The Thin Man (TV series) than token appearances. Since then some of the new shows just use girls as part of the scenery. Among the series guest stars was Billy Gray, who appeared at the same time he was cast as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in "Father Knows Best". Ann McCrea was cast as Billie in the 1958 episode, "The Lost Last Chapter". Of note is the "guest star" in the episode "Robot Client", none other than the original Robby the Robot from the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet". Ben Starr was the program's writer; Sam Marx was the executive producer. The series began airing on
Robby the Robot by production designer Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, and writer Irving Block. These concepts were refined by production illustrator Mentor Huebner and perfected by MGM staff production draughtsman and mechanical designer Robert Kinoshita. The robot's groundbreaking design and dazzling finish represented a radical advance on the conventional "walking oil-can" depictions of robots in earlier features and film serials, and the only previous film robot of comparable style and quality was the "Menschmaschine" created for Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927). However, this did not come cheap: As with every aspect of the production of "Forbidden Planet", MGM spared no expense