The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie S2 Ep. 1 Lost in Space

• Directed by James L. Conway
• Written by Irwin Allen and Fred Freiberger
• Based on Lost in Space created by Irwin Allen
• September 8, 1973
• ABC

Voice Cast

• Dr. Zachary Smith-Jonathan Harris
• Deanna Carmichael-Sherry Alberoni
• Craig Robinson, Tyrano Guard-Michael Bell
• Tyrano Twin Two-Ralph James
• The Robot, Brack, Narrator-Don Messick
• Lar, Tyrano Twin One-Sidney Miller
• Linc Robinson-Vincent Van Patten

The Jupiter 2, a space shuttle on its way from Earth to Saturn, is caught in a meteor storm and sends them through a space warp causing those onboard to be lost in space.

Facebook has been providing me with some real doozies lately. I have discovered interesting curiosities that I never knew existed and were so obscure that knowing of them was nearly impossible. Such as this version of Lost in Space. Some executive thought this might be a good idea though it never made it beyond this.

Not that it should be a surprise such a thing existed. While R rated films getting Saturday morning cartoons is a well-known trend from the 80s, cancelled shows (and some still running) were a much longer trend starting in the 70s before coming to an end sometime in the early 80s. Even Laverne & Shirley got the Saturday morning treatment!

Why this never made it beyond this ‘film’ I do not know. It fits in nicely with any number of action-oriented shows of the era. It is also similar enough to the original to be recognizable but different enough that it is not trapped by elements of the original that it could not translate to a weekly half hour series. There is even the implication that it might be marginally serialized like Return to the Planet of the Apes. That was a rarity then.

This is pretty much what you would get from a Saturday morning action adventure show of the time. Cheap animation, a plot that relied on some type of relatively grounded science, and two-dimensional characters with little depth beyond the moment. Yet with imaginative visuals and an aim to entertain it gets you hooked.

The only character to make a return from the show is Dr. Smith voiced by original Smith actor Jonathan Harris. No other series actors return nor do their characters. This is largely a revamp of the Lost in Space concept. We have two characters retaining the Robinson name and a robot named Robon (ugh!) designed to look very similar to Robot but that is as close as we get to the original.

Smith is relatively unchanged from the series. He is still greedy and self-centered though here is not a stowaway of nefarious intent nor is he the cause of the problem of the Jupiter 2 being lost in space. Not sure his discipline but he can be seen reading a book on botany. Then again did they ever state Smith’s previous discipline?

Gone is the iconic UFO type styling of the Jupiter 2 with it being replaced by a more conventional rocket type ship that looks as if it could’ve inspired the Rising Star from the later ORIGINAL Battlestar Galactica. Based on the animation of the era a more common design may have been easier to animate in a fashion that did not look really cheap when the animation really was.

It does show imagination in the design of the Throg aliens who are basically anthropomorphic frogs, but they make it work. That may sound contradictory but they are pleasing and cute and kinda cool. The alien robots I guess they’re meant to look like something straight from the cover of a 50s or 60s science-fiction novel.

There really isn’t too much story here. The whole goal is for the characters to get their ship back and there are various points where they try to navigate the alien menace which isn’t too menacing. There is ultimately a lesson to the whole story because was children’s television then. That lesson is heavy on environmentalism as well as the perils of bigotry since the villains are not really villains. By the end of it all everybody is friends and they’re all working together to build a better tomorrow. And that’s pretty much it.

Lost in Space by itself is a fun little adventure. I will say it’s only worth seeking out if you like the cartoons from that era. Otherwise it’s a bit iffy.