TIME TUNNEL! - Where Are You? (1 Viewer)

[michael_ks]

Oh my God, Harry, not sure whether to post this...you won't sleep for days...!

Well, here goes:

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/sho...e.php3?ID=6164

Astounding visual quality that exceeds all my expectations. Just beautiful!!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Wow definately a better job then was done on Lost in space any season.

 

[Harry-N]

I think I might faint.

This is so good I'm afraid the thread might be moved to the High Definition Forum!

Harry
...is it still six days?, online...

 

[michael_ks]

So true. In viewing the clips I found myself asking why on Earth "The Condemned of Space", "Hunter's Moon" and "Visit to a Hostile Planet" couldn't look so crisp and clean looking.

But at least TT looks truly phenomenal--and I suspect vol. 1 of VTTBOTS will not disappoint either!

 

[Harry-N]

Those clips must all come from the "unaired pilot". The scene with the prehistoric monster, Tony meeting Doug outside of the complex in 1958, Tony giving Althea his wristwatch are all clearly from that version.

Portions of the prehistoric scene were later used in "Chase Through Time", while the 1958 scenes were incorporated into the third aired episode, "End Of The World" with technician Jerry doing the lines that the Senator uttered.

I hope that the regular episodes look this good too. I suspect that they do.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Man, this is all "too much" I've waited a long time for this one. Still hard to believe that it got released.

"Harry, not sure whether to post this...you won't sleep for days...!"

He ain't the only one, Michael Thanks for the link. I can hear that TT theme tune already....

 

[Harry-N]

As I wait with great anticipation for THE TIME TUNNEL to arrive in stores or at my door, I'm trying to occupy myself with other Irwin Allen-related activities. Today I watched THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN, and I've been listening to the CD set with the same name while driving to and from work in the car.

2006 represents the 40th year since THE TIME TUNNEL premiered, and I thought it might be interesting to look up what was going on 40 years ago this week. THE TIME TUNNEL itself hadn't yet premiered - that wouldn't be until September - but two other Irwin Allen TV shows were around this week in 1966.

LOST IN SPACE was in its first season on CBS - its black & white year, I remember being enthusiastic about the show since it premiered the prior fall, though the Dr. Smith character was becoming most annoying. On Wednesday, January 19th, I watched as "The Keeper" story concluded - the only two-parter in LOST IN SPACE history. I recall enjoying this story as it unfolded. Michael Rennie, who'd figure in TIME TUNNEL's pilot later on, was superb as "The Keeper".

Four days later, on January 23, 1966, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA was in the midst of its first year in color, its second season overall. The episode that aired that night on ABC was "The Sky's On Fire". It essentially dealt with the same themes as the movie VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, and indeed lifted much of its special effects visuals from the film. The odd thing that I remember was that I must have been "in trouble" for something or other around the house, as I recall not being allowed to watch television that evening. My recollection of passing by the main living room TV viewing area and seeing the magnificent pictures of the sky being on fire on the color TV is still with me to this day.

Ah well...back to waiting...

Harry
...five days till TIME TUNNEL debuts on DVD...

 

[Harry-N]

There's a nice and favorable review of THE TIME TUNNEL Volume 1 posted over at the DVD Talk site. I hope it's OK to post the link here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read....=19773&___rd=1

I hope to see an HTF review soon, too.

Harry
...more intrugued than ever, online...

 

[Amy Mormino]

The pictures and footage from this DVD set looks great. It has the kind of eye-popping color I like from 1960s sci-fi. I really enjoyed Land of the Giants reruns as a kid, so I figure if I liked that show, I'll probably enjoy this one also since both are from Irwin Allen.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Laser's Edge shipped mine Yesterday so Hopefully I'll get this on release date. I'm glad to see 20th Century put some effort into this series , I forget thou is this the entire series or Vol 1?

 

[Harry-N]

This is just Volume 1 - the first 15 episodes plus the unaired pilot. Somewhere down the road, Volume 2 should come out. The set is gaining in popularity on the amazon site. Yesterday it was ranking up to #66 in their DVD sales.

I too ordered it online on advice I got here. I got the confirmation email on Wednesday that it had shipped from Indiana. That's just two states away - so I might get it soon.

Harry
...looking for the mailman, online...

 

[Rob Willey]

Got mine!

One word quickie review of the A/V: Wow!

Rob

 

[Harry-N]

Got mine too. It came in today's mail.

We just finished watching the aun-aired pilot and episode 2, "One Way To The Moon".

WOW! is right.

No-one's ever seen these look and sound this good. I'm seeing things I've never been able to see before, like reading numbers on the Tic-Toc badges - seeing beads of sweat on everyone's face in the pilot (I guess the air conditioning wasn't cranked up that day!) - visible blue light above the Tunnel during the time transfers of both Tony and Doug (something that's always been overscanned out, I suppose).

The second episode was just as good looking, something it hadn't been in years. I'd seen decent prints of the first episode in syndication, but the second always looked like it was sourced from a 16mm faded print. This one is pristine, with the colors just popping off my HDTV screen. The clarity of the image is just amazing.

If I have any negatives at all (and they are all minor in my book), it would be these:

a) The opening "In Color" bumpers are not on the episodes themselves. (I haven't yet explored the extras to find if they are there - I suspect they might be.)

b) The announcer telling us that "THE TIME TUNNEL is brought to you by..." isn't on the episodes I've looked at. This is both a positive and a negative. Purists of course would love to have that right where it was originally supposed to be. Modern day viewers probably wouldn't want those little network TV intrusions into their viewing experience.

c) The sound quality on the unaired pilot leaves a little to be desired, distoring on some of the loud passages. But the aired version I sampled sounded fine.

A positive I've discovered is that they used the original 20th Century Fox Television logos at the end, just like it appeared in the '60s.

I am one happy camper tonight and can only ask one more thing - Where's Volume 2?

Harry
...all smiles...

 

[Jeff Willis]

Harry, Rob,

Thanks for the early review on TT. I should be getting mine next week. How did you all get yours this early? I usually buy through Amazon but I don't usually get a set delivered to my home until a day or so after the official release date. In most cases, that's ok with me. TT is one of the exceptions I'd loved to have received this one over the weekend. I thought I read on this thread that someone bought theirs at "The Laser's Edge" site. I haven't used that store online.

 

[Harry-N]

I did a bit more poking around at some of the extras on the third disc. The "Network Title Sequence" is the normal opening credits with the announcer's "...brought to you by..." included.

There were three network promotional announcements, which are the "This is the incredible TIME TUNNEL in the weeks to come" promos. ABC used these at the conclusion of each of the first three episodes as they aired, showing a large chunk of next week's episode, along with a few snippets of other episodes that were in the can at the time.

Then came the ABC commercial for THE TIME TUNNEL. This is what aired over the summer of '66 to grab viewers for the fall TV season, complete with the "Fridays at 8 Eastern/7 Central on abc" text.

Finally in this group was the syndication promo. This was made up for those stations buying the show after it completed its network run.

There were a couple of eye-opener moments in the unaired pilot for me. I'm now sure that I'd never seen the whole thing complete before. Years ago I got hold of a VHS copy of a copy of a copy of it. It was missing the opening credits - and that was an eye-opener for me, with a slightly different version of the theme music. Also, several of the additional lines that didn't make it onto the aired version had little jump/cuts on this old VHS of mine, so I'd never heard all of Doug's introductory speeches to the Senator about Ann and Ray.

I've not yet explored the Irwin Allen Home movies section, not the radio promos or still galleries. I'm so happy I got this over a weekend to explore.

Harry

 

[David_Blackwell]

I received my review copy on friday. I'm working on my review and hope to have it up tomorrow or Tuesday. I do like the work that went into the DVD Set of TT V1.

 

[Harry-N]

Thanks David. I'll be eager to read your review.

Harry

 

[Gary Seven]

Is this the show that had the theme...

"It's about time, it's about space...." forget the rest. I remember vaguely that theme from some show so many decades ago and not sure what show it belongs to.

 

[Michael Alden]

Uh, no. That song is from It's About Time, the forgotten Sherwood Schwartz series that aired on CBS during the 1966-67 season. As with all of his shows, the theme song was great and the show was awful (unless you are in elementary school). Uncharacteristically for a SS show, he saw the show stunk (or was told by CBS) and they changed the format about 3/4 of the way through, complete with a new version of the theme song. The second version, which ran about 6 episodes is actually not quite as bad.

 

[Harry-N]

IT'S ABOUT TIME and TIME TUNNEL aired in the same season and were linked in one other way - IT'S ABOUT TIME star Frank Aletter was married to TIME TUNNEL's Lee Meriwether.

Now that Michael reminds me, I seem to recall in the deep recesses of my mind that the newer format for the show was that they somehow managed to take the show's lead cave-people (Imogene Coca and Joe E. Ross, I think) up to the present day.

Harry