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L.I.S.A.
CONVENTIONS The
10th of September LISA Convention was a success with a good crowd
attending and eagerly awaiting the Australian Premiere and release
of Bob May’s Robot Memories Act II. In keeping with the Olympic
theme of the convention on show today were the LIS episodes “The Challenge”
guest starring a young Kurt Russell and Michael Ansara and “The Deadly
Games of Gamma Six” guest Just prior to the main attraction a short home video was screened. Filmed only weeks earlier Bob May played host at a private screening of ‘Robot Memories Act II’ to many of the people in the video at his home in LA. This event was recorded and then rushed to Australia for the Convention. The
highlight of the day was the release of Robot Memories Act II.
The original Robot Memories was released in the early 1990’s at a
time when During
the ‘Robot Body and Soul Tour’ I had the opportunity to meet Bob
Australia’s own LISA is featured heavily with interviews from Club members and a lengthy segment of ‘The Robot Body and Soul Tour’ featuring both Bob and Dick Tufeld, on stage in Australia. LISA’s website also gets a mention as do several other prominent web sites. Bob has two very special guest stars appear at the end of the video that will bring a smile to every fans’ face. This video is a must see for LIS fans and sales on the day were great. The video contains many surprises and guest stars and is available through the Robot Memories Act II website as well as through LISA.
One item that drew a lot of attention on the day was a collection of LIS memorabilia owned by one LISA member. This collection contained everything from copies of the Gold Key Lost in Space comic books to an imported two-foot tall remote control Robot B-9. This was a very impressive collection and showed the length that some fans will go to in order to collect everything and anything on their favourite show! Eager to add more items to his collection the fan visited the dealers’ table and purchased any item that he did not have! This collection is truly amazing and many of the items had been imported from the State and shows that while Australia may be one of the LIS hot spots we still fall short in the merchandising area! At the end of the day fans streamed out of Bankstown Sports club and off into the night. A great day was had by all!!
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starring Mike Kellin. Both of these episodes featured a sports
theme and were selected due to the closeness of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
“The Challenge” is a Season One black and white episode spotlighting
the talents of Bill Mumy as he meets 
up
in battle with the very young Kurt Russell. The highlight of
the episode is the sabre duel between John Robinson and the Leader
(Michael Ansara). This is one of the more serious episodes and
the humour is not over done as it is in many of the Season Two episodes.
“The
Deadly Games of Gamma Six” is similar in theme to “The Challenge”
although the focus this time is on the acting talents of Guy Williams.
The scene between John and Myko at the end of the episode is tension
filled and dramatic as John shows that he has more nerve than the
glib talking alien.
Lost In Space Merchandise was very rare. Many long time fans
of the Classic show would remember the difficulties that we faced
when searching for anything LIS related. At the time of release
there were few LIS fan clubs and LIS publications so Robot Memories
was an ambitious attempt by the producers to shed some light on the
man who gave life to one of the most memorable Sci-Fi Robots, Bob
May. Robot Memories is an in depth look at the life of Bob May
and traces his life from his start in show business through the Vaudevillian
act Olsen and Johnson to his association with Jerry Lewis and other
show business identities. Bob had a hard time as the Robot as
he was for the most part kept in the dark, as Irwin Allen had originally
wanted to give the impression that the Robot was real and alive.
Bob was hardly seen in the cast re-unions and little credit was given
to the hard work and bad conditions that Bob suffered with and this
lack of recognition I feel is displayed in Robot Memories and is understandable
but does make Bob appear bitter.
May and I found that Bob personifies the old show business adage “the
show must go on” and regardless of how he feels he still puts on a
good show for the fans. Bob is very friendly and is indeed a
unique character. Robot Memories Act II covers briefly the original
Robot Memories but does not linger on it and moves onto newer material.
Bob centres on Conventions and much of the footage is filmed at a
convention where Bob introduces and interviews the behind the scenes
members of Lost in Space, at one point he has the original ‘Robot
wrangler Crew’ meet the new wrangler crew. Bob interviews many
LIS luminaries including a very rare appearance by Bob Kinoshita and
Kevin Burns. Bob also visits Sheila Allen (Irwin’s wife) at
her home to discuss LIS and Irwin Allen.
The
video is very much a travelogue and Bob takes to various conventions
to meet with fans and to discuss Lost in Space. At one Convention
Bob judges a Robot Builders Contest. Members of the Robot B-9
Builders Club, an Internet group who swap ideas and techniques on
constructing your very own Robot B-9, build the Robots and to see
Bob standing surrounded by near perfect B-9’s is incredible.
The B-9ers are a fun bunch of people who derive great pleasure from
constructing their Robots and show their appreciation to Bob Kinoshita
by having Bob May present Mr Kinoshita with a special plaque.
A
special treat for fans on the day was that Bob had signed the first
twenty copies of Robot Memories to be sold!