Alden Bates' Weblog

As you've probably heard, Al Lewis who played Grandpa Munster sadly died yesterday. Coincidentally tonight I watched the Lost in Space episode "Rocket to Earth" which features Al Lewis as the wizard Zalto.

Jeff alerted me to a bizarre mystery involving Zalto. At one point during the episode he states that Neptune has three rings. Neptune does have three main rings. The only problem is that the rings appear to have been first discovered in the 80s (thinkquest.org says they were first detected in 1983) while "Rocket to Earth" was screened in 1967.

Presumably the only person who could shed light on how the rings came to be mentioned over a decade earlier than they were discovered is episode writer Barney Slater, but unfortunately he died in 1978, so the mystery remains...

(Unless my info about the year the rings were discovered is totally wrong, of course. :)