A year before NBC premiered "Star Trek" in the fall of 1966, CBS hooked young audiences with its outta-sight series "Lost in Space."
Now, 30 years after the spacey adventures of the Robinson family debuted, Columbia House Video Library is presenting "Lost in Space: The Collector's Edition."Each volume ($20), available by calling 1-800-638-2922, contains two complete, uncut and unedited episodes transferred from the original masters. The first volume (a special $5) contains the rarely seen original pilot, "No Place to Hide," which CBS never aired and is unavailable anywhere else. The pilot is deliciously awful, complete with scenes of the women washing clothes and ironing while the men folk are away fighting a gigantic alien.
"Lost in Space" was created by Irwin Allen, the master of such disaster movies as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno." The catchy theme music was penned by Johnny Williams, who, later as John Williams, became the Oscar-winning composer of "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Though the series was not a critical favorite, "Lost in Space" was and still is a camp delight filled with silly aliens, odd creatures and childish dialogue.
Guy Williams, late of "Zorro," played the dashing Professor John Robinson, who, with his wife Maureen (June "Lassie" Lockhart) and three children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Will (Billy Mumy) and Penny (Angela Cartwright), were sent on a five-year voyage on the spaceship Jupiter II to explore a planet in the Alpha Centauri system.
Piloting the Jupiter was handsome Maj. Donald West (Mark Goddard), who had his eyes on Judy. Also on board was the Robot (Bob May, voice supplied by Dick Tufeld), a wise and friendly 'bot. The Robot bore a close resemblance to the beloved Robbie the Robot from 1956's sci-fi film classic "Forbidden Planet." Whenever Will was in trouble, the Robot would yell, "Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!"
However, the Jupiter II mission was thwarted at the outset by the evil but cowardly Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), who, working in cahoots with a foreign power, sabotaged the control system, which prevented the ship from functioning properly. Since Dr. Smith was a bumbling idiot, he managed to find himself trapped on the Jupiter II during takeoff.
For three seasons, the ship was hopelessly lost. Each week, they traveled from planet to planet encountering monsters and other assorted oddities. Of course, the conniving Dr. Smith was always up to no good.
Despite its enduring appeal, "Lost in Space" never cracked the top 25 in the Nielsen ratings. (It faced fierce competition from the NBC Western "The Virginian.") On Sept. 11, 1968, CBS grounded "Lost in Space."
VIDEO QUESTION
Question: When I use the VCR to freeze-frame movies, some tapes are clear and steady but others have wide lines of distortion. Why is this, and can I fix it?
Answer: The "noise bars" you see are related to certain electronic and mechanical variations between your VCR and the one at the duplicating factory that made the original tape, especially differences in video-head size. When those differences are slight, your still-frame and other special effects are relatively clear; where differences are great, the playback becomes less stable. This is why tapes you've made yourself generally provide the truest playback. Sometimes problems can be minimized by five-head VCRs, which have a special head dedicated to freeze-frame and slow-motion.
- Andy Wickstrom
(Knight-Ridder)
- Do you have a question you'd like answered? Send your queries to Andy Wickstrom, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia, PA 19101.
NEW VIDEOS
RAPA NUI - After many delays in production and then in its release schedule, this big-budget Kevin Reynolds film had little theatrical distribution before going straight to video. Yet with Jason Scott Lee's popularity on the rise because of "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" and "Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book," video renters might want to check out this Polynesian epic. Set on Easter Island in the late 1600s, "Rapa Nui" features Lee as the leader of a clan that fights another clan over the island's future. Kevin Costner co-produced "Rapa Nui," and its utter failure at the box office, combined with the weak response to "Wyatt Earp" last summer, are two reasons Universal Pictures is so nervous over Costner's upcoming "Waterworld" (also directed by Reynolds). R, 1994, Warner, $96.99.
- Max McQueen
(Cox News Service)
NAKED IN NEW YORK - Jake Briggs (Eric Stoltz) is an aspiring playwright in love with Joanne (Mary-Louise Parker), an up-and-coming photographer. However, when Jake heads to New York to work on getting the play he has written produced, the pressures of a long-distance romance soon take their toll. Peopled with interesting characters, the strong cast includes Tony Curtis, Kathleen Turner, Jill Clayburgh, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Macchio and Whoopi Goldberg. Although there are hints of romance, comedy and drama, the film is not easily classified and viewers may feel a bit more puzzled than satisfied about what they've just seen. Still it's an impressive first effort from director Dan Algrant. Columbia/TriStar Home Video, 89 minutes, rated R.
- Richard T. Ryan
(Newhouse News Service)
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT - The story begins with a blackmail scheme and climaxes with a disaster at sea, but in between it's mostly a star-struck romance between an ill-treated wife and the Parisian waiter who sweeps her off her feet. Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer head the fine cast, but highest praise goes to director Frank Borzage for steering a quirky, often unwieldy plot to its inevitable happy ending with nary a wrong turn. First released in 1937. Not Rated, Warner Home Video.
- David Sterritt
(Christian Science Monitor)
MEDIUM COOL - After an 8-year moratorium, Haskell Wexler's landmark 1969 drama is back on video. Wexler follows a soul-dead TV cameraman as he regains a sense of worth in the days leading up to 1968's explosive Democratic convention in Chicago. R, 1969, Paramount, $14.95.
- Max McQueen
(Cox News Service)