Allen based his space adventure series on a Gold Key comic book Space Family Robinson, as well as the classic adventure novel Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss.

History

The show initially experienced some legal challenges. Ib Melchior, a notable science fiction writer, had conceived what was essentially the same idea (but with different characters) years before either the television series or the comic book. He had called his version "Space Family Robinson", which was also the original production name for Lost in Space. Although legal action went nowhere, Ib Melchior was hired as a consultant on the "Lost in Space" movie as a way of recognizing his original idea.

Lost in Space followed Allen's basic philosophy that TV was supposed to be fun, as opposed to educational. His series, including Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants, were all very fast paced and exciting, often at the expense of logic.

The series ran for three seasons on CBS, from September 15, 1965 to March 6, 1968 and it was famously bought by the network after they rejected a competing sci-fi series that was offered to them — Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Roddenberry claimed that CBS execs listened to his Star Trek pitch in order to glean ideas for doing sci-fi on a TV budget.