Updated: November 11, 2023

For years Irwin Allen was given credit for the creation of the CBS television series Lost in Space. Not so, says author Ed Shifres in this oversized trade paperback. The author has carefully explored the background of Lost in Space and found its true origins in a series developed by Ib Melchior, famous Hollywood author, screenwriter, director and producer. Melchior had been developing a series titled Space Family Robinson. Amazingly, the concept developed by Irwin Allen for the pilot of Lost in Space was a virtual duplicate of Melchior's own storyline - to the point that much of the actual dialogue matched from one script to another. A coincidence? Hardly!

Shifres has really done his homework and goes into great detail describing how the Melchior project fell through when Irwin Allen announced his own Space Family Robinson TV series that later became Lost in Space and bore far more than a passing resemblance to the storyline, concepts and ideas proposed by Melchior for his series. This book forever destroys the myth that Allen created Lost in Space. This large, hard-to-find book is illustrated throughout and presents many documents proving Melchior's claim.

Value: $30.