Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 41. Bill Mumy

Episode Date: March 6, 2015

To mark the 50th anniversary of the classic adventure series "Lost in Space," Gilbert and Frank dial up Will Robinson himself, actor, musician and voice artist Bill Mumy, who shares childhood memories of working with icons Irwin Allen, Brigitte Bardot and Walt Disney and explains why he turned down the role of Eddie Munster. Also, Bill runs afoul of Alfred Hitchcock, stars in three unforgettable "Twilight Zone" episodes and records the novelty song "Fish Heads." PLUS: "The Great Vegetable Rebellion"! Billy meets Keith Richards! Zorro meets Eva Peron! And Gilbert tangles with the Man of Steel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre. And today, we'll be talking to the kid that played Will Robinson on Lost in Space. And aside from that, he's been on classic episodes of The Twilight Zone. Alfred Hitchcock presents. He's worked with Jack Benny. And most importantly, at 10 years old, was sharing the screen with sexpot Brigitte Bardot. So let's get ready to talk to Billy Mummy. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre, and our guest today is an actor,

musician, and voiceover artist whose career has spanned 50 years. He's been in classic TV shows like The Fugitive and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but he'll always be known to audiences as Anthony Fremont on The Twilight Zone, and, of course, as Will Robinson on the series Lost in Space. He's worked with everyone, from Jack Benny to Jimmy Stewart. Today, he has the honor of working with me.

Please welcome Billy Moomy. I'm honored to be here, Gilbert. Thank you kindly. Thanks for doing the show, Bill. You're welcome, Frank. Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. It's real good. And Frank gave me the proper pronunciation of your name as Mummi. I hope I said it right. Yep. Moo like a cow, me like me. Yeah. I was always calling you Billy Mummi. Yeah, I've heard that one a few times, but, you know, my dad said it was this way, so I kind of, you know, went along with it. Your dad was a cattle rancher, wasn't he, Bill? He was indeed.

Yes, he was. And I've been a vegetarian for 35 years. That's funny. Go figure. Now, what got you into show business? The truth of the matter is I broke my leg when i was about four years old and i couldn't go out and run around with my pals for you know while i was in a cast and i really just stared daily at zoro on tv and superman guy williams who eventually you know played my father

in lost in space and and george reeves as super. And those two caped adventurers just, you know, hit me really hard, like a religion. And I told my parents that I wanted to get inside the television set and be like them. Well, A, we lived in, you know, West L.A. in Los Angeles. in, you know, West L.A. and Los Angeles. B, my mother had worked as a writer's secretary at Fox Studios for 11 years before I was born. Her father, my grandfather, who had passed away before I was born, Harry Gould, had been an agent in the 30s, mostly representing directors and writers, but he had some actors. He represented Boris Karloff, got him the Frankenstein auditions

and negotiations and stuff. Oh, wow. That's a cool thing. So my mother's side of the family wasn't intimidated by, impressed with, or nervous about the entertainment business. My father was, as we said, a cattle rancher. He didn't spend most of his life in L.A. He had just married my mom and moved down here from Bishop. And I was an only child. And my dad's attitude about it was, well, you know, to my mother, if you go with him and he has a good time and that's what he wants to do and that's what you want to do, go ahead and see what happens. So my mother put me on a,

got me on a show called Romper Room, which you guys probably have heard of. Oh, yes. Yeah, it was like a syndicated nursery school in various sections across the country. And, you know, any civilian could sign up and get on Romper Room. But she was smart because she did that to see how I would react with cameras and lights and stuff. And, you know, you can't escape your destiny. I started working. You were six when you when you started officially in the business bill five five okay so Wikipedia lied to me oh oh no well

we'll just have to fix that one well what was the you started going on auditions I mean how quickly did you did you experience any kind of success uh I did some print stuff when I was like barely five, maybe still four. And then the first television episodic I did, I was five, and it was an episode of Riverboat, which was a CBS series

that Darren McGavin was the star on. And many, many, many years later, exactly 40 years later, actually, Darren McGavin and I played the same character in the first Monocle Golem Captain America movie. Oh, I love it. I played the character in World War II, and he played the character in present day. So it was kind of a connect the dots. The one that starred J.D. Salinger's son.

That's right, Matt Salinger. With rubber ears on the back. Of course,. Salinger's son. That's right, Matt Salinger. Matt Salinger. With rubber ears on the back. Of course, of course. It's legendary. And an Italian red skull. You know, I mean, I'm a comic book freak, and Jack Kirby, who co-created Captain America, was a friend of mine, and I was honored to know him.

Oh, how lucky for you. Yeah, you know, so any time the opportunity to be in any kind of superhero comic book-related project has offered itself to me, I've jumped know it. How lucky for you. Yeah, you know, so anytime the opportunity to be in any kind of superhero comic book related project has offered itself to me, I've jumped at it. And my wife was pregnant with our son at the time when we filmed that. We filmed it in Yugoslavia, which was quite an adventure. And yeah, with all respect to Albert Payun, who directed it, it's really bad. You ever seen any of that, Gilbert, the Captain America movie? Oh, no. What was it?

Melinda Dillon and Ronnie Cox and Darren McGavin. Ronnie Cox. Yeah, I mean, the performances aren't that bad. In fact, the guy who played the Italian Red Skull was pretty good. Scott Powelson, I think, was his name. But the movie, yeah, didn't make sense. It wasn't too great. Now, when did you get your most famous role in Lost in Space?

Well, I was cast in Lost in Space in the end of 1964. I just wrapped up a movie with Jimmy Stewart for 20th Century Fox called Dear Bridget with Bridget Bardot. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. You're a little boy. How old were you? All of 10, just double digits. So 10 years old and you're with the most beautiful, sexiest actress in the world. Yep. We saw a picture of you sitting on it i think you were sitting on her lap or sitting on a bed with her yeah we yes i was both and where every man in the world envy

judah i gotta i gotta tell you man and i'm not kidding i absolutely was very hip to how cool that was i was checking out The View, and I was the first American actor to get a screen kiss from Bridget Bardot. Oh, my God. By the time I had worked with Bridget Bardot, I had already worked with Shirley Jones and Connie Stevens and Elizabeth Montgomery

and a few other... And Loretta Young. ...hasty blonde actresses. I had crushes on all of them. But Bridget Bardot was insanely hot. And we flew to France to shoot her scenes where they duplicated her cottage down to the last book and art piece on the wall. She was very nice, and she was beautiful.

And we connected via some letters in 2004 because she has a foundation for animal rights and i donated some photographs and stuff for that but the shoes really cool 40 years later to reconnect with 10 years old in bed with britchie bardo and oh the pain the pain and jimmy stewart was the star of that movie uh bill, and I've heard you say that he's never a nicer guy. The best of the best, I have to tell you. I've worked with a lot of iconic people, you know, and we don't need to list them now. Oh, but we will.

Yeah, that's all right. But, I mean, he was really a total mensch, a brilliant actor, nothing precious or fancy about him. You know, he hung out with the crew. He was happy to stand in when he had to stand in for himself. He played my father. We worked together for 10 weeks. And, you know, when we weren't shooting, he was tossing the ball back and forth with me. We developed a really nice relationship. And his wife, Gloria, had been my Sunday school teacher when I was really little. And it was just a really nice relationship,

and he really laid down the foundation for how you should behave as an artist and as a professional person. And, you know, I can't say I've lived up to it, but I've tried. You played a math genius in that picture. You played his son. Yeah. You played a math genius in that picture. You played his son.

Yeah. Now, because of Jimmy Stewart, that reminds me because Jimmy Stewart and Jack Benny were friends, and you worked with Jack Benny. Yeah, I did an episode of his television show, and it was taped live. I remember that. I did a few live things. The thing with Bob Hope was live,

and I know I sound like I'm 100. Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton, all those live old shows from the late 50s, early 60s. I did skits on all of those. And it was, first of all, I've got to tell you, personally, Jack Benny is one of my favorite all-time comedians. I mean, his timing is just so great. One little look from him was so, you know, right on. And, yeah, I'm really happy to say I worked with those guys. And everybody, we've had a few guests on the podcast who have worked with Benny,

and all of them have said they just loved him as a person. Well, he and I didn't exactly, you know, go out for margaritas after we wrapped. I was probably seven at the time, six, seven. But I can recall it being, you know, a pleasant event and, you know, nothing that I would remember that would scar my young soul, unlike Alfred Hitchcock. Oh, tell us about that. You know, I've told it. Yeah, okay.

So I did three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock's television series. But one of them that I'll discuss now, I was really in every shot. It was all about this kid whose uncle comes back from a holiday, tells him he has a present for him. The kid looks out the window and all his friends are out playing cops and robbers. And he goes up to the room and he goes through his uncle's suitcase and finds a revolver and a box of shells. And he takes the gun and he puts a few bullets in the chamber and puts the rest of the bullets in his pocket, thinking that's his present, and goes out to play with his friends it's a great powerful episodic you know 30 minutes about guns and and all that and during the course of this episode

he slowly but surely he's always been in the chambers and by the end of the show he's filled up all six chambers and you know it's a next time he pulls the trigger something that's going to happen so it's very dramatic but the was, I'm in like every shot. And of course, there are, you know, child labor laws, and you can only work X amount of hours a day, and you have to get your schooling in, blah, blah, blah. So we're midway through the shoot. I'd probably been working three days or something.

And the welfare worker, social worker, said to the assistant director, oh, you're going to lose Billy in like 10 minutes. So they wanted to get one more close-up film before they wrapped me out. And so they decided it would be smart to have me stand in for myself, which I was fine to cooperate and do. But I will point out the fact that I'm not a stand-in. And I was seven. So I'm fidgeting around. I've been

working eight hours, and I'm fidgeting around on my mark while they're trying to light me. So Alfred Hitchcock, who was sitting in his chair, gets up and waddles towards me. And I got to tell you, he always was sweating profusely. And he wore this tight white shirt with a black tie and a suit. And he looked like Jabba the Hutt. I mean, he was really an intimidating physical presence. And I was probably 4'3 or something ridiculous, weighed probably 50 pounds. He walks up to me and he bends down. And this is exactly what he says to me

and no one can hear it but him. And he whispers in my ear and he says, if you don't stop moving about, I'm going to get a nail and I'm going to nail your feet to your mark and the blood will come pouring out like milk. So stop moving. And I'm like, I'm like, what?

Right? I mean, seriously, I'm like, huh? That's a pretty good impression, too, Bill. Thank you. So they get this shot, and they wrap me out for the day, and I'm here to say that 55 years, 53 years later, if he had said to me, thank you, Billy, I was just kidding, you know, I wasn't really going to nail your feet to your mark,

if he'd said that to me, I probably wouldn't have remembered it, right? But you could tell, I could tell that he really got pleasure in the knowledge that he scared the heck out of this little kid who was working for him really hard and really doing a good job. So I could, you know, there's something twisted about somebody who wants to scare a little kid who was working for him really hard and really doing a good job. So I could, you know, there's something twisted about somebody who wants to scare a little kid. And I remember telling my mother as we walked to the parking lot that night at Universal, we walked to her pink 1959 Cadillac, telling her, and he said it was going to be on my seat.

And my mother just looked at me and goes, oh, honey, he's British. They have a different sense of humor. And I heard for years after that, when his office was on the lot, you wouldn't go near it. That's absolutely true. I walk, you know, for those of us who are familiar with the layout of Universal's Main Street, Alfred Hitchcock's bungalow is at the end on the right next to Edith Head's department. And, you know, you kind of had to pass it unless you walked all around a couple of stages and went out of your way. And I went out of my way to walk around.

I worked there a lot. I went out of my way to not want to bump into him or talk to him or see him again. And you never did. No, I never did. I worked for him. I did another episode of his show after that. But he didn't direct it. I didn't see him.

So you did Bang, You're Dead. Was that the one you were talking about? Yes. And then you did one with Claude Rains, didn't direct it. I didn't see him. So you did Bang, You're Dead. Was that the one you were talking about? Yes. And then you did one with Claude Rains, didn't you? Yeah, called Door Without a Key. Yeah. What was he like? He was great. That show was mostly just the two of us and John Larch, who had played my father in It's a Good Life in the Twilight Zone,

where I was Anthony Fremont. It was like the three of us in a police station. It was, I don't know if it holds up, but Claude Rains was great. And he was one of those actors that my mother was really, you know, excited about, that I was working with. Oh, my God, honey, you're working with Claude Rains. Oh, you know, The Invisible Man and all these great films, and that's great for her, but, you know, when I was that age, I had never seen any of those movies, so, you know, it wasn't a big deal to me.

I didn't get excited. The only person I really got excited about when I was little to work with and nervous about was Walt Disney, maybe Lucy, you know, because they were, Walt Disney gave you the Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland and Zorro and all that stuff. And Lucy, everybody knew Lucy. But the other people that I worked with that were big stars, I hadn't really been familiar with their catalog. So I wasn't, you know, intimidated. Sure. Does it hit you all these years later when you became an adult? Oh my God, there's, I'm sitting there, I'm acting with Claude Rains, and I didn't even know who he was.

You know what hit me? And I don't mean this in a smarmy way, if it sounds that way. What hit me is working with people as an adult who either weren't prepared or weren't very good, or directors who were in a frenzy and didn't kind of, you know what I mean? And then my mind would go, geez, I worked with these guys who really had it down. You know, I worked with these guys who were like, were absolutely like Olympic champions in their fields. And, you know, you didn't appreciate it when you were little. And then you get into the game and you realize oh my god i worked with these cats who were like really great and it's a nice feeling obviously

okay so now finally i'll go back to lost in space yeah man so how how old you were already a respected actor as a little kid. Yeah, I had worked half my life when I was cast in Lost in Space and probably had quite a pretty impressive catalog. I didn't audition for it. I just wrapped up Dear Bridget for 20th Century Fox and Lost in Space was a Fox show. And Irwin Allen, who produced and created Lost in Space, just cast me from doing Dear Bridget. But to do Lost in Space, to play Will Robinson, for me, was exactly what I had been passionate about wanting to get into acting in the first place for. He was like a little superhero. He saved the day. He had a ray gun.

He actually used it. He could fly the ship. He could program the robot. He saved everybody all the time. Will Robinson was like, man, that was all I wanted to be. So I had nothing but a great time. I was 10 when we started and made the pilot. And I was 14 when we went off the air. And those were great years for me.

And those people are really still, like, family to me. And there you were doing scenes with Zorro. Yeah, that was, I mean, can you imagine for me? I mean, because, you know, whether I'd worked with all those other guys or not, you know, to work with Zorro, Guy Williams was such a great, impressive person. And when you stood next to him, especially when you were four years old then, you know, here was this incredibly handsome, you know, strong, likable guy. And especially the black and white, the first 30 episodes or so that we did, there's a few really nice father-son scenes between Guy and I that I cherish.

And I see those once in a while. And there's beautiful John Williams score to Lost in Space. Oh, yeah. And it's nice. A lot of that holds up to me, that early adventure ensemble sci-fi Lost in Space stuff. Then it kind of became that campy Three Stooges thing with me, Smith, and the robot, which I cherish as well from a totally different, you know, Marx Brothers-ish Three Stooges perspective. But the show changed so dramatically in tone.

And you just brought up Mr. Smith. Dr. Smith to you, dear boy. My Germanos are your usual friends, you bubbling boobie. That's great. Now, and Frank and I were just talking about the amazing thing is that he always convinced everyone he was like a British Shakespearean actor, but he was a Jew from the Bronx. That's exactly right. Jonathan Harris reinvented himself at a very early age and literally, honestly, down to almost the DNA of his being, he became that person. He became that Piazzaco.

Someone said, are you British? He said, no, I'm just affected. But that's who he became. And he was married for 64 years to this wonderful lady who ran Clairol and she was exactly like him they reinvented themselves together and they lived

this lifestyle of loveliness and gardening and they were just super wonderful people and I loved Jonathan if he was your friend, he was a wonderful friend. And if he, and if he didn't like you, then he, you know, he had no time for you, which is also something I respect in a way, which I'm not really like,

but you know, he, sometimes when we get older, you know, you don't suffer fools anymore. And when he was older, he did not. And I watched and witnessed that a lot. And I, you know, you don't suffer fools anymore. And when he was older, he did not. And I watched and witnessed that a lot. And I, you know, it was kind of, kind of impressive to see. And the two of you became close. Yes, we did. We did. We did several animated projects together for Disney. And there were a handful of, you know, Lost in Space reunion specials on TV and things where we went back to our roles

with the robot and he and I. And we then started hanging out, you know, later in my life, probably the last five, six years of his life. We went to dinner, you know, every couple of months and hung out. It was really a nice relationship. And very importantly, I worked with Jonathan Harris.

Oh, yeah, you were telling me. In the forgotten Problem Child cartoon series. Oh. Yeah. And he was always there a half hour late and completely probably ready to do his stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, I thought I was one of those people, Billy, that thought he was just a British actor, that thought he was a trained Shakespearean actor.

I had no idea that he was from the Bronx, a Jewish guy from the Bronx. And they were a poor family. Oh, they were so poor. There's no punchline to the way but they were literally so poor that when he was um i think i think the story was he was around 12 13 14 um they rented his room out in order to you know pay their bills and he slept on the dining room table for a couple of years. They were really, really poor. And I know that Jonathan was, you know, not poor when he passed away.

We'll put it that way. He did very well, and I'm happy for that. Wow. I was doing research about him. I mean, I learned so much. And I didn't know that he was in a spinoff of The Third Man, that they made a series. Yeah, he worked with Michael Rennie for a couple of years on The Third Man. And then Michael Rennie came and did the only two-part episode of Lost in Space.

We played like an intergalactic collector of species called The Keeper, which was a really good show because, you know, obviously we had two hours to do it. I can't believe it. It's so incredible. I keep talking about harris yeah he's an interesting man like a poor jew from the bronx who looks like he's lived in wealth his whole life in you know from england you think he was to the manner born to look at it yes yep and he just completely reinvented himself. It was a conscious transformation, and it became reality. I mean, that's really who he became. It wasn't an act.

He became that, but it obviously took decades to metamorphosize into that reality that just became his natural self. Has Tim's got a treat for you? Well, actually, a treat in a treat. Get ready for Tim's Dream Cookies. Now in three delicious flavors.

Double Stuff Oreo, Caramel, and Reese's Minis. They're soft, chewy, and baked fresh daily. Try one today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Now, we have to jump to your proudest moment. Now, we have to jump to your proudest moment. On Lost in Space, the vegetable episode. Oh, God. The Great Vegetable Rebellion, where we're working opposite talking carrots.

Jonathan took root as his celery stuck. Guy Williams and June Lockhart couldn't stop laughing and were written out of the next two episodes as punishment. Is that true? Yeah. Oh, that's wild. Yeah, and me, you know, to me, I'm just thinking, this is just a bad comic book, and I'm just going to, you know, to me, Will Robinson was always this little superhero.

That's who I kind of, you know, wanted him to be, whether it was, you know, Zorro or Superman, whatever. Those were the things that, you know, were inspiring me. So I just tried to keep a straight face. I did keep a straight face, but that was, the show got absolutely just campy and ridiculous. campy and ridiculous but you know you have to look back and realize that was 1967 that whole psychedelic period in our pop culture you know and it's such a unique frozen little era where you know the god richard nixon was on laughing you know what i mean yeah just a really weird Nixon was on laughing you know what I mean yeah just a really weird pop art campy and we were opposite Batman was on the same time as Lost in Space we we were on the air before Batman but

then they came on and they were opposite us and um in our second season when we went to color everything just became so unbelievably you know know, bright and crazy. I think Batman really helped Irwin Allen, who created and produced Lost in Space, to turn the show into more of a campy direction. And Jonathan certainly did that. He used to rewrite all of his dialogue. And he knew at the beginning of the series that Dr. Smith, his character as a saboteur,

you know, wouldn't last long. He'd probably be killed off. So he slowly, over the course of the series, that Dr. Smith, his character as a saboteur, you know, wouldn't last long. He'd probably be killed off. So he slowly, over the course of the first season, turned the character into more of this comedic, bumbling, you know, alliterative, insulting Dr. Smith that is the majority of the episodes. And the more he did that, the better our ratings were. So Irwin Allen, you know, kind of gave him free reign to rewrite the character. And it's a weird period in time, that pop art period.

And I heard during the vegetable episode. He's obsessed with the vegetable episode. Yeah, people were dressed up as carrots and giant oranges. Yeah, can you imagine the auditions for that? Yeah. Just imagine. And if you look at it, I'm sure you can Google it or whatever it might be, but if you look at it, I mean, it's just

God-awful ridiculous. It's so bad. But it's so bad, it's deliciously bad. You know what Dan Ackroyd would have said on Saturday Night Live is what Leonard Pince-Garneau, it's deliciously bad. have said on Saturday Night Live is what Leonard Pince-Garneau, it's deliciously bad. And I heard Jonathan Harris went to the writers and said, you know, this is shit that you've written here. And the writers turned to him and said, we just couldn't think of another goddamn idea. Well, that sounds about right. That sounds about right. The series is coming out on Blu-ray. My dear. Well, that sounds about right. That sounds about right.

The series is coming out on Blu-ray. Oh, good. And we're doing a bunch of little, I can't go into the details, but we're doing a bunch of special little bits for it, you know, that are for the diehard Lost in Space fans. It's going to be very, very cool. You know what? I watched the show as a kid, Bill.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I always thought that the Irwin Allen series recycled costumes. Oh, absolutely. First of all, I used to ride my bike, my purple Schwinn Stingray, which I still have. I used to ride that bike from my house to 20th Century Fox because it was less than a mile away. that bike from my house to 20th Century Fox because it was less than a mile away. And in those years, I was at Fox from 64 through 68.

And you had not just Irwin's show. Irwin had Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants. You had Batman. You had the Green Hornet. You had Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, 12 o'clock high. What was that? Oh, The Fantastic Voyage. Then they started doing Planet of the Apes and Hello, Dolly! The studio was just incredible.

Peyton Place. It was just, you'd go to that commissary every day, and it was just so cool. It was such a great lot to be on. But yeah, Irwin would put, Irwin Allen would have some guy, some stunt guy in a rubber suit on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in Stage 10. And that guy would be green. And then he'd walk him over to our set on stage 11, and they'd spray paint him orange. And, you know, he'd be our villain of the week. Now, what happened?

Now, the show goes off the air. And tell us what happened to your father on this show, former Zorro, Guy Williams. Guy Williams. Zorro, Guy Williams. Guy Williams. Well, Guy actually relocated as a guest of Eva Peron down in Argentina, where he was just worshipped as Zorro. And he made appearances as Zorro in Argentina, where as a guest of the government, they gave him this incredible apartment

on the water or something and he was treated like a king and he lived out his days kind of as a Zorro celebrity as a guest of the government of Argentina. I never saw Guy after we wrapped. You know, we

finished 84 episodes of Lost in Space. We wrapped for the end of the third season. Of course, in those days, a season was like 26, 30-some episodes. Today, a season is what? Six or ten or whatever it is. But in those days, it was quite a longer...

So Guy Williams, just because he played Zorro... Fascinating Zorro, was like a god there. Yeah, he was treated like a beetle. He was absolutely treated like an Elvis beetle down there. And he wasn't even Spanish. He was an Italian guy from New York. Armando Catalano. Right, exactly.

He was a wonderful man. Very, very smart. He used to, honestly and truly, I mean this seriously, he used to buy stocks on the set phone. These are years before anybody had cell phones, right? He'd be over on the phone on the stage buying stock at like 7 o'clock in the morning, and he'd sell it at like 11 or 12 and make a few thousand dollars. He told my mother that I should buy some AT&T stock, and I think she bought me $1,000 worth of AT&T or something like that,

that eventually split and became every telecommunications company you can think of. It was a really good investment. Isn't show business great, Bill? An Italian guy from Manhattan can be revered as a god in Buenos Aires because he wore a cape on television. It's a wacky, kooky world, man. And I mean that. Conk-a-chunk-conk. And I heard when he was living there, he grew back his Zorro mustache.

That's right. I heard that, too. Yeah, and he made appearances, you know, in the cape and the hat and everything. But, I mean, how cool is that? I think it's great. I know that he loved being Zorro, and I know that he grew to be disappointed

in the direction that Lost in Space took. You know, there wasn't even a Dr. Smith in the pilot. It was really just the family against the alien environment stranded out there trying to make their way back to Earth. And then Dr. Smith was added, and it became kind of the three stooges of Smith, Robot, and me. But I do want to clarify that there was never, ever a bad, nasty vibe on our set between the cast.

The fact that Jonathan Harris, who became Dr. Smith, kind of turned the series or the show, became his vehicle, that might have bugged the heck out of Guy, but Jonathan and Guy got along very well. It was a very pleasant set to work on from my perspective, and I worked, you know, a lot on it. But I think Guy was much happier with his legacy of being Zorro than he was with his legacy of being Professor John Robinson. Why did they change the theme? I'm sorry to interrupt you, Bill. Why did they change the theme song? I always wondered. I don't know. They were both written by John Williams. They're both great in different ways. And I think it was just, you know, we're entering that pop 1967 kind of era, and I think,

you know, it's a hypothesis because no one consulted me at the time, but I think they wanted more of a poppy thing. I see. So the great John Williams, you know, gave it to them. Who went on to do Star Wars and Jaws. Oh, yeah, but he cut his teeth on Lost in Space. Wow. And those themes that he wrote for our series from 65 through 68, they're great. I love them.

His music's fantastic. I love them. I love the second. I like the second one better, but they're both great. Oh, it's just great. It's infectious. Yeah, I agree. Now, you also were in more Twilight Zone episodes than Rod Serling.

You know something? I'm very, very proud of those Twilight Zones in the sense that I think they hold up really well. I'm not embarrassed to say I think I turned in good performances in those shows, but I mean, I'm working opposite Jack Klugman. I'm working opposite Cloris Leachman. Those were brilliantly written scripts by Rod Serling. And I'm so grateful to have had those opportunities. And I do think they hold up really well. The Jack Klugman one is one of my favorites.

Yeah, that's the first American television show that addresses the subject of American casualties in Vietnam. And that was 1963. Yeah, he finds out his son was shot and and he realizes he's always ignored his son, and he wants to have one day with him. late at night after the pier had closed. And it was creepy. You know, because it's not like you're being in Disneyland. It's that spooky kind of, you know, boardwalk games and House of Mirrors. And most of that stuff was shot in the House of Mirrors.

And I'm playing basically a ghost. So they put these little tiny pieces of tape on these mirrors that the camera would you know would be below the frame but I would see through my peripheral vision these little tiny pieces of tape and kind of float through the maze of mirrors and Jack Klugman would follow me and smash into the mirrors and stuff like that but it was a it was a creepy shoot that part of it was really creepy and and I'll tell you a funny memory that I just had. My father very rarely went on sets with me, but it was a night shoot.

That part of the show was a night shoot. He came down to the Santa Monica Pier with my mom that night that we shot that. And Jack Klugman, when he reunites with his son, who's supposedly dying in Vietnam, and he comes back as this little boy, me, when he reunites with him, he's just overwhelmed with emotion and he just grabs me and kisses me and hugs me. And he was such, Jack was such a mensch. He walked over to my mom and dad and said, look, I just want you to know when we're shooting this next scene, your son is my little boy come back to life.

I'm really going to kiss him. I'm really going to hug him. I'm going to slobber on him. And I just want you to know in advance that I respect you and I hope that that doesn't bother you. My folks were like, no, you're acting. Go, it's great. But it was such so sweet of Jack Brugman to have been such a mention,

go over there and tell my parents that he was going to kiss me and stuff like that. He and I reminisced several years later, decades later, about that. And we were both very proud to be a part of that show. I don't think you would do – you never met Jack Klugman, did you? No. I never met him either, but was he a sweet man, Bill? He was a great man. I understand he was a mention.

He was extremely energetic in a totally positive way, and he was a dedicated actor, and I have nothing but praise and gratitude that I worked with him. Then he would later become famous with The Odd Couple and Quincy. Yeah, absolutely. He had a really great career. And so you really liked Klugman. He was a joy to work with. And without trying to sound like a politician, there's very few people that I worked with that weren't nice and easygoing.

And the thing is, as you know, Gilbert, there's nothing more collaborative than a crew and a cast all it takes is one guy to drop the boom mic into frame and it screws it up for everybody all it takes is one actor to show up unprepared and you know there's 20 takes later so you know when you get a good crew and a good cast that groove together and and things are moving along in a in a positive attitude nobody's being a fabulous jerk or anything you know it makes such a difference you know it's nice to have that energy where everybody's clicking now then there was another famous episode classic twilight zone uh it's a Good Life. Yeah, that's the one that I'm probably best known for.

Anthony Fremont. Wishing everybody away into the cornfield. I should tell our listeners that I was a little late getting here in New York traffic and when I first introduced myself to Billy over the phone, he said, I was thinking about wishing you into the cornfield, but I'll cut you some slack.

It's good that you shared that little story. That's real good. I was honored. You know, I just saw Chloris Leachman two weeks ago, who played my mom in that episode and played my mom three other times, four other times. And, you know, any actor, any actor who has the opportunity to work opposite Chorus, someone of her level, you can't help but have your own game bumped up. You know, it's like jamming with Eric Clapton or something. You know, when you're playing with somebody that great, you're either going to rise to the occasion or you're just going to freak out and not be able to handle it. And working with Cloris, which I was lucky enough to do four or five times,

was always just an unbelievable honor and bumped my game up, really. We'd love to have her on the show. We're fans. She's fantastic. She is brilliant. She is just amazing. And great at comedy. And I did a Comedy Central roast with Cloris Leachman. You did, didn't you? And Cloris Leachman was hysterical. Yeah, and she'll go there, right?

Yes. Yeah. No, she is a very special, multi-talented, impressive human being. I remember she got up on stage and looked at the dais and said, I wish someone would punch me so I could see stars. That's great. That's great. She really committed to that.

I'm sure she'd never done anything like that in her life. Oh, I love that. And then she said, you'll have to excuse me if I'm not familiar with any of you. All I ever do is go to movies, watch TV, and read magazines. Funny. Wow. Wow. Wow. I wish someone would punch me so I could see stars.

I love that. How old were you when you did that Twilight Zone episode, Bill? Because I have to say, you were genuinely frightening, even as a child, in the park. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'm proud of that performance, actually, if that doesn't sound silly. I was seven. Yeah, I'm proud of that performance, actually, if that doesn't sound silly. I was seven. Yeah, I was seven. I think I was seven.

I was just on the cusp of six, seven. Now, I remember, I think another one of your accomplishments was being in a movie hard to hold. Hard to watch. Hard to watch. Hard to watch. Let me just, Gilbert, let me just clarify this. Let me say this, okay? There's a swimming pool in my backyard. Hard to hold, paid for it.

Wow. Okay? Hard to watch. Rick Springfield was a great guy. I got to meet Keith Richards because his wife Patty was in that movie, and he came down to the set, which to me was, you know, I'm very happy that I got to say hi, Keith, although I'm sure he doesn't remember because I don't think he was awake.

But, you know, Rick Springfield was a really nice guy and la-di-da. Now, did you ever meet Rod Serling? Oh, yeah, yeah. He and I used to play Mahjong together every Thursday. Wow!

I'm kidding you. Oh, yeah! God damn it! Of course I met him. I want to picture rod serling playing macho yes yeah so so he he would direct or write well he wrote yeah and he he would he would come you have to think of you have to think of it this way there's no regular cast to the twilight zone right so every episode the only regular cast member is Rod Serling, who comes in to do his intros and outros. So A, what happens in a long-running television series when there is no regular cast? Nobody becomes a fabulous schmuck because you come in for three

or four days and you're done. So everybody's on their best behavior. It's wonderful, right? And Rod Serling is the only on-camera regular, and the crew loves him. And because he's creating these shows, writing these beautiful scripts, all of the different heads of those departments, they just want to talk to him about next week's script that they've gotten. Oh, wow, we're going to get this prop for this or that. Or, hey, Rod, what about this for the...

I just remember him as being really friendly, really light, not that heavy kind of on-camera presence that you might think brooding or anything like that. No, really light, really easy, really friendly. The kind of executive who, when he comes on the set, the whole, really easy, really friendly. The kind of, you know, executive who, when he comes on the set, the whole crew wants to talk to him. Whereas opposed to like, let's say Lost in Space, Irwin Allen would come on the set and he would tap his watch. Time is money. And everybody would be like, okay, Irwin's here, you know, tension. And, and, you know, not that he wasn't a nice guy, but you know, when he was on the set,

everybody was, like, nervous and on their best behavior, and he'd tap his watch. And when Rod Serling came to the Twilight Zone, the three that I did anyway, everybody from every department was, like, really happy to see him and had questions about the next episode or whatever. And the only thing that I remember with sadness is that he chain-smoked, and it killed him at such an early age. Yay, daddy, young man.

Because he was such a fantastic and unique and visionary and, you know, with a strong social commentary. You know, he was such a great talent. Because you could have the simps— Gilbert, you could read an unpublished Rod Serling story, and everybody would immediately, I think, recognize that this is a Rod Serling script. He had an iambic pentameter, a rhythm, to the way he would write dialogue that was really recognizable and so powerful that—just like Jimi Hendrix.

You know, if you hear Jimi Hendrix play guitar, you know, oh, that's Jimi Hendrix. You don't wonder, is that Eric Clapton? Is that Mike Bloomfield? Is that George Harrison? No, you know that's Jimi Hendrix. And when you hear Rod Serling's dialogue, you know that's Rod Serling. And it was an honor to work with him and and your your other one another very creepy twilight that's a spooky one a long distance call yeah yeah that was one that

was the first one i did it was one of six twilight zones that were shot on videotape not film because you know some brilliant you know bean counter at the network decided they should cut the budget and go from film to tape so they only did six of them on tape so it really stands out as that hard-looking video of the day but it's a very powerful episode it was the first one I did and my mom almost didn't let me do it because the character, you know, he's, he, for the audience, you know, it's this little boy and his grandmother gives him a toy telephone for his birthday. And then she goes upstairs and dies. And then she calls him on the toy telephone throughout the episode and tries to get him to join her in death. And during the course of the show, the little boy tries to kill himself several times.

He runs out into traffic. He jumps into the pond and almost drowns. I think there's a – I can't remember anything. He jumps off a balcony. He jumps off a balcony. It's been about 50 years. Anyway, my mother didn't, was very recalcitrant about me accepting that role because she didn't want it to give me ideas. Like, you know, I don't want Billy to think if he jumps in the pool, he'll get his way, or I don't want him to, you know.

he'll get his way or I don't want him to you know anyway all I can say is I'm very glad my mother decided it was a good role and we did it because that was the first of the the Twilight Zones I did and uh yeah it's a very dramatic very powerful show and you worked with Walt you met Walt Disney I did indeed several times and uh yeah I did indeed, several times. And yeah, I did several Disney movies when Walt was still on the lot and still alive. And without going into a long story, I can just say that was an incredibly unique lot when Disney was there. It was really a fun place to work. You'd wrap for lunch and there'd be tons of ping pong tables outside by the commissary and people from every different you know production on the lot would be out just playing ping pong and i mean it was honestly i mean it it was like a really fun lot to work on and uh walt who said to me, call me Uncle Walt, Billy.

He was nothing but generous and kind to me. Although one day he mixed me up with the kid, the red-haired kid who was doing Mary Poppins. And I was walking to the commissary, and Walt Disney called me aside and he said, Billy, I... No, he didn't say Billy at that point in time time because he mixed me up with that kid whose name I can't remember. But he the kid from Mary Poppins had been falling asleep on the set. And he pulled me aside and said, I really want you to make sure you're going to bed early enough at home. And I was, yes, Mr. Disney. And I looked at him like, what the hell are you talking about? Right?

And then later on, he was like, oh, I'm sorry, Billy. I thought you were that Mary Poppins redhead. And I used to do a lot of work on MTV. So I remember a video called Fish Heads. Yes, indeed. Oh, yes, the Dr. Demento staple. Yes. Yes, indeed. Oh, we have a Dr. Demento staple.

Yes. Yes, indeed. The number one most requested song in the history of the Dr. Demento show. Rolling Stone named it number 57 of the best videos of all time. Thank you very much. So you composed Fish Heads.

That's my partner and I as Barnes & Barnes doing some quirky novelty, you know, sci-fi rock and roll. And Fish Heads just was the crown jewel in our little showbiz tiara. Can you sing a little of Fish Heads for us? Fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads, eat them up, yum. I took a fish head out to see a movie. Didn't have to pay to get it in. Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Any more is going to cost you a T-shirt and a cap. I just want to go back to something quickly. Look at it. I have a list here of so much of the television you did. Even before Lost in Space, you were on the Loretta Young Show. I just want to go back to something quick. Look at it. I have a list here of so much of the television you did. I mean, even before Lost in Space, you were on the Loretta Young Show.

You did General Electric Theater, Dick Powell Theater. You did Going My Way with Gene Kelly. We talked about Jimmy Stewart, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched. Jack Benny. Jack Benny. Loretta Young. We talked about Alfred Hitchcock. But here's something near and dear to my heart and to Gilbert's heart. You were googie on the Munsters.

Yeah, man. Absolutely. You bet your butt I was googie. And Grandpa turns you into a chimp. Yep. Well, no, it was a practical joke that I played on Grandpa. It wasn't really a chimp. I brought that chimp in.

But the trivial pursuit reality of that is it was the same chimp that went on to play the bloop on Lost in Space. Wow. You know, and with all props to Butch Patrick, who was Eddie Munster. And we talked to Butch on the show. And I like Butch. He's a friend of mine, and he did a great job. But I was offered the role of Eddie Mun munster and i turned it down because of the

makeup and if i had done eddie munster i wouldn't have done will robinson but many years later i did a television series called babble on five for five years where i played an alien and that that makeup thing came back to bite me on the butt really hard. What do you remember about Fred Gwynn and Al Lewis? They come up on the show a lot, Bill. Well, Al was a crack-up, right? I mean, we all grew up watching Al on, I mean, before. Car 54.

Exactly, which I loved. And Fred, too. Al did an episode of Lost in Space where he played a sorcerer. And he and Jonathan Harris were, oh my gosh, they were just like Martin and Lewis. They were so funny together. What I really remember about working on that show was the intensity of the makeup that Fred Gwynn went through to become Frankenstein, right? And what's interesting, just a little side note, is my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, who had been an agent, had gotten Boris Karloff a job as Frankenstein.

So when I was working with Fred Gwynn in that Frankenstein makeup, it was like, wow, it's all kind of come full circle, Mooney. That's interesting. We had Sarah Karloff on the show. Oh, Sarah's a like, wow, it's all kind of come full circle, Moni. That's interesting. We had Sarah Karloff on the show. Oh, Sarah's a friend, yeah. She's great. And so your grandfather, tell us again, give us the story. My grandfather, Harry Gould, nice Jewish man, was Boris Karloff's

agent. And he was mostly represented writers and directors in the late 30s and 40s but one of his acting clients was boris karloff and boris karloff was driving a truck back and forth between la and san francisco and my grandfather who passed away before i was born my grandfather uh the story goes he's told him you know to get his self back here as quick as possible because he had an audition for a movie at Universal.

He definitely repped him during that period and negotiated his Frankenstein deal. My mother's family was given a pair of Scotty dogs by Doris Karloff as gratitude. And James Wales, Boris Karloff as gratitude and James

Wales who directed Frankenstein I heard he didn't like Boris Karloff and he used to look down on him and call him a truck driver well he was a truck driver yeah

he was indeed a truck driver which certainly is an acknowledgement of a hard-working laborer's job in the hard times that that era was in. All props to Boris Karloff. Also, when we talked to Sarah and we talked to Bela Lugosi Jr., too, I mean, one of the things we covered was that Bela, and bear me out on this, but that he turned down the monster part because he didn't want to, among other reasons, he didn't want to go through the makeup process. And you turned down Eddie Munster for the same reason.

That's absolutely true. That's kind of cool. That's absolutely true. Now, what nationality are you now? Earth. Earthling. Earthling. I'm a mutt, you know? I don't like to think of these tribal little clubs.

You have a bunch of different, so you're part Jewish at least. My grandfather was Jewish, yes. Happy to be everything, you know what I mean? I guess Moomy, my father's side of the family is Pennsylvania Dutch, whatever that means, which goes, you know, goes back. There's like many generations of California Moomys. My father was born in 1904 and he was born in California. His father was born, you know, whenever before that he was born in Ohio. His father was born, you know, whenever before that.

He was born in Ohio. So it's an American, Moomy is an American thing that goes then, I guess, back to Dutch, German, whatever. I don't know. And my mother's side of the family is Gould, G-O-U-L-D, which was, she came from Detroit. And her father, Harry Gould, who was Boris Karloff's agent, came from Detroit and her father, Harry Gould, who was Boris Karloff's agent, came from Detroit. And I don't know before that, you know. It's all just a quilt. I just, I'm just amazed

that Billy Mummy is part Jewish because you always struck me as the ultimate goyim. You know, I grew up in Beverlywood, man. And every single, everybody, and I mean literally everybody that I went to school with was Jewish. And I used to, because of my father and because of my mother being a little bit of both, I took off every holiday you could possibly get when I went to public school.

That's great. Bill, I just want to ask you a couple of other things about Lost in Space before we wrap it up. budget script. That's great. Bill, I just want to ask you a couple of other things about Lost in Space before we wrap it up, and then you plug the Blu-ray again. Two things. One is, what did you think of the big budget picture with the William Hurt and Gary Oldman picture?

Next. That's honest. Didn't you have a Lost in Space project of your own or a script of your own that you got everybody interested in, except the person that you needed to take an interest in it? I did. Many, many, many years ago. God, when was that? 1980 or something. Yeah, I did. I had written a resolution movie of the week that I had taken to the cast members and to CBS.

I mean, it was really stupid of me and presumptuous of me when I look back on it. I wrote this script and then I took it to the cast and got their kind of feedback and made a few tweaks. And then I took it to a guy named Andy Siegel, who had been a PA, a production assistant on Lost in Space, but at the time was like the head of CBS. I took it to him and he was like, yeah, hey, we'll do this. And then I took it to Irwin Allen, which was, it was completely his, he owns it, it was all his, right? So when I look back on it, the fact that I didn't immediately go to Irwin was really stupid of me.

But Irwin shut me down really hard. You know, he just said, you know, look, if I, this was kind of right after the Towering Inferno and Poseidon Adventure. He was making big features. And he said to me, look, if I ever want to go back to Lost in Space, you know, I'll call your agent, but I don't appreciate you kind of stirring this soup up. And he was right. I got to say, it hurt me at the time because it was a labor of love for me. You know, I just kind of felt, I grew, I was 10 through 14 on Lost in Space.

And those relationships, not only with the people, but with the characters was really resonating within me. And I wanted to resolve it and all that stuff. But he was right. He was right to say, you know, don't mess with my stuff. He was right. But all I can say is I'm looking forward to this release of the Lost in Space project

that's coming out because there's some bonus material, that's all I can say, that just might strike a resonant chord with the subject we're talking about. Oh, good. I'm looking forward to that. One thing about Irwin Allen, by the way, I think Gilbert and I have a bone to pick, a particular bone to pick with Irwin Allen because he put the Marx Brothers in a movie and then separated them from the story of mankind. Erwin Allen, because he put the Marx Brothers in a movie and then separated them. The story of mankind.

Yes. One of the worst movies of all time. You know, Erwin had some winners and some clunkers. And one of the things that I think he was really good at was kind of assembling a team. He was good at getting the initial group of people and crew, actors and crew and stuff, musicians, et cetera, together. But then it was hit and miss with him. But, hey, who am I to argue with a legacy like that? I mean, you know, he ended up a very, very wealthy man.

Oh, Poseidon Inventure, Towering Inferno. The Poseidon Inventure and the Towering Inferno were both pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, no, I wealthy man. Oh, Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno. The Poseidon Adventure and the Towering Inferno are both pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree completely. But, I mean, I don't know if you ever saw his Alice in Wonderland movie of the week. No, I was thinking of The Swarm. Look, if it weren't for Erwin, I probably wouldn't be on the phone with you now. And when I was a boy, I never had a bad moment with him. I used to go up to his office on the Fox lot and he would give me the

toys and the licensing little tchotchkes that Lost in Space made and stuff. And, you know, when I was there from the age of 10 to 13, Erwin was never a pain in the butt to me. He was always fine. It was only later when I tried to kind of wrestle that into my own control or my own vision, which really wasn't my place to do when I think about it.

Only then did he kind of stick his arm out and say, stop right there, pal. This is mine, and I don't want you messing around with it. And he was right. You know, I got to say, I felt proprietorial about it from an emotional place. And I wrote the Lost in Space comic book for years. You know, that stuff has resonated within me. Those characters seem to wake up within me sometimes and kind of want to be heard.

But you've got to remember who they are, and they're his. And you and, just slightly off the topic, but you and Gilbert were both in episodes of Superboy. Yeah. You know, we did. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I did three episodes. Well, he did the... Was yours the animated?

I did the live-action. I did both. Yeah, I did three episodes of the show. Didn't you do the Weird Al show? Yes. Yes. Well, I did the Weird Al show. In fact, I introduced Al to his incredibly beautiful wife.

That was a setup from me. Wow. Yeah. I think we've probably done several of the same, you know, shows. I know that Fish Heads initially ran on Saturday Night Live around the time you were on it. Yes. And, yeah, I did Weird Al's show and Superboy. I did the Superboy series.

What did you play on Superboy? Knick-knack. Oh, Knick-knack. The Master of Toys. You were a villain. Yes. That was a fun show. You went down to Florida, right?

Yes. Yeah, that was fun. I did three of those. And David Nutter, who went on to direct direct the x files uh and a lot of good quality sci-fi primetime tv he directed the three episodes that i did i had a blast doing that oh yeah david nutter directed the ones i was in cool and and uh also the what's the main guy from the Superman series. Christopher. No, no, no. The producer.

Oh, Ilya. Oh, Ilya Salkin. Ilya Salkin was there. Yeah, cool. Yeah, that was fun. Right? Went down to Orlando or whatever. Yeah, they put you in a wacky outfit, and you just had fun. And I was Miss Yes Picklick,

and I think about two episodes of the Superman cartoon. Oh, that's so cool. I never knew how to say that character's name. Gilbert, that's so cool. How do you say that character's name again? Yeah, he said it exactly the way I've always said it in my head. Mick Sex Piddalick. Mick Sex Piddalick. Mick Sexton. Mick Sexton. Yeah.

And Tim Daly. The imp from the fifth dimension. Yeah, Tim Daly was Superman in that. That's right. Those are great, man. I love being, don't you love being a part of that history? Oh, absolutely. And I wrote a Superboy comic book. Yeah, that's cool.

I've written a lot of comic books. But I'll tell you something. Just in terms of comic books, the coolest thing, in essence, that I've ever done was I had a dinner party here with Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane, and Jack Kirby. Wow. Oh, wow. Right? And between the three of those guys, they pretty much created everybody. And, of course, they were well aware of each other.

But they hadn't been in the same room with each other in, like, 45 years. Wow. That's good stuff, Bill. Yeah. I very briefly at some convention met Noel Neal. Sure. And jack larson jack larson yeah and that was a treat for me they're both really nice you know i i did a one of those superman shows in cleveland i think it was the 50th this is how long ago it was i think it was the 50th anniversary of superman and it was in cleveland and i was with those guys, with Noel and Jack, and boy,

you know, there's a whole subject we could talk about another time. We'll do it. Is Noel still around? The whole George Reeves thing, you know? Oh, my God. Yeah, they told me some really, you know, mind-blowing stuff there, but we'll save that for another show. Another one.

Is Noel Neal still with us? Yeah. We should have her and Jack Larson. You know who else is still with us? It's Phyllis Coates. Is she still around? Oh, my God. She's at the actor's home.

Wow. Here in the Valley in L.A. by the Pentagon. No, and she was the first Lois Lane on the television series. She was like the tough talking. Oh, she was great. Yeah, the black and white Oh, she was great. That's great. Noel Neal became more like family friendly.

Yes, she, I, I, Noel is a wonderful lady and I'm honored to have spent time with her, but I think Phyllis Coates' Lois Lane was a much tougher, stronger character. Yeah, well, she was like more, I think when they tried it first,

they wanted to make it like a 40s film. Yeah, like a serial. And, you know, if you look at that first season, I think there were 30-some episodes with Phyllis Coates. She had equal billing to George Reeves on those shows. Same size, first card. George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. Bam, bam.

It's a little bit like Lost in Space in that it's a show that started out a little bit more serious and then became campier as it went into a couple of seasons. When it went color, it got a lot lighter. I remember the first one with the mole man. No one's ever made that comparison before, and I think you're absolutely right. And I love both versions of

Lost in Space, so what do I know? Yeah, I mean, I prefer the black and white, but I certainly can embrace the pop culture and the comedy of the second season. And the third season is kind of an amalgam of both. of the second season. And the third season is kind of an amalgam of both.

You know, half the third season is kind of straight ahead, and then half the third season is still campy. But, yeah, you know, the older I get, the more I can embrace all of it. Okay, well, the most important thing you've said, the biggest revelation is that Billy Mummy is a Jew. There you go, Ben. I thought the most important revelation was that he had the hots for Bridget Bardot at 10. Yes, I wear both of them with pride. Well, this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre.

And we have been talking to the great Billy Mummy, who at 10 years old, fuck Bridget Bardot. I wish Bill tell us again about the Blu-rays And anything else you want to promote Well I have a new album Coming out next month And it's Pretty good We didn't even get into your music

You're an accomplished musician You play many instruments I do indeed You play in a band I do, indeed. You play in a band with Jose Ferrer's son. All kinds of cool shit. You know, yeah, it's a long list, but it's all good. It's creative energy that gets exercised, so I'm grateful.

The Lost in Space Blu-ray of the entire series, with some, and I can't go into it, but I can tell you, really cool bonus bits will be coming out in September, I think, is the release date. But we're still putting that all together right now. I'm so grateful that I'm part of the creative part of that. And things are good, you know? Can't complain. So far, so good. Onwards. You had a hell of a fun run.

I'll tell you you worked with everybody let's keep going right? thanks for doing it thank you Billy my pleasure guys best of luck with everything and see you around If you like listening to comedy, try watching it on the internet.

The folks behind the Sideshow Network have launched a new YouTube channel called Wait For It. It's got interviews with comedians like Reggie Watts, Todd Glass, Liza Schleichinger. Schleichinger, I've been friends with her for 10 years. One of the funniest people out there, and I still have a hard time with the last name, Liza Slicinger. Slicinger. I've been friends with her for 10 years. One of the funniest people out there, and I still have a hard time with the last name, Liza. Our very own Owen Benjamin, that's me, takes you on a musical journey down internet rabbit holes and much more. You don't have to wait any longer.

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