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Remember Lost In Space?
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fond memories. Thank christ they never made a shite Hollywood update starring Matt le Blanc...*sticks fingers in ears and shuts eyes*
Yeah, the movie was disappointing. I think it could've been done well, but Hollywood probably wont' try again.
I fondly remember watching the tv series. It was great. I didn't have high expectations for the movie and I found it interesting enough.
I know I'm in the minority, but I actually enjoyed the first two-thirds of the Lost in Space movie. Sadly the last third was sufficiently horrendous to cancel out whatever good will I mustered. That was some serious WTF stuff going on there.
Peggy, I tend to agree with you. The beginning of the movie was fairly good.
The problem with the movie was that it was approached too seriously. Had they stayed as campy as the TV show, it might have been decent. I really, really would have loved to see the sentient carrot again.
The TV series didn't start off campy at all. The skyrocket success of Batman caused Irwin Allen to dictate that Lost in Space become equally goofy. The problem there was that they emulated the surface silliness of Batman but they didn't have the underlying smarts to go with it.When I was a kid I loved both Batman and Lost in Space, but by the time I was a teenager I couldn't stand either. When I revisited them as an adult, LiS was like a Sid & Marty Krofft extravaganza while Batman was hilarious. All those double entendres and political commentaries that I missed while younger are sitting right there. The color version of LiS on the other hand, is simply painful to watch.
They did attempt to make a new version of Lost in Space as a TV series a few years ago. It never made it past the pilot, but the entire thing is on YouTube if you want to see it. It's not very good, but you can see some interesting ideas in it. (Oddly enough, many of the ideas I proposed on Usenet back in '98 when the film came out. Hmm...)
The Robinsons: Lost in Space 2004 pilot.
Ahh yes. Lost in Space. Probably my first ever foray into Geekdom and Penny Robinson was my first boyhood crush. Heh....
Re 2004 pilot: All I can say is, I've seen lots worse...Agreed, the show didn't start out campy, but it was kind of contrived, with a saboteur/stowaway, a genius kid who was able to reprogram a sophisticated robot to take his orders, and in this case, the convenient Black Hole to shoot through to become lost. At least the 2004 pilot didn't include a Dr. Smith... but I wasn't enthused about the alien enemy trope (I suppose the Robinsons wouldn't make it home, but somehow they'd always encounter those same baddies wherever they went).
One thing I'll say about the original: It sure made a traditional flying saucer look good.
I was a kid, but I remember "LOST IN SPACE"."Trike" (message #9) above got it right. The show started out in a much more serious vein (and black-and-white to boot) - and was, IMO, much better in the early going.
When Doctor Smith "Urkel-ized" the show, it jumped the Space Shark.
The nadir, of course, was the infamous episode of the living vegetables - with the actor who played Cyrano Jones in "STAR TREK" ("The Trouble with Tribbles") wearing a carrot costume not fit for trick-or-treating.
That said, the show DID have some outstanding elements.
I'll mention just one: The music by none other than John Williams. Two main title themes. Innumerable character melodies. All great stuff. I believe the show would have been insufferable without his music.
Finally, a personal story of "LOST IN SPACE": I live in Los Angeles, and many years ago, I happened into a shop in The Valley - and pulled up short. There, standing behind the counter, was Penny Robinson!
Yes, Angela Cartwright owned a shop in Studio City. I was so shocked by the disconnect that I turned on my heal and vacated faster than Dr. Smith would sell the Robinson children down the river for a hamburger.
Anyway, as far as the series goes, when the day-glow velour came in...
...I went out.
Todd
I'll admit that some of the stories had... promise. And some excellent, legitimate actors turned up on that show regularly (besides the cast, not one of whom I can say a bad thing about). It was, however, in their execution and cheap production (and the predictable Dr. Smith's screwing things up) that the show ate itself whole.Sci Fi fans like to kid Star Trek about one or two of its creatures, and how bad they made that show look. On Lost In Space, you got that about every week... oy.
Steven wrote: "Sci Fi fans like to kid Star Trek about one or two of its creatures, and how bad they made that show look. On Lost In Space, you got that about every week... oy."Yeah, I felt sorry for the guy in the rubber "Gorn" suit on "STAR TREK" (I've been to Vasquez Rocks where the episode "ARENA" was filmed, and it is always hot as hell there)...
...but I felt even MORE sorry for Michael Rennie ("THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL") for having to do a 2-parter on "LOST IN SPACE" (episodes titled "THE KEEPER", where he played a Space Zookeeper)!
Todd
I always thought that Daniel J. Travanti as the space hippie has got to make him wake up at night in a cold sweat sometimes, as he thinks perhaps that was the pinnacle of his career ...
stormhawk wrote: "I always thought that Daniel J. Travanti as the space hippie has got to make him wake up at night in a cold sweat sometimes, as he thinks perhaps that was the pinnacle of his career ..."Wow, I didn't remember this - and am sure even if I did, I wouldn't have recognized him as the star of "HILL STREET BLUES":
[image error]
My guess is Travanti accepts and owns this...
...and reprises the role each year at Halloween!
Will Todd
Nothing, however, beats this:
Aggghhhhh...!!!
Will Todd
Yeah... and the carrot-guy's pretty scary, too.Todd said:
"...but I felt even MORE sorry for Michael Rennie ("THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL") for having to do a 2-parter on "LOST IN SPACE" (episodes titled "THE KEEPER", where he played a Space Zookeeper)!"
At least he didn't have to play one of the creatures.
Thanks for the photo Will Todd. LOL.
http://tiny.ly/PeXY
Cindy.