EMail from Kevin Burns - Irwin Allen's DVD's Project Updates

September 27, 2005

Dear Robert -

Fox has asked me to get them supplemental material for all Irwin Allen DVD releases. All episodes are being TRANSFERRED and MASTERED in High Definition. I'm not sure but I doubt Fox intends to release them in HD format at the present time. It's enough that each episode (including pilots) will be re-mastered from original 35mm elements, etc.

I know that Time Tunnel is first up. Voyage is next. Poseidon and Inferno also. Giants is not for awhile, I think. Five Weeks in a Balloon, Voyage (movie) and The Lost World are also being worked on.

You'll have to check with Fox for specifics.

Kevin Burns

P.S. If Jeff T. really wants to discount my information ("it's what THEY say that counts...") then I suggest that he and your readers communicate with Fox Home Entertainment directly. I will no longer answer questions related to this project.

Lost in Space Action Figures Update!

Norman at Sci-Fi Metro asked me to post an update on the next wave of Lost in Space action figures. The next release of figures will include, Maureen Robinson, Judy Robinson, Penny Robinson, Major Donald West, and Verda. These will be limited to only 1000 action figures, and costing $49.99 each. Release date will be May 2006.


Pre-orders are being taken, and no payment is due until figures are ready to ship.

Best,

Robert - "Uncle Odie"
www.Uncleodiescollectibles.com

Happy Anniversary Lost in Space!

September 15, 2005 with the birth of Irwin Allen's Lost in Space adventure series. For three years on CBS this classic TV series came into our homes on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM. This show has remain an American favorite for people all over the world. There isn't a show on televison today that comes close on what Irwin Allen created 40 years ago. We salute Irwin Allen, the cast and crew for so many great years of loving memories.

As to the birth of this website on January 11, 2001 we at "Uncle Odie's" Collectibles continue to bring the very best to you the fans. We continue to make changes on the website, add more exciting items within our website inventory, and answering all your e-mails that come our way. We hope to continue our goal here, by making this everyone favorite Irwin Allen website.

Happy Anniversary Lost in Space, and may the Jupiter-2 reach new adventures threw the stars!

Robert - "Uncle Odie"
www.Uncleodiescollectibles.com

Happy 40th Anniversary Lost in Space!

On September 15, 1965 Irwin Allen brought Lost in Space into our homes. For three years on CBS we the 60's baby boomers enjoyed watching the Robinson family, Dr. Smith getting into trouble, and the Robot saving the day. This was the first sci-fi fantasy show of it's kind, even before Star Trek, Star Wars, and others that reached later fame. This classic TV show had it all from special effects, monsters, cliff-hangers, touching music scores by John Williams, a talking carrott, and one of the first television shows going into color in 1967.

This show and other Irwin Allen productions today are true American favorites. Irwin was ahead of his time, and the shows reflect well in todays changing and trouble generations. This week marks the 40th Anniversary of the launch of the Jupiter-2 into deep space. Our website has yet again changed for this celebration. We are proud to be apart of this yearly event. Our main page has a nice look for better navigation through the site. We hope this makes visiting our website more enjoyable. We continue to add exciting things to the site, and make history in many of these hidden treasures we find along our travels.

In the weeks and months ahead you will see yet more changes and more additionals to the site. We truely have the best team working on this website, and together it will only get better.

Happy 40th Anniversary Lost in Space, may you live forever in the hearts of man kind.

Robert - "Uncle Odie"

Happy Birthday, Angela!

On this day in 'Lost in Space' history . . . (September 9, 2005)

Angela Margaret Cartwright was born in Altrincham, Chesire, England on September 9, 1952.

Angela is admired and beloved by many, due to her roles as Linda
Williams on 'Make Room for Daddy' and as Brigitta von Trapp in 'The Sound of Music.' We love her especially, though, as Penny Robinson in Irwin Allen's 'Lost in Space.'

LostinSpace@yahoogroups.com would like to wish Angela a very happy birthday!"

In Loving Memory of Bob Denver

LOS ANGELES - Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy castaway Gilligan on the 1960s TV show "Gilligan's Island" made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died. He was 70.

He died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

His wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with Denver, who also had undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year.

"He was my everything and I will love him forever," Dreama Denver said in a statement.

Denver's signature role was Gilligan, but when he took the role in 1964 he was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963.

Krebs, whose only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, would shriek every time the word "work" was mentioned in his presence.

Gilligan on the other hand was industrious but inept. And his character was as lovable as he was inept. Viewers embraced the skinny kid in the Buster Brown haircut and white sailor hat. So did the Minnow's skipper, Jonas Grumby, who was played by Alan Hale Jr., and who always referred to his first mate affectionately as "little buddy."

"As silly as it seems to all of us, it has made a difference in a lot of children's lives," Dawn Wells, who played castaway Mary Ann Summers, once said. "Gilligan is a buffoon that makes mistakes and I cannot tell you how many kids come up and say, `But you loved him anyway.'"

TV critics were less kind, dismissing the show as inane. But after it was canceled by CBS in 1967, it found new audiences over and over in syndicated reruns and reunion films, including 1981's "The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island." (It also led to the recent TBS reality series "The Real Gilligan's Island.")

One of the most recent of those films was 2001's "Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History," in which other actors portrayed the original seven-member cast while three of the four surviving original members, including Denver, narrated and reminisced.

"Gilligan's Island" writer-creator Sherwood Schwartz insisted that the show had social meaning along with the laughs: "I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications."

Denver went on to star in other TV series, including "The Good Guys" and "Dusty's Trail," as well as to make numerous appearances in films and TV shows.

But he never escaped the role of Gilligan, so much so that in one of his top 10 lists — "the top 10 things that will make you stand up and cheer" — "Late Show" host David Letterman once simply shouted out Denver's name to raucous applause.

"It was the mid-'70s when I realized it wasn't going off the air," Denver told The Associated Press in 2001, noting then that he enjoyed checking eBay each day to keep up on the prices "Gilligan's
Island" memorabilia were fetching.

"I certainly didn't set out to have a series rerun forever, but it's not a bad experience at all," he added.