Third Season Episodes - the great vegetable rebellion (episode 82)

As the Jupiter-2 orbits an uninhabited planet, the Robinsons prepare to celebrate the Robot's birthday.

Without a gift for the Robot, Dr. Smith uses the Pod to land on the planet to gather him a bouquet. Only then does the planet reveal it's secret - the plants are sentient, and ruled by a giant carrot named Tybo. For murdering plants, Tybo sentences Dr. Smith to be turned into a vegetable himself! Can the Robinsons rescue Smith in time? Or will they too suffer the unspeakable fate of eternal vegetation?

Carnival In Space was re-written into " The Great Vegetable Rebellion. 

Jonathan Harris Comment

Peter Packer, one of our best writers on Lost in Space, came to my dressing room one day hiding something behind him. It was a script, in which he loathed to show or give me. I remember he said "This is pure crap, but I don't have another idea in my head. 

I was appalled after I read it. Talking carrots, celery (me), and various and assorted other horrors. But, we did it. Poor dear Peter, so talented. I got him a job on "Space Academy", as a story editor when I shot that series and we remained friends until he passed away. 

The whole "Vegetable" fiasco remains in my memory as one horror after another. If memory serves, we had a llama in the cast who tried to bite me, and with whom I refused to act. TV series eat material, and it is difficult to get an Emmy winner each week. All things considered, LIS did extremely well most of the times. A llama and a carrot not withstanding.

June Lockhart Comment

"The script for the next show arrived... I could not believe what my eyeballs saw. The title was "The Great Vegetable Rebellion." 

We began shooting.

I remember a scene in which Guy Williams and I, Mark Goddard and Angela Cartwright were supposedly going single file through a jungle-like area, overgrown with plants. Guy had a machete (doesn't every astronaut launch skyward with a machete?) and he hacked away at the thick greenery to clear a path. These were very sensitive plants, so each time he cut a branch or stalk, the script supervisor read the plant's dialogue-which would later be dubbed in. So "Hack! Cut! Hack!" "Ooh! Ow! Ouch!" Repeated many times. "These plants have feelings!" replied the script supervisor when Guy said, "What is THAT about!!?? What are you doing?"

With the first "Ooh! Ow! Ouch!," we started giggling in our single file with heads down, trying to stifle and hide our laughs as we shuffled on!

The "jungle" was made up of very valuable plants from the Nursery Department on the Fox back lot. The man who placed them on the set is called the greensman. It was his duty to guard, protect and make sure the plants weren't harmed in any way. So, when he realized Guy was cutting through the valuable plants, he charged across the stage at us and onto the set with both arms raised, yelling, "Don't hack my plants!!"

So picture this: We have our hero, machete in hand, leading three actors, single file, through clusters of greenery, accompanied by a male voice groaning, "Ooh-ow-ouch!" and a 20th Century Fox employee having a fit over the crop cutting. As we proceed, hoping smiles won't show, from the rafters high above, an enormous filthy, heavy hemp cargo net is dropped on us. This huge thing was the size of nets used by the Marines to board destroyers at sea!! 

We stood under it, unable to escape, still lined up single file, each of us with our chins buried on our chests -- simply bouncing with laughter. Bear in mind we were immobilized!! The thing weighed so much that we had to stand there under it, until a whole group of prop men gathered around and heaved it off of us. 

We were then cleaned up, and the makeup men wiped the tears of laughter, mixed with dirt, off our cheeks.

And guess what? We got to do it again!!

I thought it a remarkable example of good humored professional sportsmanship and that not one of us said, "That's it! I'm not doing that anymore!"

And in the next sequence, onto the set toddles Jonathan Harris, splendid character actor that he is, wearing a head to toe celery stalk. And with him, Stanley Adams, a most respected performer, wearing a huge (much taller than he) big fat carrot, with his round face covered in orange makeup, peering out of the center! I felt great sympathy for their discomfort as the prop costumes completely restricted them. They look resigned. They looked "put upon."

But wait! There's more!!

We next start shooting the greenhouse scene. We four are being held captive by a "force field." Angela is lying on the floor of the greenhouse, her body having already taken "root." She is covered in vines, and I watch as she attempts to suppress her laughter. As Maureen, I try to comfort her in her leafy predicament. All of us are covered in "sweat", acting "hot" in the "humidity" of the greenhouse. In the scene, Guy and Mark decide to go to the basement to turn off the heating valves and cool the greenhouse. 

On the floor is a big trap door. It is perhaps 3 feet by 3 feet, which when lifted will presumably reveal to us actors only, a stairway down. The script calls for the two leading men to lift the door, which I will hold up until they have both climbed down, and I then lower the trap door to the floor. The camera is placed downstage so that all that is seen by the viewer is the full front side of the door as it is lifted from the floor to screen the actors descent. Why? Because the truth is that the door is lying flat on the sound stage floor -- there are no steps, there is no cellar.

Therefore, to indicate going down a stairway, Guy and Mark each have to bend their legs a little at a time, and pretend to be walking down a flight of stairs behind the door.

In reality our two heroes, after waving goodbye for the descent, have to crawl off stage on their hands and knees and finally off the set on all fours out of camera range. They did not look heroic.

I must remain holding the door looking at the floor pretending to see straight down the non-existent flight of steps into the cellar, while out of the corner of my eye I can see Mark and Guy off stage on the floor, rolling around in hysterics!! I lower the door looking worried. Eventually I lift the door and they return, reversing the bent leg business, having fixed the humidity valve.

In no time we are covered in lumps of artificial snow dumped from above. We "act" cold. By now we have all "lost it!"

You know, giggling during a performance is absolutely one of the most unprofessional things a performer can do. It's worse than laughing in church.

Even writing this I laughed out loud as the memories return. But I must say that I am not sorry that I participated in the anarchy of laughter in this most ridiculous episode from "Lost in Space."

Of course, during the shooting none of us knew how upset management would be about that anarchy. We soon found out.

Irwin Allen disciplined Guy and me by writing us out of the next two episodes at full salary. What a hoot!! That capped the jollies of the episode as far as Guy and I were concerned. Irwin Allen had tender feelings about his TV series. 

Mark Goddard who "misbehaved" through it all with us, and has a wicked sense of humor, said that the only reason he wasn't written out is that they needed someone to drive the chariot in the subsequent episodes! Catch Mark in scenes as he turns away from camera, with his lips quivering and his eyes tearing up as he strives for control. It's delicious!!

The writer, Peter Packer, has said he simply couldn't think of another thing to write when he did "The Great Vegetable Rebellion." And Don Richardson, the director of many of our episodes, said it was the worst one we ever did!

And ever since, among cast and fans, and especially the press, it has been a subject of hilarity. Everyone knows it as a peak experience of preposterous television plotting.

A thought strikes me. Do you think Irwin Allen would now feel he had to discipline the worldwide audience because it laughs through the episode?

I recently saw it again. "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" was there on my TV set. And you know what? Still, yes still, I could not believe my eyeballs."

Filming