Product Description

Season 1 of the 1965 sci-fi favorite.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7297 in DVD
• Brand: HARRIS,JONATHAN
• Released on: 2004-01-13
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 8
• Dimensions: 1.65 pounds
• Running time: 1421 minutes

Amazon.com
Lost in Space began life in 1965 as a science-fiction take on The Swiss Family Robinson. Produced by Irwin Allen, then in the midst of his run of spectacular-but-childish TV sci-fi (before he became the master of big-screen disaster movies), the show featured a family of all-American space colonists cast away on a mysterious planet. Gradually the whole thing devolved into a silly (but sometimes fun) exercise in childish camp. This boxed set includes all 29 black and white episodes from the first season (with a burst of color at the end of the last show--a foretaste of the garish look of the remaining two seasons) along with "No Place to Hide," the expensive pilot show that sold the series but prompted Allen to revamp the whole premise in comic mode when network execs responded best to its unintended humor.

"No Place to Hide" has action scenes that cropped up in the first six regular episodes but is missing several of the show's trademark aspects, most notably that infectious theme from Johnny Williams (later, John Williams of Star Wars fame) and the scheming presence of Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and his alternately menacing and comical robot ("It does not compute"). As the series progresses (or degenerates, depending on your taste), Harris's Smith changes from pantomime villain, a saboteur who is trying to kill the family, into pantomime idiot whose foolishness, cowardice, and avarice are an endless source of plots. It mostly makes do with the regular cast plus an array of shaggy-suited, snarling aliens, but you do get sterling ham from visiting astronauts such as Warren Oates ("Welcome Stranger"), Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet ("War of the Robots"), and a very young Kurt Russell ("The Challenge"). Stories about surviving on an alien world give way to lifts from fairy tale, myth, and old movies as Smith gets hold of a wishing cap, becomes a giant, is chosen as a sacrificial king, turns the children over to an alien zoo, squeaks in fright as a werewolf approaches, or is cursed with a platinum Midas touch. --Kim Newman

Customer Reviews

Thanks from a grateful "Will Robinson"
I just wanted to express my appreciation to everyone who has posted a review here. I'm really flattered and happy to see the first season LIS DVD box doing so well. Of course I can't be objective about it, but the first season is definitely my favorite. It was a wonderful experience for me to make the show as a kid and it's a wonderful experience now to watch it with my kids and to see that it still excites and pleases people all over our woe begotten beautiful planet. So, on behalf of my fellow LIS cast members (who are still in touch with each other regularly and are still very much a "family") Thank you all for the kind words. Enjoy!
Bill Mumy

A treat for the nostalgia buff
I'm 44 years old and was 5 years old when this series ran on TV. I can still remember the horror and fascination of space in the mid-1960s, which at the time was completely new terrain. Giant blobs, tentacled creatures, plastic ray guns, laser beams - it didn't matter what tricks the producers employed, it was all NEW STUFF as far as I was concerned. Of course, if you compare the props, effects and plots with today's sci-fi, you'd probably burst out laughing and scoff at how primitive it was back then. Then again, you don't buy this DVD set for realism, or for cutting-edge special effects or even for the acting. Neither do you buy it because it pioneered the scores of space adventures that came later, like The Invaders, Flash Gordon or Star Trek. Instead, you buy it because you want to remember how it was when you were 5 years old and you sat in your parents' living room, hunched over a black-and-white TV set, scared out of your wits, yet thrilled to bits at the harrowing adventures of the Robinsons. You buy it because maybe even at that young age, you had a crush on Penny Robinson (Angela Cartwright) and you want to try and grasp that feeling again, which at the time was also NEW STUFF to you. So this is first and foremost a trip down memory lane and it won't appeal to anyone who never watched the show as a kid. For fellow reviewers who have expressed disappointment and have said they felt let down, I ask you - what the hell did you expect?

I CAN'T WAIT !!!
Like many of the posts here, I was about 8 when I first saw 'Lost in Space' and it opened up my imagination like nothing ever had. 'Star Trek' at the time didn't interest me as much as the adventures of the Space Family Robinson, the reluctant stowaway Dr. Smith, and the faithful Robot, who any boy (or girl) would have wanted as a best friend. It remained my favorite shows for years and I taped most of the episodes in reruns and also spent quite a fortune with Columbia House buying the better quality videos they offered. Season One is by far the best of the 3 seasons, but even though the series went campy ('The Great Vegetable Rebellion' anyone?) I'm looking forward to rewatching some episodes of Seasons 2 and 3 that I never did get to tape and haven't seen for many years. I think Fox will make a nice profit off this series, so hopefully seasons 2 and 3 won't be too far along.