One of the great things about some jobs I've had has been getting to work with fascinating people. One such was the late Jonathan Harris, who played the diabolical Dr. Smith on Lost in Space. Our clip today will show you why he was so fascinating.
The show I did with him was a short-lived animated series called Channel Umptee-3. It was on what was then called the WB Network from 1997 to 1998 and I was its Story Editor and Voice Director. It was produced by Norman Lear's company and animated by Sony Animation and the regular cast consisted of Rob Paulsen, David Paymer, Alice Ghostley, Neil Ross, Susan Silo, Gregg Berger, Greg Burson and Jonathan. It wasn't a hit but it was a lot of fun and I was reasonably proud of what we did. Most of the credit should go to a brilliant talent named Jim George who created the program.
(Note to Self: Tell the story here of how Alice Ghostley was cast. I can't believe you haven't posted it on this blog but you haven't.)
Jonathan was a charming, lovely man but he had about eight anecdotes and at every tape day, he somehow got around to telling at least half if not all of them. We did thirteen episodes of the show and I heard some of Jonathan's stories thirteen times. It is a measure of how fine an actor he was that no matter how many times you heard one, it was still good.
Each tape date, there would be someone in the session meeting him for the first time. That person will tell Jonathan how much they loved him on Lost in Space. Jonathan would accept the flattery in a most gracious manner because he was a most gracious man. Then that person would ask how it was that he was always, for all three seasons, billed as a "Special Guest Star" on this series on which he was a regular. Jonathan would take his cue and launch into the story and it always went exactly like this for exactly seven minutes and forty-six seconds. I still enjoy hearing it…