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PART
TWO by Joel Eisner
The Man From the 25th Century was originally meant to be a spin off from Lost in Space, not replace it (there is info on this show and Allen in the book, The Studio by Gregory Dunne).
During the second season, they were having problems with the chimp who played the Bloop. It kept biting everyone. So the trainer had the chimp's teeth taken out and replaced with dentures but Irwin had the Bloop replaced.
Irwin decided to add a talking giraffe to the cast but discovered it was too tall to fit into the shots with the casts so he changed it to a talking kangaroo with the voice of Hermione Gingold but that was changed to a talking purple llama with the voice of actor Richard Haydn.
The llama was out and the part rewritten for actor James Millhollin (who is listed in the credits as Willoughby the llama) but he ultimately did not join the cast. There is a funny story about this, but it is too long to go into here. It is in my Lost in Space book, which I am updating. According to Don Marshall from Land of the Giants, that series was meant as mid-season replacement show for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in January, 1968. But Voyage's ratings picked up and it was decided to delay the show until September, 1968. The cast was paid for the 13 episodes that were to be shot but not filmed (they had a pay or play contract) and paid again when they filmed the following year. As for Irwin Allen, he was a genius but also a nut. He was afraid of germs, so he rarely shook hands with anyone. But one thing everyone agreed with, he had no sense of humor at all. Howard Schwartz, who as the director of photography on Batman (he was also one of the cameramen on the George Reeves Superman show, when it went to color), also held the same position for the first season of Land of the Giants. He told me that they used to shoot as much film as possible before Irwin came down to the set and screwed things up.
Schwartz told him if they did, he wouldn't be able to film because the fog would be too dense to shoot through. Irwin didn't believe it and turned the machines up high. They had to shut down production for the rest of the day to clear the fog out of the soundstage. Irwin used to have a very bushy head of Brillo like hair. Well, if you look at pictures of Allen from the 1950's, he was primarly bald. So, when the studio filled up with fog, he turned up the giant fans on the set but wound up blowing the toupee off his head and across the studio floor. - Joel Eisner
PART THREE: Irwin
Allen
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Irwin
Allen
Irwin Allen - Part Two Irwin Allen - Another View Irwin Allen's Time Tunnel Lost in Space Jet Pack
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At
one time, I used to run the International Fan Club for Irwin Allen's TV
shows and I have something to add to your article on The Man From the
25th Century. 
James
Darren's character was supposed to encounter the Robinsons and relate
his story in flashback. However, the series was ending its third season
production and there was no time to rewrite a script to encompass the
new story so the short pilot film was created. (The pilot in fact was
the only time you got to see the ramp from the which the Chariot was supposed
to leave the Jupiter 2, which was never used). 
I
had the opportunity to interview John Crawford (Lost in Space's
Time Merchant) who played the alien leader in the pilot and Patrick Culliton
(Wiley from the Starman TV series) who played one of the alien
guards. They both knew the pilot wasn't going to go anywhere as it was
shot in a few days and neither of them knew what the show was about. It
was all so confusing with all the stock footage and quickly written dialogue.
Lost
in Space was considered for a 4th season and in fact a fourth season
script written by Carey Wilbur entitled Malice in Wonderspace has
survived. It was a takeoff on Alice in Wonderland. It was nothing
special, however it would have had Dr. Smith in drag as the Red Queen.
Except
for stock footage at the beginning of the third season, the chimp was
gone (it went on to star in Lancelot Link Secret Chimp). 
The
llama (yes, a real llama) was painted purple and added to The Great
Vegetable Rebellion episode and was supposed to join the cast at the
end onboard the Jupiter 2. However, Dr. Smith, who was turned into a stalk
of celery in the episode, was constantly attacked by the animal and refused
to return to work unless the animal was gone. 
They
were shooting the pilot for Land of the Giants in the junkyard
set where they had these giant fog machines to give it an eerie effect.
Irwin came down and saw they weren't using enough fog, by his standards
(his favorite catchphrase was 'time is money'). He spent a lot on the
fog machines so he demanded that they use more fog. 