
One thing is for sure. Right after this show I had to go to bed That music still gets me!
I was five-years-old when this first aired and I loved it. I had the worst crush on Billy Mumy though I always wished Penny Cartwright was featured in more episodes. I hated Dr. Smith. I never saw it after it was aired so I don't remember much about the details. Only that I loved it.
My favorite was when they had shrunk down and were inside the robot. Great stuff, lol.
Billy Mumy is best known for his role as Anthony Fremont in the iconic "Twilight Zone" episode titled "It's a Good Life," which aired in 1961.
It was SILLY and CAMPY then and it is now. THAT'S WHY I LOVE IT. First of all,there's Johnathan Smith, one of the campiest actors ever, and he is thoroughly outcamped by the robot. Who knew Data's grandfather was gay?????
I liked the early shows more than the later ones.
Dr Smith on life: "Let me tell you a lesson about life, kid. There are monsters everywhere... I know, I am one.”