/ David Pescovitz / 2:52 pm Mon Feb 6, 2012

Dick Tufeld, voice of Lost In Space's Robot, RIP

WordPress Wp-Content Uploads 2012 01 Tufeld I had missed this sad news, but Dick Tufeld, the man who gave Robby the Robot his voice on Lost In Space, died last month. He was 85. Along with his famous catchphrase "Danger, Will Robinson!" and the intro to Lost In Space, Tufield's voice was also heard at the beginning of "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea."
Dick Tufeld (IMDB, thanks Charles Pescovitz!)

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  1. I won’t be the first to say so, but Robot was just named Robot.  Robby was on Forbidden Planet.

      2.  The GUNTER (no “H”) thing is essentially a retcon, really.  The phrase you cite as the basis for the acronym shows up stenciled on a crate in the episode “The Time Merchant”, well into the 3rd & final season, and is never seen or heard in acronymic form.  The Robot himself did, however, have occasion to refer to himself as a “General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental CONTROL Robot”, clearly the name of a class and not an instance, and the narrator (Mr. Tufeld) called him an “Environmental Control Robot” from the very beginning.

        Jonathan Harris nicknamed him Claude — a wonderful pun!

      3.  Non-Theorizing? Is that some especially important thing for a robot to not be able to do? Are all the theorizing robots still hanging out in the basement smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, trying to grow goatees, and figure out the meaning of 42 while the environment gets all out of control?

        1.  Yes, I’ve pondered that myself.  Perhaps he confines himself to conjecture.  Another possibility: if he were to start theorizing, it might be the slippery slope leading to robotoid-hood.

          Then again, if his own statements count for anything, he’s one heck of a theorizing robot already and was from practically the beginning!

          And, truth be told, he’s really not much good at controlling the environment.  But we love him nonetheless.

    1.  Worth noting, however, is that both robots were designed by the same guy: Robert Kinoshita. 

      Who (cross appendages) will turn 98 in a few weeks!  Praise Bob and his mind children!

  4. The Lost in Space robot did have a proper name, although it was seldom used.

    It’s name is GUNTER – General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Robot.

    Robby is, in all aspects, a superior robot to GUNTER.

    1. Except the aspects that count, like loyalty, self-sacrifice and the ability to deliver a crushing bon mot.

        1. Actually, he has a replicator unit, but nobody ever requested alcoholic beverages. Just Thor’s Hammer.

      2.  AND his ability to defeat Robby (or a Robotoid “played” by Robby) in battle, as happened in the 1st-season episode “The War of the Robots”!

  5. Robby actually made an appearance on Lost in Space, but with different legs than he had on Forbidden Planet.

    I was an eager little Lost in Space fan as a tiny kid. I remember watching the pilot on its first airing with my family on our B&W set! Pretty heady stuff as a 4 – 5 year old.

    Last year, via Hulu, I watched the original, no-Robot / no-Dr. Smith pilot, and about a half dozen episodes of the show as aired. They were both incredibly serious and really, really dumb. In one of the episodes two space walkers are in danger of being fried by the blazing heat of a passing comet . . .

    1. In one of the episodes two space walkers are in danger of being fried by the blazing heat of a passing comet . . .

      Dear God… I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but little 7-year-old Donnie Petersen would have totally bought that plot point, had he seen that particular episode.  I have no memory of that one, but I’ve never forgotten Smith croaking “Moisture!” when he became a plant.

      Man, that was a fun show, in my memory at least.  Penny was my first crush.  (Yeah, I know, get in line.)  Wonder if it holds up?  I was saddened to discover that (except for a handful of 1st-season episodes) Land of the Lost does not.

      1. I just re-watched the whole series.  Those people wouldn’t have survived a two-hour picnic in Griffith Park.  And Professor Robinson was a dick.  The Robot remains the most likeable member of the cast.

      2. Best Dr. Smith centric episode: the one where a floating space chick falls for Dr. Smith and woos him into a sleep/space walk.

        “Handsome Pretty Handsome Dr. Smith!!”

        1.  “Smith-centric” is almost a redundancy, given the show’s rapid evolution into ‘The Jonathan Harris Show’.  But I might name as my own favorite in that category “Invaders from the Fifth Dimension”, which constitutes a textbook example of why kids should be wary of talking to strangers.  (Aliens need a humanoid brain for their ship; Smith volunteers Will Robinson’s.)

      3.  Donald: That infernal comet shows up at the end of the first episode (“The Reluctant Stowaway”) and the beginning of the second (“The Derelict”); it is, in fact, the basis for the show’s first cliffhanger ending.

        The walking, talking carrot guy and so on are from the notorious “The Great Vegetable Rebellion”, the penultimate episode in the series.  And if you want to relive what I for one consider the top Penny-centric episode, try “My Friend, Mr. Nobody” from the first season: it’s a joy.

        1.  As a kid in the 90’s, I watched a lot of old TV shows (back when TV Land was good) including of course all the sci-fi classics like Star Trek and Lost in Space.

          The vegetable planet episode was one of my favorites, but I hadn’t thought of it or remembered its existence in years – thanks :)

    2. Robby actually made an appearance on Lost in Space, but with different legs than he had on Forbidden Planet.

      He played a robotoid rather than a robot.

      1. You’re quite right about his playing a “robotoid” — in his FIRST guest appearance.  But as I note elsewhere here, there was a second, in which he was back to being a mere robot, and not a very charismatic one at that.

    3.  Actually, Robby appeared in TWO episodes, “The War of the Robots” (as an evil “Robotoid”) and the 3rd-season opener “Condemned of  Space” (as a rather dull Guard Robot).  However, aside from a minor cosmetic alterations (new flat-black paint job, yellow pinstripe highlighting on the arms, and a missing “radar” antenna),  Robby was just as he appeared on “Forbidden Planet”; the legs were the same.

      1. I know Robby appeared in other TV shows. An episode of The Twilight Zone for one.

        Was there ever one in which his legs ended in a “box,” like the Lost in Space robot, rather than separate feet?

  6. I really loved that voice. So much energy. I also am extremely fond of the Lost In Space movie. for a couple of reasons.
    1) The father son story
    2) The smart kid
    3) Heather Graham
    4) Joey the Space pilot.
    5) Mrs. Robinson skin tight costume for  hyper sleep.
    6) Robot voice.

    Not necessarily in that order, but all contributed. I also thought the effects were pretty good.

  7. Man, I am in total awe of the depth of LIS knowledge here. Most geek wannabes just drone on and on (and on) about Star Wars trivia… bah! This is the real deal, folks. Well done!

    Oh, and since we’re reminiscing, a big shout out to The Promised Planet which shows the Good Doctor at his grooviest, bewigged, ’68 best!

    1.  Ah, yes, “The Promised Planet”!  And who sez LiS wasn’t socially relevant?  In fact, it beat STAR TREK’s space-hippie episode, “The Way to Eden”, to the air by over a year.

      (Oh, and do we recall the primary motivation for the Robinsons’ space odyssey in the first place?  Yep, the population crisis — mentioned within minutes of the beginning of the first episode.  And THAT beat the ST:TOS overpopulation episode “The Mark of Gideon” to the screen by by more than THREE years.)  (Not that we’re turning this into a LiS-vs.-ST thing, since that would by silly….)

  8. In fact, it beat STAR TREK’s space-hippie episode, “The Way to Eden”, to the air by over a year.

    But I have to admit, I still remember that song to this day… whereas the music from Promised Planet? Lost in space (or at least time)…

    1.  “Eden” had the better original music, certainly.  How do you beat Spock on Vulcan harp?  The award for best psychedelic lighting must go to “Promised”, though.

      1. Not Cool? Was just having fun, but happy to withdraw if I’m coming across like a dick. That happens.

    1. Enough with this “GUNTER” business already!  At least we’re not referring to him as a “Rambler-Crane series Robot”, as I saw done in a few Tufeld obits.  (That would refer specifically to the Robot in the unfortunate 1998 film version of “Lost in Space”, also voiced by Tufeld.)

      Anyhow … now that you mention it, the Robot’s bubble does seem vertically elongated somehow in the photo.

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