Why Did LOST IN SPACE Change?

[TMC]

[TMC]

In this video, Pop Culture Historian Dave Sundstrom the multiple factors that compelled the Lost in Space creative team to abandon its serious sci-fi roots and embrace a more comedic, kid-friendly tone.

[Dude111]

Nothing ever stays good in this crappy world.............

[TMC]

Why was the "Lost In Space" TV series cancelled so abruptly, and how did the cast find out about it?

By the end it was obvious that the show was played out. It began as serious science fiction but half-way through the first season they began adding elements of comedy and camp. The Sky Pirate with his robot parrot was from the first season.



By the end of the 3rd season the head writer admitted he was out of ideas and resorted to the silliest episode of the series - The Great Vegetable Rebellion.



By that point the show was more campy humor than serious science fiction. Johnathan Harris rewrote all of the lines between his character, Will Robinson, and the Robot, emphasizing the camp. And the audience had shifted from adults to kids.

It was not cancelled abruptly. TV shows from that age almost never had a proper ending. The decision to renew or cancel a show was often made after the show finished filming or too late into filming to do an ending.

At the time they filmed the final episode, the cast thought there would be a 4th season. Irwin Allen had already ordered a new set of scripts. But CBS cancelled it a few weeks later so they probably heard about it from the industry newspaper Variety.

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Originally Posted by TMC

Lost in Space's greatest foe was... Batman?!

Batman was a phenomenon. So what's a show to do to compete?

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Originally Posted by TMC

Why did actor Guy Williams become disenchanted with his role on Lost in Space, and what led him to retire to Argentina after the series ended?

Lost in Space was a horrible experience for Williams and for every cast member that didn’t have the last name of Harris or Mumy.

Williams, the stalwart hero of Disney’s popular Zorro television series, was promised a lead role in a science fiction adventure series about a nuclear family trying to survive in a hostile world. Indeed, the first half of season one presented just that.

But then two things happened. Jonathan Harris realized that Dr. Zachary Smith, as written, would have to be dispensed with at some point, as he was trying to actually kill the nuclear family. He began altering his performance, making Smith more of a comical villain and less of a threat. This worked well. Too well. Soon the scripts were focusing on Smith, Will Robinson and the Robot, pushing Williams, June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright to the position of set dressing.

Then Batman came along, and suddenly camp was in. Lost in Space, feeling the sting of the Caped Crusader, decided that camp was the way to go. I should clarify: producer Irwin Allen decided that camp was the way to go. Space’s scripts got sillier and sillier, and a 3rd season entry, featuring Stanley Adams as a talking carrot, was so ridiculous, Williams refused to appear.

As scripts were being planned for a fourth season, the cast learned … through the trade papers … that the series had been canceled. Most breathed a sigh of relief.

Williams spent the 1970s working in Argentine television before retiring in the early 80s to Buenos Aires. A brain aneurysm killed him in 1989.