Lost in Space started out as a pretty serious science fiction show, but over time it became sillier and more over-the-top.

For kids of the ’60s, it was a thrilling weekly ride and for adults revisiting it later, it became a time capsule of an era when television dared to mix earnest family drama with outlandish spectacle.

For three seasons, he and a family of five, a wily saboteur and a talking robot were marooned on a distant planet in the far-off future: 1997. By Anita Gates Mark Goddard, the actor best known for ...