“Danger, Will Robinson!”

In addition to being a fan of old TV westerns, like Have Gun – Will Travel, I’m also a fan of vintage science fiction shows. Even the bad ones, if they’re bad enough to be good.

One of my favorite so-bad-it’s-good-bad science fiction series is Lost in Space, which debuted on September 15, 1965.

This campy show popularized several catchphrases – including the series title itself.

Prior to 1965, the phrase “lost in space” had been used occasionally. (I checked in NewspaperArchive.com). But the series is what made it a common term.

Lost in Space was a variation of the classic Swiss Family Robinson castaway story.

The premise is set up in the debut episode. The Robinson family has volunteered to be first American space pioneers sent via spaceship – from the "desperately overcrowded" Earth of the year 1997 – to establish a colony on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.

There’s the father, Professor John Robinson (actor Guy Williams), his wife Maureen (June Lockhart), their curvaceous teenage daughter Judy (Marta Kristen), and their two younger kids, Penny (Angela Cartwright) and Will (Billy Mumy).

The other crew members are spaceship pilot Major Don West (Mark Goddard), who has the hots for Judy, and a Robbie-like robot who is just called The Robot.

The day they are set to leave Earth in their saucer-like ship, its vital controls are sabotaged by the evil (but snarkily funny) scientist, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris). He’s working for some unnamed “foreign power” that wants to beat the USA in the space colonization race.

In the process of doing his dirty work, Smith accidentally traps himself on board when the craft takes off. Then, because of his handiwork, the ship goes into an uncontrolled hyperdrive that sends it into some unknown sector of the universe.

After that, the Robinsons, Major Don, Dr. Smith and the robot have 82 more episodes worth of campy castaway adventures, which typically involved dealing with some hokey-looking aliens on cheesy-looking sets. (You can watch them all on Hulu, if you can take it.)

Throughout the series, the robot regularly used two catchphrases that are still heard today: “Does not compute” and “Danger, Will Robinson!”

Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 15:

● “Keep the home-fires burning.” - Song title and lyric by Ivor Novello, copyrighted on September 15, 1915.

● “Live long and prosper.” - Vulcan greeting first heard on the Star Trek episode “Amok Time,” which was first aired on September 15, 1967.

● “You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order!” - Al Pacino in the 1979 movie ...And Justice for All, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 15, 1979.

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Related reading and viewing…

SEPTEMBER 11 - They’ll never take our freedom (to rewrite history)

If you saw the 1995 movie Braveheart, you almost surely remember star Mel Gibson in his blue-painted face yelling the famous line “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

If you didn’t, watch the clip on YouTube.

In fact, even if you’ve seen the movie multiple times (like I have), watch that clip again just for the pure goose-bump raising thrill of it. It’s one the greatest pre-battle scenes ever filmed.

Braveheart is based on the true story of the Scottish hero William Wallace, a key leader of the 13th century Scottish rebellion against domination by the English.

Gibson plays Wallace. The famous “freedom” speech is what he uses to convince an outnumbered group of Scots to fight a much larger English army at the historic Battle of Stirling Bridge – which took place on September 11, 1297.

When a Scottish soldier suggests to Gibson/Wallace that it would be better to retreat and live to fight another day, he responds by saying:

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live – at least a while. And, dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!?! Alba gu bra!” *

As things turned out, Wallace inspired his troops to win the Battle of Stirling Bridge. And, the legends that grew up around him inspired Scots to continue and ultimately achieve the goal of Scottish independence. (Unfortunately, Wallace was caught, tortured, disembowled and beheaded before that came to pass.)

There are those who have complained that Braveheart strays more than a wee bit from the factual record.

They note that the Lowland Scots Wallace led didn’t wear kilts, like they do in the movie.

And, the bridge that played a major role in the Battle of Stirling Bridge – by creating a bottleneck that prevented English troops from rolling over the Scots – was nowhere to be seen in the movie.

Sticklers also note there’s no record that William Wallace ever said anything like the famed “freedom” line that’s in the movie.

However, to use a phrase coined by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew exactly 39 years ago today, on September 11, 1970, I think complainers about the historical details of Braveheart are just “nattering nabobs of negativism.”

I’m making “they’ll never take our freedom” the quote of the day for this date.

* In Scottish Gaelic, “Alba gu bra” means “Scotland forever!”

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Related reading and viewing… 

SEPTEMBER 10 - I want to believe the truth is out there!

It has been a year to the day since Barack Obama uttered his controversial “lipstick on a pig” sideswipe at John McCain and Sarah Palin, on September 10, 2008. But I covered that quote in another recent post.

So, for today’s post, I’ve picked two of my favorite TV quotes: “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE” and “I WANT TO BELIEVE.”

Those quotes didn't start out being uttered. They were words on our TV screens, first seen in the pilot episode of The X-Files, which first aired on September 10, 1993.

The glowing words "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" memorably loomed against a dark sky at the end of the show's opening credits sequence.

They soon became a well-known and oft parodied phrase. And, since the show was a big hit, its stars soon became stars in the bigger Hollywood sense of the word.

They were Gillian Anderson, playing by-the-book FBI agent and scientist, Dana Scully, and David Duchovny, as her polar opposite partner, Agent Fox Mulder, an alien-paranormal-conspiracy-theory buff.

One of the things that helped establish Mulder’s persona was the poster on the wall of his office. It showed a picture of a flying saucer with the words "I WANT TO BELIEVE."

That became the second famous catchphrase generated by the show. (There was a third. Do you remember it yet?)

The X-Files aired for nine seasons, until 2002. Like Star Trek, it has lived on in movies. The second X-Files movie released in 2008 was titled I Want to Believe.

I did want to believe the second X-Files movie would be better than the kinda blah first one. And, it was.

But my fondest memories are still of the monster-of-the-week X-Files episodes, like “Squeeze,” “The Host” and “Home.”

Trust no one who tells you that the "mytharc" episodes that focused on the show's ongoing mythology-conspiracy arc were as good as those gems.

SEPTEMBER 9 - Happy Birthday, United States of America!

Yes, I said Happy Birthday United States of America. And, yes, I know this is September 9th and not July 4th.

But the fact is, it was on September 9th  – 233 years ago today – that our country was officially named.

Before that, our would-be country was known as the “the United Colonies.” And, that’s the name that was still in use when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.

It’s true that the Declaration refers to the “united States of America.”

But look closely at a copy of the Declaration. Zoom in to the last paragraph, five lines above John Hancock’s famously humongous signature.

You'll see that the “u” in “united” is lowercase.

That’s because, in the Declaration, the word “united” was being used as an adjective. It was making the point that the “States of America” (which were not quite states in the current sense yet) were united in pursuing independence from King George and Britain.

The Founding Fathers did apparently notice that the phrase “united States of America” had a certain ring to it.

Shortly after the Declaration was signed, they prepared a draft of the Articles of Confederation for the nascent nation. That draft said: "The name of this Confederacy shall be ‘the United States of America.’”

Then, as things turned out, the Articles of Confederation got sidetracked and weren't officially adopted until 1781.

However, in the fall of 1776, the Congress decided to pass a resolution making the name official.

Here's how it was recorded by John Adams for the Journal of Congress:

"Monday September 9, 1776. Resolved, that in all Continental Commissions, and other Instruments where heretofore the Words, 'United Colonies,' have been used, the Stile be altered for the future to the United States."

Break out the firecrackers!

SEPTEMBER 6 - OMG re: W. and OB-GYNs

Back in January of 1775, British playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals premiered. It introduced a character named Mrs. Malaprop.

Her name was inspired by the French term mal à propos, meaning “inappropriate.” The name reflects the fact that Mrs. Malaprop was very linguistically challenged.

In the play, she said lots of funny things like: “Forget this fellow – illiterate him from memory” (when she meant to say “obliterate him...”).

Mrs. Malaprop’s mangled remarks became famous and spawned the word “malapropism.”

That, in turn, begat other “isms,” like the term “Spoonerisms.” It was created for the legendary slips of tongue made by British Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930). Like the time when he tried to make a cheery toast to Queen Victoria but it came out as “Three cheers for our queer old dean!”

Flash forward to George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.

Dubya also became renowned for his malaprops. They have been dubbed “Bushisms” – and there are many of them.

Indeed, dozens of books and websites are wholly devoted to Bushisms. And, one example near the top of most lists of Bushisms was uttered on September 6, 2004 – five years ago on this date.

Pres. Bush was in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, giving a stump speech during his campaign to be reelected to his second term as president.

He was criticizing his opponent, Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, for picking a former trial lawyer, Sen. John Edwards, as a vice presidential running mate.

Bush noted that “frivolous lawsuits” by trial lawyers increased malpractice insurance costs for doctors and health care costs for patients.

Then, he added: “Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their, their love with women all across this country.”

This unintentionally salacious and hilarious head scratcher is now enshrined in the Bushism Hall of Fame. As it should be.