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The Time Tunnel (ABC 1966 - 1967)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
What if the Time Tunnel staff were somehow protected from changes in the timeline, even though they could receive data from the "outside world" which made them aware of the changes.

That would mean they could evaluate the changes (in a general way) and decide whether or not to send Tony and Doug back AGAIN to the same event to stop the changes from being made — thus restoring the original timeline.

There was a pilot or show with a premise like this a few years ago. Unfortunately I don't remember all that much about the show

A man is brought to a building where a lab accidentally opened a rift in time. Something is causing changes in the timeline, maybe the rift. Because of the rift, the lab is shielded from the changes in the timeline. They can leave and return to the building without any ill effects. The man is to be part of a team that will go through the rift to correct the damage in the timeline. They have high tech devices such as self destructing micro drones for scouting. The lab can produce clothing and items needed for the time period.

That's about all I remember, as I really didn't find the show that interesting.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud, your idea is similar to the 2006 FOX TV's pilot for a reboot of The Time Tunnel.

Plot Synopsis: The Department of Energy is conducting experiments in hot fusion in order to produce a new and clean energy. During the experiment a storm in time is inadvertently unleashed for 240-minutes; history is now altered because of it.

Only the personnel in the core of the lab are aware of this historical change in time due to being shielded from the time storm. They now need to fix time and correct the abnormal aberrations by sending specialized teams through their Time Tunnel to the exact time and place of the change.

Once that is accomplished the time team can be safely returned for their next mission.

Recruited are: Doug Philips, a former MARINE & family man, and scientist Toni Newman. Other specialists will be added to the team as needed for a particular mission.

I really liked this reboot for TTT. It was smarter than the Irwin Allen iteration with its premise. A nice touch was having a female Toni, and the ability to retrieve the time tem once a mission was successfully completed.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I KNEW I'd heard that idea somewhere, but I couldn't remember where!

We had this discussion on the Timeless thread, but I didn't remember it. Sad

That unsold series addressed all the problems I have with Irwin Allen's no-science series, and I hate the fact that it didn't become a hit series! Shocked



_____________ The Time Tunnel Pilot (2002)


_________

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

First of all, Pow, I re-read all your well-written descriptions above about the proposed 2nd unmade season's episodes, and I enjoyed them tremendously! Frankly, many of them are brilliant — even a few of the ones you felt were less worthy.

For example, the one about the Yeti being fugitives from a frigid planet suffering from global warming is terrific! It explains all the mysterious concerning how the Yetis have survived and remained hidden for descades. I love it! Very Happy

With that in mind, I'd have to respectfully disagree with this statement.


POW wrote:
Gotta say that many of these proposed plots for a second season of TTT sounded terrible.

However, you're right when you stated that despite the merits of several concepts, they would not have been presented well.

POW wrote:
. . . with Irwin Allen in charge they would have been horribly executed. The writers on the series attempted to create historically accurate scripts, but Allen just did not give a hoot.

Alas, the stories and characters on all his TV shows are forgettable. The science is non-existent.

Gee, if WE could just travel back in time, fire Irwin Allen, and hire an intelligent person to produce this series, perhaps your statement below would not be true.

POW wrote:
A second season of the Time Tunnel would have been worse, if possible, than the first.

I really think that the plans for this series which the writers had for the second season would have turned it into an exciting science fiction series! Cool
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Mar 10, 2023 6:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2021 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey guys...Brent back with another rare post.

I'm so excited, I had to share this.

Earlier this month, I was looking to pad an amazon order and I fell into the rabbit hole of amazon recommendations. That's where you start off looking for Kevlar sewing thread and start following links until you somehow end up looking at bathroom faucets.

On this day, I stumbled across TIME TUNNEL on Blu-ray Disc...Region B, UK Blu-ray disc.

I LOVE that show but I keep up to date on BD releases and I was well aware that there is no Region A, North American release, and Region B discs WON'T play on this side of the pond.

But I started reading the disc reviews anyway. Canadians who owned these discs reported that, despite the packaging, these are NOT Region B discs. They are, in fact, Region 0 discs which play anywhere!

Too good to be true? Well, they were cheap so I took a chance.I ordered them through amazon but they were shipped from the UK with a delivery date between December 23 and January 23.

They showed up today!

Quick inspection: Package looks perfect. Shrink wrapped. Nothing rattling. Open it up...all seven discs are securely attached to the hubs. Check the discs for scratches and dirt...spotless, not a mark on them. A perfect set. Now, the REAL test...what happens when I put them in my player.

Disc one loads quickly. The menu comes up. Select an episode and press "PLAY". And there it is: TIME TUNNEL playing in perfect high definition!

Not only do these discs have the original mono sound, they have optional DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround Sound. The unaired pilot is included in HD. Lots of extras.

This gamble certainly paid off.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 20, 2021 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Congratulations, Brent! I'm glad you were able to get this rare find!

And I admire the way you checked out the discs, too. I recently bought the box set of Castle, but two of the discs were flawed, so I had to return-and-replace both seasons that included those discs. Sad

Channels like Comet show episodes of The Time Tunnel and other classic series, but they usually broadcast them in the wrong aspect ratio, either stretching the image horizontally or cropping off the top and bottom so they can zoom in to the fill modern TVs! Rolling Eyes

I know you'll enjoy watching The Time Tunnel much more with your wonderful new box set. Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why the scripting for The Time Tunnel (and all of Irwin Allen's science fiction TV series) was so inferior.

The Time Tunnel: A History of the Television Program by Martin Grams Jr.

There was an unwritten rule that writers were hired according to a rating list put out by the networks and studios. Writers were classified from A to D, A being the best, D being the dregs.

Irwin wasn't looking for geniuses; he was looking for hacks. By that, he meant writers who could deliver a script on time and on budget. Irwin had a strong dislike for 'relationship scenes.' Sometimes you could write a scene with emotional content for the guest stars, but never for the regulars.

"We (Bob & Wanda Duncan) didn't enjoy writing for the two leads. They weren't really actors. They could have been replaced by any other two young men and no one would have known the difference. We approached one of the leads with the idea of providing him with more substantial material, only to have him ask us to keep his speeches short. He wanted simple action lines, like 'Let's go!' or 'We have to get out of here!' so we did so."
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 4:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Found this very interesting bit of information in the book A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison by Nat Segaloff.
Man Without Time (Paramount/NBC-TV): "An idea I suggested to Irwin Allen which he ripped off, and it became Time Tunnel. I went through the whole presentation, but I was too new in the game and didn't realize I was giving him an idea. Irwin would make me sit and listen to him for hours, then I'd say, 'here's a great idea: A soldier, a green beret, he's under attack, and suddenly there's a time fissure, and he slips through, and he goes back to all the important times of history, and he becomes a freelance mercenary.' This was during my encounter with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."

Underhanded tactic by Irwin, but then again, that pretty much is part of the job description for most television producers. Naturally, Harlan's concept sounds far more intriguing than what Allen came up with for the Time Tunnel.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Time Tunnel: A History of the Program by Martin Grams Jr. Associate Jerry Briskin's job on Time Tunnel was to ensure the scripts did not lack continuity or implausible details the audience might find offbeat.

"Death Trap," December 2, 1966.

"President Lincoln says to Tony and Doug, 'Well, if you're from the future, then you must know what will happen to me?' Tony and Doug can't tell him he's going to be killed because that would be tampering with history. So, there was this marvelous page-and-a-half of dialogue where you see their hearts breaking because they can't tell him. It was good drama. That scene was crossed out."

"During the filming, the director, Billy Hale, asked me down to the set to discuss the script and he said, 'Look, there was a great scene between Lincoln and the boys. What happened to it?' "So, Bill called up Irwin Allen and minutes later, Irwin and a couple of guys come running down the hall saying, 'What's happening? What's this all about?' Bill explained the missing scene. Irwin said, 'Jesus! That's just quibbling, Bill. This is a running-and-jumping show!' Then, he and his guys ran back down the hall."

"That's how Irwin operated. He didn't give a crap about the content of a scene. It's too bad, because Irwin had many opportunities to do more thematic scripts and if he had, Time Tunnel might have run longer."

Sidebar: And that's why ladies and gentlemen the Irwin Allen science fiction TV series will never stand along the pantheon of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, or Star Trek: TOS from that era.

Sidebar: The tragedy here being that Allen didn't have to entirely compromise his superficial approach to the scripts for his shows with "quibbling." Allen could have easily included what could have been such a dramatic & poignant scene, and still had his requisite "running & jumping" scenes. Both concepts could have coexisted together. Zone, Limits, and Trek certainly had action and intelligence in their episodes. One did not cancel out the other. Poor Allen never got that.

Sidebar: This is not to say that had Allen taken a much more thoughtful and caring approach to the scripting of Time Tunnel that it would have lasted more than its one season. The economics of it say no. It was a costly series to produce and ABC was insisting that if it renewed the show for a second season, which it was interested in doing, then Allen had to seriously slash the budget. Allen couldn't figure out how to do that and still produce a good looking show each week. That was the end of the series.

My contention is that the show would not have run past its 1966~1967 season even with top-notch writing. However, it might have well won some writing awards here and there. It would also have garnered respect for its quality by fans giving the show an immortality it doesn't exactly have.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
"President Lincoln says to Tony and Doug, 'Well, if you're from the future, then you must know what will happen to me?' Tony and Doug can't tell him he's going to be killed because that would be tampering with history. So, there was this marvelous page-and-a-half of dialogue where you see their hearts breaking because they can't tell him. It was good drama. That scene was crossed out."

Here's a real moral dilemma. Confused

Even though its true that making such a major change in the time line might have serious negative results in addition to the positive ones, it's awfully tempting to change things in situations like the one above.

But, of course, in the case The Time Tunnel the overriding reason this could never be done was because every single episode had to end with the time line unchanged in any major way.

Irwin Allen didn't want his series to go beyond the scope of a lightweight sixty-minute program which required no deep thinking from his audience! Rolling Eyes

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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

October 29,1966 issue of TV Guide, Columnist Cleveland Amory (partial) review.

"This show offered at least a new idea --- that of taking us back, via the conquering of time, to the Good Old Days ... All in all, The Time Tunnel is one of the most annoying shows we've seen. There is imagination and inventiveness in the photography and gimmickry, but the acting is stilted and unbelievable, the dialog is soap-opera-ish. And finally, it's preposterous to have bombs and things like that repeatedly coming up the tunnel. When Haley's Comet came up, Dr. Swain said quietly, 'I think the time has come to rethink this whole project.' We couldn't have agreed more."

Cleveland gets it right in his review once again.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________________________

That gentleman definitely shoots from the hip! Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Dec 20, 2022 10:33 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The series budget allotted $167,757 per episode.

Some visitors to the Time Tunnel set were Carol Burnett, her daughter loved the show. Jayne Mansfield and Sugar Ray Robinson also dropped by for a visit.

Doubling for the role of Doug Philips (Robert Colbert) in many of the episodes was Glen Colbert, brother of Robert Colbert. Glen was the same height and nine years younger than Robert.

"Paul Stader was the stunt coordinator on the show, and he originally assigned himself as Robert's stuntman," Robert said.

"At some point in the early stages of the show, I expressed a desire to have my brother be my stuntman," recalls Robert. "Well, Paul wanted the job of being my stuntman so bad he could taste it --- it meant a whole lot of extra money to him, because that was totally separate from his stunt coordinator paychecks." So when I said I wanted Glen, well, it wasn't the most popular thing I ever said in my life. I had to go through quite a bit in order to be able to get Glen the job."

"The stuntmen didn't want my brother there at all, because they were all close to Paul who had hired them in the first place. Well they all ended up just respecting Glen completely. Before we finished the series, Glen was the most popular guy on the show in the stunt department. They thought he hung the moon, that he was the handiest, that he could kick anybody's ass. Glen was awesome. He could do everything they could, and better, faster, more convincingly."

Sidebar: Interesting background story from Bob Colbert regarding his brother. Often we read about the problems and issues that arise on television shows involving the producers, writers, directors, and actors. This story shows that there can be difficulties in other production departments like the stunt work.
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Time Tunnel, A History of the Television Program by Martin Grams Jr. James Darren personally proposed a story to Irwin Allen. Doug and Tony would land in the future, on the planet earth, following an atomic war. It was thought too depressing for viewers.

Bob and Wanda Duncan wrote two episodes involving visitors from outer space. Had the series continued, Bob Duncan confirmed that more aliens were waiting in the wings. The stories were definitely going to drift further into that vein because the show was running out of historical outtake footage. Bob found that many of the Time Tunnel's later episodes, including ones he & Wanda did, were silly in the extreme. "The aliens were a weakening of the series' format," recalled writer Ellis St. Joseph.

Script writer Leonard Stadd theorized that the past may have had unlimited potential, but Irwin Allen and his staff wanted a fresher look. Research and historical accuracy were shelved for more action and excitement.

Bob Duncan said that he and his wife were meticulous researchers at first. "But there was absolutely no pressure on us to depict history accurately." Irwin's favorite saying was, 'Don't get logical with me.'

Sidebar: So let's face it, a second season of the Time Tunnel would have matched the disasters that Tony & Doug encountered each week. Less history, more aliens, and zero historical accuracy would have driven the fans away in droves. It certainly would have me under those circumstances as someone who enjoys history. Allen was always a man about spectacle & showmanship. Never about intriguing ideas or characters, or fascinating storylines. That's why his shows are fondly remembered as visual feasts for us in a nostalgic time of our lives. However, you cannot truly sit through his shows to enjoy finely crafted scripting, well developed characters, and stories that have meat on their bones and say something to us that resonates with us today. You can merely enjoy the eye candy and little else.
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On-The-Air Television Announcements.

Audio announcements for intermission breaks between television programs, promoting The Time Tunnel.

(30 seconds) The wonders of the future open up . . . the mysteries of the past unfold . . . when you enter The Time Tunnel! You can be inside the first rocket to Mars . . . or inside the Trojan Horse. See the discovery of a new planet . . . or the discovery of fire. For the vast spectrum of time is revealed when two daring scientists are cast adrift in the fourth dimension --- time! Be with them when James Darren and Robert Colbert star in The Time Tunnel, (beginning) (day) (tomorrow) (tonight) (date) at ___ p.m. (in color) on Channel ___ !

(20 seconds) The Time Tunnel --- it can project you back to yesterday, or to a million years from now! Take an incredible trip through The Time Tunnel with two daring scientists. You might find yourself in Cleopatra's Egypt, or in King Solomon's time. Travel through limitless time with James Darren and Robert Colbert . . . via The Time Tunnel!

Sidebar: I remember how exciting these audio announcements were back then when they'd come on. They really stirred the imagination & revved you up looking forward to seeing the newest episodes.
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