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The Reluctant Stowaway - June Lockhart Memories
"You want to do another series?"
It was Irwin Allen asking me the question after having seen the first day's rushes of my guest appearance on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," entitled "Ghost of Moby Dick."
The script he gave me to read was for "Space Family Robinson," as it was then called. It was high adventure, very provocative science fiction. NASA was launching astronauts into space - Space was hot - and this series would be completely different to the "Lassie" show I'd just finished doing the previous six years. I was delighted to say yes - and was the first actor cast in the show.
Preparation for the pilot was a joy. I had met Paul Zastupnevich, our costume designer, on "Voyage" of course. He was Irwin's right hand man. Paul was largely responsible for the overall look of the show - the color, the silver look, all the costume designs, the wardrobe of villains and the heroes, the aliens and monsters. He was one of Irwin's greatest assets and was never lauded as he should have been.
Our stunning space suits were asbestos suits that race car drivers wear. Mine was cut down to fit so tightly that I could not bend my legs - or sit in the suit. I reclined on a cot when I needed to get off my feet.
And we went into production.
A few of the recollections that follow have appeared in the book "Lost in Space Forever" by Eisner and Magen, for which I wrote the foreword. I have enlarged upon them.
I remember during the pilot, Billy was only just beginning to learn how to play the guitar. He could only play one number. It was "Green Sleeves," the theme song from Lassie. I thought: Oh my God, it's followed me here!
Irwin directed the pilot and we were doing an earthquake scene in a cave and we were supposed to be rocking and bouncing left to right all the time, with dust and earth falling on us, Irwin went up to the catwalk with a big metal wastepaper basket and a hammer and every time we wanted us to be jolted, he would bang his hammer on the top of the can. Finally, I made some comment about it to one of the men in the crew, and he turned to me and said, "This is nothing . . . he used to use a shotgun!" I also remember that in this scene we were all in there acting our hearts out and finally Irwin yelled "cut" when the scene was over. Not one word was said about our acting. He got up and shouted. "THE DEBRIS WAS BEAUTIFUL!"
We had a scene in the chariot where we ware supposed to be in a whirlpool. We were all just sitting in the chariot and several huge, 50-gallon drums of water were dumped on us. It was like being in a big bathtub with the water rising up around us. We shot it several times - so, by the time the scene was over, we were all absolutely drenched! So, I jokingly leaned over the front of the chariot and called to Irwin, "Who do I have to make love with, to get off this show?"
In the pilot, the writers were developing a father-mother-husband-wife relationship for the Robinson parents. Then the edict came down from CBS that Guy Williams was not to touch me in any way . . . not even to take my hand to help me down out of the spaceship. Someone at CBS thought that any demonstrative affection between the parents would embarrass the children watching at home. When our CBS representative came down to the set, I told him this and he said, "That's ridiculous… I will go and check that." Well, he came back and said, "I can't believe it, but you're right. They don't want the parents showing any affection." So, we had to show it with longing looks.
It happened that the pilot had too many climes in it. We crash landed, we were caught in a whirlpool and frozen, then we saw a one-eyed giant, and more. The plight of the family lost credibility. So, these sequences were cut up and became climaxes of the first five episodes. We had to shoot new scenes leading up to these climaxes which we had already shot. At that time, the pilot was never broadcast as one complete episode, but all of the footage eventually aired.
Shooting the pilot was a treat for the child in me: It was like being in kindergarten and going out in the back yard playing "Space" in the sand. We actors enjoyed each other and looked forward to working together for the next few years.
The next FEW years?
It's been almost 40 years since I said "yes" to Irwin Allen and did the pilot - and happily there is no end in sight, as we continue working together on various projects.
What a hoot!
