I love the Lost in Space robot.

In the 1960s I was just a wee little kid. My bedtime was 7:00 PM. One night, I heard my mom calling from the other room, “Danny! There’s a robot on TV!”

Instantly, I was up and out of bed, running into the living room, and quickly prone before our black-and-white television watching Lost in Space.

I was hooked. I watched that show regularly, every episode for three years. I quoted Dr. Smith in school. I had a B9 Robot toy. I made Jupiter 2 spaceships by stapling paper plates together. It was my show.

About the same time I started reminiscing about Lost in Space, I discovered Hulu.

In case you didn’t know, Hulu is a web site where you can watch television shows. Real shows, not like the clips of American television shows dubbed in Croatian, like you’ll find on YouTube. I’ve been using Hulu to rekindle my memories of Lost in Space by watching old episodes on my computer. (I’ve done this recently because of a video project I’ve been working on; I’d watch Lost in Space while the videos render.)

Nothing is free, of course; you have to watch commercials in the Hulu videos, but the advertisements are short. I like that you can pause the program and minimize the window when you need to take a break. Picking up the video later is as easy as restoring the window and clicking the play button.

The show actually started out okay, sort of a “Space Family Robinson” (which was the original series name before the 800 lb. Disney gorilla said, “NO!”). So I’m enjoying watching it turn into an operatic space farce. Ah, memories . . .

I suppose it was that Lost in Space robot that kindled my life-long interest in robotics. While I have a few more robots to make before I create something as cool as B9, I can show you a web page where a more passionate B9 robot fan has actually built his own full-size replica, and shows you how to build one as well. Nifty cool.