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| - From an adult’s perspective, watching the show now, I see a lot of other qualities in Will that were just as important as all of the action and adventure. The most overlooked quality that he shows consistently throughout the series is his love for his family and Dr. Smith. On the four or five occasions we see Will shed tears, it is because of a (possible) loss or separation from them. Despite some friction with his sisters, especially Penny, he showed himself thoughtful and devoted to both. In short, Will was a loving, kind, and thoughtful boy.
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| abstract
| - From an adult’s perspective, watching the show now, I see a lot of other qualities in Will that were just as important as all of the action and adventure. The most overlooked quality that he shows consistently throughout the series is his love for his family and Dr. Smith. On the four or five occasions we see Will shed tears, it is because of a (possible) loss or separation from them. Despite some friction with his sisters, especially Penny, he showed himself thoughtful and devoted to both. In short, Will was a loving, kind, and thoughtful boy. I never really put the pieces together as a child, but I can now see how well-rounded a character Will possessed, for all of his genius. Aside from being interested in all the pastimes other boys his age engage in, like sports, hobbies, and just “hanging out” with his pals, Will had many other talents that were seen throughout the series. He wrote and directed a play, cut and polished rocks to make a necklace for his sister Penny, sang (he had a good voice) and played the guitar from a young age. Perhaps the one aspect of Will’s character that I found most appealing was his geek chic. He was intelligent (frighteningly so), mechanically inclined (I loved to take things apart too, but seldom got them back together in working order), and had the most brilliant insights when confronted with the unknown, all the while remaining what he was—a young boy only a few years older than I. Will showed me that being smart and being interested in “normal” things were not mutually exclusive. He was the model of a well-balanced boy. So it was hard for me not to think about Will as my own older brother; I felt like I knew him intimately. He liked all the things I did, was smart to boot, and he was a nice guy without being smarmy about it (I had trouble with that part in my own life). I wanted to be just like him, even without the spaceship, Robot, or adventures. After seeing the movie Rascal, I spent the better part of a summer at our cottage reading the novel, and seeing Billy in my head. I was a little alarmed a few years later to see a long-haired Bill in Bless the Beasts and Children and Sunshine, though; but despite the change in his look, he was still a decent guy. Of course, Lost in Space went off the air, I grew up, and I had my own adventures. When I returned to the LiS universe decades later and started reading about Bill Mumy’s life, I have to say that what I felt was happiness—here was a grown man I had known and looked up to when we were boys together, and after the space of many years I saw that he had grown up too. He managed, as far as I have seen, to avoid the pitfalls facing so many other child actors. He’s enjoyed success in a variety of fields, married and raised a family, and continues to go strong. And that made me very happy for him. Now that I’m a man at that stage of life where retirement is looming, I can’t, with a straight face, thank Will for being there when I was a kid, but I can say “Thanks, Bill,” and maybe, just maybe, that boy still inside me might add the “Thanks, Will.”
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