# Lost In Space **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357 "2013-08-28T01:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/21 "2013-08-28T19:08:07Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > I had a bit of a crush on Angela Cartwright during the first run of the show. You keep your damn lustful eyes off of my precious Angela! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/22 "2013-08-28T19:11:13Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > That was \*exactly \*why LOS got so campy in the third season, it was up against Batman’s time slot! > > I wasn’t old enough to see it first run but watched it everyday after school in the early 70s. And that episode, _The Magic Mirror_, scared the bejesus out of me! Even though the monster was as cheesy as any of them, the fact that it was in B&W made the kid’s mirror world very dark & creepy and knowing there was a bug-eyed monster wandering around doubly so! > > I can’t believe that the internet has failed me! I can’t find a shot of it… It’s the upcoming episode on MeTV on Saturday night if you get that channel. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/23 "2013-08-28T19:15:08Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I never missed an episode as a kid. And loved the homage that the movie paid to the original show and stars. Which homage is that? BTW, if anyone is looking for the original TV show actors in the movie: Guy Williams (John): died in 1989 June Lockhart (Maureen): Will’s school principal (pretty much the only recognizable one, if you don’t count Dick Tufeld) Mark Goddard (Major West): the officer who introduces John to Major West Marta Kristen (Judy), Angela Cartwright (Penny): two of the reporters at the press conference; both had speaking parts Dick Tufeld (voice of the robot): voice of the robot Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) was asked to be in the film (he was supposed to be the man Dr. Smith talked to after he had changed the robot’s programming), but he said something along the lines of, “I’ve never done a bit part in my life, and I don’t intend to start now.” “The version I heard was,” originally Bill Mumy (Will) was going to portray adult Will, but somebody decided pretty much at the last minute that it would take attention away from the scene if it was him. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/24 "2013-08-28T19:16:46Z")
_ **The Keeper** _ with Michael Rennie struck me as a really good one. The only two-parter, also. * * * Invaders From The Fifth Dimension\*\*\* also is a lot of fun. Great visuals and effects. The one where they dock with a prison ship that froze the inmates was kind of good, from a later season. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/25 "2013-08-28T19:25:31Z")
Loved that show in the 1960’s, love it now. Great fun. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/26 "2013-08-28T19:26:18Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > \*I checked the wikipedia article on the series to remind me of Penny’s name, and was surprised to find an older daughter Judy, whose existence had slipped my memory. Maybe Penny was fighting about music with her and not Will. I’m surprised you don’t remember Swedish beauty [Marta Kristen](http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/1179/0aaaaa1.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/27 "2013-08-28T19:52:29Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Dick Tufeld (voice of the robot): voice of the robot Until his recent passing, Tufeld would do voice work for relatively token payment. I always wanted to get my sister (a huge fan of LiS in the day) an answering machine message from “Robot,” but I missed two chances and then we… kinda moved apart. Oh, well. > [@](#): > > Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) was asked to be in the film (he was supposed to be the man Dr. Smith talked to after he had changed the robot’s programming), but he said something along the lines of, “I’ve never done a bit part in my life, and I don’t intend to start now.” The version I heard was much more characteristic. “I don’t do cameos, baby. Never have. Never will.” But yeah, if he’d played the older Resistance officer or whatever and Mumy had played the older Will… it sure wouldn’t have hurt the movie and would have made a nice legacy. I actually kinda sorta like the movie, from OMG Heather Graham’s molded suit-boobs to jailbait Lacey Chabert to Gary Oldman’s deadly, “Give my regards to oblivion.” But I am amazed anyone can be calling the original series “great sf” or even “good TV.” ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/28 "2013-08-28T20:30:55Z")
I shall be the wet blanket and state that I _hated_ that show. I hated the cheesy monsters, I hated Will, I wanted to kill Dr. Smith with every fiber of my being, and I couldn’t stand Penny and her monkey. Who names a monkey Debbie. :rolleyes: But I watched every episode. I also saw it in reruns in the 1970s. There were only four channels!! It was all we had!! ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/29 "2013-08-28T21:41:15Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > How much did you pay for it? Nuthin’. I assumed that’s why I was getting treated to the commercials. But even after watching the commercials I still got no show. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/30 "2013-08-28T22:57:41Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I shall be the wet blanket and state that I _hated_ that show. I hated the cheesy monsters, I hated Will, I wanted to kill Dr. Smith with every fiber of my being, and I couldn’t stand Penny and her monkey. Who names a monkey Debbie. :rolleyes: > > But I watched every episode. I also saw it in reruns in the 1970s. There were only four channels!! It was all we had!! I’ll agree. As a _kid_, I thought the show was stupid, and beneath me. Science fiction writer David Gerrold felt the same way, writing in one of his books (_The World of Star Trek_, I think) that it was an hour of the worst and most cliched SF beamed into the homews of the American public. One of the things that riled me about it was that, only a few years earlier, there had been a surprisingly good comic (from Gold Key, of all people), called **Space Family Robinson** about a family (named Robinson, naturally) living aboard a space ship that gets lost, and they have adventures. Mother, father, kids. No robot, though, and no Doctor Smith. > **[Space Family Robinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Family_Robinson)** > > Space Family Robinson was an original science-fiction comic-book series published by Gold Key Comics. It predates the Lost in Space television series. Both are loosely based on the 1812 novel by Johann David Wyss (and similarly named movies) The Swiss Family Robinson. > Space Family Robinson was published as a total of 59 issues, from 1962 to 1982. The first issue was published in December 1962. > In 1965, when Irwin Allen produced the primetime television show Lost in Space, Gold Key's publisher... It’s hard to believe that the folks behind _Lost in Space_ didn’t know about the comic, and lifted from it\*. But Western publishing decided they couldn’t afford to sue, so they reached an agreement where theyt could put “Lost in Space” in big lettering across the top of the comics. The Space Family Robinson comic was a LOT better than the TV series. - Not that the idea was not a commonly suggested one. Carl Barks (creator of Uncle Scrooge) reportedly suggested a “Space Family Robinson” comic years before the Gold Key one. And schlock screenwriter Ib Melchior was pitching a film called “Space Family Robinson” before Irwin Allen made his series. “Swiss Family Robinson” just naturally suggests “Space Family Robinson”, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/31 "2013-08-28T23:11:09Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Who names a monkey Debbie. :rolleyes: The monkey’s mother, Deb, and the monkey’s other mother Bea. (Lesbian parentage is standard for space monkeys, you see.) ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/32 "2013-08-29T00:17:46Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > I had a bit of a crush on Angela Cartwright during the first run of the show. Me too. I was probably close to Will’s (M=Billy Mumy) age when I saw it. When the SciFi channel came on and was going to run the show I couldn’t wait to see it and her again. I was shocked to learn that she was just a kid as well. You truly can’t go back… ---
**Author:** ![nion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c5a1d2/32.png) [@nion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nion)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/33 "2013-08-29T03:34:09Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > How much did you pay for it? I don’t pay for YouTube, but it works. I don’t pay for any of the sites I visit, but they work. They work, so I visit them, and they receive money from ads I view. Hulu didn’t work. See the problem in your line of thinking? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/34 "2013-08-29T03:45:38Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > Me too. I was probably close to Will’s (M=Billy Mumy) age when I saw it. When the SciFi channel came on and was going to run the show I couldn’t wait to see it and her again. I was shocked to learn that she was just a kid as well. You truly can’t go back… You should see how young she looks in The Sound of Music. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/35 "2013-08-29T08:01:45Z")
My favorite exchange between Dr. Smith and the robot was when the doctor was insisting on a course of action which the rest of the crew opposed. Having stymied the others, Dr. Smith said, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” to which robot answered “There are approximately \_\_\_ ways,” and in return was a sheepish “…and I have used them all.” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/36 "2013-08-29T12:30:52Z")
> [@nion](#): > > I don’t pay for YouTube, but it works. > I don’t pay for any of the sites I visit, but they work. > They work, so I visit them, and they receive money from ads I view. > > Hulu didn’t work. Hulu is probably the strangest and most erratic concentrator/portal/provider on the net, whether paid or not. Whereas Netflix and Vudu and even YouTube are like premium channel tiers, Hulu is the net replacement for the vast river of garbage that fills out the rest of the cable channels. It’s almost worthless if you try to find something specific and expect to get, say, the entire run of a show (or even a complete season); it’s jest fine if you want to flip it on and find “something” to watch. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/37 "2013-08-29T14:43:27Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You should see how young she looks in The Sound of Music. even younger in Make Room For Daddy ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/38 "2013-08-29T15:13:12Z")
I watched the show as a kid, way back in the old days, whenever I was allowed to. Had the LOS toys, a Jupiter 2 model complete with figures and the vehicle (can’t remember its name.) It ran along yellow tubing that I can still picture, 50 years later. And I had a way biggger crush on Angela Cartwright than either \*\* Ranger Jeff \*\* or **Nars Glinley**. Watched an episode a couple of years ago and my childhood memories were shattered. Gad, it was awful. No wonder by parents didn’t want to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/39 "2013-08-29T15:45:08Z")
I was a baby when it went off the air so I only saw it during afternoon reruns. I liked it well enough when I was 8. The show has not aged well. I was at a small local mall when they had a very small comic book show. Mark Goddard had a table with headshots and other items. There was no one even close to him. It was very pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357/40 "2013-08-29T16:09:00Z")
Can just agree the best episode was the one with the [giant carrot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_KdE_zBCE4)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-in-space/667357.md?page=3)