CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I grew up watching this series; which by todays standards makes Friends look like art.
I remember a childhood classmate friend, Arthur Goodrich, who could draw complete scenes from any episode. His specialty was drawing The Robot (it never did get a name) and the Jupiter 2. Try as I might, all I could ever accomplish was a crude drawing with black eraser smudges at best, and generally something resembling a Rorschach inkblot.

An adaptation of the Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson, this was the second Irwin Allen series; the first being his 'wildly' successful Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Allen initially released a pilot called Nowhere to Hide. After getting the nod to go ahead with the series, the name was changed.
Allen wanted the show named Space Family Robinson but Disney wouldn't relinquish the copyright. (Swiss Family Robinson) Modified from it's original concept, Dr. Smith and The Robot were added. LIS was launched September of 1965 and finished 32nd in the ratings. Lackluster at best, it rated far better than Star Trek's first season, which finished 60th!

The first season was filmed entirely in black and white while seasons 2 and 3 were filmed in color. The eventual fall of the series was due in no small part to actor egos, salaries that doubled every season, and a general dislike between Allen and the studios who constantly attempted to force him to make the show "based more in reality".

I did my best to catch every episode but it wasn't easy in those long ago days of pre-TiVo and VCR's as it ran opposite Batman. It took many years after cancellation of both series to finally see every episode of both.

Although hokey, campy, and jamokey (that's not a word but hey, we're talking the 60's here), the show successfully catered to this little boy who spent many nights staring through a cheap Montgomery Ward telescope propped on the hood of his dads car in the driveway, while dreaming of having the ability and chance to break my earthly binds to cruise among the stars. I froze my ass off in the process!...but I didn't care. And neither did my faithful dog Spot (yeah, more '60's naming) who stayed with me the entire time I was oohing and ahhing until my mother called me in.

Aside from a small cult following, many people remember and often use enduring catch phrases from the series; such as The Robots, "Warning! Warning", or "That does not compute", or the timeless, "Danger, Will Robinson!" Or the effeminate Dr. Smith's continuous banter with The Robot such as "You bubble headed booby!" or his other 'famous' lines, "Oh the pain...the pain" and, "Never fear, Smith is here!"

If you want to see a free full episode, Season 1, Episode 23, with a young Kurt Russell, go here.

http://entertainment.msn.com/video/playerN?pid=E8qCODNHJk2kyK7v_xnc72Ik4iHMxOkZ&GT1=10755

Unfortunately it isn't commercial free...*gak*. Evil or Very Mad

And sadly, it's shown in a 3x4-ish Flash window. I have FLV player but I think if I open the file up full screen it'll look horrid.

We'll save discussion of my other favorite childhood show; (which I suspect was written and produced by the Haight Ashbury crowd), Dark Shadows, for another time. Shocked

Ahhhh the memories.

Greg

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

My earliest memory of seeing a color TV was a slightly greenish Will Robinson at a friend's house. Wow! High tech!

We've come a long way. And what a long, strange trip it's been. Lost In Space being one of the stranger bits. Smile

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject:

Just as an unrelated but related new item Greg, we have a doctor here, he's a coroner/pathologist and ended up with the pediactrics gig. He put people in jail for killing their kids, many for over 10 years and now it's been found out that he doens't have much if any training in pediactrics and basicaly doens't have a clue, can't get a clue and couldn't get one even if it were Col. Mustard in the Library with the candle stick.

His name? Dr. Smith

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080128.wsmith0128/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080128.wsmith0128

dbaisey · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:47 pm Post subject:

Quote:
The Superman producers were prescient in filming their shows in color beginning with the 1954-55 season. Other series that originally were filmed in color but aired in black and white were Science Fiction Theater, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, and Travel/Adventure Theater. All Hanna Barbera cartoons, beginning with Ruff n' Reddy in 1957, were filmed in color, as were the Popeye cartoons from the 1961 production. A fair amount of the original Popeyes produced in the 1940's by the Fleischer Brothers and Famous Studios were made in color and included in the package. Stingray, a new series from the producers of Supercar, premiered in color on WTVT as well. Syndicated talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show also went color in '66.