For kids of the ’60s, it was a thrilling weekly ride and for adults revisiting it later, it became a time capsule of an era when television dared to mix earnest family drama with outlandish spectacle.

Lost in Space started out as a pretty serious science fiction show, but over time it became sillier and more over-the-top. This shift toward campiness meant that Dr. Smith, along with Will Robinson ...

"Give me a child at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life." So the fanatical teacher of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969) liked to say. And so the TV networks have repeatedly proved.