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
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere name of a large robot, who was one of the series' most popular characters. Calling a villain "Dr. Tobor" may have been intended to fool young theater-goers into thinking they would see the robot in the serial. In fact, the only robots on view are the odd fedora-wearing robots from the 1935 Gene Autry serial "The Phantom Empire". This was the second of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia. The third, "The Lost Planet" (1953), is a virtual sequel although with different character names, The slaves of "The Lost Planet"'s evil extraterrestrial dictator Reckov (also Gene Roth) inexplicably