Buffy The Vampire Slayer

’Buffy’ and ’Angel’ screenwriter Doug Petrie, others, hope to revive the classic sci-fi series, "Lost in Space"

Lost in Space Returning ? Classic series reinvented for small screen return.

September 24, 2003 - Variety scoops that the classic sci-fi series Lost in Space may be returning to TV. The trade says that Synthesis Entertainment, founded by Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni, will partner with filmmaker John Woo and screenwriter Doug Petrie (Buffy, Angel) on the new series which is currently being shopped around to networks.

Synthesis, as Variety says, was formed by Burns and Jashni to "bring new life" to creations of the late Irwin Allen (Lost in Space, The Towering Inferno). They had originally planned a primetime TV movie of Lost in Space, but that was scrapped by NBC after the death of Jonathan Harris, who played Dr. Smith in the original series.

Burns talked with the trade about his ambitions for the new series. "This is a drama about a family that survives an incredible cataclysm," he says. "Lost in Space became a different show because of Jonathan Harris and his talent. That was fabulous, but what Doug did was go back to the show Irwin intended to make. Will there be aliens and monsters and robots [in the new show] ? Absolutely. But that’s not what it’s about." The series will reportedly be set around 100 years in the future.

The original series ran from 1965-1968 and followed the struggles a family stranded in space after a stowaway throws their ship off course. The new show will apparently have no relation to the 1998 Lost in Space movie and thus no Blawp.