The Lost in Space Pilot episode!

[OneOfOne]

Hi guys,

Over the last few months I have been watching the first series of Lost in Space, it has taken quite a while because my wife wants to see it as well but is often unable to find the time to sit and watch it with me. Well, last night we watched the unscreened episode, which is an extra feature on the last DVD of series one. It had a small amount of "new" footage, but for a large part it was scenes from the first 3 or 4 episodes cut together. This episode started with liftoff and finished when they had crossed the inland sea to avoid the extreme heat (fans will know what I am talking about).

Interestingly, there was no Dr Smith! Wow! His character was annoying at times in the series, but without him, the show seemed to lack something. They also called the ship Gemini 12 rather than the Jupiter 2, I guess this is because it was originally conceived at the time of the Gemini program. The ship was knocked off course because of a meteor shower rather than being overweight, crashing on a planet somewhere after some three and a half years of suspended animation.

It was interesting to see how they used the footage from the pilot in other episodes without Smith being there.

So we then watched the first episode from series 2....in COLOUR! I don't recall ever seeing an episode in colour at any time, so obviously the last time I saw it was pre-1975, and yet 33 years later I can still recite snippets of the dialog almost verbatim...much to the annoyance of my wife :D

[RB]

LOL I can relate to reciting the lines after so many years and not having watched it in colour before '75.
It was my fav show in the arvo, coming home from school to watch this and Gilligan's Island. :doh:

Thanks for the info on the pilot episode, interesting.

:thumbsup:

[g__day]

Warning Will Robinson - hostile aliens approaching!

Was one of my fourite lines! I grew up on this as a kid, and it was suprising the first time I saw it in colour - especially the robots arms and claws!

But with out Zac Smith to get into trouble so our intreprid heroes could get humanity in the stars out of trouble - life would have been very bland.

[ngcles]

Hi One of One & All,

Yep, I went out about a month ago (like you seemingly) and bought the boxed set of _all_ the episodes and have been having a thoroughly enjoyable time with 'em too. (Being ratings season, there is virtually nothing worth watching on TV again!) I am particularly fond of the 3rd season -- all three series are different but the Robinsons spent a lot more time "in space" in series 3 and it was completely "camp" and over the top and well ... wild!

Of all, "Visit to a Hostile World" was my absolute favourite episode -- when they return to Earth but it's 1947. Back when it was running on TV, if I missed that episode during the run (for some reason or another) I would be very, very dirty with myself. Another favourite was "The Golden Man" in Series 2. Now I can watch them to my heart's content and even my 17yo daughter likes them ...

I think it first started here in about 1969 or 1970 -- about the height of the Apollo programme (Sydney -- Channel 10, 5pm weekdays) and was _must see_ for me after school and before dinner. I must have watched the whole three seasons about 8 years in a row. I can certainly relate to being able to memorise the lines. At the start, I idolised Will (naturally), by the time I was 14, I was in love with Penny (Angela Cartwright).

Lost in Space would never have survived to a 2nd series without the nefarious Dr Smith -- it would have been very wooden and ordinary. They needed their own "portable villain" to create the situations they would have to extricate themselves from.

I love Lost in Space, it is one of the major reasons I am an Astronomy "geek" today ...

Gilligan's Island ??? Hmmm ...

Best,

Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[RB]

LOL they are some of my fav episodes too Les.
Also remember the one Dr Smith falls in love with the 'Green Woman' floating around outside the spaceship? :lol:

So was there only 3 seasons made in total ?
So I assume the box set contain all episodes made?


:)


LOL Les anyone that's met me will know why I can relate to Gilligan.......:rofl:

[g__day]

I liked the episode where the Robot turned into Golden boy, the one where they had to go inside the robot, the pirate one where the trapped, buried treasure turned out to be bars of pig iron.

Oh and the washing machine that sent the cleaned clothes out - wrapped in plastic :)

[gman]

I loved Dr Smith saying things to the robot all the time.
The one I remember well was "Keep quiet you bubble headed booby"

I also liked the "Chariot" that they used to drive around in.
Looking back it was flimsy but it was a cracker at the time.

[OneOfOne]

When it was released at first, I think they had season 1 in the one box, with 2x4DVD sets. The other seasons were released as a "half season" single DVD box, then one day I was at JB and they had the complete series in a single box...and couldn't resist it. Funny too, that they have a different number of episodes in each series (29, 30 and 24).

I have actually seen the complete Gilligan's Island at one time....hmmm... Get Smart is also tempting, but you can only buy that through Time.

With the fantastic shows on TV these days, most of my viewing is recorded or off DVD (a saviour!)

Here's an idea for something original. You get 10 amateur astronomers and put them in an observatory. Each night they have to find an object and tell us what they know about it in the most exciting way possible. Then we ring in to vote for the one who we think has the best knowledge..... As a bonus, the show is only aired when it is cloudy ;) We could call it "So you thnk you can observe" or "Observing with the stars" or "Astro survivor"

[ngcles]

Hi All,

Oneofone wrote:

"Here's an idea for something original. You get 10 amateur astronomers and put them in an observatory. Each night they have to find an object and tell us what they know about it in the most exciting way possible. Then we ring in to vote for the one who we think has the best knowledge..... "

And the one with the least votes the others then chuck him/her out of the aperture of the dome to leave a crater in the ground below. Last man/woman standing gets the telescope ... :lol:

And you could have reward challenges like: "Find and observe 10 Messier Objects in numerical order", where the first to finish gets a pizza (if there is an unoffiicial "offiicial food" of amateur astrronomers it has to be pizza, surely?).

Best,

Les D
AS&T

[tasview]

Just have to reply to this one,That was my fav show as a kid.I will have to get that collection.I too loved penny-Everything a girl should be.Remember the Carrot man, and all the mini robots.Truely a classic show of all time!:thumbsup:

[GrahamL]

was a great show :)

say high to penny tasview
http://www.angela-cartwright.com/

and Will
http://www.billmumy.com/
some of his music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzpN9ce_qF0

more info and links here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Space

[Inmykombi]

Way ahead of all of you. ( maybe I shouldnt admit it.... as it shows my age ).

I have had the entire collection of Lost in Space for about 15 yrs on VHS video.:P

I can relate to all the episodes you mentioned as well.
My favourite by far is the one that has both Robots in it.
Robby Robot and the Robinson robot.
The War of the Robots was the episode where both robots had a battle at the end.

What good memories of a Childhood lost in Balck and white TV hey.?
Yes and Gilligans Island as well....:lol:

Cheers

Geoff.

[omnivorr]

...just to kill this thread like most of my posts do..

I really had "the Hots" for the character: Penny, ..in my pre/near-pubescent thrall.. the "apple-pie" "mom&pop" of June wotsits and the bloke who played "Zorro", were negligible.. "Zac" was Vaudeville.. and the rest were desperately ancilliary.... compared to the "Beat" fo'ment of the "Star Trek" franchise.. it was pawltry.. the 'cardboard & silverfrost" of Dr Who" defeacated on the "Hollywood" production=values of "Lost In Space"....
....and like the "dumb-down" of "THHGTTU" for American consumption... I suspect, a good "text" was transmogrified into a banality that today is truelly "collectible".. in the "Warhole"-sense..

there is an evil side to nostalgia.. Nosti-dumb-arse and Earwig van Dunnycan comes ter mind.... but floatyerboat as yer will, g'luck t'yaz

Jules Verne, H G Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson... some names to be googlin, ...before fallin to the Orwellian "swell"... Azimov, Bradbury..et al

...Arthur C .. ..

.... just get yerself beyond the G.W.Bush reading-list... he never will!!!

....Gulliver's Travels, The Adventures of Alice....Umberto Ecco .. Berger's "Ways of Seeing", ..Chomsky's "Manufactured Consent".. , ..

"Beware Will Robinson.." is chips to gulls, really... "BrandPower" to lab-rat-racers.... like Monty Python quoters..... didn't get the joke, know the shareprice.. 2nd-hand masturbaters..... 100yrs behind Dali, thru the prism of Du Champ.. .. .. but back to "Penny"..
...today I'd be a "paedophile" to recount what then stirred in my loins.....

but at least I remember it, and for what it was...

....not just some tragic "me too" wank.... tick-the-box ... safer-in-numbers ..dare-not-be-different easy way.... trendy follower: that way leads to "flares" .. the lycra bi-cycle continues...

Marc Bolan didn't die in that taxi... his "spirit" just wafted to the inhaling grommets of the snakes-and-ladders set.. (none o them filled his trousers yet).. (ask Alex Downer bout da ladders)

nuff said.. "Lost in Space" was as Britney Spears is to music, family, and intelligence... not a lot. ...at best a vacuous cliche', at worst column-inches!!!

G'nite
Russ

[ngcles]

Hi Russ,

So Russ, I gather from your post that you weren't overly impressed with Lost in Space eh ...

That is odd, because I can (almost) hear "Zac" (at his devious best) (whispering through gritted teeth to camera) delivering parts of the little soliloquy that you've typed in your second par. Or was that your intention in counterpoint ?

See, you didn't kill it afterall ...

To each his own I guess. But, why'd you have to pick on Britney?

Best,

Les D

[omnivorr]

...damn!! ya got me. OK, I'll fessup.. but don't you go mentioning that "Counterpoint"... Mondays is a waste without Phillip Adams :P

As fer : "But, why'd you have to pick on Britney? " ...well, I thort I'd said it.. cliche' .. use a cliche', diminish the cliche'?... I dunno, ..oh hang on! ... U don'ts got "a thing" bout her.. ..Oh! geez, just transpose Madonna for Brit-- Oh NO!.. my age!! & who've I upset now?!?!...

No jibe intended Les.. If I'd picked Lucille Ball I'd upset someone... (mind you, ..she was "hot" ,'bout 20 yrs before she was "syndicated", too..)

I spent a few hrs in front of the box.. I even saw "The Brady Bunch" movie with my early-teens daughter some/many yrs ago.. now, that was "expectations" zero-gravity in a spin!!!!.... what I'd grumbled.. how much I laughed.... don't think my daughter ever saw me the same again..for better or worse..

yes, (..it's the 2nd-hand trade that irks me.. the "with it" 20/30/40 yrs later pretenders...) your understated and "Zac"-cogniscentious retort tells me , tho' our opinions may differ.. we/i ..are not alone in the 'universe'..

..."hello world" ...what's this big round thing coming to greet me, .. I hope we'll be friends....

expect the worst, hope for the best... nothing is new, nothing is dead.
Cheers
Russ

[OneOfOne]

I must admit I had a bit of a "soft" spot for Judy myself. Penny was a bit too young.

Interestingly, several of the original cast actually had, small, parts in the movie. But if I was to give Lost In Space an 8 out of 10....I would have to give the movie about....1....maybe 2? What do you reckon?

Like many movies, they are NEVER as good as the series they are based on. Actually....Star Gate is probably an exception :)

[Gargoyle_Steve]

I was going to mention the cameo parts in the movie version by actors from the original series - specifically those who played Mrs Robinson (appeared as Will's school Principal), Judy & Penny (appeared as reporters at news conference) and Major Don West (played the part of the"new" Don West's boss, ie space military forces).

The new movie maybe didn't have the "quirkiness" of the original, and I'm sure wasn't meant to, but then if it DID look like the old TV show people would have criticised it from here to eternity asking why millions of dollars and decades of cinematic progress hadn't been able to produce a sleeker looking movie.

I rather liked it, I'd give it a good 7 out of 10, and I would have liked to see them do a second movie to see what they could come up with.

[Bassnut]

Im with Russ, Zac irritated the crap out of me, put me right off.

>"Lost in Space" was as Britney Spears is to music, family, and >intelligence... not a lot".

Absolutely.

[Inmykombi]

If you dont look into it too deeply, its was just good 'ol 60's entertainment that was great for parents and kids to watch together.

I for one grew up on it, and it will remain part of my childhood memories forever.

Crush, kill, destroy.............ahem :whistle:

Geoffro.

[ngcles]

Hi Geoffo & All,

Geoffo wrote:

"If you dont look into it too deeply, its was just good 'ol 60's entertainment that was great for parents and kids to watch together."

Spot-on!:thumbsup:

Lost in Space almost never took itself seriously at all -- why should we! This is all part of its charm. :)

That and its severe stereotyping of the male/female roles it portrays makes it a fascinating and in many ways amusing insight into mid-60s culture (at least US culture).


Re: Crush, Kill, Destroy -- I only watched that one the other day where Verda (played by Dee Hartford) the now mostly human android is hunted by the "Instant Destroying and Killing" Android from the Celestial Department Store. Its a laugh-a-minute!

I wonder how Dee Hartford (a C-grader if there ever was one) got the role? I wonder if her brother-in-law (Groucho Marx) being the best friend of the producer (Irwin Allen) had anything to do with it? :confuse3:

Best,

Les D

[Stevo69]

What was the exact that the Jupiter 2 was launched? in 1997 from memory, but I think the exact date is mentioned in the pilot?

I remember a lot of talk in the sci-fi world on that date.

[GrahamL]

I liked thunderbirds a little more than lost in space ..sure the acting was a little wooden at times;) but hey I can still watch all this stuff over
and over.