The Elite First Five Episodes
The first five episodes of LIS comprised " The Reluctant Stowaway", "The Derelict", "Island In The Sky", "There Were Giants In The
Earth" and "The Hungry Sea".
Ray says: The first five episodes of LIS were the best of the series and probably the finest five hours of Sci-Fi TV you will ever experience. These five episodes contained action and adventure from start to finish.
If you string these five episodes together you would be able to make a motion picture. The Elite five consisted of the finest directing, acting, storylines ever for a television series. What a great way to start off Lost In Space which would run for three seasons.
Bill Mumy Comment
I loved the first five episodes of LIS. They were largely... our original pilot. The pilot included many parts from those episodes. Of course, they were greatly expanded to include Jonathan and the robot and much more plot, but those had the largest budget of any of our shows.
Scenes included the single exterior location of Red Rock Canyon in the Mojave desert, the real jet-pack shots, and many scenes filmed at the now destroyed back lot river and caves at 20th Century Fox. We were all very enthused to be making such a new type of show, and I for one, was absolutely thrilled with it all. Those first five episodes make up wonderful memories for me and I think they're some of the very best shows we ever made.
The full sized jupiter 2 prop, which resided on the backlot near the carpenters shops, (no longer a part of 20th, now part of Century City) was made of wood and steel. It looked great. Until you walked up the landing gear and tried to fit inside it's empty husk, with four by fours and nails everywhere... it was very cool though. but we only used it a couple times.
