The Robinson Robot is arguably the most famous and recognisable robot this world has ever seen.

Interview by Glenn

 Glenn:  Dick Tufeld, thank you very much for your time.  First of all, I apologise for the fact that we're going to take you so far back into time.  I'd like to thank you for being part of Lost In Space and a special thank you for your time here today.

 Dick:  My pleasure.

G:  In researching this interview I came across a story that you were being introduced to an auditorium of college students, where the MC read out a list of your credits, without much reaction. Then he read out that you had been the voice of the Robot out of Lost in Space, and the crowd immediately got to their feet and cheered.  Can you recall that?

D:  Yeah, I sure do.  This was about twenty years ago. I was lecturing at Syracuse University to a radio and television production class, and the professor who wanted to introduce me to the youngsters in the class said, "Can you give me a list of some of your credits?" So I carefully wrote down things that I was proud of and were very prestigious, big event shows that I had done, Emmy Award shows, commercials I was proud of ... this and that; and I threw in I was the voice of the Robot in Lost in Space.

Well, he went through this list and the kids sat there very impassionate listening, you know, and then he mentioned, "Oh, by the way, Mr Tufeld was the voice of the Robot in Lost In Space ... " - and the kids just became unglued ... and I was astounded!  It was still seven years after the show had gone off the air.  So I was amazed at this. I really was.

G:  Dick, you're one of the busiest men in the business, would you hazard a guess at how many projects you've been involved in?

D:  Of course not! (laughs) I have no idea ... no, I'm primarily an announcer, that's what I do; and I've done a lot of shows.  I've worked the Grammy Awards ... the Emmy Awards, the Julie Andrews series, the Tom Jones show, Milton Berle had a series out here, also the Hollywood Palace, and I do commercials, and 'coming attractions' voiceover trailers, sales films and that sort of stuff.  So, I don't keep track. I’m still trying to get it right! (laughs)

G:  How did you first start work with Allen?

D:  Well, the first thing with Irwin was kind of interesting. I was I8 years old and living in Pasadena here in California, and I went back to school, Northwestern University in Chicago. I came out here between semesters one summer and got a job at KLAC radio, as a summer relief announcer when the regular announcers went on vacation.  It was the days before disc jockeys - and there was a guy who had a kind of Hollywood 'chatter' show on News Of Hollywood and that sort of thing, who was a talent agent.  His name was Allen.

I was 18, I think, and Irwin was, I judge, about 35 to 40, something like that. I would say, "And now it's time for Irwin Allen's Hollywood Chatter Show, and here's Irwin", and spin the music.  He would come in and nod to me and I would nod to him, and that's all we had to say to each other.  That's when I first met Irwin.

Now, about 10 to 15 years went by and Irwin was gearing up for Lost in Space, and he was coming out of the commissary at 20th Century Fox one day, and he happened to be walking out with a guy who was a friend of mine (Emmet Lavery Jnr who was in the Business Affairs Department at 20th Century Fox) and he said to him "Emmet, I'm looking for a narrator for Lost in Space, can you think of anybody who might be good for it?" So Emmet said, "How about Dick Tufeld?" and Irwin said, "Dick Tufeld ... my oldest and dearest friend!  What a great idea!" and when Emmet told me the story I just fell down laughing.  Anyway, so I went in and gave Irwin a tape (he requested from my agent), so I became the narrator on the show.

Did you ever hear the story of how I became the Robot?  About a week after I was the narrator, my agent got a call “Irwin would like to meet you in the looping room at 20th because they are now looking for a voice for the Robot." So I said great.  So he said could I be there at Thursday, four o'clock. I said, fine.  So I meet Irwin and he gives me some copy, and I said, "I presume what you're looking for is a very mechanical, robotian kind of sound?" and Irwin says, "My dear boy, that's exactly what I do not want.  This is a very advanced civilisation. I want for the Robot's voice a quiet, cultured, low-key 'Alexander Scourby' kind of approach ..." (Alexander Scourby being the great New York narrator and actor who sadly passed on a few years ago) I said, "Really? That's what you're looking for?" He said, "Yeah.  "

Okay, so now I'm doing my best 'Scourby' imitation - I'm doing low-key, not colouring the words - saying, "Warning!  Warning!  It will not compute!", that sort of thing, and he was saying, "No, that's not right ... try this ... no that's not right ... no, we're not getting it ... try this ..." After about fifteen minutes he said, "Well look, we tried it. I appreciate your coming in.  I'll have to look further for the Robot's voice.  You're still the narrator on the show and I appreciate your coming in."

I then said, "Irwin, thanks a lot" and I started to leave.  But before I left, I said "Irwin, let me try another approach!" And now I say for the first time, "Warning!  Warning!  It will not compute!" and "Danger!  Danger!" in my best mechanical, robotian sound.  He said, "My God!  That's the 'Alexander Scourby' approach I wanted - what took you so long??" Well, I literally turned my back to him because I didn't want to laugh in his face. I was convulsed by this whole thing.  It was a classic example - we all make the same mistakes - of saying one thing and meaning precisely something else.  So that's how I became the Robot. 

G:  Dick, if I can just backtrack a little way, can you tell me about Space Patrol?

D:  Yeah, Space Patrol is in the earliest days of television ... 1952 I think. I was working at ABC Radio network, there was no television - oh, pardon me - ABC TV had just geared up.  They came on with a show called Space Patrol that was one of the very earliest of all the 'Space' shows.  It was on ABC Radio and on ABC TV and on local TV five days a week.  The effects they had on television, considering they had a budget of about thirty-four cents a show, I mean, no budget to work with - no art budget.  They had terrific effects; it was quite an interesting show.  That went on for three years I think, and I was the announcer on the show.  It was an interesting kind of opening - which I can still do, by the way.

G:  Can you tell us about the narration you did for it?

D:  Oh, the narration of Space Patrol was, let's see, I have to hold my hands up to my ears, right?  It went something like this ... (makes whooshing sound) ... wind noise, right?  And I said, "High adventure in the wild vast reaches of space!  Missions of daring in the name of Interplanetary Justice!  Travel into the future with Buzz Cory, Commander-in-Chief of the Sp-aaa-ce Patrol-l-l!!" ... Vrooom you hear a rocket sound ... So, I loved that! (Laughs)

G:  Way after that in the late 50's, you were involved with Walt Disney and Zorro.  Can you tell us about that?

D:  Yeah, that was kind of interesting. I was a staff announcer at ABC and I had left them to Freelance and one of the first things I was able to do... Disney had a new series called Zorro... and I was thrilled out of my mind to do the show, because it meant a regular income, every week for a while, which is something we're all looking for.

I was thrilled to do that, and that show went on for a number of years. I did the show and the 'coming attraction' trailers on the show.  Interesting, Guy Williams, as you know, was Zorro ... it's ironic that later on in Lost in Space I'd also get involved with Guy again.

G:  On LOST IN SPACE, Dick, did you ever visit the set at all?

D:  I think I was there once or twice ... but often what they would do with me on Lost in Space ... I would go into the Looping, or Dubbing Room.  You see, getting back to this business of my own perception of what I did on Lost in Space, I never took any great or particular pride, or sense of creative accomplishment in doing the show.  Bobby May, as all of you know, was inside the Robot, and as he would talk inside the Robot he would press a couple of buttons in his hands and a light would flash on his chest in synchronisation with every syllable.

Then they would bring me in and they would give me 'loops' ... loops of his lines ... a line at a time, on an earphone and I would listen to it.  Then I would have to read in sync - synchronisation - with his lines.  If I was synchronised with him, I was then in sync with the fight flashing with every syllable that the Robot was uttering.  So consequently I was locked into Bobby's readings, his timings, and to me it was kind of a mechanical job.  It was not a particularly creative challenge.

That's why I never thought very much of what it was I was doing, because it wasn't a matter of me expressing myself, as you would do if you were acting in a particular role, or taking part in something.  It was a mechanical thing.  That's why I was astounded later on when these youngsters got all excited about it.  Because I thought, "what are they getting excited about?" It wasn't anything, you know?

G:  I’d like to talk for a moment about the way you put your voice down.  You never saw any images up on a screen?

D:  No, no ... that's not correct.  When I did the loops, we would see the image on the screen.  But the main thing I was concerned with was Bobby May's voice on the earphone track. I had to start at the precise moment he started and end at the precise moment he ended, you know, you learn to do that.  You know when to start because you hear a tone, a beep-beep-beep on your earphone ... and just after the third beep, you start, and you do one or two runs. I had ' depending on the number of lines the Robot had, between 60 and maybe 200 loops per show - whether the Robot had a big part or a lesser part.

In terms of time it took, if there were 50 or 60 loops, it took me maybe 45 minutes, to a couple of hours if there was a couple of hundred loops.  We got fast at it after a while.  I did see the Robot on the screen, and if I was in 'Perfect' sync with Bobby, I was in sync with what was on the screen.

G:  The voice of the narration of the show was definitely just your own voice

D:  Yeah, that was me.

G:  Did you generally always disguise your voice in a 'robotian' sort of way for the Robot?

D:  I'll tell you something else funny about the Robot voice ... I'm not sure Pm answering your question, but you might ask me again ... I would do the Robot voice as I indicated a couple of minutes ago.  They would record it.  Lost in Space was a 'two-reel show ... when they took all the sound effects, and the actors voices, and the music, and the dubbing process - they would often have one audio engineer mixing one reel and somebody else doing the second reel.

Nobody ever figured out an exact formula for equalizing the Robot's voice.  The post-production staff and the audio staff couldn't always agree exactly how they thought the Robot should sound.  You had one engineer, for example, doing reel one ... OK, he would hear the Robot's voice ... he would maybe give the Robot a kind of mechanical sound.  He would roll-off the low-frequency notes, add some decibels at the high end, give it a kind of telephone kind of 'futzed-up' sound ... and you would hear the Robot on the first reel talking like that.  Maybe a different audio engineer would be dubbing the second reel ... he'd come in cold and think, "OK the Robot should have a deep voice." So he would add several decibels of about I00-150 cycles so the Robot would then have a very deep, low kind of a sound.

When you heard the show put together, the Robot sounded one way on the first half of the show - and on the second half of the show he might sound entirely different. I would talk to them (the engineers) and say that you should decide what it is you want, and make it the same all the time.  Sometimes it was the same, and other times it wasn't the same.

To get back to your basic question, did I disguise the Robot's voice ... I didn't disguise it. I did it, and as I did it from week to week to week it varied somewhat.

Hearing some of them played back, I realise in the early days of the show - I was much more stilted and mechanical sounding than I was subsequently in the second or third year.  The Robot became more personal and less of a mechanical Robot and again, that wasn't intentional because I was concentrating on synching with Bobby Mays loops every time, and I would forget what it was we were doing.

Sometimes I would come in and I would remember what we were doing.  Then I would have a more mechanical sound.  But it was not totally consistent.  That's a good point.

G:  The point I was going to bring up was that the Robot's voice seemed to get more polished week by week as it went on. It seemed he were learning English, so to speak.  Were you watching Lost in Space every Wednesday night when it premiered on CBS?

D:  You bet! (Laughs) Of course I always watch my own ... if I can!

G:  What is your personal opinion of the design of the Robot?

D:  Oh, that's terrific.  The design, of course, is legendary. I think the Robot is a great design.

G:  I think the first five episodes of Lost in Space are the most exciting pieces of television I have seen, bearing in mind that the special effects in those days were new to TV.  What did you think when you saw the first five episodes?

D:  I thought, "This is wonderful!" ... as everyone else did.  Also, I think that (there is unanimity of opinion here!) ... the writing of probably the first half year, first three-quarters of the year, even the first year of the show compared to the writing of the last couple of years was, I think, superior ... qualitatively.  Although, of course what really happened is that the network got involved - which networks always do - with shows, and they want the show to go in a certain direction, and the direction they wanted the show to go in became a little less serious perhaps than where it was in the first year of the show.

G:  Did you ever meet Bobby May personally?

D:  Yeah, I met Bobby just once: we met on a set ... I don't even think Bobby remembers this. I think we shook hands once ... I was on a looping stage and as I say, I didn't see many members of the regular cast too often, unless they happened to be coming into the looping room to do some looping after I was doing my lines or before I was doing my stuff, and we sort of ran into each other.  Otherwise I wouldn't see them very often, because I was only on the set a couple of times.

G:  What other members of the cast came in after you would finish?

D:  I would finish my Robot lines and maybe Guy had some lines to loop, or maybe June had some stuff to do, or Marta or something like that ... or Billy.  But that didn't happen too often either.  Every once in a while we would run across each other.

G:  Did the situations between the Robot and Dr Smith make you laugh? There are many comedic situations ...

D:  Oh yeah, I thought Jonathan was terrific.  He was, you know ... sure!  The Robot got pretty comical too ... with Jonathan ... it was great interplay between the two of them

G:  What did you think of the relationship between Will and the Robot?

D:  Oh, terrific ... that, ultimately, for better or worse (depending on how you look at it) was the thrust the show took; the relationship between the Robot, Will and Jonathan Harris as Dr Smith.

G:  One of the good things about the first two seasons was the 'cliff hangers'.  They reminded many folks, especially my parents, of what it was like in the theatres...

D:  Motion pictures, sure ...          I was a youngster and I used to go to all the serials and hear that "last week as you recall" so forth and so forth... and saw the cliff-hanger at the very end. I don't know how it is in Australia, I know in this country the Lost in Space shows are shown out of aired sequence.  So in this country now ... the cliff-hanger at the end has been cut off Does the cliff-hanger still run in Australia?

G: Yes.

D:  You still have those ... well in this country the cliff hanger has been cut... they may screen Show #I, and after that Show #42, and after that Show #I3 .... so it doesn't go in numerical sequence ... and that being the case you couldn't have a cliff-hanger because it wouldn't make any sense.  You wouldn't have the continuity.

G:  What they do in Australia now, even though, we are supposed to see "To be continued next week...... they would freeze-frame the picture just before it came out, and the screen would read ...”To be continued"

D:  But in the syndicated stuff they turn out here for this country, they've cut the ‘Whole Segment’ out!

G:  What a shame.

D:  ... and because of that also, they've had to cut out the opening narration, where I said, "Last week, as you recall...”………because that may not have been last week; that may have been "six months ago, as you recall" ... when that episode aired.  So they had to take it out of sequence.

G:  They ought to be shot!  There have been many touching moments in Lost in Space between the Robot and the family.  Would you agree that the Robot became very human, a real person as time went on?

D:  Sure, of course.

G:  There have been many episodes, and it's going to be very hard I guess for you to pick out an episode that you liked the most. There is probably one that does stand out in your mind ... I would just like to reflect on that for a moment.  It's where the Robot falls in love with another robot ...

D:  Deadliest Of The Species ... yeah!

G:  Can you reflect on that at all?

D:  Yeah, well I was probably laughing at that one more than most of them, because the Robot had a - quote "relationship" - with another robot, which was very odd and the idea of it kind of amused me, and also the Robot had more lines and on that particular episode, I was more of a principal of the show and had more to do.

G:  Can you relate to us any incidents that you've had as time went on when people have recognised your voice in public?

D:  (laughs) Because of Lost in Space?

G:  Yes.

D:  Interestingly enough, you know, I never got name credit, and that was - I didn't care - that was Irwin's choice.  He wanted the Robot not to be identified ... so most people in this business (and in this industry) did not know that Dick Tufeld was the voice of the Robot.  In fact, there's a very well-known game show - very successful in this country - called Jeopardy, which you may or may not see down there and 'who is the voice of the Robot' became a trivia question on that show.

I think that a lot of people in the industry now know that I was the voice of Robot, but for years the general public did not know I was the voice.  It was like great astonishment when people found out I was the voice of the Robot, "Really?  Really?  Really?  No kidding?" ... that same kind of reaction I got from Syracuse from the youngsters in the University.  There are a lot of people quite interested in the show ... it takes them back to their youth to one of their favourite shows when they were kids -that's what it really does.

G:  Are you disappointed, Dick, that you were never credited on the show?

D:  No, it didn't bother me one way or the other, because if it did, I would have had my agent call up Irwin and say, "Hey, Dick is doing this work - I think he ought to be recognised, y’know, get name credit for the show." Truthfully, I never thought about it one way or the other.

Bobby didn't either ... I think ... did he? I don't think he did.  God knows Bobby is the guy who was in the Robot on the set, five, six, seven hours a day - perspiring heavily I'm sure - and had to memorise all these lines and work the arms.  He really had a hard job, physically demanding job.  For reason, as I say, Irwin just never gave either one of us name credit.

G:  Personally, Dick, what do you think makes the show so popular even now, ... thirty ... years onward?  It seems to getting more popular…

D:  Umm ... define your terms.  When you say 'popular', do you mean in terms of the public or in terms of distributors airing the show?

G:  In the public’s eyes…

D:  OK, because I have two different answers depending … oh, in the public’s eyes I think it’s a kind of a fun show to watch, it’s an interesting show to watch.  I can see that, especially youngsters… I know my grandchildren who are aged II (Jason) and 8 (Amanda) – they love the show. They come over; they want to watch Lost in Space.

It’s an interesting show, the relationship between the characters is interesting… CBS was very careful that it was a non-frightening show. You never saw people getting killed in the show.  They ‘went’ away or laser gunned to make them disappear, but you never saw them in agony or being hurt, or maimed or anything like that.

I think one of the reasons, for whatever it's worth - I don't know if anyone's ever mentioned this to you folks - that I think the show has been running and running and running for years in this country ... it's had a million runs ... I think one of the reasons for a distributor to put the show on is because it's a very cheap buy for a station.

One of the reasons I think it is a fairly inexpensive buy is because when LIS was in production - this is 1964 to '68 when the show was made - the Screen Actors Guild had a contract that you should be paid residuals for a show for only every I3 re-runs of the show. It was inconceivable to anybody that any show would be on Forever, run for more than I3 airings. So of course after I3 runs, no one in the cast got any residual money, none had to be paid.

Today of course if you do a show you get it paid re-runs in perpetuity.  Every time it runs, the talent get paid a re-use fee.  Well this show, after I3 runs, nobody had to pay any member of the cast any money, so I think, comparatively speaking, it became an inexpensive to buy - they were able to sell the show for less dollars than a show where cast residuals had to be paid.  So I think that's a factor nobody ever talks about.

G:  Dick, during the run of LOST IN SPACE did Irwin ever come down to you and say 'this is going well or 'maybe you should change your voice' or was it always up to you from then on?

D:  No, Irwin really didn't ... once in a while I might run into him walking around either the stage or on his way from his office to the stage, but I didn't see much of Irwin.  There was a lovely gentleman named George Swink, who was head of post-production for Irwin.  George would come over once in a while and say everything was going fine. ... there was no problem for me was very easy, as I say, I had the easiest of all worlds doing that show.

G:  How did you hear about the cancellation of LOST IN SPACE?

D:  Oh, like you always hear about show cancellations ... I subscribe to a couple of trade papers, Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter that come to my house five days week ... they always have information, new shows coming up. One day my wife said, "Look at this!" In the papers it had said Lost in Space had been cancelled by CBS. I said, "Oh, that's how you find out ... "

G:  I would never have asked you what particular episodes you..... Prefer, because it would be very hard for you to recall, but it's very broad ... are there any episodes that stick in your mind as very memorable that you did on the show?

D:  Probably not ... I may have sung in a couple of them. I think in one show I was singing "Tip Toe Though The Tulips" and it was so incredibly bad, and everybody thought, "Well this is really good, he is really funny…”  Y'know ... that was the best I could sing I wasn't trying to be funny!  That was me doing my very best! I don't sing too well.  So I remember I laughed about that.  Again, my interest in the show was primarily what it was I was doing, just as I'm sure Guy's interest was what he was doing and June's was what June was doing ... that's what people tend to do sometimes.

G:  When the Robot laughed or made any sort of noise, was that you?

D:  Yes, and no.  When the Robot laughed, sometimes you heard ... (rasping laughter) ... kind of something like that.  That was something that Bobby May while, did, that they decided to keep Bobby's laugh.  On another show, I went ... (deep robotic laughter) ... and they put that on, and they had me laughing - my laugh. I never know why ... there was no consistency ... I mean, it wasn't like, "Bobby laughed the last time so therefore he would laugh the next time" ... or vice versa.

Whoever was looping the show or in charge of postproduction would say, "Oh, that's a funny laugh Bobby did ­let's keep that", you would have that thing that Bobby did.  At other times they liked my laugh I suppose, or went with it, so it was my laugh.  You know, that was one of the inconsistencies of the Robot's character.  Good point.

G:  Dick, can I ask you, once again, bring up that famous fine in your best Robot voice?

D:  (in Robot voice)              "WARNING! WARNING!             IT DOES NOT COMPUTE!" That one?  That's the one!

G:  Can you tell us some of the projects you were involved in after Lost in Space?  That's a very broad question...

D:  I'll tell you, at the time of Lost in Space I was doing ... there was another show at 20th Century Fox I was the announcer for ... Peyton Place.  Now, I don't even know if that ever got over to Australia or not ... it did?  Yeah, Peyton Place ultimately was on twice a week in this country and then went to three times a week.  So I did Peyton Place.  Then I think I mentioned earlier I worked on the Tom Jones series ... came over here ... Julie Andrews series ... came over here ... The Hollywood Palace - it was on at the time, which I loved doing.  It was like the old Ed Sullivan Show where they had performers walk on ... and in the seven years that that show was on, every performer in show business walked across that stage.  So that was fun to do. And award shows and that sort of thing.

G:  Dick, can I ask you what you're doing today, what you're presently involved in?

D:  Pretty much the same that I've been involved in. I do regular shows, series, and commercials for great Western Bank, program promos; I announce Disney’s Christmas and Easter Parade Specials and other specials etc.

G:  Can you remember if you ever did a Space Patrol-like trailer for Lost in Space, and if you did can you recall ... ?

D:  No, I never did Lost in Space was never quite like that.

G:  What does Dick Tufeld do to relax nowadays when he goes home?

D:  Umm, you can debate with your wife ... I like to ski ... we ski - the whole family go skiing. I bought an exercise machine, which is kind of interesting. It says it will invigorate you if you do these twenty minutes every other day ... it exhausts me! (Laughs) But it's great - it's terrific.

G:  Can you tell me about your family?

D:  Well, we've got four children.  Bruce, the eldest, is a Hollywood agent, which is kind of interesting to me because now I hear about everything that is going on in Hollywood whether I want to or not.  He works for the Artist's Agency here in Hollywood.  My daughter, Lynn, is an actress and an acting teacher and coach, she has taught at the Strausburg Institute and several other places and worked in a number of television shows and movies.

My son Craig is also into acting and he is a marvellous playwright.  My youngest daughter Melissa was also an actress - both Lynn and Melissa are members of the Actors Studio, which is quite prestigious - Melissa went back to school and got a PhD, a Doctor's degree in Psychology.  She loves that work.  So that's the four kids.

G:  Well with all the Irwin Allen projects you were involved in ... Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea, Time Tunnel, Land of The Giants, am I correct?

D:  That's correct.

G:  Did you have a favourite one of all those?

D:  No ... no.

G:  You're not going to tell us?

D:  No, I'm not being deceptive; I just didn't think much about it ... I didn't have a particular favourite.

G:  Now Australia ... you’ve never been down there.  What do you know about the place?

D:  Oh, I know it's great. I hear this from everybody that I talk to who's been there.  So we would look forward to coming there, and hopefully we will do that very soon.

G:  Dick Tufeld, we thank you very much for your time.

D:  Thank you, Glenn.