Production: USA, 1965,68
Cast: Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, Bill Mumy, Angela Cartwright, Jonathan Harris, Bob May, Dick Tufeld.
Created by producer Irwin Allen in 1965, "Lost in Space" looks like the last of the typical television and cinema "space operas" of the fifties and sixties, with glowing spacesuits, disintegrator guns, robots who looked more like giant washing-machines and so on: Star Trek would have come the following year and all would have changed.
The seed story was simple and capable of great developement, inspired by the novel "Swiss family Robinson" by Johann David Wyss, (from which have been taken also a Disney movie, a television serie and a japanese anime) which narrated the story of a castaway family on a desert island.
In this futuristic adaptation taking place in year 1997 (which seemed very far at the time) a space mission si going to be sent to Alpha Centauri, searching for a new planet to colonise.
The spaceship is named "Jupiter 2", and the mission command is given to Prof. John Robinson. In the part of prof. Robinson was cast actor Guy Williams, who had been in his life role some years before, when he was "Zorro" in the Walt Disney serie (and to many he still remains the ultimate
Zorro, despite Tyrone Power or Antonio Banderas).
The other crewmembers are the professor's family: his wife Maureen (June Lockhart), and three sons Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will (Bill Mumy).
To complete the crew there is major Don West (Mark Goddard), the Jupiter 2 pilot, who has a sort of attraction (repaid) for Judy Robinson, and a giant robot, which was created by the same designers who made Forbidden Planet's "Robbie".
Just before the lift-off, a saboteur, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris, who too guest starred in some "Zorro" episodes) re- programs the robot to destroy Jupiter 2 during the journey: but something goes wrong, so
that Dr. Smith is stuck aboard the Jupiter 2, which is not destroyed but crashes on an unknown planet. This is the beginning of a serie of adventures between strange planets, monstrous creatures, aliens and all what you could find in a similar show, without caring too much about realism or credibility.
During the first season (the only in black and white) adventures were, in a certain way, "serious", but the following year came "Batman" and, on the opposite hand, "Star Trek". Maybe producers thought they could not tamper with the scientific accuracy of "Star Trek" (which, anyway, was a more up to date show by any point of view), so they decided to go in the same direction of "Batman", which was a big success, focusing
on humour and comedy.
Central characters become Will, Dr. Smith and the robot, with all their funny conflicts.
Anyway, some ideas from "Star Trek" were taken: while in the first two seasons the Robinsons were stuck on the same planet with all its perils, in the third the "Jupiter 2" could at last take off and try to reach Earth or Alpha Centauri, landing on a new planet for each episode.
Music score has to be mentioned. In fact, for all his TV shows Irwin Allen had choosen a composer with a brilliant future forecoming: John Williams, who would have become the trusted composer for directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Anyway "Lost in Space" had always a good share, liked by children and adults, while "Star Trek" was not always well understood and had always troubles with audience (which now could sound quite incredible...).
Despite its success, the show was cancelled after the third season, and it's still difficult to understand why: maybe for its high budget, or maybe actors and producers had become tired of it, or maybe share had started to go down.
A remake movie was made in year 1998 with a big cast: William Hurt as Prof. Robinson, Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith, and several cameos by Mark Goddard, June Lockhart, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright.
The result was obvious: very better special effects, but the original magic was lost... in space.
83 episodes, 29 b/n, 54 color, 60'
First season
1) The Reluctant Stowaway
2) The Derelict
3) Island in the Sky
4) There Were Giants in the Earth
5) The Hungry Sea
6) Welcome Stranger
7) My Friend, Mr. Nobody
8) Invaders from the Fifth Dimension
9) The Oasis
10) The Sky Is Falling
11) Wish Upon a Star
12) The Raft
13) One of Our Dogs Is Missing
14) Attack of the Monster Plants
15) Return from Outer Space
16) The Keeper – part 1
18) The Sky Pirate
19) Ghost in Space
20) War of the Robots
21) The Magic Mirror
22) The Challenge
23) The Space Trader
24) His Majesty Smith
25) The Space Croppers
26) All That Glitters
27) The Lost Civilization
28) A Change of Space
29) Follow the Leader
Second season
30) Blast Off into Space
31) Wild Adventure
32) The Ghost Planet
33) Forbidden World
34) Space Circus
35) The Prisoners of Space
36) The Android Machine
37) The Deadly Games of Gamma 6
38) The Thief from Outer Space
39) The Curse of Cousin Smith
40) West of Mars
41) A Visit to Hades
42) The Wreck of the Robot
43) The Dream Monster
44) The Golden Man
45) The Girl From the Green Dimension
46) The Questing Beast
47) The Toymaker
48) Mutiny in Space
49) The Space Vikings
50) Rocket to Earth
51) The Cave of the Wizards
52) Treasures of the Lost Planet
53) Revolt of the Androids
54) The Colonists
55) Trip Through the Robot
56) The Phantom Family
57) The Mechanical Men
58) The Astral Traveler
59) The Galaxy Gift
60) Condemned of Space
61) Visit to a Hostile Planet
62) Kidnapped in Space
63) Hunter's Moon
64) The Space Primevals
65) Space Destructors
66) The Haunted Lighthouse
67) Flight into the Future
68) Collision of the Planets
69) The Space Creature
70) Deadliest of the Species
71) A Day at the Zoo
72) Two Weeks in Space
73) Castles in Space
74) The Anti-Matter Man
75) Target Earth
76) Princess of Space
77) The Time Merchant
78) The Promised Planet
79) Fugitives in Space
80) Space Beauty
81) The Flaming Planet