TV on Tape: Lost in Space Movie Review
One of the golden rules of storytelling is that a good yarn is a good yarn, no matter how the storyteller might change or update it. For Lost in Space, producer Irwin Allen took Swiss Family Robinson to the space age, thrilling ‘60s TV audiences with the adventures of a futuristic but all-American family marooned on an alien planet.
Guy Williams and perpetual TV-mom June Lockhart were the perfect parents, Marta Kristen was their perfect teenage daughter Judy, and Angela Cartwright and Billy Mumy played the perfectly mischievous kids Penny and Will. There was even a Nice Young Man for Judy in the person of Don West (Mark Goddard).
Another thing about storytelling is that characters sometimes evolve into something the storyteller didn't anticipate. In Lost in Space’s 1965 pilot, “The Reluctant Stowaway,” Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) was a villain, pure and simple. A spy representing an unnamed foreign power, Smith sabotages the Robinson family's spaceship, the “Jupiter 2,” but unexpectedly becomes trapped aboard with his intended victims. By the time the Jupiter 2 settled on the planet where the better part of the series would take place, Smith had changed from a cold, heartless spy to a lazy, greedy, lovable scoundrel. Likewise, the Jupiter 2's robot (always known simply as “the Robot” in the series), originally a vaguely menacing machine with little personality, became Smith's chief flunky and foil. Although many episodes focused on the problems of growing up in outer space, or the constant problem of trying to get back to Earth, most fans fondly remember the show as a series of misadventures instigated by Dr. Smith and played out by him, the Robot, and Will.
The show's bright colors, cheesy special effects, and increasingly juvenile tone over its three-year run have led many fans to regard the show as nothing more than a campy period piece. Still, the show had humor, occasional pathos, and an impressive menagerie of rubbery monsters (including a blob-like creature which for some reason screamed like a mountain-lion). Rumors of a Lost in Space movie have been floating around since the early ‘80s, but remain unconfirmed as of this writing.
1965-67/B&C Selected cast: Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, Billy Mumy, Jonathan Harris. VHS VRS, WTA