A generation lost in space?
Is this a time warp or what? It is 2008 and I am watching re-runs of Lost in Space, one of my favorite prime time TV shows in 1965. It is *set* in 1997 and I’m watching it on my MacBook. There they are on my little screen, the Robinson parents, Will with the nefarious Dr. Smith and the robot, and a close-up of Dr. Smith’s villainous visage. Click the pics to enlarge. I made my own blasted gallery this time.
I kind of vaguely remember watching the prime time series but a few years later, when I was a high school sophomore, the re-runs that played every afternoon on Detroit station WKBD became the background noise for doing my geometry proofs. WKBD, which, according to the Wikipedia article on WKBD, “was carried on cable systems throughout Michigan, even deep into the Upper Peninsula”. Yes. Indeed. Deep into. The snow and all that. It’s true. And I might add that before cable TV came to the Great White North, we had two channels, CBC and CBS. Cartoons and other kid programs were few and far between so you can bet we did *not* grow up glued to the tube.
I don’t know how geometry is taught nowadays but we had the old-fashioned kind, where you had to do formal proofs at the blackboard in front of the whole class. Mr. Smith was our strict, old-fashioned teacher. I was terrified to get up in front of the class and I was pretty scared of Mr. Smith too, although he is not to be confused with the aforementioned Dr. Smith. And, after nine years of being mostly bored in math class, I found that I had to work at those proofs a bit. Did I want to be prepared for that class? You betcha! Although I do remember spending a lot of time doing whatever I could to *not* attract enough attention to get called on. Anyway, there I sat, at a big round folding card table with my book and papers spread out and Lost in Space re-runs on the boob tube. I can even remember my favorite snack: potato chips and an orange.
Oh yeah. Nowadays you can buy your own robot B9 replica.
December 28th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Nice pic’s. Glad we’re back to the old gallery system. Lost in Space was one of my all time, period favorites. I wonder how the show ended. I’m sure I watched it. It was nice that they seldom needed a universal translator.
December 28th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
…didn’t the “Lost in Space” series end with the family finding their way back to Earth? Somehow, that seems the logical conclusion, but the actual memory escapes…
December 28th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I *do* remember being bummed that Will (the youngest member) was inevitably the smartest, while Penny (the middle child) was inevitably the cute-but-vacuous-and-always-stumbling-into-disaster female (did she *ever* get to be the hero?). The eldest child and the parents were like ornaments – there for effect, but rarely more than the “chorus”. Then there were Robot and the ulterior-motived Dr. Smith.
Yeah, I was hooked on this show, too 😉
December 28th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I was devoted to that show and thought that the men (except evil Dr. Smith of the pursed lips) were HOT! I had to learn and do proofs too in geometry, but I never got it. I memorized them all, but then couldn’t figure out which ones to use to solve a problem Bah. I loved algebra though; I guess I’m just not spatial.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I remember Channel 50, but only because we could not get it on our TV, which only went up to 13, no UHF.
My friends had color TVs with the higher channels. We did not get a color TV until after Grandma passed, and we got her hand-me-down. But on the other hand, I still have a B&W TV that I bought in 1978, and it works. Only hope that I am able to connect one of those digital converter things to it successfully.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Oh, lord, I totally on-purpose skipped geometry. I just knew it would sink me (absolutely NO spatial ability). Math, period. (DANGER! DANGER! DANGER, Will Robinson!)
December 30th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Lost in Space is available on hulu.com
January 1st, 2009 at 1:14 pm
The Dr. Smith who I live with (who you know by another, less formal name) did NOT grow up with this show…which makes all my catchphrases from Lost In Space (“ooh, the pain!”) fall flat.