"Lost in Space" - any love for this old show?

Don did that very thing in the first or 2nd (or 3rd?) episode! But Smith had the robot programmed to come check on him once an hour, and the damn thing let him out.

 

They didn't. The writers of the show did. It's all made up.

Seriously? Category error. It was a 1960s adventure show for children.

That's not what Jonathan Harris's credit meant. The characters of Smith and the Robot were not in the original pilot. It was decided that the series needed a regular antagonist added to the cast as a source of conflict and problems. Smith was always intended to be a permanent part of the show. However, the other actors' credit order was already determined by their contracts, which meant that Harris would have to be billed at the end. But it was considered inappropriate to credit an adult actor after several child actors, when he was getting paid more than they were (credit order and format is ultimately about who gets paid how much). So they invented the "Special Guest Star" credit to make Harris's last-place credit sound more prestigious, to compensate him for sticking it at the end.

After all, as I said above, '60s TV was more focused on individual episodes than on the larger whole. So episodes often centered more on guest stars, who could have complete story arcs in a single hour, than they did on the regulars, who had to stay unchanging from week to week. Thus, guest stars were often treated as more prestigious than the supporting cast, and presumably got paid more per episode to boot. If you look at the season 1 end credits of Star Trek, for instance, you see that the main guest stars of an episode are generally billed above the semi-regulars like DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, etc. And in shows like The Fugitive, there would often be an announcer introducing the featured guest stars at the start of an episode along with the main star of the show. So calling Harris a "Special Guest Star," even though he was a regular, was a way to make him sound important.

This was, I believe, the beginnng of what's now become a standard practice, giving actors a prestige credit at the end of the cast list preceded by "With" or "And" or some other special notation, which is considered second in importance only to the first-billed actor. A similar example happened with Stargate SG-1. When Michael Shanks left the series for a year, he lost his second-place billing and Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge were promoted to second and third, respectively. When he came back to the show a year later, they couldn't give him back his second billing, because it would demote the other two actors. So instead they gave him a prestige credit at the end of the main cast list, "And Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson," which is tantamount to second billing.

 

On the contrary. This was about being fair to everyone. It didn't penalize Harris for being added after the fact and saddled with lower billing, and it didn't penalize the child actors by demoting them from their contracted credit placements. That's why prestige credits at the end of the list have become a standard practice in the decades since.

 

Credit order and compensation have nothing to do with characters or content, only with what an actor's agent and the producers agree the actor is worth. Both Cartwright and Mumy had been acting for a similar length of time, but LiS was Mumy's first series regular role while Cartwright had just come off The Danny Thomas Show, as well as appearing in The Sound of Music. So she probably rated a higher credit, hence the "And."

 

I always wonder why Angela Cartwright was credited as Penny while none of the others had there characters name listed.

 

Same deal we've been discussing. "With/And [Actor] as [Character]" at the end of the cast list is a prestige credit. The first and last entries on a list are generally the ones that register most strongly in people's minds, so putting a name at the end with something extra makes it stand out.

I guess that if Cartwright hadn't gotten the "And... as Penny" credit, Harris would've gotten an "And... as Dr. Smith" credit. But since Cartwright had already been contracted to get that "last" credit, they needed to come up with something different for Harris, hence "Special Guest Star."

 

No I think the "Special guest star Jonathan Harris" credit was bigger than an "And" credit. It was something his agents negotiated, and I doubt they would have gone for just the "And" credit given a choice between the two.

 

Professor John Robinson on location swirling through the sky on his jetpack searching for his lost daughter--that is my most ****ing awesome takeaway from this show! That is cool beyond measure!

 

I loved the music they used for the jetpack sequences in season 1, which was excerpted from Bernard Herrmann's score for the film Beneath the 12 Mile Reef, IIRC.

 

Yes, that jetpack music fits like a glove. It's nothing short of perfect. I love it.

In fact, I love much of the music of the series. And the greatest music of all is the sound of the Jupiter II's engines taking off and landing. No other sound like it. Gives me chills.

 

Don't forget parajets...... Such a cool idea but then so daft as well.... Yet Interstellar copied them

 

I'll have to review that one. I like the Robot dancing in the modern animated test featured in the Region A Blu-ray extras.

I'll have to review that as well from Interstellar.



Closest thing to parajets in the real world. Must take a lot of strength to keep them aimed at the ground!



Modern space age parents on another planet! The search is on! With jetpack no less!!! How thrilling it must have been to watch this on first transmission in the early days of the Space Race!!



Where are the wires??? What? There aren't any?!!!




Total visual search. No GPS. No radio beacon. Just a pair of eyes and propellant tanks!




Rear-projection? Who gives a shit?! That's a freaking amazing human effect there!!! Guy Williams rocks.




"Daddy!!!"

Look at that sheer unbridled joy at seeing her father come to her rescue. I'm misting up looking at it.





Poor Debbie has a stranglehold on Penny there for sure! Robinson's jetpack has a passenger seat!




"Won't be long now."

It was nine below zero when they took off. But this is such a heartwarming chapter that all three are safe from hypothermia.

I can't praise this little interlude enough. It looks amazing and feels even better. It is truly astonishing, and has earned this viewer's loyalty to my dying days.

 

What Bluray? What dancing? Is this the original series or modern Robot?

OK why the parajets in the original show were silly. John had them strapped to his arms just like the version on Interstellar only he was able to leave the ship that was in orbit mind you free fall from orbit, and supposedly use the parajets to land from orbit.

 

All rights reserved.

This was an extra from the North American Blu-ray set of the original series.

 

OK the dancing was funny. We have never seen (that I can recall) the animated series in Australia...

I did like that last bit the chariot rides up into the ship and the pod also joins them

 

Television Academy Interview with Johnathan Harris (Link)

 

Before that cartoon, there was this one: