When are We going to see a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVD Release?!!!!! - Page 3

Great to hear that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is on the way Let's hope that Fox gives us complete/unedited, restored(this might be asking too much) episodes with at least some extras.

This is great news, although not unexpected. Gord has hinted to us for months that Fox had this in the works. The only thing I wish is that there was at least a target month given. I hate the "coming soon" part, because it leaves the door wide open for many delays.

For instance, we haven't even received a date from Universal about "Leave it to Beaver" despite it being mentioned as coming soon for over a year now.

Don't get me wrong. I'm delighted with the news, but I'll reserve some of my exhuberance for an actual release date (probably not till 2006, as many of you have postulated).

Gary "again, this is great news - I'm just a little gunshy about these 'coming soon' type announcements" O.

Great news. Personally I hope they do TIME TUNNEL first. As a short one-season series, they can get it "out of the way" pretty quickly and then proceed with the longer VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA roll-out.

I can live with two half-seasons of these series the way they split up the last two seasons of LOST IN SPACE, but

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - master them correctly (and well!) and put in all of the footage, as originally broadcast. We've waited a long time for these, so let's get them right the first time.

Harry

I can't answer definitively for either series condition on current cable runs, since I dropped cable a few years ago.

Back when Sci-Fi was running TUNNEL and VOYAGE on weekday mornings in the late '90s, I did manage to tape all of the TUNNELs and about half of the VOYAGE episodes.

The TUNNELs looked far better in terms of print quality and sound than any of the VOYAGE episodes. The TUNNEL video quality was quite acceptable, and the audio sounded pretty good. I've been slowly transferring what I've got to DVD-R with not-to-shabby results.

VOYAGE, on the other hand, looked like worn out, faded 16mm prints, with fairly awful sound to go with it. Lot's of splashy 'S' sounds and warbly music. The black and white episodes were almost unwatchable.

To be sure, both series were edited for time, some sped up, and I'd like that corrected.

Harry

Actually, it was spelled "...in color", but I'll forgive you.

Those bumpers were required by ABC-TV from the program suppliers to replace their generic "This is an ABC Color Presentation" device that they used prior to Fall 1966, which itself was an answer, albeit a weak one, to NBC's peacock.

If you'd like to see the CBS and ABC color bumpers, go here: http://www.roadode.com/ (Go to the TUBETOWN section and scroll through the list of rare TV stuff to find those bumpers)

Thanks for the notes about which episodes of TIME TUNNEL have problems in the current syndication runs. It's sad that "One Way To The Moon" is of poor quality. And isn't it interesting that it's the second episode? As I recall, the LOST IN SPACE DVD first season set also had problems with its second episode being suspect, quality-wise.

Harry

During TIME TUNNEL's original network run, I was reduced to seeing many of them in black & white. My family had a summer cottage that only had a black & white TV, so since we invariably went there on Friday nights for the weekend, I couldn't see the TUNNEL in all its color glory. Still, the show fascinated me, and I made every effort I could to watch the show in whatever form I could.

Once the fall season turned cold, around Thanksgiving, we'd close up the summer place and stay home, where the color TV was, so the episodes from December through early March were the ones I saw in color on that first run.

Then in the spring, it was back to the black and white - made even worse by the show's earlier time slot. Getting to that cottage after a workday/schoolday Friday by 7:30 PM was not easy - and on some episodes I missed the beginning.

Much changed the following year when TIME TUNNEL went into syndication. Here in Philadelphia, it went to UHF channel 29, an independent station. The odd thing was that they split the show up into half-hour episodes airing from 7 PM to 7:30 PM. So instead of 30 hours, they ran 60 half-hours. The editing was quite crude, usually just abruptly ending at the 30-minute mark, with no re-cap the next day. But at least I was seeing them in color much of the time. The Friday episodes were hard to see for the reasons outlined above, so I often missed half-episodes during that run.

The show all but disappeared after that, with perhaps one more run on odd Sunday afternoons on that same channel 29 sometime in the mid '70s.

After that, I was denied seeing a single frame of the show until James Darren actually brought a copy of "The Day The Sky Fell In" to the radio station I work for, sometime in the early '90s. He was being interviewed about his new line of pasta sauces, and the fellow interviewing him was interested in seeing a TIME TUNNEL episode again. So he brought in the episode on VHS and several of us made dubs.

The copy he brought in was a combination of a decent print of the sections used in the edited-together movies that Fox distributed, filled in with crappy footage from a worse-off 16-mm print for those sections that had been edited out.

It was a joy meeting Mr. Darren and he was quite personable and willing to chat about TIME TUNNEL along with hawking his sauces.

After that, I managed to find out about a mail-order guy who was trading copies of rare TV shows. I managed to get about ten or so episodes from him. These were unedited syndication episodes, several generations down on VHS, so the quality wasn't too good.

Whe SciFi premiered on cable, I salivated over the prospect of TIME TUNNEL running on that channel - which, of course, my cable company didn't carry. It wasn't until the late '90s that the stars were properly aligned to where I had cable, they carried SciFi who actually RAN TIME TUNNEL, and had the ability to tape the episodes for myself.

As I mentioned earlier, of course, these episodes are edited, so in reality, I've never actually had an opportunity to sit down and watch all 30 episodes as they were meant to be seen.

So when I say I'm extremely happy to see even the vaguest rumors of TIME TUNNEL coming out on DVD, you can understand why.

So, whats up with VTTBOTS (and Time Tunnel) boxsets?

Theyve practiacally been confirmed for Q4 2005, (via inserts in both US and UK FOX DVDs...yet the window to announce 'em by Christmas is rapidlynearing its end...

I was thrilled and dancing a jig around the room when I read the news on VOYAGE and TIME TUNNEL. Especially VOYAGE. That's THE big series that I've been missing from my collection that I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for all this time. I promised I'd buy two copies of the set if they released the series on DVD in an earlier thread (maybe this one? It was one of them...) and I'll probably do just that. HAVE to have my VOYAGE!!

I don't look for anything to come out until the first quarter of 06. Lost in Space has been released on that
general schedule of six to eight months apart. It's been pretty obvious that they have are looking at sales figures for the previous sets before they commit to a new set. That
also probably explains the reason for the poor print quality. By the time they know what the sales figures are and work the decision on future sets through the bureaucracy, it is probably too late for them to do much
with the picture quality.

Compare that with Paramount's committment to the Brady Bunch and Andy Griffith shows. To get them out on the breakneck schedule and with the quality of the pictures shows they have been doing some work on them. They had to have made a committment before knowing what the previous set's sales were.

Good question. I'm wondering when we'll see these 2. I'm one of the TT fanatics That's one that I'd given up on ever coming out on (official) DVD. I like "Voyage" as well but TT is one of my all-time fav's. I didn't know that it was being advertised on flyers in other sets. That's great news Now, the "home stretch" waiting continues... I'd love to see TT out in time for "Santa"

Jeff, where are you getting this news? If all that is true (remastering and extras) then this is beyond my wildest dreams!

Gary "nothing against Time Tunnel, but I was hoping to see Voyage first" O.

Jeff, I certainly hope you're right! This is the best of all possible news - and I can't wait.

Harry "nothing against VTTBOTS and LOTG, but I'm sure happy to see TT first" N.

Can you really be comfortable knowing that if TT comes out first that I'll have to wait THAT much longer for Voyage? Can you live with that?



Bill "Desperately waiting for Voyage" M.

Ok, Jeff. I know you are passionate, like I am, about "Voyage" and therefore I'm sure you've done some legwork and received good, solid info. I love the news about the black & white version of the pilot being on the VTTBOTS set!

Gary "I'd still rather see Voyage come out first, especially when you consider it has more seasons to get through than Time Tunnel" O.

Thanks for that info Jeff. I'm drooling at getting all three of those VOYAGE pilots. The sets are really starting to sound like they'll be better than I could have hoped. I cannot WAIT for these. It would be great if they could have a little interview or something with Hedison or any other actors from the show in one or two of the volumes. Yeah, I'm a dreamer.

ETA: Ignore this post. I misunderstood the release schedule, so my calcualtions here are moot.

Working hypothetically with dates and number of sets needed, it could almost work out to an Irwin Allen set released every four weeks throughout 2006. There would be 14 sets total of the three series, and if the release schedule held to a four week window between releases, it almost fits into the 2006 calendar. Starting with January 3rd, the first Tuesday, the final set released would fall on January 2nd, 2007.

To keep it all in 2006, it's possible they could double up, or even shorten a release date or two to a two-week window.

Consider also that if the sets retail at the normal $30 per half season, the total bill for all of the 2006 Irwin Allen sets would be a mere $420. Quite a deal when one considers the price for the Star Trek sets!

Harry
...doing a little advance calculations, online...

Question for JeffT:

In anticipation of seeing these great shows next year, I dug out the pilot for VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA that I have. It's a color version from the SciFi Channel, airing sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's.

The credits list Theo Marceuse as playing Dr. Gamma, which he seemed to do for the latter half of the episode. Early on, though, I'd swear it was Werner Klemperer I was hearing.

What's the deal on this? Was it differentg in the black & white versions?

Harry

That's the type of schedule I figured we'd be looking at for these Irwin Allen series, thus my lament that "Time Tunnel" was probably coming ahead of "Voyage". It means I'll have to wait that much longer to see the best of the Irwin Allen shows.

Trust me, that first season of VTTBOTS was by far the most realistic and best written of all the shows in the IA stable. In fact I'll always maintain that "Sub Sunk Here" is the best episode, not only of Voyage, but of all the series.

Gary "hoping beyond hope that Fox changes their mind and releases VTTBOTS first" O.

My mistake then in interpreting the "all of them coming out in 2006" statement. I thought that all episodes were coming out in the year 2006!

Better they should take their time and do it right than rushing it to print. But naturally, many of us are anxious, so the wait will become even more intolerable knowing that they're right around the corner.

Harry

I thought you said 'remastered in high definition'. Which implies an SD release from new HD masters.

Am I the only one who fears that Time Tunnel won't be remastered (as Lost in Space wasn't) and that they'll take the same tapes that are airing on Encore with the missing In Colors and missing teasers?