geezer
Junior Member
@geezer
Posts: 1,719
Likes: 764
|
Post by geezer on Feb 22, 2017 15:53:59 GMT
My favorite show from age 5-6 until 11-12! Some of my earliest TV memories. Extremely corny with cheap props and effects and hard to watch now, though! The first 6 shows, mostly using the original pilot were extremely good. By the 2nd season, the show declined into camp and juvenile fantasy. Still a few good shows through the 3rd and final season!
|
|
|
Post by taylorfirst1 on Feb 22, 2017 18:52:11 GMT
This show suffered from the "Batman" effect. That's when everyone thought there shows had to be zany and campy like "Batman". Lost in Space started as a fairly serious and well made sci-fi series but became total insanity. The Man from UNCLE suffered from the same affliction.
But I still love the whole Lost in Space series.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2017 23:22:07 GMT
My favorite show from age 5-6 until 11-12! Some of my earliest TV memories. Extremely corny with cheap props and effects and hard to watch now, though! The first 6 shows, mostly using the original pilot were extremely good. By the 2nd season, the show declined into camp and juvenile fantasy. Still a few good shows through the 3rd and final season! They were playing this show on METv, don't know if they still are. Dr. Smith and the robot are hilarious.
|
|
|
Post by snsurone on Feb 25, 2017 22:14:26 GMT
I couldn't stand the character of Will Robinson! An obnoxious, know-it-all brat who believed he was smarter than anyone on the expedition--even his own father! It sickened me that so many episodes were focused on him.
Make no mistake, Billy Mumy was a good child actor (I really liked him in an episode of PERRY MASON), but here, he really came a cropper.
|
|
|
Post by naterdawg on Feb 25, 2017 22:27:13 GMT
My favorite show from age 5-6 until 11-12! Some of my earliest TV memories. Extremely corny with cheap props and effects and hard to watch now, though! The first 6 shows, mostly using the original pilot were extremely good. By the 2nd season, the show declined into camp and juvenile fantasy. Still a few good shows through the 3rd and final season! They were playing this show on METv, don't know if they still are. Dr. Smith and the robot are hilarious.They're still running, very early in the morning on Sundays. I'm old enough to have watched Lost in Space when it first was on, and I absolutely loved it. Dr. Smith made the entire show. I was jealous of Will, who was about my own age. Why couldn't I go on space adventures with a cool robot? As an adult, however, I've grown to dislike the character of Smith. At first, he's an evil saboteur, someone who would sell the Robinsons out in a heartbeat. Eventually--and it didn't take long--he became the "man you loved to hate," someone avaricious but basically kind-hearted and somewhat childlike. That's when Smith started becoming even more of a wimp, shrieking and carrying on in a ridiculous fashion. I also noticed that his eyes were made up with either fake eyelashes or mascara, which made him look even more feminine. Did I think he was gay? No, not necessarily. But he's definitely effeminate to the extreme, and the more he became front and center, the more wacky Lost in Space became. The one episode I found absolutely hilarious is the one where the Robinsons landed on a planet run by teenagers. Smith, wanting to stay, pretended he was a teenager, too, and the sight of him wearing a hippie wig, love beads and "grooving" to an insipid "rock" song, circa 1968, is something not soon forgotten. When he said, "William! We must groove!" I almost lost it. Years and years later, I wrote to Jonathan Harris, and he signed a photograph for me. It's a treasured memento, more so because of what Smith meant to me as a child. He was petulant, naughty, scheming and wicked, and that's how I liked to be!
|
|
|
Post by Matthew the Swordsman on Feb 25, 2017 22:33:58 GMT
My favourite episode is the one where the robot becomes really huge.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2017 22:52:42 GMT
They were playing this show on METv, don't know if they still are. Dr. Smith and the robot are hilarious. They're still running, very early in the morning on Sundays. I'm old enough to have watched Lost in Space when it first was one, and I absolutely loved it. Dr. Smith made the entire show. I was jealous of Will, who was about my own age. Why couldn't I go on space adventures with a cool robot? As an adult, however, I've grown to dislike the character of Smith. At first, he's an evil saboteur, someone who would sell the Robinsons out in a heartbeat. Eventually--and it didn't take long--he became the "man you loved to hate," someone avaricious but basically kind-hearted and somewhat childlike. That's when Smith started becoming even more of a wimp, shrieking and carrying on in a ridiculous fashion. I also noticed that his eyes were made up with either fake eyelashes or mascara, which made him look even more feminine. Did I think he was gay? No, not necessarily. But he's definitely effeminate to the extreme, and the more he became front and center, the more wacky Lost in Space became. The one episode I found absolutely hilarious is the one where the Robinsons landed on a planet run by teenagers. Smith, wanting to stay, pretended he was a teenager, too, and the sight of him wearing a hippie wig, love beads and "grooving" to an insipid "rock" song, circa 1968, is something not soon forgotten. When he said, "William! We must groove!" I almost lost it. Years and years later, I wrote to Jonathan Harris, and he signed a photograph for me. It's a treasured memento, more so because of what Smith meant to me as a child. He was petulant, naughty, scheming and wicked, and that's how I liked to be!
I didn't see that episode but it must have jumped the shark by that time. The ridiculous cheap costumes were comical. They looked like the show had a very small budget with those cheap sets and costumes. The scenario was not unlike Gilligan's Island with the stranded castaways and that one buffoon always ruining things.
|
|
|
Post by jervistetch on Feb 25, 2017 23:59:27 GMT
How can you possibly say anything bad about him? He's the very model of an intrepid space explorer.
|
|
|
Post by louise on Feb 26, 2017 17:48:09 GMT
I enjoyed it as a child, but it hasn't worn well for me, when i rewatched some of it a few years ago i found it rather monotonous, every episode seemed much the same.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2017 23:47:10 GMT
I love the movie Lost in Space (don't laugh!). This tv series, though, is just so completely silly. I guess that's what they were going for and, in that way, it succeeded. It is campy good fun, I guess?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2017 13:06:40 GMT
I met Dr. Smith (forgot the character's name) at a Comic-Con I went to back in the 1990's. Ran into him twice. Once where he was with a group of folks getting ready to ask for autographs, and once we were in the elevator. In both instances, I'm pleased to report, he was exactly like his character! Couldn't tell them apart. Snooty, stuffy,... I don't think he really wanted to be there. Who knows, I was just a guest.
|
|
|
Post by snsurone on Mar 15, 2017 16:05:19 GMT
I met Dr. Smith (forgot the character's name) at a Comic-Con I went to back in the 1990's. Ran into him twice. Once where he was with a group of folks getting ready to ask for autographs, and once we were in the elevator. In both instances, I'm pleased to report, he was exactly like his character! Couldn't tell them apart. Snooty, stuffy,... I don't think he really wanted to be there. Who knows, I was just a guest. Dr. Smith's first name was "Zachary", and he was played by Jonathan Harris--sort of a poor man's Clifton Webb. And I'm sure he was "snooty" and "stuffy" because he was expected to act like his character.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2017 16:36:39 GMT
But that was just us in an elevator. It wasn't like he was "on" or anything. Running into him he just seemed forever pissed off. I got the feeling he really did not want to be at these events.
|
|
geezer
Junior Member
@geezer
Posts: 1,719
Likes: 764
|
Post by geezer on Mar 16, 2017 3:54:59 GMT
Maybe he was just having a bad or "off" day. Never met him, but everything I've heard or read has said that he loved his fans, and loved the attention and limelight that he got from his character, (which was actually quite different from his normal personality). I've heard stories where he would talk in his normal Brooklyn NYC accent, but as soon as he had an audience, he would go into the theatrical, almost Shakesperian Dr. Smith mode.
|
|
geezer
Junior Member
@geezer
Posts: 1,719
Likes: 764
|
Post by geezer on Mar 16, 2017 4:01:24 GMT
As I said before, this was my favorite show as a kid. Even as a kid, I preferred the "serious" episodes like the original 5 episodes. When it turned into purely a "children's" show, I didn't like it as much. It makes it impossible to enjoy as an adult, (other than nostalgia). I went through the entire episode list and counted about 30 I liked out of almost 90 total.
One MAJOR point...My very favorite thing about this show was the musical score. Not the theme song, but the music throughout the series. Mainly by John (Johnny) Williams, (although there were other contributors too). THIS is what mainly made the cheesy show compelling for me. And that is one part I still can enjoy as an adult! Some of the best music for ANY TV show up to this very day!!
|
|
|
Post by fangirl1975 on Mar 16, 2017 20:03:52 GMT
I was enjoying this show when MeTV was rerunning it early on Saturday nights.
|
|
|
Post by jervistetch on Mar 17, 2017 1:46:11 GMT
|
|
geezer
Junior Member
@geezer
Posts: 1,719
Likes: 764
|
Post by geezer on Mar 17, 2017 19:42:24 GMT
Cool toys! I had the Viewmaster set, too! (Season 3 premiere, "The Condemned of Space"). I had a play-set too. It was a styrofoam Jupiter 2 and a pretty cool Chariot model with it. Sadly, I didn't save them. (I think some one got carried away pretending to be a Cyclops and dropped a big rock on it)!
I was speaking about the great music score earlier, I did buy that on CD from Amazon a few years ago! Some great scores there!
|
|
|
Post by jervistetch on Mar 17, 2017 21:24:09 GMT
John Williams is unbelievable. Who could have guessed that the composer of music for "Lost in Space", "The Time Tunnel" and "Land of the Giants" would go on to become inarguably the greatest composer for the screen that ever lived. And he's still going strong.
|
|
maxwellperfect
Junior Member
@maxwellperfect
Posts: 3,966
Likes: 1,683
|
Post by maxwellperfect on Mar 23, 2017 22:01:36 GMT
I will always love this show. Overly campy or not, Jonathan Harris' performances, particularly in his back-and-forth with Robot, still crack me up.
|
|