De acordo com esta entrevista com Jonathan Harris para DVDtalk (versão em áudio here ), a decisão de conceder a ele o status " Special Guest Star " nada a ver com qualquer decisão de matar seu personagem e mais com o fato de que ele era uma adição de última hora.
I called Allen and said, "I solved your billing problem." "Eh? What?," said Mr. Charm. I said, "I will accept last position: Special Guest Star Jonathan Harris." Well, the next 20 minutes you would not have believed! "YOU GODDAMN ACTORS YOU CAN'T ACT ANYWAY! NONE OF YOU ARE WORTH A NICKEL AND I'VE GOTTA PAY ALL YOU BASTARDS!!!" And on and on. [Laughter.] I didn't open my mouth! I just sat there and listened. "YOU CAN'T ACT ANY OF YOU. YOU'RE THE WORST OF ALL, YOU CAN'T ACT AT ALL!!!" On and on. I took a deep breath and said, "OK!" and hung up. Amazing! That was the first time that kind of outvie billing occurred. Now, of course, billing is total madness: "With the Special Appearance of ... With the Appearance of ... With a Cameo Appearance of ... " I started that whole crap! [Laughter.]
Quando ele se juntou ao elenco, ele recebeu um contrato de uma-série (juntamente com o resto do elenco), então não há razão imediata para presumir que o estúdio tinha algum desejo particular ou planos para removê-lo. De fato, contratualmente, não faria sentido fazê-lo, já que eles teriam que pagá-lo de qualquer maneira.
Ele fala sobre sua decisão de tornar seu personagem mais apresentável (especialmente interagindo com o robô e limitando suas falas com aliteração), mas ele claramente indica que isso não era sobre preservar sua parte, mas sim ele credita isso para manter a série popular.
Irwin wanted me to play a deep-dyed, snarling villain. "Grrrrrrr!" One of those. That worried me. I'd done many villains in my career. Mostly comedic villains, which I loved. They're fun! You can be very bad, but you can then redeem yourself, so that the people love you instead of hate you. Clever, clever! We did about three episodes with me sort of "Grrrrrrr!" and Irwin saying, "Brilliant! Brilliant! You've got a wonderful face!" He was so full of s@#%! [Laughter.] And I knew that. Then I began to think, "I'm justly famous for comedic villains. I really am." Because I developed it, I enjoyed it and I loved it. What to do? I said to myself, "I'm going to sneak in a few bits and see what happens." So I did. Nothing happened! So I snuck in some more bits. My bits. My facial expressions. Nothing happened. I said, "Well, I may be able to swing this!"
One day, I was in my dressing room which I had on the set. I liked it that way, so I could escape when Irwin came down to kill the director. Oh, he was a wicked man! In barges Irwin Allen. He had a habit, when he talked to me, of sticking his finger right under my nose. I couldn't stand it. I knew one day I would bite off that finger! He said, "YOU!," with that finger under my nose. "AND?," I said. "DO MORE!," he said. Well, what then ensued was, for the first time in my vast career, I was allowed to do anything I wanted! To write, rewrite, to develop the relationship with The Robot. I did that! The wonderful alliterations that I dreamed up by the thousand! "YOU BUBBLE-HEADED BOOBY!" [Applause.] "YOU NEANDERTHAL NINNY!!!" [Laughter.] All of that I wrote. Thousands of them. I kept a pad next to me bed and in the middle of the night I'd say, "OH! That's a good one!" [Laughter.] Then use it the next day.