Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy? - Page 3

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I tell you what... I only gotten around to watching a few episodes so far. But this morning when I was finally able to order some more DVDs... I ordered myself a copy of Volume 2!

Other then the rest of the episodes I am really looking forward to the 2002 unaired pilot and the TV Movie Time Travelers... Is this movie any good?

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

Yes, Time Travelers is a good movie. It's a bummer they didn't make it a series.

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I agree. I still remember the movie from my childhood. I may pick up this set one day just for it.

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

Just be advised that although the TIME TUNNEL series and the 2002 pilot look and sound fantasic, the TIME TRAVELERS movie is just a little less so. It appears that FHV did not bother to remaster the movie for the DVD set.

It's still fine - don't misunderstand me - but it looks like they just threw a syndication print on there rather than remastering and restoring it. Since it's been relegated to "bonus material" in this case, it probably wasn't worth the expense.

The 2002 pilot was probably so recent that not a lot of clean-up was needed.

Glad to hear that THE TIME TUNNEL is still gathering new fans some 43 years later!

Harry

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

Thanks everyone... and I will be sure to not expect as much quality wise from the movie.

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I found the bonus movies on Vol. 2 to be much better than expected. I was especially impressed by the 2002 movie, which I had expected to be plain awful, but I found that I enjoyed it. Overall, a very nice job with these sets, the only negative being the double-sided discs (of which I will never be a fan).

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I know what you mean... and will never understand why they put only 2 episodes on each side. They should have made them single sided... and 4 episode per side.

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

How about Land of the Giants, great show too!

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

It did get to be a bit much, but that was the direction shows were taking that year. It was the time of BATMAN, and the networks were all looking for campy, fantastic elements in their series. So once the historical epics for stock footage mining were pretty well used up, that's when they began to go the fantasy-science fiction route.


I know what you mean. Irwin Allen had his stable of writers and the ones he used tended to write stories that were easy and thrifty to film. And since the thrust of the series historical episodes were about impending disasters or major historical conflicts, those events had to be the end of the episode, and our heroes had to be rescued and sent elsewhere just in the nick of time.


Go with the first season sets for the best stories, ones that were grounded in the most reality. It's black and white, but it adds to the realism.

Then if you care to continue, go with the second season sets. The show switched to color, looked great, and continued producing some fine episodes, along with a few monster-type shows.

Since the ratings increased everytime they threw a monster on-screen, Irwin was given a network directive to continue in that direction. As a result, the third season veered almost exclusively to a monster-of-the-week format, with the elements of "camp" also creeping in (the BATMAN influence).

Fourth season attempted some more serious episodes, but there was still a large tendency for monsters or cheaply produced "crew-member-turned-evil" episodes.

LOST IN SPACE had a great start with the three of the first four episodes chopping up the serious unaired pilot into pretty good adventures. After that, the Dr. Smith takeover of the series begins and the series got very silly very quickly. A few good episodes were churned out over the three years.

LAND OF THE GIANTS attempted to be more serious, was structured much like LOST IN SPACE, but the gimmick wore thin after about a season. The full-series set is all that's available for sale and can be expensive. If you want to try it without breaking the budget, watch for Amazon sales, checking frequently.

Harry

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I just finished watching the 2002 Unaired Pilot bonus episode. I was going to try to wait to watch this episode until I was done the series... but I just couldn't wait to see it. Especially after I found out that Doug Phillips was played by David Conrad (plays Jim Clancy, Melinda's husband on Ghost Whisperer... and I love that show!). I have to tell you... It sucks that this pilot was never sold... as I loved every second of it. They left enough the same to pay a good homage to the classic Irwin Allen series. But changed enough of it to make an interesting and new show. I kinda liked how in this case they weren't actually lost in time... more straight out travelers. It gave it a bit of a Stargate SG-1 feel. And I found it pretty funny that they changed the character of Tony Newman to a female character properly named Toni Newman. I left this episode really wanting more! It is a shame it just wasn't meant to be!

Even if these later episodes aren't as good as the early episodes... I find myself happy that I got this set already and only watched this one thing on the set so far! So even if by chance I don't care for the later episodes of the series... all's good here!

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

I agree Pete. I thought the update to TIME TUNNEL was really very good and I too wanted more. And that came after the fact that was SURE I'd hate it, since I don't care for most modern updates to classic material.

But TIME TUNNEL 2002 was good. I liked the causality changes in "our" timeline. Red lights meaning "Go", New Jersey not being a state, the "Boston Yankees" playing baseball - subtle things like that, that could go unnoticed on a quick first viewing.

Harry

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

Yeah... I agree... and you mentioned one I did miss on my viewing. The "Boston Yankees" slipped by me.

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

It's heard on the car radio in the beginning as Doug and his co-worker are driving home.

Also watch the opening credits carefully as each little image changes something.

Harry

Re: Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy?

Thanks... I know my brother wants to see this episode (he used to love the classic series)... so I may have to re-watch it with him when he does.

i picked up time tunnel a year or so and it was a great purchased. I like a few of the episodes, especially the ones that relate to history, i.e. the alamo, pearl harbor, etc. This was very good show and led to shows like voyagers and quantum leap later on.

 

The only thing that i found funny was James Darren and his hair and at times watching him fight. Those scenes alone make the purchase very worthwhile.

 

This show is one of my holy grails on DVD.  The transfers are awesome.  The only downside is the flipper discs.

I am not big on flip side of disks either. I have issues with shows lke Voyage/Magnum PI etc that are on double-sided disks.

The alamo is another good episode along with pirate episode. There are so many good episodes, especially like how the show links up with historical figure. This show would be good for kids today to see some of the historical figures.

 

I recently stumbled onto a little video that was put together on YouTube that has fascinated me.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MByhY6aSUo

 

It's a combination of a little Irwin Allen clip on the Seaview and then goes into the TV-movie intro for THE TIME TUNNEL and follows that up with the section on TIME TUNNEL in THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN.  What's fascinating to me is that middle section, as I've never, ever seen anything from the edited-together TV-movies of THE TIME TUNNEL.

 

For the unintiated, back in the '80s, Fox put together five telemovies to syndicate to TV stations.  They took two similarly themed episodes, crammed them together and edited them down, and then prefaced them with the short, expository, five-minute scene that's in the video linked above.  Though I've always been a bit of a TIME TUNNEL geek, I've never had the privilege of seeing any portion of those movies, though I would have really loved to.

 

One further note is that most TIME TUNNEL videos on YouTube don't last long as Fox is rather protective of their copyright and often nukes them.  I'm surprised this one's lasted a couple of months at this point.  So don't be surprised if it disappears quickly, like Doug and Tony disappearing into time.

 

Harry

 

 

I have S1 and S2 on dvd and i have no complaints. There are some episodes that are very good, like the Pearl Harbor episode. Pearl Episode takes them back to day before pearl harbor happens. There are many episodes that are very good, especially looking at lee merriweather back in the 1960s. The set also has the unaired pilot.

 

I would recommend this buy!!

 

Actually there was only one season of The Time Tunnel.  20th Century Fox put the one and only season out as Vol 1 and Vol 2. 

I absolutely love this show too, always did and always will for all time. Nobody from the cast seems to think it was a wise decision to cancel it and I certainly see their point, as Jimmy Darren points out in his interview, there were so many story possibilities they could've used in later seasons. One of TV history's big mistakes for sure I wish they could go back and undo, and maybe make it two seasons instead of the fun but ultimately less satisfying Land of the Giants. Oh well, wishes that shall remain unfulfilled. I like the cast interviews in the extras but commentary tracks would've been an awesome thing too, personally I could listen to the wonderful Lee Meriwether for hours.

It is good show to take you back into history for some important events, like pearl harbor, Troy, titantic, etc. I bought the set and watch it from time to time. The show also spawn similar type of shows later on like quantum leap and voyagers. I was too young to see the show when it first aired. I picked it up, because i am a huge sci-fi fan.

 

It is also a good show for kids to watch to see how history unfolded. I think TV of today could learn a little about TV of yesterday to see how acting/scripts were done. This scripted reality just does not do it for me. I rather watch dvds then watch what is on today's tv!!

I purchased time tunnel a few years ago and decided to start watching the episodes again. I watched the titanic and moon episode and they are very well done. I like this show, especially the story lines. I think i remember the show being on spacecast in canada in the 1990s. It is too bad shows like this do not get played on like a classic space channel to spike interest with the younger generation.

 

I am a huge sci-fi fan ever since i was a kid. I will continue to add to my collecion when i see shows like Time Tunnel become available.

 

We TIME TUNNEL fans should be really thankful for the excellent job that FOX did on restoring and presenting the show on DVD.  Given the show's treatment over the years, I would have expected a bare-bones release with passable prints along the lines of LOST IN SPACE, but the powers that be stepped up to the plate and gave us a release to be proud of.

 

I know there are complaints - there are ALWAYS complaints - but with the excellent mastering and the extras thrown in, this release still holds up, even in the age of Blu-Ray.  We got Irwin Allen's home movies, which if you haven't taken the time to peruse, do so.  There are scenes in there of an entire subplot of the pilot that was cut out and thrown away - that of Dennis Hopper playing an obnoxious passenger on the Titanic named Tabor who had ideas of wooing what he thought was the wealthy Althea Hall.  He was also involved in the radio room scene and trying to sneak aboard the lifeboats trying to pass as a lady wearing a shawl.  There are little snippets of these scenes to be found in those home movies.

 

Also in there are some surprising moments like when Albert Salmi visited the Titanic set in his pirate costume, coming in from the neighboring set of another Irwin Allen production.  And there are lots of scenes in the home movies of Irwin and company prepping and showing off the control room set, shots in the desert where he's seen instructing James Darren on the proper way to "tumble helplessly" into history.

 

And then there are the extended interviews from the 1995 release of THE FANTASY WORLDS OF IRWIN ALLEN, where we get all of the major players including Whit Bissell in one of his last on-camera appearances, talking about the show.

 

I can't forget the generous addition of not one but two full additional programs included on the the second volume - the full telemovie THE TIME TRAVELERS and the widescreen 2002 pilot for the series reboot that never made it.

 

So, with all that's *right* about THE TIME TUNNEL on DVD, it's easy to overlook whatever problems have been brought up: dual-sided discs, split up volumes, and the bland cover artwork.  I'm certainly happy with these.

 

Harry

I watch Time Tunnel every year starting in September and ending in May.  Friday Nights just as i watched the episode's when i was kid.  Those new books on Time Tunnel are ready to ship on July 1st from http://www.alphacontrolpress.biz/ .  You may also order them from Monstersinmotion.com

Hey Mark,

 

I watched the time tunnel episodes periodically and it really depends on my mood. I have 71 completed shows that i try to watch a dvd a night. It is more difficult in the summer and/or warm months as i tend to be outside.

Through contact within out Yahoo group, I've learned that the Region 2 discs do indeed have 4% PAL speed-up issues, and have the "next week" teasers relegated away from the episodes and tacked on as a DVD extra. Those two factors render the R2 set as not favorable IMHO.

Harry