Bill Mumy Interview: Alien Con, Twilight Zone, Lost In Space

Theres no danger for Will Robinson at Alien Con, except maybe the curse of the Mumy.

Bill Mumy is no stranger to strange worlds.

His Billy Bayles character always had time to take a Long Distance Call.

Mumy was a House Guest onAlfred Hitchcock Presentsand appeared on almost every television series produced in the sixties.

He was also Dr. Brainchild on the 1994 episode ofRen & Stimpy, Blazing Entrails.

Mumy is also an award-winning musician, composer and songwriter.

Hes been through the desert with the band America and two of his songs were recorded by Rosemary Clooney.

The multi-instrumentalist recorded and performed in bands and has been consistently releasing solo albums.

His upcomingVelouralbum will be coming out November 8 on the Global Recording Artists label.

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Mumy is a prolific and diverse writer.

He wrote the graphic novel,Lost in Space: Voyage to the Bottom of the Soul.

Though my favorite of his titles has to be his 2013 comic bookCurse of the Mumy.

Den of Geekgot to talk exclusively with Bill Mumy about what can be found in space.

Mumy is a writer, musician and an actor obviously dedicated to his craft.

Bill Mumy: Indeed I am, dear boy, and dont you forget it.

My family consisted of generations of Twilight Zone fans.

Its good that you changed your name to Tony, Anthony.

I mean, Ive been so blessed to have been able to play that iconic character.

Im very happy that I got to do three episodes of the originalTwilight Zone.

That was really a treat.

I did a cameo in theTwilight Zonefeature too.

Yes, myTwilight Zonealumni card is punched and cool.

Were you aware of how advanced and artistic the program was?

Well, it was different thanOzzie and Harriet.

A lot of that credit has to be laid at Rod Serlings abilities.

He was one of a kind and he wrote such great iambic pentameter for his characters.

If you hadThe Simpsonsread an unpublished Rod Serling script youd recognize his flow.

He was a really unique man and Im so sorry we lost him so early.

I dont think TV has caught up with whatTwilight Zonegot away with to this day.

Do you think any current shows promise something new for society at large?

Theres Aesops Fables and there are only a handful of morality plays to be told.

I think we did that onBabylon 5.

I think it had a lot of things to say on an interesting canvass.

There are a lot of shows that are doing it now, Im sure.

I dont watch that much TV.

The election is crazy enough.

Thats all the drama and science fiction I can handle right now.

Yeah, weve entered the Twilight Zone.

I think weve been living in the cornfield for a year and a half now.

[Laughs] In the Pentagon.

Alien Con is going to be great.

Im very much involved in all of that mindset.

Im a consulting producer onAncient Aliens, the television series that Kevin Burns produces for the History Channel.

It seems, to me, pretty obvious that more advanced civilizations have been here in the past.

Youve written quite a few books and comics, did you use that speculation in your own work?

Oh, absolutely, sure.

I have absolutely put that in my work.

We did a very ambitious table read with the cast, and of course a few other people.

It addressed that subject and resolved the series.

It got the Robinsons and the craft back to earth.

I tend to use that in my writing, certainly in the sci fi arena.

More so than if I was writing theHulkorSpiderman, which Ive done.

I dont get too sci fied out.

But if I doLost in SpaceorStar Trek, of course I do.

You never know what youre going to get.

I find the science fiction community, in general, is a very positive group of people.

But, in general, the sci fi community is very involved in the environment.

They are very pro-space program.

They want to reach beyond our own horizons.

Theyre never prejudiced against any race or religion or people like that.

Its a good group, generally speaking.

But theres always a percentage that take it alittle too seriously, perhaps.

They buy into Klingon reality a bit more so than it was intended by the creators.

Did Will Robinson ever become part of the hundred-thousand-mile club?

You mean like the mile-high club?

He was a bold and friendly cat.

He was an explorer and an adventurer, so I assume he would have gotten the privilege.

You also worked onThe Munsters, another iconic show, in Come Back, Little Googie.

Did you hang with Eddie Munster and was it different than hanging with the adult cast?

Ive been fortunate enough to work on over 400 television shows when I was young in the sixties.

And Butch is a really nice guy.

I like Butch Patrick a lot.

Its a funny episode.

I played Googie and made them think they turned me into a monkey or something.

It was fun, three days at Universal.

It was go to the school trailer, come on out, hit your mark, read your lines.

The set was fantastic.

People really just love that show and Im happy that I get to be a part of it.

You also played Darrin as a boy on theBewitchedepisode Junior Executive.

Have you had any witchy encounters or supernatural encounters like the alien encounters?

But I will say that I did twoBewitcheds and they were some of my favorite experiences.

I had a huge crush, ahuge crush, on Elizabeth Montgomery.

I loved the show.

I really enjoyed watchingBewitchedas a viewer, so doing two of them was great.

To play her husband wasreally good.

I was one of my favorite things to do.

But I thought I really kind of channeled Dick York.

I thought I really nailed that gig.

I did not cringe at all when I watched that.

It made me smile because it was one of my favorite acting gigs.

You wrote someStar Trekbooks, was there Venus envy betweenLost In SpaceandStar Trek?

Well, not between us in terms of the actual people who were working on both of those productions.

I think there was a bit of it, certainly, in the fan community.

I lived in the same neighborhood as Shatner.

He lived down the block from me.

I used to see Leonard Nimoy at the beach and stuff.

There are certainly fantasy, campy episodes ofStar Trekas well, butStar Trekwas more a military show.

It was really about a military mission and its military crew.

I always thought it was as different asWagon TrainandBonanza.

I thought it was silly when people have that my dog is better than your dog mentality.

I enjoyedStar Trekas a kid and Im sure there were plenty of Trekkies who secretly likedLost in Space.

HISTORY Channel and Cosmic Cons the1st Annual ALIEN CONis happening on October 28-30 in Santa Clara, CA.

you could get ticketshere.