So, you are probably here to find out more about the short lived
1960's television series The Time Tunnel. You've either
heard about the new TV movie coming to either FOX or ABC or you are a
baby boomer who remembers watching this show when you saw door knobs
at eye level! Well, I'm happy to bring you my perspective on this
third TV entry by seminal scifi producer, Irwin Allen. With the success
of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost
in Space Irwin continued his successful forayinto science
fiction with the visually stunning The Time Tunnel followed
by the interesting Land of the Giants. In essence, while
Star Trek endured as an icon of 1960's television it was actually
Irwin's science fiction shows which enjoyed immense popularity on television
while the Gene Roddenberry namesake barely registered on network
Neilson ratings. Well there's no accounting for taste, I guess.
Some little known facts have come out in recent years in regard to
the origins of this particular show. One factoid was Irwin's original premise
and original name for the series, Time Travel with Hitler. The
premise involved a retired Hitler moving to Trenton, New Jersey and enlisting
the aid of some of America's most brilliant scientists to build the first
time travel device, a time tunnel. Doug and Tony were to appear as part
of the supporting cast. The show met with moderate test audience success
and ABC executives felt it was time to make a change in the series. Irwin
was told to "lose the Nazi" and the show was renamed the more appropriate
The Time Tunnel.
Irwin immediately called James Darren and Robert Colbert to appear
in this latest series. Many stars, traumatized by exploding consoles and
pyrotechnics from other series were radascent to appear in this latest television
project which would have the requisite exploding "features" as its predecessors.
It seems Irwin had some inside details on Cobert's gambling debt and
James Darren's unusual interest in spandex. With that he was able to
secure his two lead stars for the series run. Also added to the cast
was the visually stunning Lee Merriweather, as the incompetent time tunnel
controller Ann MacGregor and stodgy Whit Bissell as the grumpy TicToc general,
Heywood Kirk. John Zaremba filled out the bill as Dr. Raymond Swain,
the micromanaging scientific head of Project TicToc. His only apparent
duty on the show, kick Dr. MacGregor out of the TicToc control seat
and do all the important time travel work himself. His weekly comment, "Get
out of the way, Ann and I'll fix the problem" were uttured about every 5
to 10 minutes in virtually every episode. Apparently TicToc women
weren't capable of operating the two control knobs used to set the vertical
and horizontal control on the time tunnel. Dr. Swaim would push the
hapless woman out of the way and fix whatever problem he firmly believed
she had created. Personally, I would have travel ported this guy to
Queen Elizabeth's Tower of London for a little attitude adjustment!
Sadly, the series only lasted one season, mainly due to ABC's apparent embarassment to the stories, which bore no resemblence to actual history. Kid's were dutifully reporting to their grade school teachers some of the more "controversial" aspects of each week's show. Apparently they didn't take kindly to that 1860 alien invasion I spoke of earlier.
RIGHT: Robert Colbert calls his agent to up his life insurance premium as he is about to appear in Irwin Allen's explosion laiden new television show, The Time Tunnel.
Well enough of this. This website is one of three from the Irreverent Guide to Irwin Allen Television I currently have on line. I opened this site when SciFi Channel decided to rerun the series in the fall of 2001. I've been recording and then writing up reviews from the shows. I hope you will enjoy the reviews as much as I enjoyed writing them. As is always the case, Irwin Allen's comments on society and their implications in his television series always evoked a hiliarious backlash to television.
Enjoy the reviews and let's transport back to one of the first time
travel televison shows.
You can contact me with your questions and opinions mailto: tom@irreverentirwinallen.com