What Happened to the TIME TUNNEL?

so whatever happened to that classic Irwin Allen sci-fi television series The Time Tunnel let's find out movies music and monsters danger danger hey guys Dan Monroe here talking about movies music and monsters oh man this was definitely one of my favorites The Time Tunnel which was irn 's third sci-fi television series was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC unfortunately and like a lot of other TV shows Back In The Day The Time Tunnel sadly only got one season of 30 episodes from 1966 until 1967 in fact The Time Tunnel was the shortest of all the Irwin Allen science fiction TV shows but man this show was great when it lasted two American scientists are lost in the swirling Maze of past and future ages during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project The Time Tunnel Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly towards a new Fantastic Adventure somewhere along the infinite corridors of time the premise of the show was basically pretty simple initially project Tick Tock which had enormous Government funding is on the possible chopping block unless somebody is sent through time and back or funding is cut off and of course they do which launches the series into the vast knowns and unknowns of time and cementing The Time Tunnel at is one of the coolest and most memorable TV shows from the 1960s but why didn't it last well we'll get to that Douglas Phillips and Anthony Newman played by Robert colar and James Darren become active participants in such amazing historical events as the sinking of the Titanic the attack on Pearl Harbor kuster's Last Stand the Battle of the Alamo and so many more we could be here all day when you enter The Time Tunnel almost anything can [Music] happen The Time Tunnel in color on ABC the series also starred Whit Bissell as general Haywood Kirk and former Miss America and Catwoman Lee Merryweather as Dr an McGregor what went on in the the The Time Tunnel itself we saw images of our two compatriots uh in trouble and and in Dire Straits throughout the entire series but we never saw that footage if we were lucky the director had filmed some of it ahead of time so he was able to tell us yes um now Doug is is just about to step on the landmine just about but not not quite okay so according to the plot the time travel is deemed possible by time being portrayed as a static Continuum accessible at any point through the time tonnel Corridor spanning its infinite reaches meaning basically Doug and Tony eventually figure out that events of the past can literally be altered and to some extent occasionally they do attempt to alter history itself come on man haven't these guys ever heard of the crime directive okay never mind different show Irwin would go to any length to make it look exactly like what the storyboard was so when I saw it when I saw what Irwin had had storyboarded and then eventually saw this incredible set which was exactly like the storyboard but Grand of course it was breathtaking it helped you in your character you fantasized and you were there the initial concept or premise of the show was certainly interesting for the 1960s although not completely original I don't know if anybody remembers this but in the 1950s there was a kind of goofy series called captain zro z/ that basically had the exact same story line Advanced Earth Technology using a time machine to go back in history and manipulate the outcome for the benefit of mankind coincidence I don't know lines are open you decide the production of The Time Tunnel used a ton of sets stock footage and leftover props from other 20th Century Fox movies and TV shows including Lost in Space Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Land of the Giants and yes even Batman in fact Irwin Ellen insistence on the use of Old Stock footage really not only brought the past alive each week to some extent but also saved a ton of money on the show's budget and if there's one thing that irn Allen knew how to do really well it was save money now believe it or not and really unlike most every other TV show ever made only one set was constructed for the entire run of the show The Time Tunnel set which was created for the pilot episode basically just a large control room and the Long Time Tunnel itself was created using optical matting shots I think it was a six day shoot on the show and usually one day was for the tunnel and five days were for the exteriors we didn't have time to think ahead thank God Irwin did because uh with about three shows at one time going the man was a genius and he hired good people around him and when you're there from 7: in the morning until maybe 8:00 9 at night on any good day 14-hour day was nothing this is also really uncommon for TV shows only a few actors for each episode were actually put into any kind of a costume the director of that particular episode simply looked at whatever stock footage they were going to use for that show and then would dress the actors in those kind of costumes to make the footage fit in a little more seamlessly this is kind of interesting the main Time Tunnel set that they created for the pilot episode was really enormous but when the show went to series filming locations were changed and The Time Tunnel itself was moved into a smaller control room set on a smaller Sound Stage as far as the primary actors coar and Darren they shot most all their stuff on the 20th Century Fox Backlot or occasionally on location in and around Southern California and if you pay really close attention pretty much all the scenes set in different parts of the world or country have the same general hilly landscape in the background another very effective cost cutting measure this is fascinating and I never knew this but apparently in interviews irn Ellen always claimed that this show The Time Tunnel was his personal favorite out of all the shows he ever did I mean it was good but the best probably because it was the cheapest one to produce and like Lost in Space each episode ended with a cliffhanger to the next week's episode and I suppose it's kind of ironic that the final episode in the series had a cliff hanger to a repeat of the very first episode kind of cool one big circle in time initially the show was previewed for fans along with Star Trek at the 1966 World science fiction convention in Cleveland which was actually ahead of the television premiere the amazing theme music for the opening and closing credits were once again composed by the legend legendary John Williams or Johnny Williams as he was known Back In The Day The Time Tunnel even won an Emmy Award in 1967 for individual achievements in cinematography with the award going to lb Abbott for his amazing photographic special effects the overall ratings for The Time Tunnel were really quite frankly outstanding audiences just loved tuning in week after week to see where and when these two time travelers were going to end up so why did it get cancelled why did it only get 30 episodes well two reasons actually the first was that ABC did actually offer to renew the series but only if Irwin Allen agreed to cut the budget by 1/3 which he absolutely refused to do secondly The Time Tunnel was scheduled on Fridays which was often considered the Friday night death slot for any TV program why they put the time tunnel in this spot is absolutely Beyond me I mean who the heck is home on a Friday night and even though The Time Tunnel was one of the very few shows that succeeded in this terrible time slot the network Executives wanted a new series called The Legend of kuster which quite frankly I've never heard of to replace The Time Tunnel like permanently why God Network Executives well the legend of kuster was eventually green lit and that meant The Time Tunnel was cancelled just like that what a shame the ratings were great and the people liked it but as karma would have it kuster was almost immediately cancelled after only 17 shows for its extremely low ratings take that Network Executives well The Time Tunnel came and The Time Tunnel went but that certainly wasn't the end of this extraordinary TV series in January 1967 a promotional novel simply called The Time Tunnel was published by pyramid books later that year another novel called time slip Time Tunnel Adventure number two was also released there were also two comic book issues put out by gold key comics in 1966 and 1967 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment finally released the entire series on DVD in 2006 including fulllength uncut and unedited original Network prints EX except for one episode for some reason the episode chased Through Time remained edited why no idea but if you know let me know and then eventually Revelation films released the entire series glorious Blu-ray quality in 2018 and what about the toys every irn Allen Show always had a whole bunch of really cool toys well the time tunnel did sort of there was a board game by ideal toys which was released in 1966 and a second board game called The Time Tunnel spin to win in 1967 B manufacturing actually created a pinball game called The Time Tunnel in 1971 there were also coloring books view Master sets but sadly no metal lunchbox similar to the Planet of the Apes liveaction TV Series in 1980 Five featurelength television films were assembled from 10 Time Tunnel episodes with portions of the first episode used as introductory material okay but whatever happened to the spin-offs remakes and God help us reimaginings well believe it or not three different attempts were made made to resurrect The Time Tunnel over the years and not a single one of them ever made it way back in 1976 Irwin Allen himself developed the idea of a film or a new pilot for a remake of the 1960s Time Tunnel I'm really not sure why but from what I've heard it had to do with some type of litigation issue but the pilot didn't sell and then was later repackaged as a standalone television film and that's strike number one then in 2002 20th Century Fox once again showed some interest in rebooting this series this particular pilot was spearheaded by executive producer Kevin Burns which apparently had a much darker and more serious tone than the original 1966 series I'm assuming similar to what he did with the new Lost in Space but the series wasn't picked up by Fox because Fox decided to go with this other little show called Firefly and yeah Firefly was a really good show apparently this particular pilot was eventually released on DVD in 2006 simply called The Time Tunnel but as far as a new series goes that's strike number two then in 200 five the Sci-Fi channel announced the intention to create a new Time Tunnel pilot for its 2006 season once again Kevin Burns along with Irwin Allen's wife Sheila began work on the new show but sadly the series never got any further than just a script for the pilot and that my friends is Strike number three and you know what in a way I'm not really disappointed the show was great we got one season of 30 episodes sometimes it's okay to just leave things alone I mean considering all we ever seem to get these days are reboots reimaginings and remakes it's kind of nice to know that something that was great back in the day Still Remains untouched I don't know just my op opinion now despite the short run of The Time Tunnel with only 30 episodes the show remains a sci-fi classic fan favorite to this day and certainly in my opinion enters the Irwin Allen Hall of Fame right up there with another one of my all-time favorite Irwin Allen classic television shows Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea but that my friends is the topic of another video I really hope you guys enjoyed that deep dive into The Time Tunnel and if you did and you like this kind of stuff please consider subscribing to the channel I've got a whole ton of new videos coming up really soon that I know you guys are just going to dig as always if anybody has any questions drop them down in the comments and I will try my best to answer them for you and please feel free to stop back anytime as we continue our conversation on movies music and monsters movies music and monsters danger danger [Music]

Channel: Dan Monroe / Movies, Music & Monsters

Views: 136,419

Keywords: dan monroe, classic television, lost in space, robot, time tunnel, irwin allen

Id: DrsXsk7-FYw

Length: 17min 16sec (1036 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024