Without Dr. Smith, you’d not have had much of a show. I preferred the pilot episode (which was superior in black & white, as it felt like a Twilight Zone episode), where Smith was outright evil who tried to murder the Robinsons & Major West. Had they kept that dark edge throughout, it would’ve been top-notch sci-fi. Sadly, they decided to make it appeal more to the kiddies and made it more comical.
Good point. Without the forced, puerile humor, it might have made a show.
The actual two hour black and white pilot did not include Smith or the robot.
The pilot was edited to include the Dr Smith spy Saboteur plot and resulted in the first four episodes, the best ones in my opinion. I agree with your assessment, it was greatly improved,
There was no Smith Robot comedy team skits in those first few episodes, Smith controlled the robot and ordered him to kill the Robinson family one by one when caught alone to leave Don to fly him back to earth. Recall the one eyed giants and the planet freezing then heating in short cycles.
I have seen the pilot a few times and the opening episodes many more. I saw the opening episodes as a child its first run in the 1960s and every show scared the heck out of us little kids,
It plays on MeTV Saturdays midnight's.
Eventually Smith character evolved into a lazy selfish Gilligan.
Interesting... I don’t think I’ve ever seen the pilot show.
I remember in the movie he was a bad dude.