Lost in Space : Why was it cancelled ?

[Christopher]

TMP wasn't really an adaptation like "The Fugitive" or "Mission: Impossible" though. It was a feature film continuation of the pre-existing TV show with the same cast.

Well, I'm pretty sure there was a point in the process where the studio considered recasting the TOS characters with bigger names.

And the only reason Jim Phelps was recast in the M:I movie was because of De Palma's ill-conceived decision to make him a traitor. They approached Peter Graves for the role, but he turned them down. So the original intent was to make it a direct sequel, not a reimagining.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

David cgc said:
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Mumy's comic series came up with a, shall we say, unsavory solution to Will and Penny's social isolation.

I don't recall anything like that, and I just recently re-read the whole thing (since there's now a trade paperback completing the second year's 12-part saga that was abandoned halfway through the first time around). The closest they got to "unsavory" where the younger kids were concerned was Penny flirting with Major West, for want of another eligible male. But that soon got resolved, and Penny had at least one "romance of the month" with a guest alien, but it didn't turn out well. As for Will, he was mostly just wondering if he'd ever meet an eligible female he wasn't related to.

It's also a bit misleading to call it Mumy's series. In the first year of the series, he was a regular consultant, but only wrote four issues and both annuals (the second one in collaboration with Peter David). It was in the second year -- or half-year, as it turned out -- that he became the sole writer on the title.

If I remember, Penny fell in love with an alien who surfed on a ocean of living, sentient water. But the water makes the person depressed, and so he died.

I must say, for the sight of seeing Judy and Penny nearly naked, it was a great series alone (I had a crush on Penny when I was 12).

 

[Allyn Gibson]

TMP wasn't really an adaptation like "The Fugitive" or "Mission: Impossible" though. It was a feature film continuation of the pre-existing TV show with the same cast.

Well, I'm pretty sure there was a point in the process where the studio considered recasting the TOS characters with bigger names.

In the mid-90s, I recall coming across, in one of the unauthorized "making of" Star Trek books of the time, an anecdote about the studio wanting Robert Redford for Kirk. I don't know how accurate that is; IMDB has an anecdote that, as a joke, Roddenberry suggested that Richard Burton could play Kirk and Redford could play Spock. On the other hand, I do find it somewhat plausible; Paramount wanted Redford for pretty much everything in the 70s, such as Michael Corleone in The Godfather.

 

[Christopher]

I must say, for the sight of seeing Judy and Penny nearly naked, it was a great series alone (I had a crush on Penny when I was 12).

I have mixed feelings about the excessive showing of skin in the early issues. On the one hand, it felt gratuitous and questionable in an adaptation of a family series (although the tone of the comic overall was more adult), and I gather Mumy didn't react well to seeing his co-stars objectified like that (although he wrote one or two of the storylines with the most nudity, so that muddies the issue). On the other hand, though, the comic featured John and Major West in their skivvies about as regularly as Judy and Penny, so at least it wasn't sexist about it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Why was Lost in Space cancelled ? The show was a riot. It shoiuld have been oin the air longer. Will it ever come back as a tv movie ti wrap up the Robinson's story ?
I remember a tv special on aroune 1997. I remember seeing Billy Mumy and Jonathan Harris talking in costume. Where they in charceter ? Was that the actual Jupiter 2 set pulled from storage or was it a new one done with the original blueprints ? a continuation would be a rip ! the movie that came out was not what i expected.

because it was crap

 

[Dusty Ayres]

Because it was crap

I agree. I myself really only like the comic book and the 1998 movie version because they tried to make it serious like it really should have been, including family dynamics positive and negative, Also, the reaching of Alpha Centarui happens, but not in the way the family expects, which is good. That's what made the Lost In Space concept work for me this time around.

 

[Trekker4747]

the movie waseven giggr crap.

tjhis thread is also a huge necrto

 

[RJDiogenes]

You fans of "nu" entertainment would have loved the nuLIS pilot from a couple of years ago. Boring, unlikable characters, forced conflicts, endless violence and so on-- they even added an additional Robinson offspring just so they could kill him off.

I don't know why it wasn't picked up; it's just the sort of mindless garbage that people eat up nowadays.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Christopher said:
It was cancelled for the same reason virtually any TV series is cancelled: because its ratings fell too low to justify making it anymore.

Thank you for saying "virtually", because "Gilligan's Island" (a big ratings success) was canceled ONLY because a TV Exec's wife chose Gunsmoke over it.

The wife's name was Leslie Moonves

 

[Dusty Ayres]

You fans of "nu" entertainment would have loved the nuLIS pilot from a couple of years ago. Boring, unlikable characters, forced conflicts, endless violence and so on-- they even added an additional Robinson offspring just so they could kill him off.

I don't know why it wasn't picked up; it's just the sort of mindless garbage that people eat up nowadays.

Actually, I did like the pilot, and that that it was a great way to retell the story, although I was sorry to see Penny missing. The truth is, the old show wouldn't have worked now, and would have been laughed off of the screen by everybody, so re-adapting Lost In Space in a way that can satisfy everybody can be very difficult.

 

[Christopher]

You fans of "nu" entertainment would have loved the nuLIS pilot from a couple of years ago. Boring, unlikable characters, forced conflicts, endless violence and so on-- they even added an additional Robinson offspring just so they could kill him off.

You're addressing a nonexistent audience. I doubt there's anyone who's equally a fan of all revival or reboot projects; I'm sure most people judge them on their individual merits. I hated the LiS-reboot pilot, but I quite liked the equally revisionist Time Tunnel reboot pilot from around the same time and regret that it wasn't picked up. I like the new Star Trek, but I hate the new V. And so on.

 

[Forbin]

the movie waseven giggr crap.

tjhis thread is also a huge necrto

WTF is a necrto?!

 

[Nerys Myk]

necro

 

[RJDiogenes]

The truth is, the old show wouldn't have worked now, and would have been laughed off of the screen by everybody

Well, that's sad, but pretty much what I said; the reason entertainment is so bad is because audience tastes are so bad.

You're addressing a nonexistent audience. I doubt there's anyone who's equally a fan of all revival or reboot projects; I'm sure most people judge them on their individual merits. I hated the LiS-reboot pilot, but I quite liked the equally revisionist Time Tunnel reboot pilot from around the same time and regret that it wasn't picked up. I like the new Star Trek, but I hate the new V. And so on.

By "nu" entertainment, I mean the idea that stories to be dark and "edgy," all the characters have to be corrupt or stupid, the sets have to look like factory basements, objects must explode relentlessly, and everything must be written as if for thirteen-year-olds trying to feel like tough guys.

I'm surprised that you like nuTrek.

 

[Christopher]

^That's because you're thinking in terms of dumbed-down generalizations and stereotypes like this fictitious "'nu' entertainment' that you're describing. Stereotypes are just a lazy way to avoid processing the true complexity of the world.

 

[Forbin]

^That's because you're thinking in terms of dumbed-down generalizations and stereotypes like this fictitious "'nu' entertainment' that you're describing. Stereotypes are just a lazy way to avoid processing the true complexity of the world.

Damn writer!

 

[David cgc]

By "nu" entertainment, I mean the idea that stories to be dark and "edgy," all the characters have to be corrupt or stupid, the sets have to look like factory basements, objects must explode relentlessly, and everything must be written as if for thirteen-year-olds trying to feel like tough guys.

I remember this really awful show where the lead character was this unbelievable martinet who'd, whenever the writers got bored, wallow in the least-believable self-confidence issues you could imagine. His two sidekicks were a divorcee who was known to visit prostitutes, and would never say a kind word about anyone if he wasn't at knifepoint, and an overgrown nerd who was still lashing out that the world because of his lousy childhood despite being a grown man in his mid-thirties.

All the hallways were filled with pipes, valves, and ladders that, as far as I could tell, went absolutely nowhere. Everything from the lights to the computer keyboards would shoot sparks and catch on fire the second Shit Went Down, and the female characters were barely even cardboard cutouts, so the Middle School boys wouldn't have anything to challenge their hormone-laden brains' idea that they were for boning and cooking. In fact, I remember reading once that the higher ups almost didn't buy the show, thinking the pilot episode was quite awful, but only went for it because of how "gritty" and "realistic" it was.

Yep, "Star Trek" was totally pandering to the trope. Awful piece of disposable wank. Such a shame they couldn't have kept up with quality entertainment that had none of those facets, like "Have Gun, Will Travel" or "The Third Man."

 

[Christopher]

All the hallways were filled with pipes, valves, and ladders that, as far as I could tell, went absolutely nowhere.

And did nothing, I'd imagine.

 

[Char Aznable]

Well, that's sad, but pretty much what I said; the reason entertainment is so bad is because audience tastes are so bad.

HERP DERP DA ONLY GUUD SHOWS ON TV WERE DA ONES I SAW AS AH KID! TV SUX NOW CUZ IT'S NOT WAT I WATCHES HERP DERP!

 

[UncleRogi]

I say that the Robinsons' should STAY lost....
They will ALWAYS be out there....
Why would they want to come back here....?