DS and The Time Tunnel

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Until today I'd never realized that DS and The Time Tunnel have something in common. And the reason I'd probably never realized it is because back in the day I don't think I ever got to watch TTT in color because my parents watched something else at the same time it was on so I had to watch TTT on the B&W TV in my room (I'd inherited it after the color TV came). But last night TTT premiered on MeTV, I DVR'd it (because I haven't seen it since it originally ran and I was curious if it was actually as good as I remembered), and today I watched the pilot of TTT in color. And the instant I saw Tony making preparations to launch himself into time it hit me:

[spoiler]Just like poor Adam on DS, James Darren's Tony Newman is stuck wearing a green turtleneck in just about every, if not every ep as he jumps from time period to time period:

Tony as he realizes he's on the Titanic!

Too bad Tony never found himself jumping to Adam's room in Collinwood's West Wing - they could have commiserated together!! 

[dom]

I recorded it also, along with Land Of The Giants. I don't know if I would have caught the sweater thang, lol. Looks like a nice print!

[Bob_the_Bartender]

MB,

If James Darren (Tony Newman) jumped into Adam's room in Collinwood, maybe Sandra Dee (Gidget) might follow him as well? 

How would Adam get along with Tony and how would Carolyn get along with Gidget and vice versa?

PS Maybe Adam would prefer the blonde Gidget to the blonde Carolyn Stoddard?

[dom]

I ran across a photoshop of Frankenstein's monster surfing. SO reminds me of Adam meets Gidget!

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I wonder if people surf along Maine's shoreline?  Can you imagine Quentin, Joe Haskell, Maggie and Willie Loomis (among other DS characters) hitting the waves beneath Widows' Hill and at Shipwreck (or was it Findley's) Cove? 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Interesting questions to contemplate, BtB! 

I though about DVRing LoTG, dom, but I decided against it. I never really cared all that much for the show because I thought that in part they were ripping off Lost in Space too much, especially with the Alexander Fitzhugh (faux Dr. Smith) and Barry Lockridge (faux Will Robinson) characters. But maybe that was just the 12-13 year old me. Maybe I would actually see more to the show as an adult. But then, there are only so many hours in the day to watch TV, so if/when it comes to revisiting old shows, I tend to stick with the ones I remember fondly.

And I was just doing a bit of research on TTT:

I always wondered why it lasted only one season. Well, apparently it was the most expensive show ever produced up to its time. And when ABC offered to renew the show only if Irwin Allen cut the budget by a third, Irwin Allen refused, and that was the end of the show...

And I discovered another DS connection because apparently George Mitchell (the original Matthew Morgan) plays Sitting Bull in a TTT ep entitled "Massacre," the show's 8th ep.

[Gerard]

Along with LIS, I devoured TTT as a kid.  It came on every Friday night.  I can see why it was so expensive to produce with the massive sets (as evident in the pilot), the intricate detail regarding them (whether full-size, model or matte), and the special effects. 

Of course, there were the basic Irwin Allen inconsistencies.  Regarding Tony and his Adam-line sweater, the two heroes always had the same clothes, jumping from one point in time to another and their livery never got ripped, torn or even dirty.  Also, when they had to dress in the "fashion" of whatever time they were in, somehow when the time tunnel sucked them away, that clothing disappeared and they were back in their original duds, flying through the multi-colored opening between times. 

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

MB,

I remember seeing a program on all of those Irwin Allen sci-fi shows on the old Sci-Fi Channel (when Dark Shadows was still on that channel).  Apparently, Land of the Giants was very popular in France.  Go figure!

I did not know that George Mitchell was on The Time Tunnel.  Did you ever see the late, great Thayer David on The Wild, Wild West?  Mr. David portrayed a scientist, who dresses up like one of the old conquistadors to terrorize the residents of a small village in Mexico in a plot concerning gold in a nearby volcano, if I remember correctly.  The episode was filmed in 1969 while Dark Shadows was still on the air.  I guess Mr. David had a week off from DS to fly out to Los Angeles to appear with Robert Conrad and Ross Martin.

[Uncle Roger]

There have been a couple of attempts to reboot Time Tunnel over the years. The last one was going to change the character of Tony Newman to Toni Newman.

One of my many guilty pleasures is Land of the Giants. It was just so gloriously silly. The sight of several grown ups being menaced by a giant chicken is one of my absolute favorite moments. I don't think that the Actors Studio provides specific training for that situation.

And, of course, there's also the visual appeal of Gary Conway (Mr. Teenage Frankenstein!) and the very lovely Deanna Lund (who has a similar quality to Lara Parker, at least for me).

[Gothick]

I've always wanted to see again one of the few episodes of LAND OF THE GIANTS I watched back in the day.  It featured Jonathan Harris as the Pied Piper of Hamelin.  It was really quite trippy.

I always thought it was funny that the two time travelers somehow managed to get back into that ratty 1960s off-the-rack crap they had been wearing when they were catapulted into the time tunnel at the start of the series.

G.