TIME TUNNEL! - Where Are You? - Page 9

Well, I'd have to say that with LIS, S1 came across as sub-standard and got progressively worse. It's not that the B&W episodes looked poor, it's just that my expectations were higher. I remember when I watched episode #2 ("The Derelict") I had a sinking feeling about the remaining segments, but as it turned out, that was the one standout for poor print quality. I'm still very disappointed in S3 in light of the stellar quality we've seen on TT. If only "Visit to a Hostile Planet" could look like these...

There can be many odd and unwelcome surprises in the world of classic tv on dvd, but the one thing I feel certain of is that TT vol. 2 (and VTTBOTS vol. 2 as well) will look virtually the same as the initial sets.

Even though I was a huge LIS fan,I never purchased S2 or S3
sets because I was so disappointed with the quality of the S1 discs...I suspect that whoever was responsible for the transfer to DVD was either a "bumbling boobyhead" or a "pot bellied prankster"...

Since I've finished off both the TIME TUNNEL and VOYAGE volume 1 sets, I've now gone back and begun rewatching some of the TIME TUNNEL episodes over again.

One thing that's caught my eye: I've had occasion to watch an episode or two of TT on a standard television as opposed to our HDTV. The "sweat" issue is much more noticeable on the HD set than on a standard TV. Sure, now that I know it's there, I can see it, but it's not as blatantly obvious as it is on the HDTV.

I still cannot get over how good these look! They are almost reference-quality DVDs.

Harry

I was disappointed in the quality of "The Derelict" too. In that first season, it was really the only standalone episode to take place "out in space". The very next episode got the Robinson family planet-bound for the entire rest of the season.

I'd read about the bad print on that episode here, but wanted the show badly enough that I didn't pay much heed to the warning. As you say, the rest of the episodes aren't nearly as bad, they're just not as good as one hoped for, after seeing such reference-quality black and white transfers as we have on TWILIGHT ZONE or even the first season VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA set.

I suppose FOX was in some kind of learning mode with the LIS sets - and it seems like they learned a great deal, based on how well TIME TUNNEL and VOYAGE have come out so far. One has to wonder if somewhere down the road, perhaps in an HD format, LIS will be revisited. It seems like it was too popular a show to have been given such a rough-shod treatment.

Ah, well. Bring on the next wave of TIME TUNNEL episodes!

Harry

Just about six weeks to go. Can't wait to see the volume 2 set!

dupe

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no, FOX got lazy-since LIS was so popular they made new transfers several years ago for the Sci-Fi channel;
But 10 years of advances in mastering and compressing could have made LIS look great-but FOX chose to use the '10 year old masters' rather that start fresh for this set. They look good, but not GREAT.

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I'm just happy they got it together for TIME TUNNEL. Set 2, just forty-four days away!

Harry

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It's hard to imagine someone being a fence-sitter on these two series when a fanatic like me will actually bring a portable dvd player to work in order not to wait until 5:00 p.m. to view the discs that I purchased at Best Buy on lunch break the day of official release.

Voyage and TT fans have an added treat in store this year besides the remaining two volumes for S1--a book offering a critical history of the 4 major Irwin Allen series, due in November:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078...g=UTF8&s=books

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I finally took the leap and I would also like to point out that when you purchase both Time Tunnel AND Voyage at the same time from this certain famous online retailer, together the price is $29.94--you're getting an additional $10 off, so its like paying $15 for each set.

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Great news! I can't wait to pick this book up in November. In the meantime, it's good to hear that the series have gotten a bit of a sales boost with the price drop. That is indeed a fantastic deal.

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We're down to 20 days from release day for TIME TUNNEL VOLUME 2!

Harry

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fab

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Has anyone ever heard if the writers/producers/directors of Back to the Future ever cited Time Tunnel as an influence? It struck me today that the end of BTTF 2 is straight outta Time Tunnel -- depositing our hero(es) in a new time and place and then, bang! Cliffhanger!

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I've never heard any BTTF people credit TIME TUNNEL in any way.

If any other entertainment entity owes its existence to TIME TUNNEL, it would have to be QUANTUM LEAP - a secret project in the Arizona desert with a scientist uncontrollably leaping from time to time and can't get home. Yet I never heard any of THOSE folks crediting TIME TUNNEL either.

TIME TUNNEL writer Ellis St. Joseph, who wrote the "Day The Sky Fell In", the Pearl Harbor story, mentioned the movie, The Final Countdown, in Starlog Magazine, October 1991:

I quote that, but never really understood his beef. Yes, both were time-travel stories to Pearl Harbor before the Japanese attack, but there the similarities end. One deals with the land-based adventures of the scientists trying to warn a father about the attack, the other was a feature based at sea aboard an aircraft carrier whose crew spend most of the time trying to figure out what happened to them.

Harry

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Speaking of "The Day The Sky Fell In", I'm at that one in the viewing journey. Mom and I are going to watch that one this afternoon. We're watching the series together. She's never seen the series but remembers my Dad and I watching them in the 60's. Dad and I never missed this show. She said the same thing that Gord (TSoD) said a while back; "It's hard to believe that this series was made back in '66." How's that for crossing the Generation Gap, Harry?

Jeff "I'll never go through waiting to view a series like TT again" W. (Signature style used by permission of "Gary O")

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Can't wait to re-watch volume 2 in just a couple of weeks.

Final Countdown is definitely one of my favorite movies, but I never really thought of it as being inspired by Time Tunnel.

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17 days to release day of TIME TUNNEL VOLUME 2. I'm looking forward to seeing the upgraded video of the episodes, along with the restored portions edited out of the syndication cuts. Plus, I'm eagerly anticipating the extras - expanded interviews with the principals and the two TV pilots we're getting.

Harry

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I received volume 2 yesterday. The 2002 unaired pilot looks like the version I watched before (the 51 minute version) and it is in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. I'm going to take a look at the set this weekend.

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[inserted to avoid confusion:]
Reading the above, and being thoroughly confused about which set David was writing about, I wrote:

Caution: Depending on how your TV and DVD player are set up, they may be "fooled" into thinking that the TIME TUNNEL programs are anamorphic widescreen.

What I've discovered about this set is that the menus are anamorphic widescreen, but the programs themselves are standard 4:3. It's possible that the menus are fooling your system and setting them into a widescreen mode.

Just for the heck of it, I've watched some portions of the shows in the zoom mode to fill a 1.78:1 screen. It usually results in some heads being chopped a bit - particularly Whit Bissell's, who nearly always stood up in Tic Toc Control, while John Zaremba and Lee Meriwether sat at the control consoles.

Double-check your settings and make sure your system isn't fooled by the anamorphic menus - and enjoy the series!

Harry

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Harry, read my post again. I said the unaired 2002 pilot is in Anamorphic Widescreen. Everthing else (The Time Tunnel epsidoes and The Time Travellers movie) is in 1.33:1 full frame.

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I'm sorry I misunderstood, David. Your post didn't mention WHICH set you got, and there is after all, an un-aired pilot in the first volume.

But it's good to hear about Volume 2, just days away now.

Harry

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boy what would really be great is the book by L.B. Abbott-who did all of Allens spfx and most of FOX's..
Called "Rubber Bands Paperclips and Masking Tape" or somethig like that.

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There are a couple of things coming out soon that I want to pick up - looking forward to this one.

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How did you manage to get vol.2,its not out until next week,i am so jealous.I have two episodes to go on vol 1 so i am eagerly awaiting the last 15 and the 2002 unaired pilot.
Its a pity an episode wasn't made that wrapped up the story,i.e. Tony and Doug finally get back to the Time Tunnel in their own time (1968)

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I picked up the first volumes of both Time Tunnel and VTBOS with the recent Amazon deal, and had to say thanks to everyone on the boards for speaking so highly of the shows and the sets. I'm enjoying the heck out of both of them!

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anyone ever seen blueprints of the Tunnel or the control area?

I still think the show would have been better had some of the episodes taken place in the vast number of unknown rooms, labs and areas of the complex itself-not just in front of the tunnel or with Davey Crockett/Silver painted spacemen in the old west.

I do know that for the first few episodes the tunnel went back into the soundstage next door. after that it ended at the wall of its own sound stage, and they simply painted a receding-into-infinity group of concentric ovals-you could often see the technicians shadows on it.

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From looking at various pictures and stills, and studying the 'Home Movies" section of the Volume 1 DVDs, it can be gathered that the main portion of the Tunnel itself went back around nine or ten oval sections. In the pilot episode, there's a view from there looking out toward the main control consoles.

The next portion must have been an extension that would add about another sixteen rings to the tunnel's length. I believe that section was barely able to hold an actor heading through the tunnel. There is a scene where Doug first enters in the pilot where he manages to get pretty far into the tunnel.

The final piece is what stuck into the next soundstage when used. It would have been a conical-shaped "infinity" section that allowed the forced perspective to make you believe it really did extend to inifinity.

I've seen discussions about whether that final portion could have been substituted for by a flat 2D rendering of concentric ovals so as to avoid using the next soundstage. There are behind-the-scenes pictures floating around the Internet of camera equipment back there. A 2D version of the infinity section might look "off" when filmed from different angles; perhaps there were multiple versions for multiple angles.

Most episodes stuck to the formula of following Tony and Doug on their adventures, with a small piece of the story back at the control center. It would have been nice had they managed to get some stories onto different sets back at the lab. Perhaps a second season might have done just that. Unfortunately we'll never know.