AC Exclusive Interview: Bill Mumy Talks About Lost in Space, The Twilight Zone and More

Though fans across the world know him as Will Robinson from the “Lost in Space” television series, Bill Mumy is pretty much always ready to make music these days. His most recent solo CD project entitled “The Landlord or the Guest” is, in his words, very fresh out of the box. “I just ended up doing it all myself in my studio here. Before you know it, it was done. It’s a solo project in the truest sense of the word. I recorded, I played everything, I wrote everything, I mixed it. The only thing I didn’t do was master it,” Mumy said via telephone from California. “I learned very, very early on in my creative world not to ignore “The Muse” when she visits. I respect that gift of inspiration and I’m always taking time to lay it down when it visits, so to speak.”

When Leaving Earth, Always Pack a Guitar

Now 53, Mumy started his career at the age of 5. “I cut my teeth literally working in television and television is a medium where you do it, it’s done and you’re on to the next episode or on to the next show. It’s not like a play or even an album where you can work on a song for months or whatever. Television is a fast-paced medium,” he said.

At the age of 10, Mumy also started playing the guitar. There are several episodes of ‘Lost in Space’ where Will Robinson is on some funky, bad rubber alien rock with his acoustic guitar, playing and singing,” he said.

Fish Heads Anyone?

With Robert Haimer, Mumy formed “Barnes & Barnes,” a musical duo that is perhaps best known for the novelty song “Fish Heads.” “I’d like to do another ‘Barnes & Barnes’ record; I’m off writing some quirky, strange novelty lyrics that I put aside for that potential.”

Lost in the Comics

In the early 1990’s, Innovation Publishing acquired the rights to do a comic book based on the “Lost in Space” television show. When the title began its run, the characters were a bit older and facing situations that fans never saw in the original series. Initially, when they (Innovation) had gotten the rights to do it as a comic book, I was brought on board to kind of be a character editor and keep my eye on it. I think they wanted me as basically just an endorsee who would sell more books,” Mumy said. “I started writing it by the third issue. Those characters are very alive for me and easy to relate to.”

Alpha Centauri at Last

“Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul,” a 12-part story that began during the second year of the comic’s run, took the story and the characters in a decidedly different direction. The Robinson family, along with Dr. Smith, finally made it to Alpha Centauri, but things aren’t exactly great when they land there. “Innovation went bankrupt in the middle of the night and snuck away without paying anybody and left us in the middle of that story with only half of it published,” Mumy said.

Completing the Voyage

Approximately 10 years after the final issue of “Lost in Space” arrived in comic shops, Mumy said that John Severin, Jr., the son of legendary comic book artist John Severin, wanted to reassemble the original team and complete the series, even tracking down “Lost in Space” artist Michael Dutkiewicz in Australia.
“He (Dutkiewicz) had all the original pages to the first 6 issues, so that was good. We completed it and it (the graphic novel) has been out not quite a year,” Mumy said.

When the resurrected project came his way, Mumy said he wondered if he was going to rewrite what he had already written. When Innovation went out of business and stopped printing their book, I had already finished issue 24 as a writer,” he said. “So my work as a writer on this project was done. The last period had been written and I had ‘closed book’ and opened up the bottle of champagne to celebrate finishing that and then, of course, it was only half-published. I was very happy to see that project completed, especially with the original team.”

“It’s Still a Good Life”

Before traveling the galaxy as Will Robinson, Mumy played Anthony Fremont on a “Twilight Zone” episode entitled “It’s a Good Life.” At the tender age of 6, Anthony could read minds, sense emotions and alter reality. Anyone who didn’t think happy thoughts was banished forever to the “cornfield.”

For the latest incarnation of “The Twilight Zone,” Mumy reunited with Cloris Leachman, who played his mother in that episode, for “It’s Still a Good Life,” a sequel that takes place 40 years after the original. “I was really happy to return to that with a script that I felt Rod Serling would have given a thumbs-up to,” Mumy said. “It was great to work with Cloris Leachman again; she’s just a fantastic actress.”

Mumy’s real-life daughter Liliana played Audrey, Anthony’s daughter who shares his unusual powers. The fact that Liliana was in it with me was icing on the cake. That’s really coming full-circle,” he said. “It’s also very rare that anyone does a sequel with the same characters and same cast 40 years later. It was really fun to do that and I thought it was a good little half-hour of television,” he said.

Making Music

Mumy said he still enjoys acting, but it’s not the same as writing a song and seeing it through to its finished mix. “It’s just more of a complete feeling for me than being somebody else’s chess piece, to memorize someone else’s lines and take direction from someone else, hit your mark and do it. It (acting) is a job and I like it, but it’s just not the same,” he said.

Reference:

• www.billmumy.com