Lost in Space TV Show

Lost in Space TV Show - Swiss Family Robinson in Space

In 1812, pastor Johann David Wyss published a novel called The Swiss Family Robinson about a family shipwrecked on an East Indies island during a voyage to Australia. In the centuries that followed, the story would be altered and expanded upon and adapted for television and the motion picture screen.

Lost in Space TV Show CastOn September 15, 1965, the CBS television network took the story to new heights when it broadcast the first episode of the Lost in Space TV show, a sci-fi series about a family named Robinson that got lost on the way to colonize a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.

This family was not Swiss but American. It was led by John Robinson (Guy Williams), a pilot and astrophysicist who specialized in applied planetary geology. His wife, Dr. Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart), was a biochemist. The couple had three children: Judy (Marta Kristen), 19; Penny (Angela Cartwright), 11, and Will (Billy Mumy), a 9-year-old child prodigy in electronics.

Rounding out the crew was Major Don West (Mark Goddard), the pilot of the family's nuclear powered ship. There was also a Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, which everyone simply called Robot. Outfitted with wheels, grappling hands and super strength, Robot was configured for all sorts of tasks. When excited, it would move its mechanical arms up and down and shout, "Warning! Warning!" and "Danger, Will Robinson!"

The crew - in a state of hibernation - launched from an overpopulated Earth on Oct. 16, 1997, aboard a saucer shaped ship called the Jupiter 2 bound for a habitable planet around the star Alpha Centauri.

Things went quickly awry due to a saboteur named Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), an agent for a hostile foreign nation who snuck aboard the Jupiter 2 before launch. He was successful in damaging the ship, but he was unable to leave it before launch, becoming lost with the rest of the Robinsons.

Lost in Space's first season saw the Robinsons crash landing on an alien world named Priplanis, where they worked to repair the Jupiter 2 and survived a series of adventures and encounters with other life forms. The show hewed closely to the original Swiss Family Robinson, emphasizing the struggles of a pioneering family trying to survive in a strange environment.

During Seasons 2 and 3, The Lost in Space TV show became campier and more humorous with a greater focus on the adventures of Dr. Smith, Robot and young Will. The emphasis on serious science fiction was replaced with fantasy and whimsy. In one third season episode, the Robinsons encountered a talking carrot, the lowest point of the series creatively.

Lost in Space was a modest ratings success. Although the show was initially renewed for a fourth season in 1968, CBS canceled it after 83 episodes due to rising production costs and declining ratings.

Lost in Space was revived in 1998 as a film starring William Hurt, Mimi Rogers Heather Graham, and Matt LeBlanc. The film was not very successful, and no sequel was filmed.

Links for Lost in Space TV Show

Lost in Space at Internet Movie Database

 

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