Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
A robot passes on. — Parallax Forums

A robot passes on.

sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
edited 2009-01-23 17:03 in Robotics
The robot from Lost in Space has died of congestive heart failure. He was 69 years old:

www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/arts/television/21may.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Comments

  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,566
    edited 2009-01-21 16:51
    WOW... thanks sylvie369 ...perhaps dating myself, I remember coming home from school when I was a kid to watch “The Swiss Family Robinson” series.

    Rest in peace Bob May.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Beau Schwabe

    IC Layout Engineer
    Parallax, Inc.
  • LilDiLilDi Posts: 229
    edited 2009-01-21 17:08
    Talk about dating oneself, what ever happened to "Robby the Robot" from the movie "The Forbidden Planet". That robot looks a lot like, if not the same robot modified slightly, for "Lost in Space", but pre dates "Lost in Space" by decades.
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2009-01-21 17:28
    LilDi said...
    Talk about dating oneself, what ever happened to "Robby the Robot" from the movie "The Forbidden Planet". That robot looks a lot like, if not the same robot modified slightly, for "Lost in Space", but pre dates "Lost in Space" by decades.

    Actually just a hair under one decade. Forbidden Planet was in 1956, and Lost in Space began in 1965. I was a devoted viewer, until Star Trek blew it away in 1966.

    Apparently Robbie still exists somewhere:

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot

    I'm surprised to see how many movies and TV shows he was in. The Motion Picture Academy should consider giving him a "Lifetime Achievement Award" (edit: perhaps it was his limited range of facial expressions - reminiscent of Keanu Reeves - that prevented that). I knew he was in a couple of Lost in Space episodes. I did not know that he shares the same designer as "the Robot" from Lost in Space.

    Oddly enough, just last week I watched a Lost in Space episode in which the robot was somehow energized so that he grew to about 30 times his normal size. Will and Dr. Smith went inside through a hatch in the bottom of his treads to make repairs. I didn't see Bob May inside there anywhere. Maybe he didn't grow along with the robot, and was still his normal size in some unseen part of the machinery.

    Post Edited (sylvie369) : 1/21/2009 9:55:47 PM GMT
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2009-01-21 17:36
    My favorite robot from a misguided youth. But without "Environmental Control Robot B-9", I wouldn't be the robogeek I am today. Rest in Peace, Bob.

    LilDi: Bob Kino(expletive)a designed both Forbidden Planet's Robby in 1956 and the LIS robot in 1966. Definite similarities.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • LilDiLilDi Posts: 229
    edited 2009-01-21 17:52
    I remember when Robby met Micky Mouse and Pluto in my office one day!
    Picture 012.jpg
    1600 x 1200 - 672K
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2009-01-21 18:19
    Here's Environmental Control Robot B-9 working on a Propeller controlled pan-and-tilt head under the watchful eye of Consumables Control Cat Sylvie369 (my namesake).
    IMG_1575.JPG
    2304 x 3072 - 1M
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2009-01-21 21:05
    Lost in Space trivia -

    Did you know that in the original pilot episode there was no Dr. Smith and no robot? And that the spaceship was called the "Gemini 12", not the "Jupiter 2"?

    Thanks to hulu.com, I have become enlightened about such things. More surprisingly, did you know that the pilot episode for "The Dick van Dyke Show" did not star Dick van Dyke or Mary Tyler Moore?
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2009-01-21 21:43
    In the unaired pilot, they were to be in suspended animation for 98 years instead of 5-1/2. Imagine how different life on earth would be had they made it. Thank goodness for that errant meteor storm and the nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith!

    Of course, a Basic Stamp with a closed-loop·control system onboard J2 could have easily compensated for Zac's extra weight aboard and avoided the whole hyperdrive mess. But that wouldn't have been "good TV".

    http://www.fandango.com/lostinspace:noplacetohideunairedpilot_v302055/summary

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • EzsynnEzsynn Posts: 119
    edited 2009-01-23 09:47
    Umm... doesn't this belong to the Off topic forum thread?

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    BWIN ON DA POWAH WIFIN U!!!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2009-01-23 17:03
    These Noobs have no patience to let us poor old timers reminisce a bit...

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ·"If you build it, they will come."
Sign In or Register to comment.