Here's the last episode from season 2 (it aired two days before I went into the Army) where there 's a battle of aliens over a magic gift belt. The alien Saticons say they will return Dr. Smith to Earth if he can get his hands on the belt from the alien Arcon, played by the man himself, John Carradine.
In his very next role, John would play Dr. Himmil in the freaking god-awful, HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. It's like they saved the man for the season finale.
Anyway, Dr. Smith, Penny and the Robot are acting out a skit, the doctor is a Snidely Whiplash type (what else!), Penny is the poor little girl and the Robot looks like some kind of old fashioned robot whore!! When the door is opened, old Punkin' Head is standing there (seriously folks, what the Hell's goin' on here!).
I mean, look, WTF!!! Shame on you Irwin Allen! Is this the best your prop department could come up with?.. Dude, your guys are smoking weed and/or dropping acid, wake up, man!
The being's name is Arcon, he's a shape-shifter. He had trouble breathing as a Punkin' Head (DUH!!), so he transforms into a frog... I love it when you can hear the actor speaking and the hard plastic head's lips don't move!!
So, Penny suggests that he take on a human-like appearance...
Then
these Bozos (nice dressers though) show up, they are the Saticons. They give the girls, I guess, some weird tooth discomfort with a staff one has. And, they make it cold!
John looks pretty funny here. He confides in Penny and tells her about the gift belt, she pledges to protect it with her
life!! Just think, what if this story went south!!
The nosy doctor goes to talk with the Saticons, to see what they're up to. They tell him they're looking for Arcon, and they'll send him back to Earth with their portal machine, if he can get the belt for them! Jeez, wonder what the doctor (yeah right, doctor!) will choose to do...
Of course the Saticons are playing Smith far a fool, the portal only goes to one place, a simulated Earth city to doom the doctor and retrieve the belt,,,
The doctor sends their little ape Debbie to 'Earth' and brings her back, to make sure everything is working a-okay. The ape brings back a Dodgers pennant and a hot dog, proof she went to Earth! The Robot tells them that the items are fake, but Smith doesn't want to hear it.
John is thinking to himself... This is bullshit!.. We've been waiting for the film crew now for over three hours, it's like they're telling us to get lost, real funny... Crap, I wonder if we'll even get
paid!..
Don is thinking... Hey, I never noticed
this gadget before!!.. Wow, that is
sooo cooool...
The doctor, Penny and the Robot transport to the simulation, and hey, there are NO people! But, the Robot does find that fly thing there behind door number three...
Arcon is forced to get involved, but how can he solve this problem?
Well, he changes into a Saticon and manages to save the day. He blames Dr. Smith for everything! He's ready to banish him but the family votes to let him stay!..
WHY!!!!!
One last observation, that's the face-hugger mask from the original, THE FLY, from 1958, that they used in this episode!
Since this was the last story of the season, they just show some clips from season 3.
We see the Robot floating off into space, the Jupiter 2 craft near an alien spaceship, and last but not least, Robby the Robot in a humiliating role. What used to be a simple blaster is now a high tech smoke machine! Curse you Irwin Allen!!!..
This was our last post of the month, tune in tomorrow for our first post of a new month. Thanks for checking in, here, at The Dungeon!!
8 comments:
For nostalgic reasons I'm particularly fond of the episodes that centre around Penny, especially this one since it also featured John Carradine.
By the way, I for one would love to hear more about your army experiences. I know the two of you posted a bit about it before... I seem to remember that one of you was in Alaska and the other was in Germany? It must have been hard being away from where the best music in the world was happening.
Lastly, your comments regarding John and Don cracked me up.
Regards from Sydney, Australia and enjoy the Superbowl guys!
Paul
Hey Paul, You know one of the biggest regrets of my life was never going to places like the Whiskey A-Go-Go in 1967. Man, would I have liked to have seen The Doors, or LOVE, or The Seeds. Surprisingly enough, cool musicians come to cool places, and while I was in Alaska, on separate nights I saw Charles Lloyd, Lydia Pense & Cold Blood, and Eric Burden & War. And what were the odds that Jimi Hendrix was playing when I came home on leave, and it wasn't even that difficult to get tickets back then. I got no complaints, and I walked on a glacier. You can't do that in Sunny California.
Wow, I had no idea that bands would have toured there in the latter half of the sixties. I guess my view of Alaska was influenced by X-Files episodes of it being such a desolate place.
Speaking of The Seeds, did you ever see the clip on YouTube of them performing "Pushin' Too Hard" on an episode of "The Mothers-in-Law"? In that clip we get to see Eve Arden, Deborah Walley and even "Harcourt Fenton Mudd" (Roger C. Carmel)... all faves of mine and I suspect some are also Dungeon faves. The jokes are pretty lame though.
cheers!
No, I have never seen that. Thanks for the tip. Charles Lloyd played in like a high school gym, Cold Blood was a small funky club out in the boondocks, and the EB and War concert was in the ballroom of a hotel. We sat on the floor, and when I was leaving, I noticed there were all kinds of cigarette holes burned in the rug, so they probably didn't do that again.
Great memories guys... you've made me so damn jealous. I think I'm a few years younger than you (born in 1957) and on the wrong side of the world so I would never have had a chance to see any of the bands from the sixties I love apart from the odd appearance on TV shows like "Laugh In" etc. Be sure to check out The Seeds performing "Pushin' Too Hard" on "The Mothers In Law" sitcom on YouTube that I previously mentioned (they are introduced as The Warts).
Alas, I had to wait until the early seventies by which time music had moved on again. My favourite years for music still remain 1963-1976... lots of great music, bands and genres in those years.
Yeah, I wanna get in on this a little, and Eegah can probably correct me about anything involving him. I think we both saw The Jefferson Airplane and The Animals in Bakersfield in 1967 - The Airplane concert was cut short after Grace told the audience that they had the right to stand up and dance to the music, so we did. The police stepped in and shut the place down when their threats to sit back down didn't work. Ahh, the good old days! The Animals were awesome, I think their lead off band was The East Side Kids, a freaking punk band in 1967, the singer passed out on stage!!
When I was stationed at Fort Lewis in 1968, me and my buddies would go to Eagle's Auditorium in Seattle (whatever you had, you could take inside!) and saw some great bands. I can't remember a lot, but, I did see Charles Lloyd which was off the charts. Now, I think Eegah (on leave once and one 3-day pass at Fort Lewis) and I saw Silver Apples from England, the change in climate messed with their electronic equipment and they couldn't get tuned!
And we saw Deep Purple at Eagle's, one of the best concerts ever, Ritchie Blackmore kicked royal ass that night! Then with other friends, I saw CTA (Chicago Transit Authority, became Chicago) and The Mothers Of Invention together in Seattle!
But my favorite concert was seeing Jimi Hendrix at the Seattle Coliseum on a rotating stage, I really remember "Spanish Castle Magic." Here's the best part, lights were low, Jimi, Noel and Mitch are slowly rotating around on the stage, playing. People kept rushing the stage so at one point they stopped the show, the lights came on and they cut the sound... Jimi, with his eyes closed, was so into what he was doing, he didn't even notice and kept playing his guitar and singing until Mitch got through to him to stop! What a moment. They got to finish the set...
Hey Paul, that was a killer clip of The Seeds, thanks so much for that. I need to watch that about once a week! I still remember when I bought that first Seeds LP. It was in State Market, where there was a little display that held about 20 records by the checkout. I bought "The Who Sing My Generation" at the same time. I must have been 16. I think I still have them both.
Irwin Allen gets a bum rap, but he was churning out 4 TV shows a week, for a viewership of mostly kids and teenagers, sometimes even their parents! Most of the actors who worked on his movies and shows have come out in recent years and said "He was alright!" and other positive remarks. Many of the episodes of Lost in Space (like this one) were silly, but the network wanted more kiddie stories and more goofy monsters, since that's when their ratings peaked.
Still, the black and white first season of Lost in Space was often quite serious and family-oriented, like a lot of the adventure tv shows of that time. And after reading the stories and scripts and seeing some failed pilots of a few of the tv shows and movies of his that didn't get the network or sponsors "green light" were quite good concepts, even some serious dramas. And he was a heck of a nice fellow to me, when I met him back in 1980.
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