Lost in Space as a happy crew without internal conflicts. While many storylines in the later series focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith, a stowaway and saboteur played by Jonathan Harris, he was absent from the unaired pilot. His character was added after the series was commissioned for production. The pilot episode was first aired on television during a 1997 retrospective. CBS bought the series, turning down "Star Trek" in favor of "Lost in Space". Before the first episode was filmed, the characters Smith and the Robot were added, and the spaceship, originally named "Gemini 12", was renamed the "Jupiter 2" and redesigned.
Lost in Space program (1961–1972). While the crew normally grew a hydroponic garden on a planet as an intermediate step before cultivating the soil of a planet, they also had "protein pills", which was a complete nutritional substitute for normal foods, in cases of emergency. Some members within the science-fiction community have pointed to "Lost in Space" as an example of early television's perceived poor record at producing science-fiction. The series' deliberate fantasy elements, were perhaps overlooked as it drew comparisons to its supposed rival, "". However, "Lost in Space" was a mild ratings success, unlike "Star Trek", which received relatively poor ratings