"Doctor Smith, please! You're making The Robot very unhappy!"
December 3, 2015 12:13 PM   Subscribe

In September, sci-fi master Irwin Allen’s 1965 cult TV classic, Lost In Space marked its 50th anniversary. Now, Netflix has won a bidding war to remake the series. Meanwhile…

Lost in Space ran for three seasons, from 1965-68. All 83 episodes can be seen on Hulu. (Free. US Only.)
The first episode in the Hulu playlist is the unaired pilot, "No Place to Hide," written and filmed before the addition of Dr. Smith and The Robot. The pilot that actually aired is episode #2: "The Reluctant Stowaway." First season is in black and white, but the second and third are in color.

Wikipedia has a thorough entry on Lost In Space. And of course, the show's theme song was composed by John Williams.

DANGER! WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!
A pilot for Lost in Space: The Animated Series was produced by Hanna-Barbera in the early 70's but it never sold, so no other episodes were produced. The Lost In Space wiki says that the pilot aired as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie series on September 8, 1973. The only actor from the original series to voice a character in the pilot was Jonathan "Dr. Zachary Smith" Harris.

We're doomed!
In the early 2000's, the CW network won their own bidding war for the rights to a remake of the series. The commissioned pilot, The Robinsons: Lost In Space, was directed by John Woo but not picked up for a series.

Documentaries and Interviews
In 1997, the SciFi Channel included interviews with the '60's cast during a Lost In Space marathon: Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 (The cast discusses the infamous episode, "The Vegetable Rebellion" in part 3.)

* A&E Biography (2002): Jonathan Harris.

* In 1994, Jonathan Harris performed before a live audience at the Seymour Theatre - Sydney Australia, with his lifelong nemesis

Archive of American Television Interview: Bill Mumy
* Lost In Space Castmates
* Working with Jonathan Harris
* Working with The Robot
* The character of Will Robinson
* How Lost in Space changed between the pilot and the series
* The show's cancellation

In 1995, four years after Irwin Allen passed away, June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright appeared in a television tribute: The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen. The Lost in Space segment begins at around 23:30.
posted by zarq (62 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
20 some-odd links in the post, and of course I forget to include a good one: Bill Mumy talks about Bobby May, the actor who played "The Robot".
posted by zarq at 12:19 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]


Though I have emminently fond nostalgic memories of the series, the 1998 movie was awful, and I hold out little hope that the Netflix reboot will be able to capture even a sniff of the cheesy charm of the original.
posted by fairmettle at 12:27 PM on December 3, 2015


I was having a conversation about their excellent choices versus Amazons frequent poor ones when this news came out. I am not sure it bolstered my case.
posted by Artw at 12:29 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


the 1998 movie was awful,

Where's the flagging option for "Reminds me of something I didn't want to remember"?
posted by Etrigan at 12:33 PM on December 3, 2015 [7 favorites]


the 1998 movie was awful

It wasn't so bad... It had Robot... and.....

it had Robot.
posted by mikelieman at 12:37 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


I still remember Gary Oldman in creepy CGI spider form, trying his best to do a dramatically-appropriate reading of "OH THE PAINNNN".
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:39 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]


What if Doctor Smith was a scorpion monster? seems like a very 90s movie choice.

Also as ever time travel is the friend of sloppy scripts.
posted by Artw at 12:40 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


Robert Carlyse did a great job as the Doctor Zachary Smith of Stargate Universe, though TBH that show would have been better if they let him be right about something from time to time.
posted by Artw at 12:44 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


Though I have emminently fond nostalgic memories of the series, the 1998 movie was awful,

There is a headcanon remedy for that.

I confess that I am barely familiar with the original series -- I saw a few when I was a kid and even then, thought it kind of goofy. If I had been asked three minutes ago when it aired, I would have guessed it started at least five years earlier than it apparently did. I had read that Star Trek was considered very cerebral when it first aired. If other science fiction n TV was this, then little wonder it seemed lofty.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:44 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


LiS is another one of those shows from the mid-1960s that were AWESOME in their black-and-white incarnation and then lost it entirely after the move to color. The first season of LiS is so different in tone and style from the rest of the series. Once the Jupiter 2 got stuck in the dirt, never to see space again, and the show became the Dr. Smith And Robot Hour, it was never the same.

I was only a little kid when the show originally ran, and I used to be utterly terrified of it. Whenever I would hear the theme song, I would run screaming from the living room.

One of my friends from college (who is currently the head writer for the "Guardians of the Galaxy" cartoon series) lived next door to Bob May in the early 2000s.
posted by briank at 12:46 PM on December 3, 2015 [7 favorites]


>the 1998 movie was awful

Erm... wasn't the series awful too? I mean, DANGER WILL ROBINSON and all that, certainly, but I found it unwatchable, and I could get through most of an episode of F Troop.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 12:48 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


My young son could not get enough of that Space Carrot episode (I know its called something else but we call it that in our house). I watched that one at least a dozen times.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2015


Humiliating chimpanzees just seems cruel in a way that, say, dressing up a cat doesn't. On some level they probably know.
posted by Artw at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


I loved Lost in Space but I haven't see the series since the early seventies and I'm thinking that I should just leave it there in my memory.
posted by octothorpe at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]


I wasn't crazy about the show, but I love that Jonathan Harris remained friends with Billy Mumy, and, frankly, I find Mumy just generally fascinating.
posted by maxsparber at 12:50 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


One of the dreaded aspects of being a redhead growing up was the constant "You look like Will Robinson!" from other school children. The other refrain was "You look like Danny Partridge!"

Still I loved Lost in Space, especially the robot. B-9 rules!

I watched the reruns every day after school on WDRB-41 in Louisville. The one where Penny goes through the mirror was scary, but the one with Michael Rennie (The Keeper) was the one that really gave me the willies. All those monsters trudging down that gangplank, yeesh!

Oh, and I hated that stupid monkey.
posted by valkane at 12:55 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


And everytime I see JHarris on here i think of dr. smith. Sorry rod, but it's true.
posted by valkane at 12:56 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]


Humiliating chimpanzees just seems cruel

Oh they know and they push back. Watch Jeff Krulik's interview with Lancelot Link creators, Mike Marmer and Stan Burns.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:58 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


The campiness of seasons 2 and 3 have their charms, I guess, but I'm team first season, all the way. Awesome black and white cinematography! Dr. Smith was a stone cold killer! The rest of the cast got to do things! Minimal space monkey nonsense!

Gloop was the Scrappy Doo of Lost In Space.
posted by KHAAAN! at 1:04 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]


frankly, I find Mumy just generally fascinating.

You're absolutely right, max.... that post about They're Coming To Take me Away got me searching out Dr. Demento stuff, and though I knew Mumy did "Fishheads" I didn't realize how much more he had done.

I do remember a bit part he had as a scurrilous brother on The Rockford Files.

Shit, man, I do look like him.
posted by valkane at 1:08 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]


The 1998 Lost in Space movie was the first time it occurred to me that CGI in movies wasn't necessarily a good idea.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:12 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


and though I knew Mumy did "Fishheads"

Mind. Blown.
posted by aught at 1:16 PM on December 3, 2015


Erm... wasn't the series awful too?

It was.
posted by juiceCake at 1:19 PM on December 3, 2015


I knew Mumy because of Babylon 5 and when I looked him up and found both Lost in Space and Barnes and Barnes in his past, it was indeed a case of a mind, at least in some small way, being blown.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:21 PM on December 3, 2015


The joke was CBS passed on Star Trek...... Because they had Lost In Space. I blame Irwin Allen for a lot.
posted by valkane at 1:24 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]


....like Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea. Which I also watched religiously.
posted by valkane at 1:25 PM on December 3, 2015


....like Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea. Which I also watched religiously.

My kids will never understand what a world with 5 or 6 maybe if you're in a major metro 8 or 9 tv channels was like..
posted by mikelieman at 1:27 PM on December 3, 2015 [6 favorites]


Yeah, wolfdog, I'm of an age to have watched the series faithfully as a small child, and also to have heard "Fishheads" regularly as a highschool junior / senior 79-81-ish late nights on Dr Demento, remembering it well enough that I used to sing it to my cats when feeding them stinky canned food, and still occasionally torment my partner with the chorus.

Two seemingly disparate and kind of iconic things from my semi-distant past suddenly get connected. Wow.
posted by aught at 1:27 PM on December 3, 2015


Joey Tribbiani IN SPACE!!!!
posted by Chrysostom at 1:46 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


and though I knew Mumy did "Fishheads"

Mind. Blown.


I hope your mind can handle a second round of blowage, because the video for "Fish Heads" features a young fellow walking around a creepy, empty Los Angeles. That young man's name? Bill Paxton.
posted by The Tensor at 1:55 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]


Watched the show faithfully as a kid ... looks like I'm almost exactly the same age as the show!

I find it unwatchable now but I have the same reaction to just about any hour-length drama from the sixties. I do still enjoy Jonathan Harris camping it up ... sort of a Laird Cregar or George Sanders for TV. Like Sanders, he was of Russian descent.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 1:57 PM on December 3, 2015


IIRC Lost In Space steered heavily into camp to counter Batman.
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


The joke was CBS passed on Star Trek...... Because they had Lost In Space.
Almost 50 years and multiple Hollywood mergers later, CBS (via its co-owned movie studio Paramount) owns Star Trek.

But I keep remembering Jonathan Harris kinda-revisiting his Dr. Smith character years later, in the crazy superhero cartoon Freakazoid, as the perpetually-terrified "Professor Jones" (and I am shocked, SHOCKED, that I could not find any of his performances on the many Freakazoid clips on YouTube... ohhh, the pain...)
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:58 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


What if Doctor Smith was a scorpion monster? seems like a very 90s movie choice.

(cough) You ain't kidding.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:00 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


sci-fi master Irwin Allen

Point of order: Irwin Allen produced a lot of science fiction pastiche television and films. He was not a "sci-fi master"* .

’s 1965 cult TV classic, Lost In Space

Point of order: Careful with "cult" and "classic", there.

LiS is another one of those shows from the mid-1960s that were AWESOME in their black-and-white incarnation and then lost it entirely after the move to color. The first season of LiS is so different in tone and style from the rest of the series. Once the Jupiter 2 got stuck in the dirt, never to see space again, and the show became the Dr. Smith And Robot Hour, it was never the same.

Point of order: You've got things a bit backwards, here. The only B&W eps where they travel in space are the first two, which get them 1. Lost in Space, and 2. crash-landed on the first alien planet.

The Jupiter 2 remains "stuck in the mud" until the first or second color episode (episode one or two of the second season), when they blast off their first planet and begin to have space adventures in color.

The Dr. Smith and Robot show evolved gradually during the first (B&W) season and was in full force by it's end. The Robot's "character development" began with the first season episode "War of the Robots", which guest-'starred' Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet with whom the LiS robot let's say 'shared some design features'.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do know quite a lot about this show that I didn't much like. That's what it was like being an SF fan in the 1960s.

------------------
* That is, unless media science fiction pastiche is the definition of "sci-fi", in which case, "Blast away, Captain".
posted by Herodios at 2:08 PM on December 3, 2015 [9 favorites]


Heh. I actually just went and checked if Peters was involved - apparently not, but I kind of bet he was in SOME way.
posted by Artw at 2:10 PM on December 3, 2015


Someone help me out here. I have this vague memory of an episode that combined two of the creepiest kids in TV Billy Mumy (who could never escape his roll in the Twilight Zone's It's a Good Life, and some other even creepier kid I cannot remember. He had a bit of a hallucinogenic, ethereal quality about him. Anybody know who I'm thinking of?
posted by rtimmel at 2:15 PM on December 3, 2015


team first season, all the way. Awesome black and white cinematography! Dr. Smith was a stone cold killer!

Smith was only a "stone cold killer" for about four or five episodes. Once the family returned from their chariot journey, Smith's (and the Robot's) personalities began to change.

The family never knew he was a spy and saboteur, and the concept went down the memory hole pretty quickly when Harris and the producers realized that Smith was the "break-out character".

Maybe the first ever.
 
posted by Herodios at 2:18 PM on December 3, 2015


Someone help me out here. I have this vague memory of an episode that combined two of the creepiest kids in TV Billy Mumy (who could never escape his roll in the Twilight Zone's It's a Good Life, and some other even creepier kid I cannot remember. He had a bit of a hallucinogenic, ethereal quality about him. Anybody know who I'm thinking of?

Mirror Boy, played by 27 year old Michael J. Pollard?
 
posted by Herodios at 2:21 PM on December 3, 2015


You can see episodes on Me TV if you get it, every Saturday night after the wonderful Svengoolie program.

In 1997 or 98 I was working at Remi on 53rd street in New York, I'd only been there a few weeks and one night I was told I'd be taking a big ten top, PX VIP guests, etc. It was both a sign I was going to "make it" there, also a test to see how I did. I went to the table, started taking a drink order, clockwise, ladies first. The last guest I ask is sitting right in front of me so I could not really see their face. So I get to this last guest, saying something like "And what may I bring for you, sir?"

That voice from the past both snapped and lingered over "I'll have a Tanqueray and tonic with a splaahsh of Dubonnet!" and he cocked his head up at me, sneaky smile, and in spite of myself I exclaimed "Dr. Smith!" It was Harris, they were wining and dining him as the movie was coming out soon. It was the first celeb of many I waited on in NYC, I'll never forget it and in a way it was perfect that it was him.
posted by vrakatar at 2:30 PM on December 3, 2015 [6 favorites]


Though Irwin Allen was responsible for both, I somehow found Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea riveting, but couldn't get through Lost in Space.
posted by wittgenstein at 2:36 PM on December 3, 2015


I think it's interesting that Jonathan Harris saw his villain character in the early episodes of the series as a saboteur destined to be killed of before the show proceeded very far along and decided to create a role that would endear him to viewers and insure that he stayed in the picture. And the route he created was to play what TV Tropes identifies as The Sissy Villain: flamboyant mannerisms, delicate voices, light builds, prissiness, femininely pretty looks, gradiloquent speeches, giggling, love for poetry and opera, impeccable fashion sense (not always in men's clothing), fondness for Persian cats, etc.

And then he managed to play it in a way that allowed gay viewers (at least this gay viewer) to find it a positive portrayal. It's hard to say why an ostensibly despicable characterization should be so appealing; I supposed a big part of it was the obvious love for Dr. Smith demonstrated by BIlly Mumy playing WIll Robinson, a boy just a few years older than me when I was watching the show.
posted by layceepee at 2:46 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


I still watch it on ME-TV. I loved it as a kid and still can enjoy it. I may have mentioned that I met Jonathan Harris at a convention in NYC. He was a warm and gregarious man. Mark Goddard was a bit of a dick.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to it.
posted by Splunge at 2:48 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm assuming the Bill Mumy fans here already know this, but in addition to "Fishheads" he also went on to play Lennier in Babylon 5.
posted by nubs at 3:11 PM on December 3, 2015


See, I have an affection for the terrible '98 version because it was the only movie playing in the local theater when we were on our honeymoon, and we were so glowy in love and happy to be done with wedding nonsense that we enjoyed the heck out of it.
posted by emjaybee at 3:21 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


As a 90s sci-fi fan, Bill Mumy is like my dad's cool friend from high school. They had this weird history together and it was very 60s and made little sense, but I mostly care about how great he was when I was a kid.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 3:30 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was about to make a snarky comment about how since we don't have common cultural touchpoints, all old media will get recycled whether it's good or not purely for name recognition and then follow it up with an extreme example of something that shouldn't be rebooted.

.....then I realized I would pay cash money for a reboot of "Far Out Space Nuts"

So, thanks for that moment of clarity, I guess.
posted by lumpenprole at 4:42 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


...then I realized I would pay cash money for a reboot of "Far Out Space Nuts"

From the treatment I saw, they're planning to give it the "Lost/Battlestar Galactica" treatment. Just imagine how grim two men alone in a space capsule can be..

(I kid! I kid! Totally not gonna happen. Maybe.)
posted by happyroach at 5:00 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


The joke was CBS passed on Star Trek...... Because they had Lost In Space.

They were offered both at about the same time and chose LIS, which was originally more popular by a fair margin. Trek didn't find its audience until syndication.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:18 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


I watched this show in reruns everyday as a kid, hated it every minute.

BUT I WATCHED IT EVERYDAY
posted by Max Power at 5:47 PM on December 3, 2015


I had a schoolboy crush on Penny (Angela Cartwright), as I recall. I've always assumed I was the only person in the world for whom that was the case, but possibly there are others who were similarly afflicted.
posted by Creosote at 6:23 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wolfdog: "I knew Mumy because of Babylon 5 and when I looked him up and found both Lost in Space and Barnes and Barnes in his past, it was indeed a case of a mind, at least in some small way, being blown."

And, what is in my opinion one of the most chilling Alfred Hitchcock episodes ever. Also, no love for Mumy in Twilight Zone?

(Also, I have a huge crossspecies mancrush on Lennier. Bad ass and a half and refuses to let anyone know about it.)
posted by Samizdata at 6:40 PM on December 3, 2015


Creosote: "I had a schoolboy crush on Penny (Angela Cartwright), as I recall. I've always assumed I was the only person in the world for whom that was the case, but possibly there are others who were similarly afflicted."

Me too. What about Marilyn Munster?

(And, ummmm, Robot too?)

And, thanks to you soulless bastards, I am going to have to watch the '98 again.
posted by Samizdata at 6:50 PM on December 3, 2015


Which Marilyn?
posted by clavdivs at 7:31 PM on December 3, 2015


HA!
posted by clavdivs at 7:31 PM on December 3, 2015


clavdivs: "Which Marilyn?"

I'm old enough they kind of fused in my head, but I suppose Pat Priest?

Ummmm, ho?
posted by Samizdata at 7:43 PM on December 3, 2015


My memories of the original series are only seeing it on reruns when I was home sick from elementary school in the pre-cable days. The garish colored images would leak into my fever addled brain and I'd have weird not-quite-nightmares, because it wasn't scary even to a seven year old but it didn't seem "right" either. But what confused me most even then was why an adult would want to make this as a TV show? So not quite the nostalgic memories of others.

Still, the original BSG was also horrible quality TV and the reboot was fine so who knows.
posted by mark k at 8:05 PM on December 3, 2015


I loved Lost in Space. I used to watch it Sunday mornings on the Superstation right before Academy Award Theatre hosted by Bill Tush.

I think my favorite episode is the one where… I guess The Robot gets expanded? Or Will and Doctor Smith get shrunk? It's been a while. Anyway they have to crawl inside The Robot to fix him. My favorite B&W one was when Don and Judy got trapped out in a storm in the chariot.

lumpenprole: “ I realized I would pay cash money for a reboot of "Far Out Space Nuts"”
I said 'lunch' not launch!
posted by ob1quixote at 9:58 PM on December 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


Trivia I learned from the wonderful Jonathan Harris live talk:
The robot could only go in one direction. So to have it move around in different directions, they had the actor Bob May just wear the top and they filmed high--and apparently there is one quick shot in one of the episodes where you can see his legs sticking out. Does anyone know what episode has this?
posted by eye of newt at 10:59 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


Lost In Space was a joke that only Jonathan Harris ever got. Without him that series wouldn't have gotten beyond the pilot.
posted by tommasz at 5:51 AM on December 4, 2015


If it weren't for Lost In Space, little Billy Mumy wouldn't have gotten warped enough to come up with Barnes and Barnes and the world would be poorer for it.

(Cemetary Girls also has a nice shoutout to Mumy's work on The Twilight Zone.)
posted by murphy slaw at 7:56 AM on December 4, 2015


Lost In Space was a joke that only Jonathan Harris ever got. Without him that series wouldn't have gotten beyond the pilot.

So you're saying it'd be the Major Don West Show?
 
posted by Herodios at 10:11 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]


« Older Jack McConnell, Milliner to the Stars   |   What do you call a pair of flying dinosaurs? Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments