Their presence took the show off-course, in another sense. From its original, simple Swiss Family Robinson premise — of a ...

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.

The plot line of families living in a science-fiction future full of interesting automated gadgets and alien pets has been quite the family-fun format since the Cold War. Animated sitcoms like The ...