Les Robinson suisses

During the height of the early 1970's,producer Irwin Allen scored two brilliant disaster epics like "The Poseidon Adventure"(1972),and "The Towering Inferno"(1974) which were huge runaway hits at the box office and Oscar winners. Since Allen was known for his TV shows of the 1960's he decided to come back to that terrain for the last time around. This show features a modern day family that is stranded on a island with nothing but their wits to stay alive. This show was on the same level as his other family adventure series "Lost In Space",but in this one the family faces off with deadly animals,mysterious cannibals,and dangerous pirates all in a modern day setting and this is not out in the far reaches of outer space,but in the far reaches of an deserted but deadly paradise. I had a chance to see this lost series on a sci-fi channel one evening,and it was highly enjoyable in some parts,but incredibly pathetic in others since when it was on the air,it only lasted one season(from September of 1975 to January of 1976). Look for a very young Helen Hunt(TV's Mad About You)as the Robinson's teenage daughter. Since Martin Milner(Officer Malloy from "Adam-12")was the star of the show,I wonder what he is doing now?

NOTE: This show was on Sunday evenings(where Allen once had his "Voyage" and "Land of the Giants" series on the same time slot at 7:00)on ABC,and in a blink of an eye,it was yanked right off the air by the competition "60 Minutes" in that cold winter of 76.

A family is ship wrecked on an island.

Each episode began with, "IRWIN ALLEN'S PRODUCTION OF ... THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON". How many producers get the name before the title? And those titles and the series music cues were done by wonderful Richard LaSalle. LaSalle had worked on Irwin TV in the 1960s and it was these 1960s connections that made this series great....sometimes.

The series was great when some interesting pirates or Alfred Ryder dropped in on the island (this happened in about half the 20 episodes) but often just okay when it was just the family. There are exceptions to the rule such as the family focused episodes The Typhoon and The Treasure. The Treasure is classic Irwin Allen complete with an exploding volcano (again) and constantly shaking island.

William Welch returns from the bottom of the sea via the time tunnel to become series the story editor.

I think Irwin was playing a joke on viewers in the last episode The Devils. All 1960s Irwin TV shows began in a mildly realistic way and then went over the top with crazy story lines. Irwin seemed to be suggesting this with Swiss Family Robinson as well. In The Devils, something is seen moving through the dark, it appears to be a huge bat. Karl (the father) finds the garden destroyed and the livestock missing? Later, strange lights are seen in the sky. The Devil MAY have arrived on the island?

The series was enjoyed in my 1970s childhood so perhaps today I am looking at it through nostalgic eyes? I say this because many Irwin Allen fans of today just don't like The Swiss Family Robinson. I would say you need to have a love of Richard LaSalle music cues to really enjoy the series. His music in this series is so loud and ever present, the show would never have been the same without it.

Great cast and beautiful location, but filled with annoying glitches that make it difficult to really get into it. There are way too many extreme close-up shots...poor direction. Could use a Technical Director to ensure situations are believable...a pirate ship cruising along pulling a dinghy, with only a foresail up (and it's luffing) would be dead in the water. A flintlock pistol with an open frizzen is of no use and will not fire. Things like this needed more attention.

I really wish I could catch this show since it's not available on any streaming platforms or on DVD. I'm a huge fan of Irwin Allen's works like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. I also enjoyed the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie. I was browsing through Irwin Allen's biography on Wikipedia-something I had read a while back-and I discovered that he produced this series. I was shocked that I hadn't come across it before, especially being a classic TV enthusiast. Fingers crossed that one day this series will be available on a streaming service like Prime Video.

"Swiss Family Robinson" was a strange turn for Irwin Allen since he was known for his futuristic action-adventure series of the '60s. Allen's "Swiss Family Robinson" had a setting of not the future or present, but in the traditional setting of the book by Johnathan Wyss -- an unknown island in the early 19th Century.

The reason that Irwin Allen's name is in front of the titles is because the "Swiss Family Robinson" had been done before (the famous Disney film being the obvious one). And I believe there had been either an Austrialian, or Canadian-made "Swiss Family Robinson" series -- ironically, one of these series was even in production at the time Allen was making his series! So, by throwing his name up before the titles let audiences know this was not any run-of-the-mill production, but the "Irwin Allen version".

Additionally, this was the first time Allen did not 'create' the concept of a TV series. Despite his seasoned technical crew, the series was a disappointment, since it was made on the heels of his spectacular "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" movies. The SFR was lackluster and most of the story lines were predictable and lacked suspense. The effect of the volcano erupting was clearly a miniature (and not a very convincing one at that).

The series' only saving grace was a two-part episode that served as a potential spin-off series called "Jean Lafitte". Starring young, newcomer Frank Langella in the title role, the two-part show was an exciting and fun romp with Lafitte involved in the war of 1812. (Actually, this proposed spin off might have made a much more interesting and action-filled series than it's parent program).

Out of the series cast, the one who made the show enjoyable was Cameraon Mitchell, as Jeremiah Worth. This character was not in the book and was clearly created by Allen as a Smith/Fitzhugh type of curmudgeonly, sea-dog of a character. Mitchell was superb in his role as the weaselly Jeremiah -- a wayward sailor who was always looking to increase his wealth and save his own hide first (like Smith), but when push came to shove was there to assist the Robinson's when they were in a jam (ala Fitzhugh).

Allen's LAST series, "Code Red" (1981), although set in present day Los Angeles, was at least exciting and had decent writers that kept the audience interested in the characters and the action going on around them. Sadly, I could never get excited about "Swiss Family Robinson". For whatever reason, either because of casting or the pedestrian story lines it never really appealed to me.

After the failure of "Swiss Family Robinson," Irwin Allen packed up and moved to Warner Bros. studios where his first project, "Flood" utilized three cast members from SFR: Martin Milner, Cameron Mitchell and Eric Olsen.