Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen. The series was released by Fox Television and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with eighty-three episodes airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968. Lost in Space was the second of Allen's four science fiction TV series. The show's main theme was space travel adventure. The show's first season was in black and white, but the second and third seasons were in color. The show starred veteran television actors Guy Williams (Zorro), June Lockhart (Lassie), Angela Cartwright (Make Room For Daddy), Mark Goddard and Jonathan Harris. Newcomers Bill Mumy and Marta Kristen also starred.

Conceptually the series is a space-age riff on the classic adventure novel Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. During the first two seasons, the series follows the adventures of an astronaut family that is shipwrecked on an alien world after getting lost trying to reach Alpha Centauri. In the third season they travel to other worlds in their never-resolved search for a way back to Earth.

Following the successful format of Allen's first TV series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the emphasis was on creating exciting fantasy-oriented adventure stories. Each week the show delivered a fast-paced visual assault of dazzling special effects, explosions, monstrous aliens, spaceships, and exotic sets and costumes drenched in bright, primary colors. On the other hand, unlike its space-competitor Star Trek, character development, serious issues, dramatic depth, or even maintaining a coherent story were ignored. ("Don't get logical with me!" was Allen's frequent retort to writers who objected to changes to their scripts. Source: Starlog #219) Critics complained that this was the television equivalent of dangling a shiny object to distract the nondiscriminating viewer. However, in spite of criticism, the show still became a success. [citation needed]

Allen had hit upon a winning formula which he used to create a third fantasy-adventure show, The Time Tunnel (1966-1967), followed by his last and most ambitious series, Land of the Giants (1968-1970), all of which have become cult, if not critical, favorites.