Bingowings said:

I was watching the un-aired pilot for Lost in Space last night and I was struck by how the design of the thing and the superb (for their day) production values reminded me of some of the design drawings for the first two films. It also reminded me of some the Archie Goodwin strips.

The show in general may have had some sort of influence maybe after the first film had been shot.

Jonathan Harris and Anthony Daniels do sound similar which might have influenced Lucas to drop the oily car salesman voice he was going to dub over the footage and it's not that huge a leap from a chimp with big ears to Yoda.

One of the uncredited production designers on Forbidden Planet, also worked on LIS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kinoshita

So Robby and B-9 essentially have the same father. The robot's role on show as comedy relief, having human mannerisms, and often helping saving the day certainly is a forerunner to that of Artoo and Threepio.

It was the success of Star Wars that actually got talk of a LIS reunion movie going. (Billy Mumy even penned a script.) But the rights to the show were once as tangled as the Batman series was, and producer Irwin Allen never really got on board.

Jonathan Harris did lend his voice to a robotic character on the original Battlestar Galactica.