The trouble with Lost In Space is that it didnt just go all goofy and campy once it switched from black and white to color (much in the way the Batman series already was), the show forgot or veered of it's original plot course, including- why Dr. Smith was aboard the Jupiter 2 in the first place. He was disguised as an American Air Force flight doctor, but he had an ulterior motive that was never explored.
It went goofy long before switching to color, Dr. Smith was only supposed to be on the first few episodes, but managed to reshape his sinister beginning into just selfish and lazy. Episodes like The Keeper and The Space Sharecroppers were goofy and ridiculous, not a ridiculous and goofy as a talking carrot or dancing on the table, but still pretty goofy.
Actually the campiness of the show began after about the 13th or 14th episode. I actually liked the B&W season the most (for 50 years), until recently and now embrace the banter among the robot, Dr. Smith and Will. It's just so funny, especially if you are a teacher who studied English or Science. And I adore the background music, much of which is from Johnny Williams. The Great Vegetable rebellion has the most wonderful music.
Love the first season, as it's like a cheesy sci-fi "B" movie every week. That's what it was meant to be, but the science was ditched for more "Dennis the Menace" type hijinx. @@jhonwask
Season 1 and the first few episodes were epic. Alas, the network heads thought the show was too heady. A term other sci-fi shows (Star Trek) fell victim to in their day. A notion that audience's were too stupid to grasp certain intellectual concepts, especially presented on what they called back then, the idiot box.
On one episode I saw on RU-vid the ship crashs, The men are all assigned to check out damage to the ship, the workings of the computer, getting all the vital components checked and working. The mom organises her daughters to clean up the fire stains so the ship looks pretty. Yeah, the jobs in the future remain the same.
The “reboots” failed because the idiot writers forgot who the star of the show was; and that was the CLASSIC SHAPE of the ORIGINAL Jupiter 2. The reason the STAR TREK “reboots” succeeded (for the most part) was because their writers understood that the ENTERPRISE was the star of the series. With minor modifications the ENTERPRISE appeared just as it looked during the TV show and the movies going forward. Once you took the classic JUPITER 2 out of the equation you lost any chance of success…
Yes, it was truly stupid to abandon the original design o the Jupiter 2 on the movie and remake TV series. And the comment in this video that Robert McCall designed the J-2 is just plain wrong. McCall is my favorite space artist, but he had nothing to do with any designs from Lost in Space. The Jupiter 2 was designed by L.B. Abbot and Howard Lydecker.
But they were ALL The Stars of the show,,,, as it was called,, LOST IN SPACE. , meaning ALLL of the characters,,,,, not just this one or that one. ,,,,,,,,,,,
My favorite show as a child. It has been in syndication since it went off the air and has been dubbed into more languages than I can list here, yet LIS doesn't have the cultural impact of Star Trek. Can someone explain why?
Too many plots were unfortunately lame ... But (repost) RECAPTURE that old Winnebago-like camping feel with family and friends through the Galaxy! ... BUT - and the Key here, and one that the many re-boots missed on - DO NOT OVER-CGI IT!!! ... Don't DICTATE to us! ... Allow the Child in all of us feel PARTICIPATING by allowing us to fill in the 'gaps' in the special effects with our own fantasies! ... Do not make the mistake of the reboots - we do not want to be tied to a roller-coaster ride!, but participate with our own child fantasies. ... Yes, Some CHEEZE is Good, Wonderfu, and Excitingl!
William Shatner explain in his book that LIS was the result of mainly stolen idea of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Roddenberry wanted to air ST but instead the producers stole all his idea and LIS was born. Unfortunately, LIS went nowhere because of lack of philosophy. Roddenberry wanted more than a show in space, he wanted to create a new futur for mankind, even if it looks utopic. Star Trek is exactly that. A new hope, a way of life, a dream. LIS did not had that soul.
@@chantaldubois5365 .. mostly agree with you. .. The Star Trek CANON is eternal, AND INSPIRING for so much advancements in the sciences and technology. ... But Lost in Space also holds an eternal and inspiring child fantasy for many of us. ... (and, just my opinion, Lost in Space did have that CAMP feel Star Trek never intended to fully flesh - you can definitely love both premises!)
I loved it as a child too..I was born in 1960............I didnt realize it then but as I got older, the show seemed lame to me also......The problem was Dr. Smith....They turned him from a villain to a bowl of jello.....It was good when it first started with them having to deal with Smith and the evil robot he created........After they turned away from that the show turned to a lot of stupid ideals...A few good ones were in there...Like the anti matter world with the mean John Robinson....But far to few...But what ruined the show was them turning Dr. Smith into a sniveling coward....
@@Pete391 Same here friend, born 1961. I agree with your analysis 100%. Also my career in electronics was absolutely triggered because Will Robinson was supposed to be an expert in electronics. So I must give credit to Bill Mumy and LIS for that!
The lower decks of the Jupiter 2 were much larger on the inside than they could possibly be when seen from the outside. It bothered me as a little kid and still does to this day. That said, I wanted a jet pack and a chariot and most of all a robot friend.
Lost in Space found itself in competition with Batman which skyrocketed in ratings after just three episodes. The jokey style of Batman proved to be the real trend of the time forcing Lost in Space to change its tune from a serious Sci-Fi story to a more comical style. Jonathan Harris became the one who kept the ratings up after Batman’s sudden growth in popularity.
No, Batman just showed that campy could work and the show could succeed. Harris figured he could play for laughs and get Allen to keep him longer, so he kept reinventing outlandish things that Allen thought was funny, but was causing fans to leave. It became too much the kiddie show of Dr. Smith and Will with Will becoming more of an idiot in each episode. By the time they ended, most serious fans had fled to Star Trek, a more serious look at space. Listening to Smith screech and whine constantly was extremely annoying. He had no positive contribution for the group at all, wasting materials, causing trouble, disobeying orders, and more. Many of the bad effects could have been forgiven if the storylines hadn't been so idiotic.
@@tommissouri4871 I’m not sure how old you are but I was there. Lost in Space did find itself competing with Batman. The two shows were airing at the same time on different stations.
@@Barnabas45 If they had kept with the original concept of Dr. Smiuth actually being a bad guy, instead of a buffoon, the series would have been greatly improved. If you can ever see the unaired pilot, the scene where Smith is found onboard prior to launch, he kills the guard. In the aired version, Smith dumps him into the incinerator, but instead he pops out a trash chute! Stupid!
Yes, a very brief and cursory overview of the show. One tidbit is that Bill Mumy said he heard Lost in Space was canceled because CBS was going to cancel Gunsmoke and when a network executive's wife heard that, she ordered him to keep the show and cancel something else. However, Wikipedia says it was CBS president William S. Paley's wife and that Gilligan's Island was the show that was canceled. (But GI was a half-hour show so 2 shows would have been canceled.) I like Mumy's story better. Also, the series budget was $130,980 during the first season and $164,788 in the third season. The Jupiter 2 set cost $350,000, so the pilot cost more than that.
I used to fancy the youngest daughter the dark haired gal but in fairness I was about the same age as her back then lol maybe even a couple of years younger
actually, ABC was interested, and were annoyed with Allen he didn't present Lost in Space to them first, but Allen wanted to get a show on CBS since they were the "Tiffney" network. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek was turned down by CBS and the only reason why NBC was interested in Star Trek was because it was a desilu production and NBC wanted to establish a business relationship with Desilu since CBS had a long time business relationship.
Actually Dan Monroe addressed this. It wasnt just Batman competition that changed the tone of the show. It changed around the time of the space cowboy episode in season one because the network saw the Smith character and the Robot trying to kill the family each week during the family hour of 730 to 830 and had a word with Allen about that as well as Harris realizing that Smith was about to be killed off by freezing to death in the ship while the family is away and rapidly made Smith a bumbling idiot and not a deadly adversary.
Gilligan's Island, Batman, Lost In Space, Star Trek. They all lasted only 3 seasons. Definitely an evil conspiracy by unknown persons to ruin a child's life.
To be honest, very few TV shows deserve more than 3 seasons, at least from an "artistic" point of view. But the characters become our friends, and no one likes to say goodbye to our friends.
I think your comment was intended as a joke, but actually they did show how they did laundry in one of the very early episodes. There was a metal box they tossed dirty clothes into, pushed a button, and a few seconds later the clothes were removed folded and shrink wrapped in plastic. Pretty neat. They only showed this once.
Alpha Centauri is the Nearest Star to Our Star (The Sun) were Our Solar System is. It's 5 Light Years Away. If we can Travel at Light Speed we can get there in 5 Years. But if we can Travel at x5 Times Light Speed, we can get there in 1 Year. Plus having to be Put at Harbonation ( I Sleep for 1 Year). Having also Food, Water, Medical Supplies for 6 + Years. Then when we get there we can see if A, B, C Centauri have each a Solar System with Planets Orbiting there Star. If they have there is a Big Chance that One or More of these Planets have a Planet like Earth. We then can Explore it, Establish a Base, a Colony and Stay. Or we can return to Earn. 🤔
The show became centered on Will and Dr. Smith, who were sort of an age-reversal duo, with Smith a miscreant child and Will providing the the adult conscience. The Smith character started out with a cold war themed hint that he was a shrewd saboteur, but soon was shown as so cowardly and incapable that no enemy would ever have sought his help. Sort of the Lee Harvey Oswald paradox. At any rate, Dr. Smith was so annoying, and Will so squeaky clean that their dominance turned Lost in Space into a bore, then as now.
50 foot diameter on the outside, probably 35 foot diameter inside deck diameter, about 20 foot tall outside, yet it had two full-size decks inside with 8 foot ceilings and a possible third bottom deck with storage, equipment, supplies, a reactor, and more. This third deck was confusing (not enough height outside) so it is possible it was a service area in an outer ring outside the main upper and lower decks in the pinch area of the outer body, like a scuttle hole on a story and a half house. If so, it was the biggest scuttle hole I have ever seen. You could stuff not only the six suspension tubes, which we seem to rarely see after the beginning, but a navigation system, a space pod (shuttle), the chariot (on-planet rover vehicle) and enough clothes to change every week to some outrageous outfit for Smith who wasn't even part of the crew and shouldn't have anything on board. On the lower deck was a kitchen, a second flight control area, bedrooms for each of them, but maybe not Don as we never see his, one for Dr Smith, who wasn't supposed to be there, and more rooms. Not to mention the mining gear, the tables for the planting, outside furniture, force field projectors, and more. There was also no mention of airlocks on the three support legs and exit stairs. What if they landed on the legs instead of crashing, on a location with no atmosphere or one humans couldn't live in? As soon as the legs opened, everyone inside would die. 😯😯
This always happens with mass appeal sci fi. Expensive to make and soon runs out of ideas. Especially when it only has seven characters and three of them are kids and one constantly moaning idiot. Not going to be much for the adults here. Also if I remember rightly they spent a lot of time stuck on one planet. Presumably to save on the sets and special effects costs. The only reason anyone would know they were supposed to be in space was because of the title of the show.
I liked it at first but lost interest when it got goofy. My younger brother loved it all the way through. The same thig happened to other Irwin Allen show, Voyage to the Bottom of the sea. Serious to goofy.
The Time Tunnel too. Interestingly enough, Land of the Giants wasn't around long enough to become too goofy, but it was getting there when it was canceled.
You can always tell when a computer is reading a script. It was either a computer or the person reading it has never seen the series. Anyway, Lost in Space did what every hokey Irwin Allen TV show does. It started out good in the first season and then went to pot. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea went the same route. It turned into a monster-of-the-week campfest. Star Trek cleaned Lost in Space's clock, tho. The video says that the inside of the ship's set was the most expensive part of the show but I wonder what Star Trek's set costs were. Star Trek's ship played a role in the show, whereas, the Jupiter II wasn't as charismatic. The Enterprise had real needs, weaknesses and strengths. The Jupiter II was just a means to an end.
Yes, it was truly stupid to abandon the original design o the Jupiter 2 on the movie and remake TV series. And the comment in this video that Robert McCall designed the J-2 is just plain wrong. McCall is my favorite space artist, but he had nothing to do with any designs from Lost in Space. The Jupiter 2 was designed by L.B. Abbot and Howard Lydecker.
I saw the series in the 70s, to me it was freaky. It was addictive and it left me hanging just like Space 1999. Star Trek came back because of its fans. Star Bores comes back because it's now a creepy socialist plat form, but lost in space ended leaving its fans ripped off. The new ones are preachy and boring. Bring back the original.
The show could have been good but most of the show was the cast being on a poor studio set with goofy creaturers always invading them. Had the show been in space more it could have been OK. But the decent concept was totally trashed by keeping it always on the cheap studio set.
