The Lost Space: 1999 Spin-Offs


SPACE: 1999: FULL MOON
The journey continues, but in a more lighthearted and wacky vein. Bob Saget stars as Moonbase Commander Deke Winkering. Also starring Dave Coulier as Mitch, the zany Class 3 hydroponics robot. The theme music would have been based on a stirring rendition of "The Turkey in the Straw."

SPACE: 1999: THE BIONIC WONDER WOMAN
A last-ditch attempt by Freiberger to save the show, this version would have seen the departure of all other actors and actresses from the show except Catherine Schell, whose "Maya" character, in addition to her dramatically unbalancing metamorphic ability, is also given bionic implants and a magical golden lariat.

SPACE: 1999: ARCHIE'S PLACE
In this proposed Carroll O'Conner vehicle, a feisty middle-aged bigoted member of Moonbase Alpha's Technical Services department opens his own bar.

SPACE: 1999: THE WONDER YEARS
Young Jackie Crawford talks to himself a lot as he grows up on Alpha.

SPACE: 1899
A group of Alphans is hurled back in time over a century and are forced to lead new lives in South Africa during the Boer War. Each week they help solve crimes, stop the British and the Afrikaners from fighting, and teach the Boers the spirit of respect for diversity.

SPACE: 1999: THE INCREDIBLE HULK
Exposure to dangerous levels of nuclear radiation causes John Koenig to periodically turn green and go on destructive rampages whenever he gets angry. Instead of Eagle-counting, fans would have wondered how Alpha could afford to keep making new clothes for Koenig every time his bulging, mutated muscles burst out of them.

SPACE: 1999: SANDERSON AND SON
This spin-off would have brought back Sanderson from "Seance Spectre" and seen him quarrel with his milquetoast son week after week. After enduring constant loudmouth harangues from his father, and endless, boring, and useless seances in which the elder Sanderson and his weak-minded friends attempt to divine the location of the next habitable planet, the son would somehow find a passive-aggressive way of getting even with his old man (Part of the gimmick of the show would be in seeing what form this revenge would take week after week). Rejected for its heavy-handed tone; the first few scripts submitted had Sanderson repeatedly shooting his son with a stun-gun and throwing him through carts full of equipment while raving at the top of his lungs about HABITABLE PLANETS! and KOENIG'S LYING! and I DON'T HAVE GREEN SICKNESS!

SPACE: 1999: THE ROCKFORD FILES
Beef spokesperson James Garner would have seen action on Moonbase Alpha during this lame attempt at turning 1999 into a "private eye" show. The idea was nixed after Brian Johnson refused to build a gold Firebird with fusion thrusters for Rockford to ride around in, citing artistic integrity.

SPACE: 1999: CHEERS
"Sometimes you want to die where everybody knows your name." In this rather macabre follow-up to the original series, the Moon leaves the galaxy and finds itself drifting through empty intergalactic space, its food-production capability finally exhausted, and no hope of reaching another habitable world in time. The Alphans gather at the Moonbase's pub, and prepare for their eventual end by staying hepped up on alcohol and heavy tranquilizers. Each episode would have had a different Alphan being euthanized, and a good deal of second-guessing among the Alphans as to which planet they SHOULD have landed on while they had the chance. Rejected by the network for obvious reasons. Starring John Colasantos as "Coach", George Wendt as "Norm".

SPACE: 1999: PARANOIA
In this adaptation of West End Games' popular role-playing game, the Main Computer on Alpha seizes control of the moonbase complex and informs the Alphans that they are being attacked by Commies. A thorough computer-directed witch-hunt for non-existent Communist infiltrators is launched, with the Main Computer steadily becoming more and more insane due to increasingly faulty programming, and the Alphans becoming more and more paranoid as they attempt to deal with their malfunctioning technological overlord.