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57-410: The opening titles for each episode, as narrated first by executive producer Lou Scheimer (using his then uncredited pseudonym Erik Gunden), then by the voice of Terry Lester , who portrayed Jonah, summarized the show's backstory: For millions of years, Earth was fertile and rich. Then pollution and waste began to take their toll. Civilization fell into ruin. This is the world of the 25th century. Only

114-419: A voice actor for the show (as he had done for many of his company's previous productions), going under the pseudonym "Erik Gunden". The last name was taken from his father's original surname: "Gundenscheimer" (which was later shortened to Scheimer). The first name was Lou's middle name, which he was not given by his parents, but instead by his wife Jay, who felt that he should have one. Scheimer's contribution to

171-598: A 1996 appearance at Disney World . On June 14, 1995, Harris and other cast members appeared in The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen , a television tribute to Irwin Allen , the creator of Lost in Space , who had died in 1991. Harris refused to make a cameo appearance in the 1990s re-imagined film version of Lost in Space (1998), unlike many of his co-stars in the original series. He announced: "I've never played

228-532: A Japanese firm with U.S. offices in Chicago, who approached them about producing a cartoon called Rod Rocket . The two agreed to take on the work and also took on a project for Family Films, Life of Christ , a series of ten short animated films based on the life of Christ . Paramount Pictures soon purchased SIB Productions, and the contract allowed True Line to hire additional staff, such as former radio disc jockey Norm Prescott . Scheimer and Sutherland formed

285-492: A bit part in my life and I'm not going to start now!" However, he did make promotional appearances for the film: In late 2002, Harris and the rest of the surviving cast of the television series were preparing to film an NBC two-hour film titled Lost in Space: The Journey Home ; however, the project was unable to proceed after Harris' death. After he had been in a hospital for a back injury, Harris died of

342-415: A blood clot on November 3, 2002, three days before his 88th birthday. As a tribute to Harris, writer/director John Wardlaw wrote an additional scene for the film The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas , which included Harris's final performance before his death. Wardlaw asked Lost in Space co-stars Bill Mumy, Angela Cartwright , and Marta Kristen to contribute their voices to the film. Wardlaw described how

399-479: A character whose distinctive mannerisms and catchphrases would soon carry over into his Maxwell Smart role on Get Smart . In similar fashion, several of Harris's catchphrases from the series, such as "Oh, the pain!", along with the character's mannerisms and delivery, became part of the Dr. Zachary Smith character on Lost in Space . Harris played a similarly pompous diplomat on Get Smart in 1970. His female assistant

456-399: A close relationship with their new co-worker. In 1962, Scheimer, Sutherland and Prescott eventually left True Line, and Scheimer began independently working on commercials. He figured that he could form his own company to produce animation. In September of that year, he, Sutherland and Ira Epstein, who had worked for Harmon but had left the firm, formed Filmation Associates. The company's name

513-579: A co-starring role opposite Michael Rennie in The Third Man , from 1959 to 1965. He played Bradford Webster, an eccentric, cowardly assistant. Half the episodes were shot in London, England; the rest were filmed in Hollywood. Harris appeared in two 1961 episodes of The Twilight Zone , including a heroic role in "The Silence", in which he ended up defending a young man challenged to be silent for

570-501: A decade to complete the film. In the meantime, Filmation turned their attention to a more successful medium, network television . For the next few years they made television commercials and some other projects for other companies and made an unsuccessful pilot film for a Marx Brothers cartoon series. They also tried to develop an original series named The Adventures of Stanley Stoutheart (later renamed Yank and Doodle ), but they were never able to sell it and almost closed down. That

627-492: A handful of scientists remain, men who have vowed to rebuild what has been destroyed. This is their achievement: Ark II, a mobile storehouse of scientific knowledge, manned by a highly trained crew of young people. Their mission: to bring the hope of a new future to mankind. (Voice of Jonah): Ark II log, entry number 1. I, Jonah,...Ruth,...Samuel,...and Adam are fully aware of the dangers we face as we venture into unknown, maybe even hostile, areas. But we’re determined to bring

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684-550: A modified Brubaker Box , a kit car using a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle sedan chassis. The Roamer was carried in the rear of the Ark II. Guest stars included Jonathan Harris , Malachi Throne , Jim Backus , Geoffrey Lewis , Philip Abbott , Robert Ridgely , Helen Hunt , and Robby the Robot as the title character built by Samuel in the episode "The Robot." Helen Hunt appears in the episode "Omega." Actor Daniel Selby auditioned for

741-473: A stockboy. While there was little money for luxuries, Jonathan's father made an effort to expand his son's cultural horizons with occasional trips to see Yiddish theatre and by listening to opera on the dining room radio. Young Jonathan was enthralled. Although he could seldom afford tickets to them, Broadway plays were also an early interest. He detested his Bronx accent and by high school cultivated an English one in its place, watching British B-movies at

798-480: A whole year at a prestigious gentleman's club. Harris also portrayed Charles Dickens in a 1963 episode of Bonanza . From 1963 to 1965, Harris co-starred in the sitcom The Bill Dana Show . He played Mr. Phillips, the pompous manager of a posh hotel who is constantly at odds with his bumbling Bolivian bellhop, the Bill Dana character José Jiménez . Don Adams rounded out the cast as an inept house detective,

855-678: Is named in his honor. Scheimer was married to Joanne "Jay" Wucher (1931–2009) until her death. They had one son, Lane (b. 1956), and one daughter, Erika (b. 1960). Scheimer underwent quadruple bypass surgery in the late 1990s and was subsequently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease . In 2012, he was honored with an Inkpot Award for his contributions to animation. He died from the disease at his home in Tarzana, California , on October 17, 2013, two days before his 85th birthday. Jonathan Harris Jonathan Harris (born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin ; November 6, 1914 – November 3, 2002)

912-607: Is sometimes incorrectly reported that the Ark II was built by Dean Jeffries , who constructed various fantastic vehicles for science-fiction films and television. These include the Landmaster for the film Damnation Alley , with which the Ark II is sometimes confused. In addition, the series also featured a jetpack called the Jet Jumper, and the Ark Roamer, a smaller, 4-wheeled all-terrain vehicle built by Brubaker from

969-633: The Hebrew Bible . It was set in a post-apocalyptic 25th century (specifically, 2476, the show having debuted in 1976), after Earth's civilizations had been decimated by the effects of waste, pollution , and warfare, falling back to a civilization comparable to the Dark Ages . The surviving scientists pooled their knowledge and resources, training three young people (and the chimp, who was capable of speech and abstract reasoning) to search for remnants of humanity, reintroducing lost ideas as they traveled

1026-638: The Bulmanian Ambassador in the Get Smart episode "How Green Was My Valet". Harris was also a co-star, alongside Charles Nelson Reilly , in the series Uncle Croc's Block , in which Harris and Reilly portrayed malcontents producing a children's television show. Harris played the director and Reilly the titular host, Uncle Croc. In the cartoon Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987), he played lackey and sycophant Mortdred to

1083-586: The Cosby Kids and Star Trek: The Animated Series . For Star Trek: The Animated Series , Scheimer won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Entertainment - Children's Series. Early in Filmation's history, Scheimer also contributed a number of guest or secondary voices for the various productions. Most notably, he provided the voice of Dumb Donald on Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids . He

1140-789: The Olympian Computer on Sport Billy , Gremlin on The New Adventures of Flash Gordon , Bumper on Gilligan's Planet , and Tracy the Gorilla on Ghostbusters . The Filmation studio had emerged as a leading company in television animation, but it was no longer an independent company. The studio was purchased by the TelePrompTer Corporation in 1969. Westinghouse Electric Corporation , through its Group W Productions division, acquired Filmation along with its purchase of TelePrompTer's cable and entertainment properties in 1981. Despite this, Scheimer continued leading

1197-421: The animated Superman series. In multiple episodes of the 1995–1997 cartoon series Freakazoid! , Harris reprised the cowardly Smith character and dialogue under the name "Professor Jones," uttering Smith's catchphrase "Oh, the pain!" Emphasizing the target of the parody, numerous characters would ask him, "Weren't you on a TV show with a robot?" In 2001, a year prior to his death, he recorded voice work for

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1254-416: The animated theatrical short The Bolt Who Screwed Christmas . The film, Harris's last work, was released posthumously in 2009. In 1990, Harris reunited with the cast of Lost in Space in a filmed celebration of the 25th anniversary of the series' debut, at an event attended by more than 30,000 fans. Harris made a number of other convention appearances with other cast members of Lost in Space , including

1311-524: The arts theater. He also developed interests in archaeology, Latin, romantic poetry and Shakespeare . Jonathan legally changed his name from "Charasuchin" to "Harris" before entering college after a year-long standoff with his father, who disagreed with the change. Harris earned a degree in pharmacology from Fordham University , from which he graduated in 1936. Harris was married to his high school sweetheart, Gertrude Bregman, from 1938 until his death. They had one child, Richard, born 1942. Acting

1368-399: The barren landscape in the high-tech Ark II. The show mentions a "headquarters" and that the crew are scientists. The titles "commander" and "captain" are both used to refer to Jonah. All the installments began and ended with numbered entries in the Ark II's log, which Lester, in character as Jonah, narrated in voiceover. Like other Filmation shows, Ark II also had a moral lesson derived from

1425-613: The cast and crew. The series is best-remembered for its eponymous vehicle: a futuristic-looking six-wheeled combination RV and mobile laboratory. The 44 ft long vehicle was a fiberglass body on a 1971 Ford C-Series (C-700) cabover, by the Brubaker Group. The front end of the Ark II prop was later re-used as the nose portion of the Seeker spacecraft in the Filmation series Space Academy and Jason of Star Command . It

1482-484: The cast was, in fact, most notable as he voiced several supporting characters, including Orko (and other characters with a similar Smurfs -voice), Stratos , King Randor and others. The reason that Scheimer performed the voices for so many supporting characters was that the "official" voice actors were contracted to perform no more than three different voices per episode. Since there were usually only three regular cast members working on each show, Scheimer would fill in

1539-446: The character: "And we'd start working on a scene together, and he'd have a line, and then in the script I'd have my reply, and he'd say, 'No, no, no, dear boy. No, no, no. Before you say that, The Robot will say this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, and then, you'll deliver your line.' He truly, truly single-handedly created the character of Dr. Zachary Smith that we know — this man we love to hate, coward who would cower behind

1596-540: The company. He played a significant role in the creation of the cartoons He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and BraveStarr . As well as the executive producer, he was also co-credited for the series' musical score under the pseudonym "Erika Lane" (which combined the names of his daughter Erika and son Lane). It had also been used as a character name on the 1967 Filmation series Fantastic Voyage . He became

1653-561: The first human to be born in cyberspace, battles Triple XXX: an evil siren who desires an earthly body, and who gains power through mankind's baser carnal desires. The movie, which has been compared to the majority of Ralph Bakshi 's work, was never distributed. Scheimer also provided consultation work for Gang of Seven (G7) Animation. The Lou Scheimer Gallery at the ToonSeum, a museum of comic and cartoon art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,

1710-514: The in-house Filmation DVD releases in Region 1 by BCI Entertainment’s Ink & Paint brand, this series was sourced from the original NTSC film elements, with correct speed and pitch. Savor Ediciones, S.A. released Ark II: La Serie Completa as a 4-disc Region 2 DVD box set on May 20, 2009. Unlike the BCI set, this release only contains the episodes, no bonus features. Being a Region 2 release for Spain,

1767-409: The little boy, 'Oh, the pain! Save me, William!' That's all him!" When the series was renewed for its third and final season, it remained focused on Harris' character, Dr. Smith. While the series was still solidly placed in the middle of the ratings pack, the writers appeared to run out of fresh ideas, and the show was unexpectedly canceled in 1968 after 83 episodes, despite protests from its fans. In

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1824-720: The main villain Darkstorm. Harris also provided the voice of the Cylon character Lucifer, an antagonist on the original ABC version of Battlestar Galactica (1978). Harris spent much of his later career working as a voice actor, and during it he was heard on television commercials as well as on cartoons such as Channel Umptee-3 , The Banana Splits , My Favorite Martian , Rainbow Brite , Darkwing Duck , Happily Ever After , Problem Child , Spider-Man , A Bug's Life , Buzz Lightyear of Star Command , and Toy Story 2 . He also did voiceover work in an episode of

1881-600: The mid-1970s, Harris starred in live-action roles in two Saturday morning children's series, Space Academy and Uncle Croc's Block , and was a well-known TV spokesman for the International House of Pancakes . He made several cameo and guest appearances during this period, including episodes of Bewitched and Sanford and Son . In a 1971 episode of Night Gallery , titled "Since Aunt Ada Came to Stay", Harris played Professor Nicholas Porteus, an expert on witchcraft. His last series guest-starring role

1938-446: The position of art director while working at Larry Harmon Pictures on the made-for-TV Bozo and Popeye cartoons. He formed a close working relationship with former Disney animator Hal Sutherland , with the two later becoming business partners. Larry Harmon eventually closed the studio in 1961. Scheimer and Sutherland went to work at a small company called True Line. While working there, they were contracted by SIB Productions,

1995-466: The preceding events seen in the episode. However, the epilogue log entry narrated by Jonah is used to deliver the moral rather than have any of the characters break the fourth wall (i.e. speak directly to the camera and TV viewers) to deliver the moral which was common in most Filmation shows. In "The Launch of Ark II," the documentary filmed for the release of the DVD set, Lou Scheimer and others mention that

2052-563: The program was filmed during the summer of 1976 predominantly on location at Paramount Ranch near Malibu, California . Establishing footage of the Ark traveling at high speed was shot at the Rogers Dry Lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base . The show was filmed at a rate of two episodes per week. According to Lou Scheimer, Moochie the chimpanzee was very angry and aggressive as a result of mistreatment by his trainer, sometimes witnessed by

2109-439: The promise of a new civilization to our people and our planet. Ark II had a racially mixed cast starring Terry Lester as Ark II's commander, Jonah, Jean Marie Hon as Ruth, José Flores as Samuel, and a chimpanzee named Moochie (owned and trained by Darrell Keener) responding to the name of Adam and voiced by Lou Scheimer. The show's premise was inspired by the story of Noah's Ark , and the characters were given names taken from

2166-429: The remaining voices on their own later, because he did not see himself as a "proper" actor and was ashamed of recording with the other voice actors due to severe budget restrictions. The pitch of his voice was often changed by using a "harmonizer", which could control the pitch without altering the speed of the sound. The animated series also pioneered a type of programming known as first-run syndication . Another first

2223-429: The rest of the male cast. This is also why his wife and daughter did various small parts in the first season of He-Man , with Erika Scheimer performing supporting female voices and occasional voice-acting for young boy characters. During the second season of He-Man , and all of She-Ra: Princess of Power , Erika received an onscreen credit as an actor and also directed the voice actors, and she and her father recorded

2280-460: The role of Samuel, but Jose Flores won the role. BCI Eclipse LLC (under its Ink & Paint classic animation entertainment brand), under a license it had obtained from Entertainment Rights , released Ark II: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on November 7, 2006. The BCI Eclipse 4-disc set included many special features, and the episodes were presented uncut, digitally remastered and presented in their original production order. Unlike many of

2337-496: The soundtrack is the dubbed Spanish version. Unfortunately, the original English soundtrack was not included, even as a secondary option. The discs are encoded in the PAL video format. Lou Scheimer Louis Scheimer (October 19, 1928 – October 17, 2013) was an American producer and voice actor who was one of the original founders of Filmation . He was also credited as an executive producer of many of its cartoons. Scheimer

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2394-477: The studio's properties. Scheimer effectively went into retirement after the end of his studio. In the late 1990s, he returned to the field of animation. A Dutch investment company, Dreamweavers, NV., approached him with a concept based on an off-kilter Dutchman's renderings of characters aimed at young adults. Scheimer went into production on Robin and the Dreamweavers , an adult animated feature film . Robin,

2451-696: Was Harris's first love. In 1939, at age 24, he prepared a fake résumé and tried out for a repertory company at the Millpond Playhouse on Long Island . He was hired by the director, Richard Brooks , to appear in a series of 26 plays the company performed in the summer of 1940. In 1942, Harris won the leading role of a Polish officer in the Broadway play The Heart of a City , adopting a Polish accent. In 1946, he starred in A Flag Is Born , opposite Quentin Reynolds and Marlon Brando . Harris

2508-607: Was a popular character actor for 30 years on television, making his first guest appearance on the episode "His Name Is Jason" on The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre in 1949. The role led to other roles in such series as: The Web , Lights Out , Goodyear Television Playhouse , two episodes of Hallmark Hall of Fame , Armstrong Circle Theatre , three episodes of Studio One , Telephone Time , Schlitz Playhouse of Stars , Climax! , Outlaws , The Twilight Zone , Bonanza , The Rogues , The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , and Zorro , among many others. Harris landed

2565-400: Was actually implied that this villainous character that sabotaged the mission and ended up with us was going to be killed off after a while. Jonathan played him as written, which was this really dark, straight-ahead villain." The series was successful upon its debut and, midway through the first season, Harris began to rewrite his own dialogue to add more comedy because he felt that his strength

2622-474: Was also the voice of Legal Eagle and the Brown Hornet 's sidekick Stinger, and did voice-over narration during the opening credits of the majority of Filmation shows and cartoons. In Jason of Star Command and Space Academy , he was consistently heard as generic voices over intercoms. In the live-action series The Ghost Busters , which starred Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch with Bob Burns, he

2679-498: Was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and film appearances, as well as voiceovers . Two of his best-known roles were as the prudent accountant Bradford Webster in the television version of The Third Man and the fussy villain Dr. Zachary Smith of the 1960s science-fiction series Lost in Space . Near the end of his career, he provided voices for the animated features A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2 . The second of three children, Harris

2736-514: Was born on November 6, 1914, in the Bronx , New York City, to Sam and Jennie Charasuchin, Russian-Jewish immigrants. His father worked in Manhattan 's Garment District . The family lived in a six-story tenement, and his mother often took in boarders to make ends meet, giving them Jonathan's room and bed and relegating him to sleep on the dining room chairs. By age 12 he was working in a pharmacy as

2793-537: Was considered something of a cult icon for the role of Dr. Smith, Harris became typecast as a fey and sometimes campy villain. For example, Irwin Allen cast Harris as a villainous "Pied Piper" in an episode of Land of the Giants . Approached by Allen a second time, to star in a children's series, Jumbalina and the Teeners , Harris turned it down. In 1970, Harris played the role of another not-so-likeable villain,

2850-521: Was in portraying a comic villain. Due to Harris's popularity on the show, Irwin Allen approved his changes and gave him carte blanche as a writer. Harris subsequently stole the show, mainly via a seemingly never-ending series of alliterative insults directed toward The Robot, which soon worked their way into popular culture. Dr. Smith's best-known tropes included spitefully calling The Robot epithets such as "bubble-headed booby" and "clamoring clod". According to Bill Mumy, Harris moved quickly to develop

2907-521: Was invented because according to Scheimer, "We were working on film, but doing animation." Prescott joined them soon after the company's formation, and the trio were the company's main producers. They immediately started work on Journey Back to Oz , an animated sequel to the MGM film The Wizard of Oz and loosely based on the Oz series of books by L. Frank Baum . Due to financial problems, it took them about

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2964-604: Was named Zachary. Harris also guest-starred on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir . Harris was cast over two other actors for the role of Dr. Zachary Smith, the evil and conniving enemy agent on Lost in Space . The character did not appear in the original 1965 pilot episode for CBS , nor did The Robot . The series was already in production when Harris joined the cast, and starring/co-starring billing had already been contractually assigned. Harris successfully negotiated to receive "Special Guest Star" billing on every episode. Bill Mumy said of Harris' role in his first episode: "It

3021-464: Was on an episode of Fantasy Island . He also starred as the character Fagan in the first episode of the science fiction series Ark II . Harris taught drama, and was Chuck Norris 's vocal coach for many years. Norris credited Harris for teaching him "how to speak" by sticking his fingers in Norris's mouth, adding that Harris was the only person in the world he would allow to do that. Although he

3078-533: Was the son of a German Jew who, according to family legend, had to leave Germany in the early 1920's after punching a young Adolf Hitler in 1921 or 1922, "well before" the Beer Hall Putsch . Scheimer graduated from Carnegie Tech University (now Carnegie Mellon University ) in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , with a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1952. In the mid-1950s, Scheimer was appointed to

3135-478: Was the storyline being based on an action figure toy; before this time, FCC regulations had prohibited any type of children's programming being based on a toy. Scheimer transformed He-Man from a graphically violent version of Conan the Barbarian into a pro-social character, who imparted a life lesson to impressionable viewers in each episode. In 1989, Westinghouse decided to shut down Filmation and sell

3192-818: Was the voice of Zero, the unseen boss of the main characters. Scheimer also provided the voices of Stubby on The New Adventures of Gilligan , N'kima on Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle , Bat-Mite , the Bat-Computer and Clayface on The New Adventures of Batman , M.O. on Space Sentinels , Trouble, Spinner and Scarab on Tarzan and the Super 7 ' s Superstretch and Microwoman and Web Woman , Dinny on Fabulous Funnies , Mighty Mouse on The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle , Tom Cat , Jerry Mouse , Spike , Tuffy , Slick Wolf and Barney Bear on The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show ,

3249-405: Was until they were approached by DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger to do a cartoon based on Superman . Superman premiered on September 10, 1966, and was followed by several of the other DC superheroes, and then, in 1968, the first Archie Show . Both series greatly helped Filmation's popularity to increase into the 1970s, when it scored big with several of its series, such as Fat Albert and

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