50 Years since Lost in Space premiered

This week marks 50 years since Lost in Space premiered on American television.

The Irwin Allen series, a variation on Swiss Family Robinson, ran for 83 episodes from 1965 – 1968 but has lived on in syndication, with its campy reputation enduring beyond any of its remakes.

In the first episode, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) was a stowaway villain on the Jupiter II but soon became a source of comedy in one of television’s more unusual duos, with the Robot (Bob May). Billy Mumy as young Will Robinson was frequently part of their escapades. (NB: Dr. Zachary Smith and the Robot were not in the original unaired pilot).

The cast also included Angela Cartwright, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, June Lockhart and Guy Williams.

The show was also notable for the score by a young John Williams, who would go on to Hollywood success, notably in the sci-fi genre.

Angela Cartwright later said of producer Irwin Allen, “We’d lurch back and forth in that spaceship to the sound of Irwin slamming a hammer against an aluminum pail.

“He’d yell ‘Left! Right! Left!’ And he’d bang on his pail while we stumbled from side to side. It was just so ridiculous!”

“He used a megaphone when he was directing, and I’d think to myself, dude, I’m five feet away from you!” Mumy said. “He was an old time Barnum and Bailey kind of guy, a real showman.”

Reflecting on the show’s enduring popularity, both Cartwright and Mumy believe it comes down to one word: family.

“It’s the family aspect that really captures people’s imaginations,” Cartwright said. “Fans who grew up with the show are watching it with their young kids today. There’s a feeling of innocence to it that people enjoy passing on to their children and grandchildren.”

“Everyone can relate to the family dynamic,” Mumy adds. “And that concept is a perfect canvas to let your imagination loose in, whether you’re eighty or you’re eight.”

In honour of the anniversary, a Lost In Space 50th Anniversary box set with all 83 episodes has been released, as well as seven hours of bonus material. It includes a 1990 reunion with unseen footage. Here they discuss reviving the characters for a pet project penned by Billy Mumy.

And how can we forget these Dr. Smith classics?

Animated Hunk of Machinery
Animated Weather Station
Arrogant Automation
As Protective as a Leaky Umbrella
Assassin
Astigmatic Automaton
Automated Oaf
Babbling Birdbrain
Babbling Bumpkin
Bellicose Bumpkin
Benedict Arnold
Big Mouth
Blithering Blatherskite
Blithering Booby
Blithering Bumpkin
Blundering Bag of Bolts
Booby
Book Making Booby
Broken down Has Been
Brutish Product of the Mineral World
Bubble Brain
Bubble Headed Booby
Bubble Head
Bulbous Bumpkin
Bumbling Bag of Bolts
Bumbling Birdbrain
Bumbling Booby
Bumbling Bucket of Bolts
Bumbling Cracker Barrel
Bumptious Booby
Bumptious Braggart
Bungler
Bungling Incompetent
Cackling Cacophony
Cackling Canister
Cackling Clod
Cackling Cuckoo
Cackling Coward
Cantankerous Clod
Cantankerous Cold Hearted Clod
Caterwauling Clod
Cautious Clump
Chattering Magpie
Clanking Clod
Clod
Clod Like Collection of Condensers
Clumsy Clod
Clumsy Clump
Clumsy Clout
Clunker
Complete Moron
Computerized Clod
Computerized Clump
Confused Compass
Coward
Cowardly Clump
Cumbersome Clump
Cybernetic Simpleton
Cybernetic Skeptic
Defective Detective
Dehumanized Lie Dispenser
Demented Diode
Deplorable Dummy
Deplorable Dunderhead
Despoty Dunce
Digitized Dunce
Dippity Dunce
Disreputable Dunce
Disreputable Dunderhead
Doddering Dunderhead
Doctor Dunderhead
Dunce
Dunderhead
Dundering Dolt
Elephantine Adam
Evasive Coward
Ferrous Frankenstein
Fiend in Tin clothing
Floundering Flunky
Fool
Foolish Fop
Frightful Fractious Frump
Frozen Eskimo
Fugitive from a Junk Heap
Fugitive from a Scrap Metal Yard
Fugitive from a Scrap Heap
Galumphing Gargoyle
Gargantuan Goose
Garrulous Gargoyle
Ghoul
Gigantic Gargoyle
Goose
Gregarious Gremlin
Hard Headed Harbinger of Death
Hard Headed Harbinger of Evil
Hardware Hyena
Hopeless Heap of Tainted Tin
Hulking Mass of Mechanical Ignorance
Hypertensive Hypochondriac
Idiot
Ignominious Ignoramus
Ill Informed Ignoramus
Impersonal Collection of Inanimate Hardware
Incompetent Idiot
Incompetent Walking Ingrate
Ineffective Ineptitude
Inept Goldbricker
Infamous Informer
Ingrate
Inguitive Ingratitude
Insensitive Brute
Insensitive Clump
Insensitive Idiot
Insensitive Machine
Insipient Aptitude
Iron Born Ingrate
Irresponsible Wine Bevier
Jabbering Jackanapes
Jabbering Jeremiah
Jabbering Judas
Judas
Juvenile Junk Pile
Know Nothing Numbskull
Lead Lined Lump
Lead Lined Lothario
Lily Livered Lump
Lily Livered Lead Lined Lump
Little Mother
Lugubrious Lump
Lugubrious Laggard
Ludicrous Lump
Mass of Fear
Mealy Mouthed Rogue
Mechanical Meddler
Mechanical Misery
Mechanical Misfit
Mechanical Murderer
Meddler
Medical School Dropout
Mediocre Misfit
Mental Midget
Mess of Metal
Metallic Murderer
Myna Bird
Miserable Mass of Metal
Miserable Mechanism
Misguided Mechanical Misery
Misshapen Mummy
Monster
Monstrous
Mechanized Misguided Moron
Monstrous Metallurgical Meddler
Monstrous Mountebank
Mister Wrongway Computer
Mumbling Mass of Metal
My Brave Hero
My Insensitive Friend
Nattering Ninny
Neanderthal Ninny
Negligent Ninny
Nervous Ninny
Nickel Plated Nincompoop
Nickeling Ninny
Nincompoop
Ninny
Noxious Ninny
Obsolete Piece of Scrap Metal
Obsolete Oaf
Old Booby
Overcautious Concoction
Overgrown Ninny
Oversized Oaf
Parsimonious Puppet
Pathetic Pomposity
Pedagogical Pipsqueak
Pitiable Pipsqueak
Palatalized Parrot
Pompous Pipsqueak
Pot Bellied Prankster
Powered Prankster
Preening Popinjay
Presumptuous Popinjay
Presumptuous Pipsqueak
Primitive Pile of Pistons
Proverbial Neanderthal Ninny
Puny Pipsqueak
Pusillanimous Pinhead
Pusillanimous Pipsqueak
Pusillanimous Puncher
Pusillanimous Puppet
Puselous Tyrant
Quivering Quintessence of Fear
Ramshackle Romeo
Real Great Goose
Ridiculous Robot
Ridiculous Roustabout
Ridiculous Ruin
Robust Rockhound
Roly Poly Rowdy
Rusty Rasputin
Sanctimonious Scatterbrain
Scurrilous Scatterbrain
Sententious Sloth
Sickening Cybernetic
Silent Sentinel
Silly Goose
Silly Old Ninny
Silly Sausage
Silly Sloth
Silly Looking Bucket of Bolts
Silver Plated Sellout
Simple Simon
Snickering Cinder Box
Sorry Specimen of Computerhood
Steely Eyed Sorcerer
Stupid Friend
Stubborn Clatterbrain
Tarnished Trumpet
Tattletale
Terrified Mechanical Dunderhead
Tin Monster
Tin Plated Fool
Tin Plated Fraud
Tin Plated Tattletale
Tin Plated Tintinnabulation
Tin Plated Traitor
Tin Plated Tyrant
Tintinnabulating Tin Can
Tiresome Thesaurus
Traitor
Traitorous Tintinnabulation
Traitorous Tin Plated Fugitive from a Junkyard
Traitorous Transistor Toad
Treasonous Tyrant
Uncultured Clump
Ungrateful Underling
Ungrateful Wretch
Unspeakable Insult
Unxious Underling
Weakling
Worrywart
Worthless Electronic Scrapheap
Wretch

Source: Variety, BellaOnline