Bob May Movies
For most actors, scoring a memorable role means becoming a famous face, but things were trickier for Bob May, whose famous role hid him inside an unwieldy robot costume. Best known for playing The Robot on the TV series Lost in Space, May played the beloved droid while donning a large prop suit designed by Robert Kinoshita, who also created Forbidden Planet's Robby the Robot.May grew up in New York, the grandson of a vaudevillian. He got his own start in show business at just two years old, when his granddad cast him in a comedy review, and the tyke was hooked. Once he was fully grown, May edged his way into the industry by doing other actors' dirty work as a stuntman. His charm and charisma eventually began to land him more squarely in front of the camera, and he found work as an actor on TV shows like The Time Tunnel and McHale's Navy. May then snagged the role of The Robot on Lost in Space, supposedly just because he fit the constrictive suit. It was a difficult task, but May was said to have enjoyed it, staying inside even between takes to avoid the drawn out process of getting in and out, and often smoking from his cozy inner chamber, causing the 'bot to comically billow plumes of smoke from its hinges. After Lost in Space ended in 1968, May became a fixture at sci-fi conventions and fan gatherings. He lived in California with his wife Judith until his death in 2009 at the age of 69. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Play an entertaining game of spot the celebrity while laughing along at the campiest superhero adventure since Adam West punched out The Joker. A completely original comic-book-style crime fighter who's not afraid to give his enemies a shocking surprise, Surge of Power is hot on the trail of a maniacal super-villain who will stop at nothing to achieve absolute power. Of course, with a little help from veterans like Lou Ferrigno and Nichelle Nichols, fledgling superhero Surge may have his work cut out for him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Season three of Lost in Space finds the Space Family Robinson and company escaping from the planet they had been marooned on throughout season two. Their vessel, "Jupiter II," is now able to hop from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, with the addition of a hitherto unseen space pod in which the travelers are able to shuttle back and forth. Alas, they are no closer to returning to their own world than they had been in previous seasons. The closest the travelers come to Mother Earth is in the episode "A Visit to a Hostile Planet," in which the Jupiter II passes through a time warp and emerges in 1947, where it is promptly assumed to be an alien UFO! By now, the series' nominal stars -- Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson, June Lockhart as Maureen Robinson, Mark Goddard as pilot Don West -- had been all but relegated to the background by permanent "special guest star" Jonathan Harris in the role of shifty, cowardly space stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith. Most of the episodes deal with the interplay between Dr. Smith and young Will Robinson (Bill Mumy), who innocently refuses to see any bad in the old reprobate, and between Smith and the Jupiter II's talking robot, who trades one-liners and insults like an intergallactic vaudeville team. With all this going on, the two other female cast members, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright as Judy and Penny Robinson, barely get any screen time at all. As was the case in season two, the third and final season of Lost in Space boasts an impressive array of guest stars, all of whom enter into the spirit of things with ripe, Armour Star Ham performances. Worth noting this season are future Hill Street Blues stars Daniel J. Travanti as the punkish leader of an outer-space motorcyle gang in "Collision of the Planets"; and best of all, Stanley Adams as a disgruntled giant carrot in the unforgettable episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Williams, June Lockhart, (more)
- 1966
Switching from black-and-white to color for its second season, Lost in Space also abandons all pretense of being a serious space opera, opting instead for the "camp" approach popularized by the previous season's big TV hit Batman. As a result, the Space Family Robinson (Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Marta Kristen, Bill Mumy, and Angela Cartwright), their pilot Don West (Mark Goddard), duplicitous and cowardly stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), and the steadfast Robot are visited by a cornucopia of outrageous characters ranging from a clumsy magician (played by "Grandpa Munster" himself, Al Lewis) to a misplaced Don Quixote type (Hans Conried) to a scurvy space pirate (Albert Salmi) -- complete with a robot parrot on his shoulder! In keeping with the general frivolity, Dr. Smith has become a much broader and more clownish figure, utterly divesting himself of the cold-blooded villainy he briefly displayed at the beginning of season one. Having spent all of the past season on a single planet, the travelers manage to get the Jupiter II in working order, blasting off into the void again -- only to be marooned on still another uncharted world! Of the 30 episodes telecast during season two, several stand out, among them "The Golden Man," a well-intentioned if a bit heavy-handed lesson in tolerance and "appearances are deceiving"; and "A Trip Through the Robot," wherein a miniaturized Will Robinson (Bill Mumy) and Dr. Smith embark upon a "fantastic voyage" to repair the robot's damaged innards. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Williams, June Lockhart, (more)
Filmed in black-and-white, the first season of Lost in Space took itself more seriously than subsequent seasons -- at least at the outset. Set in 1997, the series began as the Robinsons, a family of space travelers preparing for a five-year exploratory voyage to the Alpha Centauri star system in the "Jupiter II." Unfortunately, an enemy spy named Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) intends to sabotage the mission and kill the family, with help of his malevolent robot. But when the Jupiter II blasts off, Dr. Smith is trapped inside the vehicle with his intended victims: Prof. John Robinson (Guy Williams); his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart); his children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Will (Bill Mumy), and Penny (Angela Cartwright), and ship's pilot Don West (Mark Goddard). Thanks to Smith's dirty work, the ship veers way off course to an unchartered planet where the Robinsons et. al. will spend the remainder of the season. It had been intended to kill off both Dr. Smith and the evil robot after the first five-episode story arc; instead, the robot "reforms" and becomes an unending fount of valuable information for the space castaways, periodically bursting forth with cries of "Warning! Warning!" and "Danger! Danger!" and dealing with matters beyond his ken by muttering metallically, "That does not compute." As for Smith, he evolves from snarling villain to cowardly buffoon, whom the others inexplicably tolerate, even though Smith's perfidy and duplicity causes nothing but trouble for them. The notion to "serialize" the episodes is dropped early on in favor of self-contained stories, though each episode ends with a cliff-hanging preview of the following week's installment. Unlike the next two seasons of Lost in Space, guest stars are kept at a minimum during season one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Williams, June Lockhart, (more)
