"The Time Tunnel" Reactions (Hey, Kids! Spoilers!)

[The Baron]

Rendezvous With Yesterday:

I haven't seen these in about 40 years, so, effectively, I'm seeing them as for the first time.

Yeah, even if his name wasn't on it, you'd guess this was an Irwin Allen show about a minute into it.

This is such a 60's show. I miss shows like that.

Whit Bissell as the General. Always good to see our Whit.

Cripes, they've got Altair IV down there! And they're gonna shut this huge place down, just because one senator says so?

I'd forgotten that Tony went back alone first.

Fun facts: Anthony Newman was born in 1938, and is from the year 1968. so, the show was set two years in what was then the future.

Andrew was right - Newman immediately tries to change history. "We're Americans, by God! None of this 'worrying about damaging the web of time' for us!"

The great Michael Rennie as the Captain of the Titanic.

And, they end up on a rocket....

Music by "Johnny" Williams.

Well, the special effects are alot better than Doctor Who of the same time period, and they haven't aged too badly.

Interesting that out of all of human history, they land someplace historically significant on their first try.

All in all, I enjoyed this alot. The disk set has an unaired expanded version of the pilot, I shall take a look at that next, to see what they left out of the aired version. Doug and Tony seem like reasonably likable 60's Americans TV heroes so far.

One wonders what the plan was for using the time tunnel once it was perfected - historical and archaeological research, of course - and perhaps a little judicious nudging of world history into directions more favorable to the USA? Hmmm?

[Doctor Hmmm?]

The Baron said:

The Time Tunnel (2002 Un-Aired Pilot): This was mildly entertaining, but I can see why it didn't make it to series, it wasn't near as well-acted as the original show.

See, I would definitely have given that show a chance, had it gone to series. I especially liked how it gave "Doug" an agenda slightly at odds with the viewer's (presumed) inclination. Doug had every reason in the world to want to preserve the "post-240" timeline -- but the viewer knows that that isn't the "right" timeline (i.e., "ours").

[Henry R. Kujawa]

I just found this thread and read thru the whole thing.  Wow. So late, I can't comment on it all... but for the moment...

Oscar Beregi was in EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (but were afraid to ask) in the final sequence, side-by-side with Tony Randall & Burt Reynolds-- but NOBODY ever mentions him! I think Beregi would have made a PERFECT Baron Strucker (if he shaved his head).

Dick Tufeld was the voice of The Robot AND the Narrator.

An ending for the last episode of THE TIME TUNNEL was reportedly filmed where Doug & Tony finally made it back... but instead, it was replaced with the lead-in for the first RERUN. As a result, as far as audiences knew, they NEVER made it back.  I'd have loved to have seen a 2nd season, where, like The Doctor, they'd get the machine under control. From what in read, ANOTHER tv series replaced THE TIME TUNNEL, something pushed on the network by a producer who conned them into thinking it would be much better. I forget what the show was... but it was cancelled after 6 weeks.

If memory serves, THE TIME TUNNEL shares with LOST IN SPACE and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND the distinction of being cancelled after it had been renewed, so there never was a "final" episode, and there never was a wrap party!  (It also freaks me out when I realize LIS and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND ran the SAME 3 years.  GI began a long tradition of reviving "failed" TV series with sequels-- or remakes-- which is still going on now.  Tragically, Irwin Allen dragged his feet on LIS until Guy Williams had passed away... and then, Irwin Allen followed him. THEN we got the merchandising bonanza, including the 6-disc CD box set, and eventually, the remake feature film. WITH Dick Tufeld reprising his role.  Heh.)

Both VOYAGE and LIS got sillier than ever the same season TIME TUNNEL was on.  I always figured all of Irwin Allen's resources were put into the new show.  But about halfway thru the season, it started to "get silly" (my Dad kept saying "HOW could they run out of ideas on a show like that?"). It's been noted that both VOYAGE and LIS got LESS silly the following year, when TIME TUNNEL was no longer on the air.  Well, for awhile.  There's a few 3rd-season LIS that rank among the worst, but, I maintain, the WORST, and I mean in bulk, had to be during LIS's 2nd season.  For the 3rd, I rank the 2 with Leonard Stone as "Farnum B." as rock bottom.  The Stanley Adams episodes DOESN'T EVEN COME CLOSE. (In my opinion, anyway.)

Ever since I saw the first 13 episodes of DOCTOR WHO, I've felt that Irwin Allen HAD to have seen the show.  There's too much in the visuals, and some of the characters, for it to possibly be all coincidence.  If you watch the first 13 episodes of WHO, it becomes painfully obvious that Jonathan Harris' Dr. Smith is like a BAD parody of William Hartnell's Doctor.  Also, the ORIGINAL control room of the TARDIS (they rebuilt it from scratch EVERY season) reminds me somewhat of the flight deck of the Jupiter 2-- although in that case, the spaceship from FORBIDDEN PLANET no doubt also served as a huge inspiration.

The one thing LIS didn't take from WHO was time travel... but a year later, he took care of that.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I'm still up for a team discussion of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (or Land of the Giants) whenever someone else is in the mood.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Between all the assassinations, the situation growing worse in Viet Nam and war there upon the horizon, a lot of mid-1960s television shows thought "camp" was the way to go. After all, what about the Adam West version of Batman?

Even some episode of The Wild, Wild West went down that road in the last two seasons of the series, but thankfully not all.

Don't know what was going on behind the seasons at Irwin Allen Productions at that time, but for me, the absolute silliest episode of Lost In Space has to be "The Great Vegetable Rebellion".

[Henry R. Kujawa]

What happened was, about 10 years ago, I ran across LIS on the Sci-Fi Channel.  Just came in on the 2nd episode of the 3rd season, and continued on from there.  Hadn't seen any of them since the 70's.  The feeling I got was, they started out that year really trying hard to do better, but never quite made it.  Every story felt like it was shot from a 1st-draft script, which, with just a bit more work, they could have really gotten something.  At some point, the totally lunacy crept back in, but with a few notable exceptions, never QUITE as bas as the middle of the 2nd season.

The thing is, I was quite surprised that, watching the almost the entire 3rd season that way, "Vegetable" DIDN'T seem all that bad to me!! I'M NOT KIDDING!

Now, for sheer drop-off-the-cliff silliness, try "The Questing Beast" or "Vikings In Space" or "Mutiny In Space". Or even "Two Weeks In Space".

By the way, I discovered I somehow had ONE episode from that season on tape-- "Flight Into The Future".  Wow. You know, if it wasn't for Jonathan Harris' terrible over-acting, that would be one FANTASTIC episode!