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L.I.S.A.
CONVENTIONS
Last
weekend, on Sunday June 23, I attended the LISA Winter Following the arrival and registration of members, the convention opened at around 10.40am - unfortunately there had been train delays in Sydney on the Bankstown line that morning, and this meant a late arrival for several LISA convention attendees. LISA President Glenn welcomed members to the convention; he asked for a show of hands of how many people had attended Marta Kristen's LISA convention last November, which was met with about half the audience raising their hands. When asked did we all enjoy her convention and meeting Marta in person, the overwhelming enthusiastic answer was "Yes, definitely !" - the concensus was that Marta is a most interesting, attractive, kind and generous person and the Aussie LIS fans loved meeting her and welcoming her to Sydney and Australia. After telling us about new Lost In Space memorabilia for sale, including a new exclusive colour photo of Marta which was late getting to Sydney for her con, but LISA now had it, and also the third CD soundtrack for LIS.
Glenn went on to present the first screening of the day, the colour episode "The Flaming Planet". Club treasurer, Anne McClenahan, introduced the episode giving us a run-down on some of the "bloopers" which could be seen within the episode, and also commented that Guy Williams did NOT win his Hollywood Star of Fame for the scene where he gets hit in the leg by an explosion and crumples to the ground - she points out that it is some of the worst acting by him she saw in the entire series ! It is always fantastic to see the LIS episodes presented on the big screen as well - you feel like you are really there with the Robinsons. After the episode screening, the first raffle was held, the tickets of course being selected from the famous LISA LIS raffle bucket with some fabulous prizes including T-shirts, CD's, and framed prints, photographs, model kits and toys. Then everyone broke for lunch. Following lunch, we sat down to watch the first special screening of the day, an uncut print of Irwin Allen's rare unaired TV pilot of "The Man From the 25th Century" starring James Darren. Glenn commented that it was most unusual that this series was not picked up by the networks in the late 60's - Glenn also commented that he thought it would be a goer, and I have to agree with him - it was a mixture of "The X-Files" meets "The Fugitive", and the storylines and plots combined with IA's special effects, costumes, aliens and spectacular sets would have provided for a most interesting series had it been given the green light by studio executives, but alas this was not to be. Glenn told us to try and spot various props and set pieces from LIS, Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and the music was mostly from LIS. One of the most interesting scenes was when James Darren lands in the Jupiter 2 on Earth (Irwin used the stock footage from LIS of the Jupiter 2 coming in over the cliffs of the Trona Pinnacles for this) and drives his car down the ramp of the Jupiter 2 ! (this has been referred to in fan circles as the "Jupiter 2 garage" ! ). "The Man From the 25th Century" certainly seemed to me to be another classic Irwin Allen series in the making and was very entertaining, as his TV shows and movies most certainly have been down through the years. The next screening was June Lockhart on the "Good Morning America" program that included some of TV's classic "Mums" (or that is "Moms" for our US/Canadian club list members reading this) - sponsored by the American Egg Board, June cooked some very nice boiled eggs while other TV moms from The Partridge Family, Happy Days, Leave It To Beaver and My Three Sons did their best to make delicious egg dishes as well. Next to be screened was an hilarious segment of Bob May appearing on "Tell The Truth", where he convinces a panel of celebrities asking questions of him, that he is actually a member of SETI (the guys that look for extra-terrestrial intelligence in outer space) - I was surprised that not ONE member of the panel knew that Bob was the man inside Robot B9 from Lost In Space ! Some LISA members commented later that they were shocked that Bob May would actually tell FIBS on the air! Tsk, tsk… The next segment featured the trailer for the new Star Wars movie, "Attack of the Clones", and an hilarious interview done for US cable TV by "Triumph" - which lampooned rather than was a tribute to the SW fans in New York City who lined up for WEEKS in anticipation of the new SW movie opening there, camping out on the footpath. The highlight of this segment was the couple, the groom dressed as a Jedi Knight and his bride dressed as Queen Padme Armidala, who got married outside the cinema in NYC premiering the movie, and walked through a "Jedi" guard of honour, with the fans all holding up their light sabres. Following this, we saw the Sci-Fi gay party held in Sydney during Angela Cartwright's 1997 visit, named (appropriately ?) "Lust In Space", which featured a 15 foot tall Robot B9 with moving arms and lights (I kid you not - I saw the film footage of it !) especially designed for the party, an all-night sci-fi disco, and apparently the buildings were dressed up to resemble the Jupiter 2. The party attendees from Sydney's gay community were encouraged to dress up as their favourite LIS or sci-fi characters. For our Toys Lost In Space And Time club members who may want to read more about this, the story and pictures of the event are featured in LISA's current Alpha Control magazine Issue #28 which is just out. These screenings were followed by the 2nd raffle draw of the day. Throughout the afternoon's screenings, several special LISA promos which were created by LISA member, cameraman David Threlfo of Newcastle were shown. He had designed some especially for Marta Kristen's LISA convention last November, which were screened then, too. Also, the artwork of another LISA member, Julie, who creates original Lost In Space cross-stitch kits and has made several of them up to present to the LIS cast upon their visits to Australia, was once again spotlighted as she showed the club her latest one of Will Robinson. Julie told me it takes her around 6 months to design and complete an LIS cross-stitch item. Glenn and Anne McClenahan then conducted the LISA Panel. This gives convention attendees the opportunity to ask questions about LIS. The panel fielded several questions regarding the new LIS DVD's and the likelihood of them appearing in Australia (and the answer was, yes they most likely will be) - also members asked about the new LIS miniseries being produced by Kevin Burns for NBC Television. Glenn reported that Kevin Burns had told him that NBC were MORE than interested in the Lost In Space project - not only is the 2-hour miniseries a certainty including the original LIS cast, but also a regular LIS TV series will follow it, with the original cast perhaps making appearances in later episodes as well. The projected date for the LIS 2-hour mini series appearing on US television is now May, 2003. This will co-incide with the LIS (and other Irwin Allen TV show) DVD's being released in the US in April, 2003. LISA members were very excited to hear this latest news ! Glenn also reported that brand new LIS merchandising would also co-incide with the release of the new LIS TV series in 2003. Afternoon tea break followed, then the members played "Name That Episode" - a 3 second clip from one LIS episode is shown at a time - members must be the first to raise their hands and say which episode it is appearing on the screen. This con saw a record number of entrants, and also they soon got the required number right in record time ! The prize was 10 raffle tickets, which are very much valued amongst members. The final screening of the afternoon was the interview conducted a few months earlier this year on US TV with Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy (who were in Kevin Burn's house in California with Robot B9), June Lockhart, Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard, who were in the TV studio in New York. They talked about the new LIS mini series, Bill Mumy talked about what it was like to be a kid on Lost In Space and the hero of millions of children around the world, and Jonathan Harris was asked by the host did he invent all of his "Smithisms" himself that he used with the Robot - (ie: the illiterations such as - "You Bubble-Headed Booby !" and yes, he did !). Mark Goddard talked about what it was like acting alongside the Carrot Man in the episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion". For Aussie LIS fans, who cannot normally view the television interviews with the LIS classic cast and other TV specials and commercials which they may participate in the USA, and many do not have access to the internet so they cannot see them on there either, it is always gratifying to be able to see them on the screen at the LISA conventions. As
at all of LISA's conventions, there was LIS memorabilia for sale,
special LISA memorabilia, photos, programs from past LISA tours and
also other sci-fi merchandise. Also LISA's working full-scale model
of Robot B9 and their static display model of Robby the Robot from
Forbidden Planet (and LIS) were in attendance and throughout the day,
clips from the three Seasons of LIS were playing on the big screen.
Once again it was a very enjoyable convention in
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by
Jeanette Kelly 
Convention
at Bankstown Sports Club in Sydney. It was a well attended meeting
with around 100 club members present - they came from all over Australia
including Sydney, country New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland
and we had one of our members from California USA who is currently
working in Sydney, Australia, attending also !
