Brethren, let us celebrate “Lost in Space”

Still shocked to know Harris was married to a woman and had a kid

I strongly suspect à lavender marriage.

Like Tony Perkins. It was just necessary in those days.

Don't you mean... LET'S DISCUSS

I do mean that, r3. I am filled with shame.

As you should be, R4, as you should be.

LET'S DISCUSS r4's irrevocable shame, let's discuss it

I was 10 years old when the series premiered.

The pilot, the first episode, scared the shit out of me. That damn robot was a berserker.

Hot dark and curly man sex!

The first B/W episodes were very cerebral and dry. I loved it.

But it soon had to compete against Batman and later the Monkees. Those were the two shows we all switched to.

I guess to compete, Lost in Space became more and more cartoonish and hard to watch.

No one, male or female, ever screamed more convincingly than Jonathan Harris as Dr. Smith :-)

Oh the pain, the pain…

Jonathan Harris was a gifted speaker as well as highly trained actor. His stories of his work on LIS is highly entertaining. Enjoy.

Skip to 22:15 for Jonathan's segment.

The hotness that was Mark Goddard:

Dr Smith and the Robot remind me of many a gay couple

Was Dr Smith British?

I was fascinated by their washer/dryer that produced clean, folded neatly packaged clothes. I really thought we would have machines like that in the future.

Amazingly the cast all remained very close. In every interview they speak very warmly about each other.

Mark Goddard gave an interview a couple of years before he died and spoke about how close he was with Harris.

Marta Kristen gave an interview after Goddard died and talked about the crush she had on him. She also said they remained close friends even though they disagreed politically. Knowing Goddard was a liberal, I’m hoping Kristen is just conservative and not a full blown MAGA.

Angela Cartwright and Bill Mumy collaborated on a book and have appeared together for interviews.

They all speak glowingly of June Lockhart.

OP: "queenier" - LOVE IT!

It's clearly Mark Goddard's day -part of two Datalounge threads! He and his then-wife discovered the body of the murdered Karyn Kupcinet. She had dined with them the night before, and they were concerned about her when she failed to answer her phone the following day...

Not sure what episode OP is talking about? I've seen every episode so many times I can practically recite them from memory. The blu-ray release is truly amazing. Since the show was filmed (as opposed to video taped) the detail revealed is beyond belief.

I think the show was ultimately betrayed by its writers, who couldn't bother to get even the most basic science correct. There are many episodes that were quite good -until ruined by a laugh line like, "We traveled through that galaxy last night." And then there are those fiery comets always threatening to melt the Jupiter 2 and cook the people inside...

If only the rest of the series could have lived up to the first five episodes!

Those Irwin Allen shows had great intros.

The original 1965 intro...with music by John Williams:

What’s the other thread R18

Here you go, R20.

Bloop, bloop!

Thanks R22

Debbie the Bloop was lucky. She was remembered and taken along from planet to planet. That poor dog from Episode 13 was completely ignored, and left to die when the first planet exploded at the top of season two...

[quote] Has there ever been a queenier character than Dr Smith?

OP, let me introduce you to 'Uncle Arthur' on BEWITCHED...whom we were introduced to for the very first time*, 60 years ago today.

*Actor Paul Lynde was first on the show in season one, as a driving instructor.

I liked the jet pack. I want one.

I was 13 when LIS came out. I wanted Mark Goddard to make wild, nasty love to me.

I think every gay guy in America wanted Mark Goddard to make wild, nasty love with them. Sadly, he was a bit of a homophobe.

Yet he was close friends with Jonathon Harris for the rest of Harris' life.

I don't know that they were "close" friends - just friendly colleagues. By all accounts, Harris was intensely private. Bill Mumy once said he never even knew Harris had a wife until after Lost In Space had gone off the air. June Lockhart once hinted that she thought Harris was gay -but that's really all we have to go on. He was an actor playing a character, after all. The voice was a deliberate put-on to disguise his natural Bronx accent.

Watching LIS reruns after school, Will Robinson was my first childhood hero. I was fascinated by all the adventures and gadgets and space creatures and having chats with the robot, and also since I knew at the end of the episode all would end well.

While the series was best in the first B&W season, I preferred the way it looked in color for seasons 2 and 3, especially the Easter colors of the 3rd season, and I loved the way that season played with the opening theme, starting with a countdown.

But I never understood why they didn’t have more clothes — they weren’t exactly uniforms they wore ( like the silver lamé ones) and they were presumably presumably able to manufacture them, so why not different colorful clothes for every episode, or at least some variations and alternatives for each character?

OP: on DL, it's more like "Sistren"

Simple answer, R32: Irwin Allen was cheap. He was the king of cheap. He would spend a record fortune on the pilots for his shows, with first-rate cinematography and special effects, but once the show was picked up for a series he pinched pennies tighter than anyone.

The Lost in Space theme performed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Another cool Irwin Allen show with a John Williams theme: "The Time Tunnel" (1966). The theme is very similar to the "Lost in Space" theme.

Question: Color TV in the 1960s had a look that was vaguely similar to Technicolor...it made everyone look beautiful. It was soft but clear and the colors were lovely especially skin tones. Color TV seemed to change over time, moving toward the bright, hash, contrasty look we have today. Anyone know why color TV looked so good back then? I remember our 1967 RCA receiver and being astonished by the color.

[Quote] I wanted Mark Goddard to make wild, nasty love to me.

Well, don’t keep us in suspense—did he?