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Cast members Robert Colbert, Lee Meriwether,
and James Darren--from Terry's private collection. |
"
Two American
scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages during the
first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project: the Time
Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly towards a new
fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time."
-- From the opening credits for Irwin Allen’s The Time Tunnel, spoken by Dick Tufeld, best known as the voice of “the Robot” in Lost
in Space, with a theme song by John Williams. Seriously, even the credits have star power. They do not make television like they used
to.
While science fiction television in the 1960s might be best
remembered for Gene Roddenberry’s Star
Trek, the backbone of most of the best TV series of that decade was Irwin
Allen. Allen was responsible for Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea, and Land of the Giants. But my personal favorite, launched in 1966,
was The Time Tunnel, which aired on
Friday nights on ABC (right after The
Green Hornet!) for one season. While
it was Allen’s shortest-lived series, many of us who were kids (or adults!) at
the time have fond memories of the Tunnel!
 |
| The Time Tunnel set. |
The first episode set up the series: Drs. Tony Newman (James Darren) and Doug
Phillips (Robert Colbert) are scientists working on Project Tic-Toc, a time
control experiment. Lack of results in their time experiments are leading to
budget cuts, so Tony rashly enters the Tunnel before it can be fully tested. A few bright lights and explosions later, he
finds himself on the
H.M.S. Titanic. To save Tony (and potentially the
ocean liner), Doug follows. There are lots of
arguments and plans, but the
Titanic sinks anyway.
Then, at a critical moment, the two scientists are yanked from 1912
into another year, beginning a weekly jumping from one historical event to the
next. Meanwhile, back at the Tunnel's headquarters,
staff members General Haywood Kirk (Whit Bissel, in charge), with Dr. Raymond
Swain (John Zaremba) and Dr. Ann MacGregor (Lee Meriwether), are running the
science part of the show (and pretty much making up time rules from one week to
the next).
 |
A novelization by
Murray Leinster. |
There are several reasons that
The Time
Tunnel appealed to many of us as kids. First, Tony and Doug got to go
back in time to see famous events, along with a few imagined ones in the
future. History you learned about in
school was dramatically presented each week!
It was educational! Second,
producer Irwin Allen used scenes from Fox theatrical films to dress up the
production, so it looked much more expensive than many series of the day. So
for the
Titanic episode mentioned above, there were scenes from
A Night to Remember (1958) with a believable
sinking. Another favorite episode about a
war between Greeks and Trojans, "Revenge of the Gods," used clips from
Fox’s 1962 film,
The 300 Spartans.
Now, I do think that, for most of these “imagined” episodes, the series relied on props and monsters from
other Allen shows. So when you thought
that aluminum foil clad alien looked familiar from last week’s episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, you may
have been right! But then, that’s what
made these shows so much fun! I remember
having discussions with my childhood friends on Saturday mornings about the
previous night’s episode and what we liked about it.
 |
A rare image from the View-Master set
that shows Tony and Doug home again. |
While the show saved production dollars by using footage
from theatrical features,
The Time Tunnel was still a very expensive show. At that time, you didn't know that shows were
cancelled in advance – or at least, I didn't – so when the series didn't return
for its second season, I was crushed. I’d
gotten the View-Master reels for
The Time Tunnel for my birthday in 1967. I used to have theater shows on the side of
our house with my V-M projector, showing the pictures from the first episode
and telling the story! The last slide of
the set showed Tony and Doug
back in the tunnel. They apparently made it home. I couldn't wait for the second season!
Insert a sad face here. The Time Tunnel was cancelled before the last episode was finished. ABC felt it had room for only one drama in
their 1967-1968 season, and replaced Allen's series with The Legend of Custer. Who is writing a blog post about that show now?
Irwin Allen never lost his fascination with time travel He attempted two more time-travelling series
before he passed away in 1991. His wife,
actress Sheila Mathews Allen, along with producer Kevin Burns, produced a Time Tunnel pilot for a new series for
Fox in 2002. They tried again in 2006, but
didn't get a pilot made.
 |
Lee Meriwether, aka Dr. Ann MacGregor,
signs an autograph for Terry. |
As a child of the 1960s, living with reality shows of the
2010s, I still hold out hope for
The Time
Tunnel to return. Of course, I
envision a new cast, new tunnel, new time travel rules--new everything! But, I really want the first episode to pay
homage to the original, with the scientists of Project Tic-Toc (now headed by Dr.
Ann Ma
cGregor) finally bringing Doug Phillips and Tony
Newman home!
This Café exclusive was written by guest blogger and Irwin Allen authority TerryB. You can "like" Terry on Facebook.
