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I think that anybody familiar with "Lost in Space" can divide the series into three distinct styles. It's pretty easy, because each season was very different from the others. The familiar characters included the Robinson family (John, Maureen, Judy, Penny, and precocious Will), the testy, short-tempered space pilot (Major Don West, played by Mark Goddard), the sinister, cowardly stowaway (Dr. Smith, played to perfection by Jonathan Harris), and of course the ship's robot, played by diminutive actor Bob May. The entire group took off in their ship Jupiter 2, and promptly got…well, lost in space.

The first season (1965-66) was in B&W and was very dark and serious in tone. There were several very good guest stars (including Michael Rennie, Warren Oates, Kurt Russell, and others), decent special effects, and sober story lines. The first season also had a very subtle love affair between Judy (Marta Kristen) and Major West. Still, the first season, though well done, was pretty boring. How many times can Guy Williams fly around with that jet pack?

The second season (1966-67) was in color and was markedly lighter and sillier in tone. The infuriating thing about this season was that the Jupiter 2 seemed never to leave the ground! Many of the season's stories never really went anywhere, nor did they make much sense. There were lots of colorful characters and absurd situations, with a few standout episodes, including my all-time favorite "Trip Through the Robot".

The third season (1967-68) left all logic and coherence behind, emphasizing silly situations with Will (Billy Mumy) and Dr. Smith always in peril. This is my favorite season, since the stories are mostly so absurd that there's no way to take them seriously. The series' nadir was no doubt "The Great Vegetable Rebellion", in which a giant carrot terrorizes the giggling cast. However, this season also included "The Anti-Matter Man", which was imaginative, dark, and very disturbing at times.

With "Lost in Space", I suppose you either love it or hate it. I grew up with it, and I love it…but I can certainly understand why some people would just despise it for its silliness. As a child of the 1960s, I guess it simply makes me feel young again.

One of the most memorable TV series of all time but whose quality was quite uneven in the three seasons that it lasted. The first season was without a doubt the best, it focused on the adventures of the first family of space settlers who departed from Earth to a planet called Alpha Centaury. Dr. Smith, a collaborator of the project and at the same time a spy in the service of an enemy power, enters the ship to sabotage it, but is trapped in it at the last moment, so the ship will drift in space. Riddled with danger. There were excellent stories in the first season, Dr. Smith was a Machiavellian villain who only thought of himself and did not hesitate to betray the Robinsons in order to achieve his goals. The problem arose in the second season, the series competed directly with Batman, which had quickly established itself as an instant success, in order not to lose audience LIS began to copy Batman's camp style and this greatly reduced its content, the series became childish and even silly at times, the stories focused exclusively on Will Robinson, the Robot and Dr. Smith who had already lost his twisted character to become a buffoonish character. For season 3 the production tried to make a change of direction and return to the quality of the scripts of season 1, a new intro was made and a space capsule was added with which they could descend on other planets without the need to land the ship . The quality was an improvement but they were never able to get back on track. Despite all this, the series is a highly recommended classic.

Interesting points here on the commemoration of the show's 50th anniversary. First off, it was creator-producer-director Irwin Allen's second television series after the phenomenal success of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea",and his first weekly television series for CBS. "Lost In Space" was the first big-budget, prime-time science fiction/fantasy action-adventure series for television that originally aired on its Wednesday night time slot in prime-time. "Lost In Space" ran for three seasons airing from September 15, 1965 until March 6, 1968 producing 83 episodes. Only the first season was in black and white producing 29 episodes that ran from September 15, 1965 until April 27,1966. The next two seasons of the series produced 54 episodes in color(Season 2 consisting of 30 episodes and the third and final season 24 episodes)that ran from September 14, 1966 until March 6, 1968 for Irwin Allen Productions/Twentieth Century-Fox Television and the CBS Television Network.

"Lost In Space" had a top-cast of well known and respected actors that included Guy Williams("The Legend of Zorro"), June Lockhart("Timmy and Lassie"),Jonathan Harris("The Third Man",and "The Bill Dana Show"), Mark Goddard("Robert Taylor's The Detectives",and "Johnny Ringo")and Marta Kristen("The Man From UNCLE"),and two of the best child actors of the era Billy Mumy("The Twilight Zone"),and Angela Cartwright("Make Room For Daddy").Throughout it's impressive three season run and 83 episodes(more episodes than Star Trek on NBC)it was usually the highest- rated show in its time slot(going up against NBC's The Virginian and usually coming in neck to neck with Batman on ABC,believe it or not). The series boasted top name writers for some of the episodes ranging from Peter Packer to Carey Wilbur, Barney Slater, William Welch, Allen Balter, Jack Turley, Robert and Wanda Duncan, Herman Groves, Irwin Allen, and William Read- Woodfield. Top name directors ranging from Don Richardson, Sobey Martin, Nathan Juran, Ezra Stone, Harry Harris, Sutton Roley, Jus Addiss, to Leo Penn, Irving J. Moore, Leonard Horn, Alvin Ganzer, Paul Stanley, and Alexander Singer.

Big name guest stars ranging from Albert Salmi, Michael Rennie, Kurt Russell, Warren Oates, Michael J. Pollard, Gerald Mohr, Henry Jones, Malachi Throne, Liam Sullivan, Vitina Marcus, Strother Martin, along with Mercedes McCambridge, Francine York, Sherry Jackson, Kevin Hagen, Daniel J. Travanti, Arte Johnson, Alan Hewitt, Lyle Waggoner, Al Lewis, and Richard Basehart. Spectacular art direction by William Creber(of Fantastic Voyage and Planet of the Apes),make-up by John Chambers(Planet of the Apes),and an iconic Robot designed by Robert Kinoshita(Forbidden Planet and Fantastic Voyage),and ultra-cool theme songs and music by John Williams(of Star Wars and Jaws fame). It had alien chimps(Debbie the Bloop in Season 1),one-eyed cyclopeses,and even talking carrots. What made the series stand out was it's cliffhangers during the first 2 seasons with the family facing constant peril and danger where it left viewers in suspense("To Be Continue...NEXT WEEK...Same Time, Same Channel)until the next episode and so much more. The format cliffhangers from the first 2 seasons would change over by the show's third and final season.

Getting to the episodes and let me say that the show's first season opens with five dramatic and suspenseful episodes that rival some of the best science fiction stories out there ranging from the pilot episode "The Reluctant Stowaway" to "The Derelict". Then there were the other three that also stood out from "Island In The Sky","There Were Giants In The Earth",to "My Friend, Mr. Nobody", the two-part episode "The Keeper",and "The Hungry Sea" where the first season hits a road bump with "Welcome Stranger" which was very dramatic in its impact. Then the show takes a lurching turn in "The Sky Pirate". Season 2 picks up where the Season 1 left off this time in color with several good episodes ranging from "The Prisoners of Space","Trip Through The Robot",and "The Ghost Planet". The third and final season of the series saw "The Anti- Matter Man", "Hunter's Moon", "Visit to a Hostile Planet",and "Condemned of Space" stood out as the best episodes of the series.

The worst episodes that came out of Lost In Space's three-year run consisted of the worst of them all "The Great Vegetable Rebellion",and from there the episodes got even worst and some outrageously over the top and ridicious ranging from "The Thief of Outer Space", "The Space Croppers", "Princess of Space", "Castles of Space", "The Questing Beast", "The Girl From The Green Dimension", "Space Beauty", "West of Mars", "The Curse of Cousin Smith",and "Mutiny In Space".

When "Lost In Space" was abruptly canceled in the Spring of 1968 after three seasons and 83 episodes the powers that be over at CBS didn't waste any time in finding a replacement on it's Wednesday night prime time schedule for the 1968-1969 season which was the another action/adventure series from creator-producer Ivan Tors called "Daktari" that eventually replaced "Lost In Space".

I don't know if combining Forbidden Planet with Seinfeld and Gilligan's Island is exactly on target, but there are elements of all three. I was in second grade when this show premiered, and I never missed an episode. The stories were always interesting to me, and even at age eight the character of Dr. Smith absolutely captured my imagination. There are aspects of this fellow that are so very interesting - here is a guy with a great deal of education who never seems to have learned anything from the mythology he is always reciting to everyone, as in "All That Glitters", my all-time favorite episode. He didn't remember the tragedy of King Midas when he was making his wish? His greed and his cowardice override any mental advantage he may have. He is truly the George Costanza of space exploration - whenever he stumbles upon a piece of good fortune he has to milk it for all it's worth until the whole situation turns on him. Then there are the children - Will and Penny. No matter what Dr. Smith does they still like the guy, and he does a lot. He bargains with aliens to take Will's brain for their experiments instead of his, and in another episode turns Penny into platinum, although he does feel remorse about the latter deed. In fact, the children are Smith's only friends. He is merely tolerated by the adults, and for good reason.

Finally there is the "innocence and chastity beyond reason" element that was part of Gilligan's Island and is part of this show too. Despite the only natural and healthy attraction between Major Donald West and Judy Robinson, we are to believe that nothing really happens between the two for years on end. Also like Gilligan's Island, although the group's first priority starts off as finding a way to return to earth, eventually they settle into a kind of domestic tranquility and seem to make peace with their situation of being "lost in space".

Of course, rewatching this series over forty years later, it is not quite as great as I remembered it, but it is still great fun and Smith is still a fascinating character. It's also interesting to see what people in the 1960's thought earthly civilization would be like in 1997. It's humorous yet somewhat tragic to see the optimistic viewpoint people had of the future in the 1960's pertaining to human nature. What the series' creators couldn't foresee is that today people are much more like Zachary Smith than the Robinson family - at least the people in charge of things are.

I'm glad to say that "Lost In Space" had a big influence on my childhood while growing up. Countless hours were spent "playing" Lost In Space in our basement. I barely, barely remember the first run except that the robot scared me, so I truly came in during the first syndication run. At age 42, I still enjoy all of Season One. The Magic Mirror, My Friend, Mr. Nobody, and Follow The Leader are all great examples of this show. It's unfortunate that the other two seasons went the way of Batman and became just plain silly and cartoonish. However the first season had action packed space adventure, a crash landing, jet packs, laser rifles, the chariot, scary monsters including the Cyclops and fantastic music by John Williams, (the best music ever created for TV in my opinion.) The Jupiter Two sets are still fantastic and believable today, including the fabulous creation of the Robot. The ensemble cast was excellent, and I for one wish that Smith had remained evil and menacing during the run of the show. It may not have been as intellectual as Star Trek but it was good, clean, scary fun!