Time Tunnel S1 &2 - Good buy? (1 Viewer)

[Harry-N]

I got word of it about a month ago from a Yahoo TIME TUNNEL group. I tried ordering it through Martin Grams' site but couldn't get the credit card link to work, so I ended up finding it on the publisher's site.

I thought I'd pass on the info here for those interested in the series. It's really a wonderful book, far better than the more fan-centric volumes that have preceded it.

Harry

 

[DeWilson]

...
Mars before it died and humans migrated to Earth...

Please Dear Lord,NO!
The problem with the later TIME TUNNEL episodes is it started to turn into "Aliens in History/Future that Doug and Tony Have to Stop".Someone at ABC must have told Irwin to "Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea" it up a little bit. Look at the last 3 episodes aired - All Featuring just that !
The first "Aliens in History/Doug and Tony have to stop" is "Visitors From Beyond The Stars" (Shot & Aired 18th) and which was clearly a pre-cursors of Things to come. (Mind you aliens and Old West wasn't a bad idea - it just WASN'T what TIME TUNNEL should be!)
Of the last 7 episodes you can clearly see the change of direction as there is only ONE is pure historical story, "Attack of the Barbarians" (shot & aired 26th). Besides the last 3 episodes, you also had "Chase Through Time" (shot & aired 24th) which had no historical elements, but was an Espionage episode with fantasy futuristic science fiction elements. Then you have "The Death Merchant" - Historical figure displaced in time to a major historical event in their future as a major plot point (shot & aired 25th) and "Merlin The Magician" - The ONLY episode to feature "Magic"/"Fantasy" elements - shot 28th,but aired 27th - and one of my favorite of the series!)
Those last 3 episodes, "The Kidnappers" (Shot 27th,Aired 28th) - No historical elements (ok, so we see Bob May as the late Hitler, but that doesn't count!) with fantasy futuristic science fiction elements of aliens posing a threat to the Earth that Doug.Tony and Ann must Stop; "Raiders From Outerspace" (shot & aired 29th) In the past, during Battle of Khartoum (1884, not 1883 the date is a year off),where they have to stop Aliens,etc,etc.etc.; The final episode "Town of Terror" (shot & aired 30th) have Tony & Doug in a Maine seacoast town (That looks a lot like Peyton Place!) in the near future of 1978 having to stop Aliens,etc,etc,etc.
Clearly the direction of "pure historical" or the odd "speculative future" (Such as with "One Way to The Moon") story were being replaced with the Alien of the Week and Fantasy based stories.
I hate to say it, but perhaps ABC did the right thing in canceling the series - just look how "Voyage" lost it's Great Science Fiction/Espionage edge by mid second season for "Monster of The Week"/Bad Science Fiction stories for the remainder of the series.
"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea : Time-Lock" is a clear example of the type of TIME TUNNEL episodes we would have gotten in 1967-1968!

 

[Mark Collins]

How many actors are left from the Time Tunnel?? I wold love to see the series back!!

 

[DeWilson]

Robert Colbert just turned 81, James Darrin is 76, and Lee Meriwether is 77! Who really want to see their favorite characters as Senior Citizens?
TIME TUNNEL's time has past. Any attempts (Like the STARGATE influenced unaired pilot from a few years ago) would be vastly different.
Sure We'd all want our favorite shows to come back with surviving cast members - but when you are talking shows of the 1960's (and the 1970's) actors are now in their 60's-80's!

 

[younger1968]

Robert Colbert just turned 81, James Darrin is 76, and Lee Meriwether is 77! Who really want to see their favorite characters as Senior Citizens?
TIME TUNNEL's time has past. Any attempts (Like the STARGATE influenced unaired pilot from a few years ago) would be vastly different.
Sure We'd all want our favorite shows to come back with surviving cast members - but when you are talking shows of the 1960's (and the 1970's) actors are now in their 60's-80's!

Time tunnel has come back in different forms, like voyagers and/or quantum link.

 

[DeWilson]

Time tunnel has come back in different forms, like voyagers and/or quantum link.

Those shows are NOT Time Tunnel, just shows that took a different take on Time Travel.

 

[younger1968]

Those shows are NOT Time Tunnel, just shows that took a different take on Time Travel.

DeWilson,
Voyagers and Quantum Leap may not be exactly time tunnel, but they do touch on time travel. The point i was trying to say is the studios have done different shows that emphasize time travel as such are not incline to re-make time tunnel.
Time tunnel was good for its historical tie-ins.

 

[Seaview7]

Time Tunnel never received credit for its humanistic aspects - Tony trying to bridge a level of understanding with a humane Chief Sitting Bull, the Tic-Toc Doctor in Pirates of Deadman's Cove who refused to fall victim to ageism (forced mandatory retirement), so he goes back to 1805 to save lives; and Marco Polo being appalled at Doug's new explosive weapons which can "kill 12 human beings'"at a time.
I also bought Martin Grams Time Tunnel book, it is too good to be true. Unlike the other Time Tunnel books, Grams apparently received full sanctioning from Irwin Allen's estate and permission from Fox, so he was able to get all of those rare photos, rare production memos for all 30 episodes, and even identifying every unbilled bit actor (some surprises here), including 40 guest star/bit names of actors for Rendezvous With Yesterday. The many new interviews are great too, including one with Darren's stuntman, Charles Picerni. There are also several 1967 chats with Irwin Allen, who talks in-depth as to why Time Tunnel was cancelled, his plans to bring it back to ABC for the 1968-69 season and the 600,000 letters he received, protesting its cancellation. To avoid spoilers, there are other surprises - The doomed but famous young actress who loved Time Tunnel, she watched it every week and visited the set; why Carol Burnett felt compelled to visit the Time Tunnel set; and Nielsen ratings that finally tell how the series did every week in terms of audience numbers (I was surprised to see where One Way to the Moon ranked that week, compared to Star Trek's Charlie X). Also, every unused story idea for the series is included.
This truly is the final word on the Time Tunnel subject. It will take weeks to digest it.
Nick

 

[Harry-N]

Originally Posted by Seaview7 /t/284240/time-tunnel-s1-2-good-buy/120#post_3958150
...and Nielsen ratings that finally tell how the series did every week in terms of audience numbers (I was surprised to see where One Way to the Moon ranked that week, compared to Star Trek's Charlie X)
Nick

I've found a couple of instances of ratings information, particularly early on in the series run, but not any kind of ratings for each episode. Am I not looking in the right places?

Harry

 

[Seaview7]

No, you're right,, I should have worded that better.. I think End of the World and One Way to the Moon are specifically mentioned, and some general news of how the series is doing in the ratings at the time. There's so much in the book it is hard to find everything.

 

[Harry-N]

Originally Posted by Seaview7 /t/284240/time-tunnel-s1-2-good-buy/120#post_3958920
No, you're right,, I should have worded that better.. I think End of the World and One Way to the Moon are specifically mentioned, and some general news of how the series is doing in the ratings at the time. There's so much in the book it is hard to find everything.

OK, those I found - and I searched for others, but to no avail. It would have been nice if the info on weekly ratings had been complete. One of the constant "thorn-in-the-side" regarding the series was its cancellation after just one season, the almost renewal, etc. And while Martin Grams goes into that whole scenario in great detail, it would have been nice to see the actual week-to-week numbers.

The only other weakness I see in the book happens to be the strength of the Jon Abbott book on IRWIN ALLEN TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS from a few years ago, and that is how the author himself feels about each of the episodes as they were aired - plot weaknesses, strengths, etc. It makes having both books worthy.

Harry

 

[Mark Collins]

The Time Tunnel book is a must have for any fan of this show. Martin Grams did one heck of a job. He has now given me the sign posts to pin down those great stock music cues for the show. He was not able to place all the stock movie footage for the show. I can help there since i have told fans before where you can find some of those great movie clips.
Pearl Harbor footage came from The Revolt of Mamie Stover. Music cues were also used from Soldier of Fortune. Time Tunnel Fans know most of what I will say. The Lincoln episode used footage from that great movie Prince of Players at the start of the show. Krakatoa one of my favorite episodes used footage from The Rains of Ranchipur. The music was used on Voyage during the start of the Mummy episode. I had hoped he could help with the stock footage of the Indians and the Civil War footage. I hope to some day find that. Let us talk about Taras Bulba for the Marco Polo episode. . Footage of horses and men going off the cliff at the start of this episode came from the movie Solomon and Sheba. I know nothing about Taras Bulba the rest may have come from that movie. Robin Hood and Merlin used footage from Prince Valiant. Waxmans music cues from this movie are used all through the show. The Castle was used in Merlin the rest may have come from another movie. Nero yes he is right about the movie footage used but as all us fans of The Robe and Demetrius and the Galdiators know footage was used for just one shot. The funny thing is that the Egyptian dance cue use in Jericho came from Demetrius. The movie Prince of Foxs and The Young Lions have just one music cue taken from the two films that is used through out the series. The same goes for the Movie the Virgin Queen and Between Heaven and Hell. The Cortez episode takes music from the film Seven Cities of Gold.
The strange thing was the show would use film clips of a movie but would use stock music from another film. The Kyber Pass they stuck to the music and film cips. We all know how much The Movie Garden of Eden's music cues are used in all the Irwin Allen series except Land of the Giants. Land of the Giants brought in other music from a composer and you can hear it in City Benath the Sea. The War of 1812 footage he did not name and everyone thinks it came from the film The Buccaneer. I am not so sure on that. I think it came from another movie. The film the Snake Pit also has just one music cue that you hear on Voyage and TT.
I really love this book and I hope to get that one last cue I have been looking for. I will watch the episode with book in hand to pin it down. I will now watch it though until it comes up. I watch all episodes each year in order on Friday Nights. I will start a week from this Friday.
GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!! I wish for JoAnn and Harry he would do a book on Mannix. I am going to his web site to suggest it. Mannix would be a great book for him to write about.

 

[DVD S.]

That sounds like a really cool book, Nick & Mark. I might have to check that out.
I'm also in the camp that feels that The Time Tunnel should not have been canceled after only one season.I believe that ABC canceled every show that had a debut in the fall of 1966, but Tunnel was the strongest and best of all of them and should have been saved.
I think that episodes that would have appeared in the 2nd season would have included:
* A trip underground to a lost civilization(..as seen in a pre-production painting)
*An Egyptian period piece(..something I felt was sorely missing/needed in season 1 and all of those props from the outrageously expensive Fox flop "Cleopatra" - which were going to waste).
*The Wreck of the Mary Deare episode that had been scheduled for season 1, but was postponed due to a lack of supposedly necessary Octopus tentacles).
Also wanted to say that I disagree with the earlier poster that said that it was unfair that The Time Tunnel was canceled,, so that Land Of The Giants could take its place, Although Giants was done under the same production company as Tunnel(...Kent Productions), I do not think that one thing really had to do with the other.
Irwin Allen productions was throwing about a bunch of ideas for shows that they wanted to 'test the waters' with, including: The Lost World, City Beneath The Sea and The Man From The 21st Century, along with Land Of The Giants.
I think that it is just a matter that Giants had the first and strongest push behind it....and Fox wanted to capitalize on being able to use the special effects team(Art Cruickshank and Emil Kosa Jr.) that helped to make Fantastic Voyage the big success that it was(..they would also work on the expensive Fox flop Doctor Dolittle).
Some of this information was in the rare, out of print book "The Studio", about the 1967-1968 time period of 20th Century Fox, when they were making Dolittle ,the pilot of Giants, latter day Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea episodes and the aforementioned TV pilots that were still in the works.
I personally think Giants gets a bad rap, though I think that it could have benefited from less confusion and more explanation about its concept but more so with the fact that they botched up the order in which the episodes in the 1st season were shown(.. in that it didn't make as much sense as it would have if it had been shown in proper production order - try watching it this way some time, it really makes a big difference) ,
I still enjoy it for what it was, though.
I think that City Beneath The Sea would have been picked up if the 10 minute pilot had been executed just a bit differently...it had more going for it than The Man From The 21st Century, City had better casting and very nicely designed uniforms from Paul Zastupnevich.
My first exposure to The Time Tunnel was through the re-edited movies that they did(..six of them, I believe). I really got the impression that The Time Tunnel series would be nothing without the initial set up of the premise in the pilot "Rendevouz With Yesterday"(..because they used all the pilot footage of what happened early on with Tony, Doug and the Tic-Toc complex so much in those movies).
Still, I need to get that new Time Tunnel book(..and so many of those aforementioned music cues were done by the fabulously talented Bernard Herrmann)
:star:

 

[tanaleaf]

I'm curious: does this new Time Tunnel book discuss any unused or unfilmed scenes (or alternate takes or concepts) regarding the original pilot's conclusion? I've always been puzzled and intrigued by photos I've seen showing Tony and Doug surrounded by prehistoric foliage while actually standing within the Tunnel itself; my intrigue only deepened when I saw the "home movie" footage bonus on one of the DVD sets showing prop guys carrying foliage through the control room set and into the mouth of the Time Tunnel itself.
Any insight from this new book as to what's going on with putting jungle plants INSIDE the Tunnel? And showing Tony and Doug standing amidst it all, right there inside the Tunnel?

 

[Harry-N]

The scene is explained and even documented with the relevant script portion.

There are also many story treatments that never made it to film, along with outlines for stories for the proposed second season.

Harry

 

[tanaleaf]

Thanks, Harry. Your response further intrigued me, so I visited the author's website and learned a bit more about the genesis and nature of the specific "Time Tunnel jungle foliage scene" in question.
Wow. I'm surprised no one else seems to have ever mentioned the existence of an "alternate ending" before (which Grams mentions on his site, and which I take to be the aforementioned "mystery scene"). At least I'd never encountered any mention of it, in anything I'd ever previously read elsewhere regarding the series.
I wonder if any footage of that scene still exists? I suppose if it did, it probably would have been included as a DVD extra already. (If it wasn't included but does exist, perhaps one can hope that it might yet show up in some form some day....)

 

[Harry-N]

My guess is that the "jungle-tunnel" footage was thrown away with the Dennis Hopper stuff years ago. The main purpose of the jungle-tunnel sequence was to use it as a conclusion if the series didn't sell and the pilot then would have gone into foreign distribution as a movie. Once the series was sold, the ending was useless as was the excised Hopper footage.

Harry

 

[Jack P]

I found the book fascinating and the revelation of the Hopper scenes and that ending of them getting back really was unexpected. It's too bad they didn't hang onto it just to insert at the end of the last first-run episode!

 

[Gary OS]

Okay, someone needs to share this info with those of us who didn't buy the book. What's this alternate filming/ending all about?


Gary "sounds intriguing" O.

 

[Harry-N]

Originally Posted by Jack P /t/284240/time-tunnel-s1-2-good-buy/120#post_3969710
I found the book fascinating and the revelation of the Hopper scenes and that ending of them getting back really was unexpected. It's too bad they didn't hang onto it just to insert at the end of the last first-run episode!

They probably had it at the conclusion of that first season, but remember, they wrapped the season up with the knowledge that there would be a Season 2. Then they had the rug pulled from under their feet with the late cancellation. By then it was too late to alter the final episode - plus, by then, no-one cared.

Harry