The Time Tunnel

The Time Tunnel was a 1966-1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series produced by Irwin Allen that lasted for one season and 30 episodes. It was produced by 20th Century Fox for the US ABC television network.

Related Topics:
1966 - 1967 - U.S. - Science fiction TV series - Irwin Allen - 20th Century Fox - ABC

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: "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 toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time."

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The premise of the program is based on a top secret classified U.S. government experimental time machine that cost as much as the entire space program. To prove that the Time Tunnel project funds were not wasted, a young physicist turned the machine on and sent himself back in time. To get him back, an older scientist prepared himself to be able to change history. But the time machine was not built to handle two people travelling in time - so it cannot retrieve them. The two time travellers are swung from one period in history to another, allowing episodes to be set in the past and future, but always ending in a cliffhanger as a preview of the next episode.

Related Topics:
Time machine - Cliffhanger

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The principal characters were:

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• Dr. Tony Newman played by James Darren
• Dr. Doug Phillips played by Robert Colbert
• Dr. Ann MacGregor played by Lee Meriwether
• Lt. General Heywood Kirk played by Whit Bissell
• Dr. Raymond Swain played by John Zaremba

By luck the travellers, Tony and Doug, frequently found themselves thrown onto the precipice of major historical events: onboard the Titanic before it hits the iceberg, in Pearl Harbor before the Japanese attack, on Krakatoa before it erupts, and so forth. They would try to warn people about the event, or try to prevent it from happening, while the Time Tunnel crew (led by two scientists and a military general), who once gaining a "fix" can view through the Tunnel the action taking place in the different timeframe, would try to rescue the travellers before the historical calamity befell them too.

Related Topics:
''Titanic'' - Pearl Harbor - Krakatoa

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The series never really established a consistent time travel model, but for the most part it seemed that while these major historical events could not be altered or prevented (although Tony and Doug rarely stopped trying), the lives of individual people caught up in those events could indeed be changed by the actions of the travellers or the Time Tunnel crew.

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The production basis of the show was the large number of period dramas made by the 20th Century Fox film company. Even black-and-white shots of the Titanic sinking were tinted to fit them into this color production. Only a few actors were costumed for a given episode, interspersed with cuts of great masses of people similarly dressed from the original features. The plots were not noted for historical accuracy, but then neither were the original films.

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Certain episodes featured aliens who wore costumes and carried props originally created for other Irwin Allen television and movie productions. Prop sets were similarly re-used. These were fewer than it appears, since these episodes were later re-run often on secondary market. Only in episodes 18, 24, 28, 29, and 30 did aliens appear; only the second and third of these were set in the far future.

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The Time Tunnel was not really a commercial failure, as it received higher viewer ratings than many other shows of the network. Yet it was not picked up for the next year. A loosely based novelization was written by Murray Leinster.

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The Titanic-based premiere episode, "Rendezvous with Yesterday" (based on the series pilot), was well-written and featured good production values. The quality of subsequent episodes varied considerably. Nevertheless, the number of websites and fan reminiscences attest to the series having made an impression on its audience despite only being on the air for one year. Some particularly memorable aspects were:

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• the colorful, dynamic opening credits sequence;
• Tony and Doug always reverting back to the same clothes when they transfer, a mod turtleneck green sweater and a more conservative jacket and tie respectively;
• wild historical mishmashes, such as Machiavelli getting involved in the Battle of Gettysburg;
• classic 1960s "action" sequences, such as hand-to-hand fighting in which the protagonists fall onto their backs and kick-flip their adversaries over them;
• the morbid overall premise that no matter where you travel in time, you'll almost immediately be beset upon by hostile characters wanting to do you in.

The series was re-shown on American television in the early-mid 1990s,

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and it was re-shown on British television after the success of the 1997 Titanic movie due to the Titanic-related content of the first episode. It was also parodied by Alexei Sayle on British television. In the U.S., it can now be seen on the Encore Action cable network at various times.

Related Topics:
1997 - Titanic - Alexei Sayle - Encore Action

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In 2002 Fox showed interest in remaking this series. The storyline, setting, and cast roles were updated to reflect recent times. A pilot episode, in which a government team goes back in time through a time tunnel (represented by a series of huge metallic rings) to World War II in order to retrieve a medieval monk misplaced by a time storm, was filmed but later turned down due to similarities to Stargate SG-1.

Related Topics:
2002 - Fox - Stargate SG-1

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One web site has indicated that the Time Tunnel will be finally released on DVD in January, 2006. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4247

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The Time Tunnel: Episodes ►