Updated: December 25, 2024

Lost in Space was the first prime time weekly television series to take viewers into outer space’s strange new alien worlds â€" something the networks believed impossible on a TV budget and schedule. As Allen ventured from a humble beginning in the Bronx to his later incarnations in Hollywood as an entertainment journalist, radio and television host, and a literary agent â€" all before becoming a successful motion picture producer and director. After winning an Academy Award in 1954, Allen entered the fantasy genre with films such as The Lost World and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He then rolled the dice again with a move into television, creating and producing Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea for the fall of 1964 and, one year later, Lost in Space. But it has a tough new rival in space â€" NBC-TV's Star Trek. On Wednesday nights opposite Space, the red-hot Batman provides formidable competition in the ratings game. Paradoxically, CBS seems intent on sabotaging Allen, pressuring him to make the series more cheaply and change it from science fiction, action / adventure to camp / fantasy. Remarkably, the most dangerous monsters of Lost in Space lurked behind the scenes … and wore business suits. The story of the making of the classic Lost in Space is rich with conflict, drama and surprises.