Bob May, best known as The Robot on the 1960s television series Lost in Space, has died. He was 69.
May passed away Sunday of congestive heart failure at a Lancaster, Calif., hospital, his daughter, Deborah May, said.
A veteran actor and stuntman, May was the grandson of vaudeville comedian Chic Johnson, who recruited a 2-year-old May to appear in his comedy revue Hellzapoppin.
After following in his grandfather's vaudeville footsteps, May eventually broke out in numerous television series, including ...
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Hammacher Schlemmer is now offering a full-size replica of Lost in Space's B-9 robot, which speaks 511 prerecorded (by the series' Richard Tufeld) phrases and has animated clawed arms. The price tag: $24,500. (Britney just bought three.).... Kate Walsh and Terrence Howard will announce this year's SAG Award nominees Dec. 20 on TNT.... The Today Show site at 4 pm/ET today will Web-premiere the new Spice Girls video.... DotComedy is not pretty. NBC Universal is pulling the plug on its website barely a year after the service launched.
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Oh, how Party of Five's sweet Claudia has grown up. In the nearly six years since the sibling sudser aired its swan song, Lacey Chabert has gotten wild with the Thornberrys, at one point found herself Lost in Space, and then fell in with some Mean Girls. This Sunday at 7 pm/ET, Chabert stars in ABC Family's Hello Sister, Goodbye Life!, a TV-movie about a snarky coed forced to watch over her 7-year-old half sister — with barely an assist from mom Wendie Malick — when tragedy strikes.
TVGuide.com: I have to think that having Just Shoot Me's Wendie Malick play your mom was a big incen
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Question: Okey dokey, my dad and I have a bet riding on this one. My father says that Petticoat Junction came before The Beverly Hillbillies and that Kate and Pearl, though both played by the late, great Bea Benaderet, were not related. I, on the other hand, say that the Hillbillies came before Petticoat — and I am pretty darn sure that there was something about Kate and Pearl being distant cousins or something of the sort. Who's right? Thanks!Answer: Looks like it's a draw on this one, Ashley. And since you broke the age-old Televisionary rule and didn't tell me what your bet was (and that's Mr. Okey Dokey to you, by the way), all I can say is it's either a wash and you owe each other nothing, or you should buy something nice for one another.
You're right on the first count: The Beverly Hillbillies
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Question: I was a big Lost in Space fan as a kid. Watching reruns, I realized there was a big difference between the evil Dr. Smith from the first episodes and the funny Dr. Smith who came along later. What was the deal with that?
Answer: Elementary, you lugubrious lump... you pusillanimous pinhead! (Sorry, my inner Smith got the best of me there, Kevin.)
The simple answer is the one behind so many developments on your favorite shows, both old and new: ratings. As the story goes, actor Jonathan Harris, who played the no-good doctor, and the powers-that-be behind the show, one of many from legendary producer Irwin Allen, realized early on that the truly evil Dr. Smith would wear thin in no time. So although the character was merely sinister when the series launched on CBS in September 1965 — it was his sabotage that got
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