New in Teevee Land

Cake is focused on his shows.

With the writer’s strike Jen, Oni and I have been rewatching old shows and hunting for ones of which we’d been unaware.

First off—Lost in Space—the original 1960s series.

Not new but I hadn’t seen an ep since it was on teevee, in B&W, in the mid-60s. Oh hell, everything was in B&W then. I don’t think my folks bought a color set before 1980. Jen and Oni, who are much younger than yurs truly, may’ve seen a couple eps when it was in reruns during after school hours. Essentially, this is kinda/sorta brand-y new for us all.

The show was set in the imagined future of 1997 when Earth had become hopelessly overpopulated and environmentally fucked (prophetic, no?). The Robinson family were supposed to be on a mission to find a new, habitable, planet for humanity.

The evil Doctor Zachary Smith, working at the behest of some unnamed despicable country (probably the USSR given the Cold War years when this was filmed), was responsible for them being lost. His original plan had been to place a bomb on board and sabotage the robot but Smith failed to execute a timely exit. The saboteur/spy was not going down with the ship and canceled the bomb’s detonation but they were already off course.

So then, Smith was a chicken hearted Russian asset and incompetent. I guess Republicans haven’t changed much in the, nearly, 60 years since the show first aired. Eh?

The Robinson’s son seems very much in the Timmy and Lassie mold (as the show progresses, I believe the robot fills the faithful canine companion role). Will’s a bright kid who mostly sees through the Doctor’s lies and skinny veneer of respectability. Mind you, as a kid (I was seven when the show first aired) I too could see that Smith was a vile, slimy, not-to-be-trusted villain. Dude was painted with some serious broad strokes.

Dunno 'bout you but this was my exact sartorial statement in 1997

Daughter and middle child Penny is adorable but, in this first installment, doesn’t get to be any more than that. Of course...middle child.

I'd forgotten about the Nordicly stunning eldest Robinson daughter, Judy, and Major West. It was totally cringe seeing him check out her rack every chance he got. While the Major was young, he still had to be in his late 20s at the very least (to be a major AND piloting a space mission). She couldn’t have been more than 18. That 10+ year age difference puts a skeevy cast on his attention to her. I mean, just for starters, her parents are right there!

I only mention it but Judy seems destined to be vacuously ornamental. Something to draw in a teen boy audience.

Side, local, note on Mark Goddard, the actor who played Major Don West—he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts (also the birthplace of Bette Davis and Jack Kerouac) and, post-Hollywood, worked as a special education teacher at a school near Plymouth. Goddard died this past Tuesday at his home in Hingham, just two towns south of us.

Huh, waddya know.

In any case, the show was much better than I remembered. Even with the primitive special effects, it was definitely not as hokey as noted in my memory banks. So far anyway.

The other show we’re checking out is Resident Alien. Jen mentioned that it has a quirky Northern Exposure (but with aliens) vibe. Cool, cool.