When are We going to see a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVD Release?!!!!!

Del Monroe aka SSRN Seaview Crewman Kowalski on the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA tv series passed away on Friday, June 05th, 2009 at 73 years of age.

If VOYAGE fans really want to see the completion of the fourth season (1967-68) of VOYAGE the most influencial means is to get out there and buy the fourth season, volume one set.

Buy any previous outstanding VOYAGE season sets that you haven't bothered to.

Bona fide sales will speak much louder than anything that is said here!

But VOYAGE was marketed in the U.S.,  It was marketed in Canada.  People from overseas bought copies so it is difficult to believe that this particular tv premium hasn't performed well.

People overseas will go out of the their way to purchase rare genre programs like VOYAGE and THE INVADERS while other (blandly common) domestic tv series are just not going to interest them sufficiently to justify the additional expense involved.

We must keep in mind that these are fully restored and digitally remastered from the original 35mm print negatives video transfers while the (vast) majority of other Region 1 classic tv series DVD releases are "unrestored" editions which are total junk and not worth bothering with.

And I can cite many such non-effort titles that are enthusiastically discussed with regularity in this discussion forum!

So this extra effort has to have some significant bearing on the release scheduling.

Jeff T.
Edited by JeffT. - 7/8/2009 at 07:22 pm GMT

Like the old quote states " if I were a betting man and I am not"  and further add at Vegas I do only nickel slots.  I think you are both unfortunetly right.  I still belive that Gord and Dave will get back to us in time.  Harry our postive thinker which we need!!!  Please give us your opinion.  I know if you say looks like no for this years guys we have had it.  What gets me is here is where the bootlegers will make tons of money. Fox is I guess to dumb to reliaze this

I stated on an email about Voyage to Gord and Dave that I supported their stand on bootleging and I do.  I even once asked Jim Pierson at Dark Shadows if I could give away my DS vhs tapes from tv to a needy fan at the 40th festival.  I was even going ot pay the postage to Jim and the fan he chose.  I have never been to the festivals I thought it would be a nice thought. Jim said  thanks for the thought but it would still even though I was not asking money and even paying postage  a DS copywrite infringement.

Very well said, Jeff!  And something not everyone (including me) might consider.  Yes, the extra effort toward quality is very much worth the wait! 

 

We may not like the scheduling, but FOX should be commended for the restoration effort.  Now, if only they'd done it with Lost in Space! 
 

Yes the great restoration is one of the great things about it.  Voyage looks better then when we were kids.  I remember our first Color TV and seeing Voyage The Flintstones The Batcave and Disney.  I do think though that March could happen but we might get an early Christmas present who knows.  Galactica 1980 was released between Christmas and New Years of 08.  All of us fans of the old and new show ran out and bought it.  I bought mine at the Best Buy in San Diego visting my family.  Took it back with me to my snowy Midwest home and enjoyed it all.  I still think Gord and Dave will inquire like last year when they deem the best time to do so.

As I said before, there are nearly 100 episodes of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA released on proper sets from Fox Home Video, containing virtually all of the best episodes.  The remaining thirteen are certainly worthwhile waiting for, but overall, we've gotten the lion's share of this series.

No-one, including me, wants to see the series abandoned this close to conclusion, but I for one, still don't think there's anything to worry about.  Like Jeff said, the restoration on these episodes take time - and they are doing a magnificent job. I'm confident we'll see the final release.  It's just a matter of time.

Harry

Jeff is right, it's the sales of these Voyage DVDs that will really determine if they continue. I often buy Irwin Allen DVD titles as gifts for friends who are undecided about purchasing the DVDs for themselves and most of the time, they end up enjoying these shows and sometimes end up buying later editions on their own.

Off topic; My cousin just bought Melissa Gilbert's autobiography and while discussing her "Little House on the Prairie" days, she mentions that one particular highlight for her was working with "the great" Richard Basehart, and says, "He was my hero because he played Admiral Nelson on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."

Mel Gibson, Bob Hope, Drew Carey, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have all gone on public record as being Voyage fans but Melissa Gilbert?????

PEYTON PLACE PART 2 OUT TODAY!!! FOX PLEASE RELEASE VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA SEASON 4 VOLUME 2!!!  FOX THANKYOU FOR THE RELEASE OF THE PREVIOUS VOYAGE PRISTINE EPISODES!!!

Seaview you always have such great backgound knowledge of the show.  I remember when I learned that JACKIE O was a fan of Dark Shadows!  The suspense on when FOX will release the last epiosdes of VOYAGE is very hard on us hard core fans. We all look forward to those last episodes. The stand out epiosode "NO WAY BACK" the last episode of Voyage is of particular importance.

Voyage fans Peyton Place and Voyage aired at ABC at the same time and debuted at the same time.  The two series both had movie roots and they both claimed emmys. The two series were also very popular with both kids and adults.  The two series also helped ABC to climb out of the ratings basement.

Fans as we wait for Voyage give Peyton Place a chance.  I think you will find Peyton Place a surprise treat. 

I also want the rest of the series as The Lobster man and Blackbeard's Ghost were among my favorite episodes.

Blackbeards Ghost was one of my favorties too.  Like I said I want every episode. I do not care if I have 100 episodes to choose from.  This is not a dig to you Harry.  I know you want them too and we both they will be forth coming. I am just kid who wants more comics to read.

I am very grateful that we have received a majority of the series on DVD and that the episodes look great, I'm even glad we have been getting extras. I don't care if FOX holds off on releasing the remaining episodes for awhile, as long as we get them. I can wait.

I guess anything is possible when Fox is involved.  One need not look any further than The Big Valley to see that this company will abandon a series right in the middle of a season.  Having said that, I still think we will eventually get the final half season set for VTTBOTS.  I'll be really surprised if we don't see that Season 4, V. 2 set by the end of next March. 

Gary "my biggest gripe was that Fox changed up the packaging for S4 - I'm a stickler for aesthetic continuity and I hated that they couldn't finish up this series with the same look for all eight volumes" O.

Quote: I don't know anything about "The Big Valley", doubt I've ever seen it, but it's apparent abandonment could be due to low sales. "Voyage" has the Irwin Allen pedigree and, from what I've read here, pretty good sales numbers on Amazon for the last volume going for it. So, I think we have a  good chance of seeing the final 13 episodes by next year...at least i hope so.

I agree with you about the change in packaging but I can live with it, as long as helps us get the remaining episodes.

Well I (honestly) don't know whether an "Irwin Allen affiliation" is an influencial connotation or not!

Mark really sounds very dependent upon a final DVD release of VOYAGE.  I felt that way about THE INVADERS myself (as many here well know).

Right now it is still (comparitively) early and you have to show both some strength and confidence that VOYAGE (as a distinctively unique form of tv entertainment) does indeed have appeal with today's youth oriented DVD buying market.  We are all going to have to be prepared for (at the earliest) a (likely) March 2010 release date which is really not all that far away.  If we're lucky that is.  It may well take even longer!  Who can honestly predict these things?  When a company comes to the final chapter they can pretty much release it at their leisure.

On a positive side just how many really thought (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that the first volume of the VOYAGE season four (1967-68) would every see the light of day so right now our chances are reasonably good for completion.

Now someone brought up an interesting train-of-thought pertaining to just what specific episodes can (really) be looked forward to in the remaining 13 season four presentations.

My personal choices are "Nightmare" (28/01/1968), "Secret of the Deep" (11/02/1968), "Man-Beast" (18/02/1968), "The Death Clock" (24/03/1968) and "No Way Back" (31/03/1968).

Jeff T.

I am partial to the Shadowman type episodes also.  The first season was probably the best of the series, but these type of episodes really take me back...

I thought that I wouldnt be able to watch Voyage again since seeing it when I was a kid, but it is quite enjoyable.  There are a lot of roll your eyes moments with some of the gawdawful  dialogue, but somehow that is fun too.  I just ordered S4V1 and am looking forward to it.

Richard Basehart (at the time) had a very serious drinking problem and on the basis of what David Hedison (aka Captain Lee Crane) "aluded" to in an interview this got Mr. Basehart (temporarily) suspended from the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA tv series and almost completely replaced entirely by Gary Merrill who was tested as Admiral Roy Park in the VOYAGE episode "The Menfish" (03/03/1966).

But what (really) bothers me about some of these (shortsighted) actors and their disastisfaction in appearing in these (great) 1960s SF tv series is that outside of these particular shows their respective careers are hopelessly typed as villains...and this is especially true of Richard Basehart!

You can't get any lower than having to portray Adolph Hitler (of all people) certainly his worst most depressingly abysmal acting assignment.

Surely Admiral Harriman Nelson was more positive and a breath of fresh air for this fine actor and if Mr. Basehart were alive today I would (directly) tell him this.

I guess when it comes to (so-called) guilty pleasures the only VOYAGE episodes that I personally like that can (rightly) qualify as such are "Brand of the Beast" (18/12/1966) and "The Mummy" (29/01/1967).

I like "The Shadowman" (12/02/1967) and don't see anything really wrong with it as far as it goes.

I am not really a fan of "ATTACK!" (10/03/1968) as it is just too shamefully "tacky" in its production values and doesn't stand up to the test of time at all.  This is its main drawback.  And I definitely do not like "Savage Jungle" (25/03/1968) which (in my estimation) is VOYAGE's worst episode (that and "The Terrible Leprechaun").

Jeff T.
Edited by JeffT. - 7/28/2009 at 04:35 pm GMT
Edited by JeffT. - 7/29/2009 at 06:27 am GMT

Well Being Drunk on the set could explain alot, still you can see Baseharts position, he was hired to do a show that basically in the 1st season was all derring Do, spy stuff. Then as it goes along gets into very broad and often silly stuff (Sure We genre People eat it up) but what do you think he was thinking the first time he had to don the werewolf makeup.

Today's Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day is all 7 volumes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea for $82.99. 

www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_36550_12583910_pe_00_head

I thought he was FANTASTIC as Hitler in HITLER - As an Alied Artist Film, I hope it turns up as a WARNER ARCHIVE Title. :)

From showing his mad ambition to rule Germany to his Psycological and Sexual Disfunctions, I find this to be a more entertaining bio-pix than any one before or after untill "Der Undergang".
 

To each his own but I thoroughly enjoy seeing Richard Basehart as a more heroic figure something that he just wasn't given enough opportunity to be and Mr. Basehart was most convincing as such in his (now) classic characterization as Admiral Harriman Nelson on the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA tv series.

The actual werewolf monster featured in the VOYAGE episode "Brand of the Beast" (12/12/1966) was played by Jerry Catron (who did several differing bit roles throughout the third season) and not Richard Basehart.

But Richard Basehart did provide good, believable dramatics as Admiral Nelson tormented by the recurrence of the deadly infectious radioactive rabies virus first contracted in "Werewolf" (25/09/1966).

Now if you read a few posts previous in this discussion thread someone was just inspired to buy a copy of the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA - SEASON FOUR 3-disc set so it can't be poor sales that is holding the release of volume two.

With so many VOYAGE volume sets currently on the market 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment likely feels that (at least for the present) what the world doesn't need right now is yet another DVD volume set.

Jeff T.
Edited by JeffT. - 7/29/2009 at 06:26 am GMT

I wish Richard Basehart had understood how his character was a hero to so many young people during Voyage's initial run. He played the Admiral with believability, a challenge considering the wild nature of later stories. But he didn't give himself credit for this.
 
San Diego columnist Don Freeman wrote about how he visited the Voyage set and was introduced to Basehart. They shook hands and Freeman told Richard how much he enjoyed seeing Basehart in the Broadway play Hasty Heart and the film La Strada. Basehart got a stricken look on his face, shook his head and simply walked away, Freeman felt terrible and asked the Fox publicist what he had said to upset the actor. The publicist replied: "You mentioned Hasty Heart and La Strada. In other words, you reminded Mr. Basehart there was once a time that he was an actor."

What an interesting story that was, Nick.  Basehart's reaction mirrors how I envisioned him to be, i.e. a very serious actor who adored his craft.  It's ironic that we were graced with his fine voice and acting ability in VTTBOTS solely as a result of his marital/financial woes.  Had he been monetarily secure and in greater demand for roles (as he should have been) I imagine him not even bothering to exchange two words with Irwin Allen.  Of course, we're all glad he did and that too, David Hedison decided that "hey, if someone as illustrious as Richard Basehart is willing to give it a go, who am I to turn down a role?"

Well I am convinced that Richard Basehart did enjoy being on Voyage and knew he and the show were fan favorites.  I remember seeing Basehart on a local TV interview show long after  Voyage was off the network, but still in syndication. (He was promoting some new project he was in.)  He was an affable guest and seemed happy to talk about Voyage.

I infer from the TV Guide interview, I am linking below, that "The Hasty Heart" was a sore point for Basehart since at the point he was doing Voyage "Hasty Heart" was twenty years previous and he was more interested in talking about what he was doing now or at least talking about what else he was doing in those twenty years.
 
Basehart may have walked away from the reporter, Freeman, because he smelled another: "What's a serious actor like you doing on this TV show?" interview.

Here's a link to a Basehart TV Guide interview. On the second page, Basehart's thoughts on acting and the death of  John Larkin, from 12 O'Clock High are very interesting. www.richardbasehart.com/html/tvguide.html 

It always pays to have the "facts" at hand!

The production start for the VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA episode "The Return of the Phantom" (20/03/1966) the final second season (1965-66) presentation to be set before the cameras was February 22nd, 1966.  This did indeed mark Richard Basehart's return after a two and a half episode absence...and it really shows!  As good as both "The Menfish" (06/03/1966) and "The Mechanical Man" (13/06/1966) are having the star Richard Basehart back again really makes a tremendous difference to be sure.

Now in this interview with David Hedison the VOYAGE costar made it clearly understood that there was serious consideration in replacing Richard Basehart with Gary Merrill beyond a shadow of a doubt and that David stood by his good friend and professional colleague threatening to quit the show if Richard were dropped.

David Hedison also said that Richard had done something "wrong" not really specifically addressing it and likely never will.  David acknowledges that Richard Basehart "wasn't well" but there was still some other problem involved here.

David Hedison did once say that Richard Basehart was well aware of the enormous popularity of VOYAGE and his own celebrity connected with the series during its production which is nice to know.

On a sad note MIke Bailey likely the single most devout (and tirelessly relentless) supporter of the classic Irwin Allen 1960s SF tv series VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA passed away from leukemia on Monday, August 03rd, 2009 at 60 years of age which is a devasting loss and blow to VOYAGE fandom everywhere and I can not think of any more influencial and profound voice in support of this great show.

I have repeatedly been trying to get in contact with Mike (even very recently) with no success and now I understand why.

This will likely (ultimately) tranlate itself into the more juvenile-founded Irwin Allen 1960s SF tv series once again gaining prominence in the SF community's affectations.

Heaven help us all!  This is disastrous!  It just seems like there is some aspect of life that wants to keep mankind totally in the darkness of ignorance.

http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2009/08/longtime_portland_radio_person.html

Rest in Peace Michael.  VOYAGE fandom owes you a lot!

Jeff T.

Edited by JeffT. - 8/7/2009 at 12:55 pm GMT

I was saddened to hear that Michael Bailey had passed away. I had received a couple of emails from him over the years, in response to my questions and he was always friendly and extremely well versed in the Voyage universe. I know some fans bristled at his episode reviews on his site but Mr. Bailey was a true fan and any criticisms he may have had of some segments were honest and in the show's best interests. His Voyage website had great cast interviews, rare photos and tons of information on the series. No other website came close to providing such Voyage history. RIP, Michael, we'll miss you. 

It reminds me, the kind of criticism that DID annoy me in terms of Voyage comes from people who never valued the show at all. The late Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper once listed Voyage as the worst show ever made, along with Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie. Yet in 1968, when Cynthia Lowry (AP columnist)  looked over the 1967-68 cancellations, she selected only one cancelled series as worthy of being saved and mourned: VOYAGE. She said she would miss its ingenious stories, fun monsters of the week and inventive special effects, as well as its charm. Dave Kaufman of Daily Variety was less kind at the time, saying Voyage deserved its cancellation and, "was an unattractive melodrama that will not be missed and is best forgotten." More recently, the reviewer at the Sci-Fi channel website reviewed the Voyage DVDs in a similar manner of mocking contempt.

Critics. Bah humbug!

Another month has passed and there is no news about season 4 volume 2.