Swiss Family Robinson

It is early 19th century. The Swiss Family Robinson are sailing to the west Pacific for a new start. They get shipwrecked on a remote tropical island. It is Karl Robinson (Martin Milner), his wife Lotte (Pat Delaney), son Fred (Willie Aames), younger son Ernie, captain's daughter Helga Wagner (Helen Hunt), and whaler Jeremiah Worth (Cameron Mitchell) who was stranded seven years earlier.

There were a few Swiss Family Robinson during this time. Hollywood sometimes copy other kids' homework. I like the outdoor set. They seem to have built a lot of stuff. I question how this family build all this with limited resources, but that's fine. There is a bit of Gilligan's Island in this. There is also a 12 year old young Helen Hunt walking around here. She doesn't do much more than being the girl on the show except for a couple of episodes. There are some interesting guest stars. The show is episodic. I really like The Tiki when the family shows their colonial thinking. This show is fine.

Great cast and beautiful location, but filled with annoying glitches that make it difficult to really get into it. There are way too many extreme close-up shots...poor direction. Could use a Technical Director to ensure situations are believable...a pirate ship cruising along pulling a dinghy, with only a foresail up (and it's luffing) would be dead in the water. A flintlock pistol with an open frizzen is of no use and will not fire. Things like this needed more attention.

During the height of the early 1970's,producer Irwin Allen scored two brilliant disaster epics like "The Poseidon Adventure"(1972),and "The Towering Inferno"(1974) which were huge runaway hits at the box office and Oscar winners. Since Allen was known for his TV shows of the 1960's he decided to come back to that terrain for the last time around. This show features a modern day family that is stranded on a island with nothing but their wits to stay alive. This show was on the same level as his other family adventure series "Lost In Space",but in this one the family faces off with deadly animals,mysterious cannibals,and dangerous pirates all in a modern day setting and this is not out in the far reaches of outer space,but in the far reaches of an deserted but deadly paradise. I had a chance to see this lost series on a sci-fi channel one evening,and it was highly enjoyable in some parts,but incredibly pathetic in others since when it was on the air,it only lasted one season(from September of 1975 to January of 1976). Look for a very young Helen Hunt(TV's Mad About You)as the Robinson's teenage daughter. Since Martin Milner(Officer Malloy from "Adam-12")was the star of the show,I wonder what he is doing now?

NOTE: This show was on Sunday evenings(where Allen once had his "Voyage" and "Land of the Giants" series on the same time slot at 7:00)on ABC,and in a blink of an eye,it was yanked right off the air by the competition "60 Minutes" in that cold winter of 76.

A family is ship wrecked on an island.

Each episode began with, "IRWIN ALLEN'S PRODUCTION OF ... THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON". How many producers get the name before the title? And those titles and the series music cues were done by wonderful Richard LaSalle. LaSalle had worked on Irwin TV in the 1960s and it was these 1960s connections that made this series great....sometimes.

The series was great when some interesting pirates or Alfred Ryder dropped in on the island (this happened in about half the 20 episodes) but often just okay when it was just the family. There are exceptions to the rule such as the family focused episodes The Typhoon and The Treasure. The Treasure is classic Irwin Allen complete with an exploding volcano (again) and constantly shaking island.

William Welch returns from the bottom of the sea via the time tunnel to become series the story editor.

I think Irwin was playing a joke on viewers in the last episode The Devils. All 1960s Irwin TV shows began in a mildly realistic way and then went over the top with crazy story lines. Irwin seemed to be suggesting this with Swiss Family Robinson as well. In The Devils, something is seen moving through the dark, it appears to be a huge bat. Karl (the father) finds the garden destroyed and the livestock missing? Later, strange lights are seen in the sky. The Devil MAY have arrived on the island?

The series was enjoyed in my 1970s childhood so perhaps today I am looking at it through nostalgic eyes? I say this because many Irwin Allen fans of today just don't like The Swiss Family Robinson. I would say you need to have a love of Richard LaSalle music cues to really enjoy the series. His music in this series is so loud and ever present, the show would never have been the same without it.

I barely remember this show. It wasn't on very long and was the last of the type of TV shows that Irwin Allen produced at 20th Century-Fox Television, starting with "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." I don't know why Allen did this show, but it seems from the result that his heart wasn't it it anymore. Maybe it was because concept shows like this had just become to expensive to make. One thing I do remember well was that although the music was credited to Richard La Salle, much of it was lifted from Jerry Goldsmith's score to the original "Planet of the Apes" movie. Allen's "Lost in Space" TV show did the same thing with its music, much of it actually coming from Bernard Herrmann's scores to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Since all these shows and movies were produced at Fox I guess they could do these things in those days.