Lost in Space unaired pilot vs. series

[DarthTom]

I recently rewatched the unaired pilot for Lost in Space and I was reminded how much money they must have spent on the pilot vs. the show.

What changed Irwin Allen's mind from making it a more serious show to a corney one?

Do you think the series or the pilot were better?

Also too bad they filmed and broadcast it only in black and white.

You can watch it here

 

[Noname Given]

I recently rewatched the unaired pilot for Lost in Space and I was reminded how much money they must have spent on the pilot vs. the show.

What changed Irwin Allen's mind from making it a more serious show to a corney one?

Do you think the series or the pilot were better?

Also too bad they filmed and broadcast it only in black and white.

You can watch it here

Honestly, and overall Irwin Allen's series (like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel usually started out series, but often got camier/sillier as time went on. I will say overall Land of the Giants was a bit of an exception as they actually started to make things more serious and serialized in it second (and final) season.)

Also, I think two series that had a huge effect on Lost in Space's changes were Batman (a HUGE hit in its network run) - and with it being very campy, but wildly accepted and lauded at the time, it's possible CBS said, hey, make it more like Batman.

I also think Star Trek had a BIG influence on Lost In Space's third season (remember for two year they were mostly planet bound with the large standing Jupiter 2 'crash landed' set - and Star Trek Season 1 was airing teh same time as Lost In Space Season 2 - and I'm sure it wasn't lost on the producers that:

1) Star Trek showed a trip in space and encountering stuff in space or at a new planet each week.

2) Their show's title was 'Lost In Space', but they'd had the series planet bound for most of its run to that point.

So, yeah, I think the above was what influenced the changes in "Lost In Space"; but again, overall, Irwin Allen (who did come up with some interesting concepts and premises); didn't always treat them seriously at lot of the time after one of his shows had been on the air for a while anyway.

 

[Sindatur]

Actually, if I remember correctly, much of S1 was considerably less corny than the Color episodes in S2 and S3.

The unaired Pilot, is that one with the really Malevolent Doctor Smith the Spy, or was it no Doctor Smith, and the Doctor Smith I speak of was in the aired Pilot.

 

[Christopher]

Actually, if I remember correctly, much of S1 was considerably less corny than the Color episodes in S2 and S3.

Quite right. It started out as a more serious, although family-oriented, show, and while Dr. Smith did become increasingly comedic and increasingly dominant over the course of the first season, it wasn't until season 2 that the show became outright campy -- which was, yes, in direct reaction to Batman.

The unaired Pilot, is that one with the really Malevolent Doctor Smith the Spy, or was it no Doctor Smith, and the Doctor Smith I speak of was in the aired Pilot.

The unaired pilot featured only the Robinson family and Major West. It was deemed the show lacked conflict, so Dr. Smith was added, along with the Robot, and new material was shot to incorporate them into the story. Most of the original pilot footage is distributed across episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the aired series.

And yes, Smith was originally a more malevolent figure -- basically Iago in space -- but with a comic side (in the lengths he went to in order to avoid work) and some marginally redeeming qualities (he did save the Robinsons in episode 5, but only because he couldn't stand to be alone with only the Robot for company). After the first five episodes, he started to become defined more by his greed and selfishness and to become a more humorous character.

 

[Noname Given]

Actually, if I remember correctly, much of S1 was considerably less corny than the Color episodes in S2 and S3.

The unaired Pilot, is that one with the really Malevolent Doctor Smith the Spy, or was it no Doctor Smith, and the Doctor Smith I speak of was in the aired Pilot.

Doctor Smith was one of the things added to the show for the redone (aired) pilot - and yes in the very early episodes he was a REAL nasty and malevolent character (and not a coward at all, either.) From what I recall reading though, the 'change' in 'Doctor Smith' was request/done by Johnathan harris himself, as he wanted to be on the series long term - and didn't think the audience (or the storyline in the Robinsons with minimal intelligence) would put up with that type of character for long (IE the Robinsons would either exile/finally kill Smith, and the audience reaction would be cheering, with comments like, "It's about time." )

 

[Melakon]

For me, the Dr. Smith silliness began as early as about the 13th episode in the first season. I was about 14 when it first aired, and I didn't care for Smith because he was an idiot. But I was always watching the show for the hardware. I liked the ship set, I liked the model work, and I really liked the Robot. And Marta Kristen.

 

[DarthTom]

Actually, if I remember correctly, much of S1 was considerably less corny than the Color episodes in S2 and S3.

The unaired Pilot, is that one with the really Malevolent Doctor Smith the Spy, or was it no Doctor Smith, and the Doctor Smith I speak of was in the aired Pilot.

unaired pilot has no Dr. Smith. I suppose they needed an, "inside traitor," to make the characters more interesting.

Gary Odom in the film version of LIS was a better evil yet comedic character than the TV version.

 

[Galileo7]

The original pilot in which the Jupiter 2 was named the Gemini-12 was not as good as season 1 with Smith and the Robot.

 

[Psion]

It's a shame they went the direction they went with the camp. And while Jonathan Harris was absolutely right about a malevolent Smith, the solution wasn't to make him into a bumbling, blithering, boob.

They should have given him a few positive traits. First, he should have always been an extraordinary physician. Quick-witted and able to save the lives of the Robinsons whenever one was injured or sick. Second, he should have appeared remorseful for his role in stranding the family and actively solicited their forgiveness. But every now and then, there'd be a reminder that malevolence continued to lurk beneath a contrite exterior.

The robot was perfect, though, and should have remained Smith's foil. Perhaps Will was the only one who saw through Smith's charade and made sure the robot kept an eye on the man and recorded everything he did.

 

[Christopher]

Smith did have some redeeming traits from pretty early on. He was willing to kill at a distance, but couldn't go through with harming someone he knew personally. He had a soft spot for the Robinson children, especially Will, whose intellect he admired. He also respected the intellects of Professor and Mrs. Robinson, and I think he had some real appreciation for Maureen's kindness.

 

[Psion]

Smith did have some redeeming traits from pretty early on. He was willing to kill at a distance, but couldn't go through with harming someone he knew personally. He had a soft spot for the Robinson children, especially Will, whose intellect he admired. He also respected the intellects of Professor and Mrs. Robinson, and I think he had some real appreciation for Maureen's kindness.

Interesting. It's been so very long since I've seen any episodes that I don't clearly recollect details. I do recall his affinity for Will, but the rest of those traits just seemed more manipulative than genuine. And I recall he tried to sell them all out whenever an opportunity for personal gain came along. As long as no one was looking.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, sure, he'd sell them out or leave them to die in order to protect himself, but he didn't have the ruthlessness to kill them personally or face-to-face. When it comes to redeeming qualities in Zachary Smith, you have to take what you can get.

Smith was basically a hedonist and epicurean, motivated by personal gain and comfort. He didn't become a spy/saboteur out of ideology, but out of greed. But he was also an intellectual and he craved intelligent company, so he valued Will and his parents for their intelligence. Although you rarely saw this in the latter two seasons, because the adult characters other than Smith were all so marginalized that it was like they were barely in the show anymore.

Back in the '90s, a comics company called Innovation did a really good run of LiS comics, with Bill Mumy as a consultant and frequent writer (Peter David also contributed an annual or two). It was cancelled after a year and a half, midway through a 12-issue arc by Mumy, but a few years ago that arc was completed and published as a trade paperback by another company. Anyway, the comic's approach was basically to treat LiS as the more serious and intelligent show it originally tried to be in the early first season, including giving us a version of Dr. Smith that was true to that original characterization. (The goofy later episodes were explained away as Penny's imaginatively embellished versions of actual events as she put them down in her diary. They did an issue where the top of each page showed the actual events and the bottom showed Penny's diary version in the style of seasons 2-3.) The early issues suffered from excessive cheesecake and sexualization of the Robinson daughters (although, to be fair, they got John and Major West shirtless almost as often, so at least they tried to balance it), but otherwise it was excellent stuff, and I consider it the authoritative take on LiS.

 

[Redfern]

The unaired pilot is a veritable roller coaster ride of escalating events all crammed within roughly 60+ minutes. There's the boarding and freezing sequence, the launch, the meteor shower and resulting shipboard fire, the dive into atmosphere of Priplanus and the resulting crash, the discovery of the eccentric orbit (meaning the hard freeze) and the "bug-out" to reach warmer climes, Penny' disappearance and retrieval via jet pack, the encounter with the giant cyclops, the exploration of the ruins and the earthquake that strikes, the crossing of the inland sea and Don's near drowning and finally when the family reaches a seemingly safe haven where they give thanks, we see two bulbish skulled aliens observing them keenly, the show ending on a cliffhanger. Reads rather like the outline a "modern" blockbuster action film, doesn't it? Honestly, how could a production maintain that kind of pace for each new episode?

I wonder if Allen purposely crammed that much action into a "too long" pilot knowing it could not be aired "as is"? Why? To do what we eventually watched. Take the highlights from that pilot and parse the material over several episodes, filming additional "more economical" material to "bridge" or fill out those episodes. The net effect is that an initial batch of episodes get produced at a lower cost even with the expense of an unaired pilot rather than filming a somewhat more "modest" pilot and thus having to invest more in the subsequent stories.

Just a wild a$$ theory resulting from my being full of sh*t. Anybody got a laxative?

As for the Robot, I'm sure most of you know it was designed by Bob Kinoshita, the person who also engineered the final look of Forbidden Planet's Robby. Do you suppose Allen wanted to use Robby? Since it was owned by MGM, I wonder if it's "rental" on a continued basis might have been cost prohibitive and so Allen decided it would be cheaper in the long run to have his own built? If so, he might have asked Kinoshita, "Build me something as close to Robby without risking a lawsuit." After all, while we more observant fans can point out the differences, the casual viewer tends to confuse the two or assume B9 was simply a "redress" of Robby.

That brings up another speculation. Other than a short lived, live action Saturday morning series in which it was heavily modified, B9 was never used on any other series while Robby continued to make numerous "guest appearances" into the early 1980s. Why was that? Since both were Fox releases, I always thought it would have been great if B9 appeared in "Star Wars'" sand-crawler scene, tucked away in a corner partially obscured. Many, many other props and set pieces from LiS were used in later productions.

You gotta' admit, it's a classic design!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

^Robby had a better agent.

 

[Psion]

... When it comes to redeeming qualities in Zachary Smith, you have to take what you can get.

Back in the '90s, a comics company called Innovation did a really good run of LiS comics, with Bill Mumy as a consultant and frequent writer (Peter David also contributed an annual or two). It was cancelled after a year and a half, midway through a 12-issue arc by Mumy, but a few years ago that arc was completed and published as a trade paperback by another company. Anyway, the comic's approach was basically to treat LiS as the more serious and intelligent show it originally tried to be in the early first season, including giving us a version of Dr. Smith that was true to that original characterization. (The goofy later episodes were explained away as Penny's imaginatively embellished versions of actual events as she put them down in her diary. They did an issue where the top of each page showed the actual events and the bottom showed Penny's diary version in the style of seasons 2-3.) The early issues suffered from excessive cheesecake and sexualization of the Robinson daughters (although, to be fair, they got John and Major West shirtless almost as often, so at least they tried to balance it), but otherwise it was excellent stuff, and I consider it the authoritative take on LiS.

I'll keep an eye out for this. I'm not a huge comics enthusiast, but several of my friends are, and I'll see if I can recruit them into helping me track this down. Thanks!

 

[Christopher]

^The trade paperback of issues 13-24 is called Lost in Space: Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul, and is from a company called Bubblehead Publishing. The rest are probably only available individually, and include issues 1-12, Annuals 1-2, and Project Robinson "#1 of 2," a focus on Maureen Robinson's life story (#2, which would've focused on John, was apparently never published).

 

[Galileo7]

^Robby had a better agent.

Robby was a character actor robot thus working a lot , but B9 was a leading man robot and typecast with his appearance on Lost In Space.

 

[Christopher]

Plus B9 was Robby's kid brother, and it can be hard to get out from under the shadow of a famous relative.

 

[diankra]

I heard he only got the Lost in Space job because his big brother suggested him when he turned it down :-)

 

[davejames]

But I was always watching the show for the hardware. I liked the ship set, I liked the model work, and I really liked the Robot. And Marta Kristen.

Yeah, as campy and ridiculous as the show could be, there was still a hint of cool scifi in there, and an underlying premise-- of a family stranded on the other side of the galaxy, with nothing but their ingenuity and a cool robot to protect them-- that was actually really compelling.

I just wish a quality showrunner like Whedon or Moffat would come along and make a new version that actually did justice to the concept. Either as a serious drama or a fun action-adventure show that was genuinely clever and witty.