MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

[TREK_GOD_1]

See, I've seen the Land of the Giants pilot episode a dozen times or so in the past, and I don't remember those LIS musical cues being there at all. Was this a different version? The audio in the dialog scenes seemed kind of off as well.

Yes. As noted above, the ME-TV airing was an edited version of the promotional film. That film began shooting on September 26, 1967, at an estimated cost of $250,000. Common for promotional films, temp tracks (score) were used, hence the Lost in Space cues heard. There were a number of differences between the promotional film and the aired pilot from 1968.

Examples--

Promotional: In the passenger hold of the Spindrift, Steve and Dan explain what they encountered outside, and a theory about how they ended up on the giants' planet, only for Mark to dismiss it as "fairy tales."
Aired: Steve and Dan's revelation is omitted; Mark still makes his "fairy tale" comment, but in this edit, it clearly feels as if he talking about something discussed before the start of the scene.

Promotional: Dan and Steve say it will take 24 hours for the ship's power cells to recharge, which will give them "enough energy to be in orbit.".
Aired: The scene begins with Mark questioning the 24 hours, but there's no context for his statement. The 24 hour recharge time was likely removed so the earthlings would have a more difficult task in repairing the Spindrift. After all, if the ship would be ready to return to space after only a day of recharging, there ends the series. In both versions, Dan takes the ship off of recharge to use the landing lights to scan for Fitzhugh and Barry. Of course, the cat attack did not do the ship any favors.

Promotional: After escaping the giant scientist through the water drain, Fitzhugh finds his money, and uses the money trail to lead the others back to the Spindrift. Steve tells the others that they have to rely on themselves.
Aired: After escaping the giant scientist through the water drain, the heroes also face off with a giant dog, and Steve uses a chemical to create a blast, which drives the dog away. Fitzhugh does not find or use his money to locate the Spindrift.

Promotional: Steve, Dan and Betty have more dialogue about Fitzhugh's status.
Aired: Some of this dialogue is omitted.

There are other changes, but the list points out some of the more memorable of the lot.

 

[Christopher]

Now I don't remember the details, but did they travel into the future via relativistic speed or through your generic sci-fi time warp? I suppose the latter, because my understanding is they hope to go back to their era.

In the original PotA movie, the astronauts were in suspended animation and just ended up sleeping for thousands of years longer than expected. But the second movie retconned this into a "time warp" so that a second crew could follow the first one, and then the third movie made it a reversible time warp so they could flip the format and have apes in the present-day (or near-future) world. Basically every sequel retconned some ideas from the previous films, so they don't really fit together as a cohesive continuity unless you squint and wave your hands a great deal.

 

[Greg Cox]

. (Though Michael Rennie remained nameless as the captain, so he could've been Edward Smith.) .

Oddly, the closing credits list the character as "Captain Malcom Smith."

 

[Christopher]

Oddly, the closing credits list the character as "Captain Malcom Smith."

Maybe they had to change it for legal purposes, though in that case I don't know why they didn't change both names.

 

[Greg Cox]

Maybe they had to change it for legal purposes, though in that case I don't know why they didn't change both names.

Possibly, although the real Smith was (obviously) dead and in no position to sue.

Meanwhile, I'm assuming that the shots of the ship crashing into the iceberg, were stock footage from a previous Titanic movie, possibly A NIGHT TO REMEMBER or the Clifton Webb movie?

 

[Christopher]

Possibly, although the real Smith was (obviously) dead and in no position to sue.

There might be his heirs/estate to consider.

Meanwhile, I'm assuming that the shots of the ship crashing into the iceberg, were stock footage from a previous Titanic movie, possibly A NIGHT TO REMEMBER or the Clifton Webb movie?

According to IMDb, stock footage from both films was used in the episode. Most Time Tunnel episodes were built around stock footage.

 

[JD]

I didn't realize it was so common for old TV shows to use stock footage from outside sources. Do they still do that?

 

[Christopher]

I didn't realize it was so common for old TV shows to use stock footage from outside sources. Do they still do that?

Sure, that happened all the time, if a show needed footage of a battle or a natural disaster or a rocket launch or the like. The pilot of The Six Million Dollar Man built Steve Austin's crash sequence largely around stock footage of a famous real crash of an experimental supersonic craft, though they also got to shoot new footage of a near-identical vehicle. ST: "Assignment -- Earth" used stock footage of New York City and a rocket launch. Lots of old sci-fi shows and movies would depict rocket launches using stock footage of rockets that didn't look a thing like the miniatures we saw once they were in space.

Of course, in our Incredible Hulk reviews, we talked about the three first-season episodes that were written around stock footage from Universal movies -- "747" based on one of the Airport movies, "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break" based on Spielberg's Duel, and "Earthquakes Happen" based on Earthquake (footage from which was also used in Galactica 1980's premiere). MacGyver built episodes around stock footage from The Italian Job and The Naked Jungle.

Of course, old movie serials used stock footage all the time to save money. This is why Batman just drove an ordinary car in his 1943 and 1949 serials -- so they could reuse car chases/crashes from other serials.

Does it still happen? To some extent, I'm sure, if only for things like city flyovers, storm footage, and the like. It's probably less necessary in the age of digital effects. There is, of course, the Power Rangers franchise, which is based entirely on recycling FX footage and costumes from the Japanese Super Sentai franchise -- which is why it's inexpensive enough to have stayed on the air for over two decades.

 

[HGN2001]

A few points on the Irwin Allen stuff.

The TIME TUNNEL shots of the interior of the complex were indeed used again.

The big matte shot of the Tunnel itself was reused in an episode called "The Night Of The Long Knives". Shots from above of security people running over bridges were used anytime there was a Tunnel emergency throughout the series along with the surging power generator. Dennis Hopper's appearance was effectively eliminated through judicious editing. Apparently Allen didn't like Hopper's performance and had it removed. Hopper played a nasty character named Tabor who was after Susan Hamphire's money. He also faked being a woman in order to get onto a lifeboat but was caught in the deception.

In the LAND OF THE GIANTS promotional/unaired edit, some of the music was also lifted from John Williams' score for THE TIME TUNNEL.

 

[Christopher]

The TIME TUNNEL shots of the interior of the complex were indeed used again.

The big matte shot of the Tunnel itself was reused in an episode called "The Night Of The Long Knives". Shots from above of security people running over bridges were used anytime there was a Tunnel emergency throughout the series along with the surging power generator.

I thought that shot might've been used once more, but I wasn't sure. Even so, using that gorgeous image only twice in the entire series seems like a waste. It does a great job of conveying a larger sense of place for the control-room set. (Although I'm not sure the stuff on the far left really meshes with the shot of the overhead control-room windows from which Doug and the others witnessed Tony rushing into the Tunnel.) And there's also the shot of the huge power reactor -- I don't think that was seen again.

By the way, I forgot to mention the thing I always notice about the pilot of The Time Tunnel -- it's basically got the same setup as Quantum Leap. "Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Doctor [Newman] prematurely stepped into the Project [Time Tunnel]... and vanished." And both shows were about two male lead characters bouncing around uncontrollably to a different historical period each week (though in QL's case, only one of the leads was actually time-traveling and the other was communicating with him from the future). Although QL consciously avoided the cliche TTT fully embraced, of having the time travelers routinely end up getting involved with well-known historical events and personages.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

A few points on the Irwin Allen stuff.

The TIME TUNNEL shots of the interior of the complex were indeed used again.

The big matte shot of the Tunnel itself was reused in an episode called "The Night Of The Long Knives". Shots from above of security people running over bridges were used anytime there was a Tunnel emergency throughout the series along with the surging power generator. Dennis Hopper's appearance was effectively eliminated through judicious editing. Apparently Allen didn't like Hopper's performance and had it removed. Hopper played a nasty character named Tabor who was after Susan Hamphire's money. He also faked being a woman in order to get onto a lifeboat but was caught in the deception.

Allen recycled often. For example, in his TV movie/pilot City Beneath the Sea, Allen recycled Jupiter 2 miniatures as the top of office towers, used the Flying Sub (as is), a "sister" sub from Voyage, costumes from LOTG, and so on.

 

[Greg Cox]

There might be his heirs/estate to consider..

Can't imagine that would be an issue. As a legal principle, you can't libel the dead and the captain of the Titanic would be considered a historical figure if ever there was one, which would have made him fair game, even back in 1968 . . . .

 

[mos6507]

In the original PotA movie, the astronauts were in suspended animation and just ended up sleeping for thousands of years longer than expected.

They ship also hit some cosmic phenomenon that returned the ship back to earth.

 

[Christopher]

^Spoilers!

 

[Greg Cox]

Regarding THE TIME TUNNEL, I found it strange, at least by modern standards, that nobody in the first episode gave even a moment's thought to the possible ramifications changing history . ...

"Ohmigod, it's the Titanic! We need to stop it from sinking!" was as far as anybody thought things out.

 

[The Old Mixer]

^Spoilers!

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[Christopher]

Regarding THE TIME TUNNEL, I found it strange, at least by modern standards, that nobody in the first episode gave even a moment's thought to the possible ramifications changing history . ...

"Ohmigod, it's the Titanic! We need to stop it from sinking!" was as far as anybody thought things out.

Well, Doug did argue to Senator Clark that "the control of time is potentially the most valuable treasure that man will ever find." The word "control" implies he had something more proactive in mind than just visiting. Although I think the show ended up taking the view that history was immutable; at least, I don't think Tony and Doug ever successfully averted a known historical event.


Oh, by the way, I found out that The Time Tunnel is available for free online viewing (with commercials) at ShoutFactory TV, which is where I got that exact quote. And I was mistaken before -- Doug said that each of the 800-story complexes had 12,000 people, not 1200. I'm not sure how to count the complexes, though, since there were three cylindrical towers with flat walls connecting them -- is that three complexes or six? But at minimum, that's 36,000 people employed by Project Tic-Toc, which seems pretty humongous. That's 10,000 more people than work in the Pentagon.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Now I don't remember the details, but did they travel into the future via relativistic speed or through your generic sci-fi time warp? I suppose the latter, because my understanding is they hope to go back to their era.

I assumed that they had developed some kind of FTL, because they were clearly expecting to return. The time warp was a problem that they encountered-- either a natural phenomenon or a glitch in the drive. The real answer, of course, is that the producers didn't care enough or know enough to think it through and we're left to make sense of it.

Perhaps in their universe time warp is a so well known phenomenon that they know how to calculate exactly how much time has passed.

That's possible. Maybe the disc from Cornelius and Zira's return trip allowed them to develop technology that exploits time warps, which would explain some alterations in the timeline. It's not really supported by the exposition, but it's probably the best idea.

 

[HGN2001]

Looking upward toward the "Time Tunnel Break Room" complete with vending machines.

The Senator's tour group sees Tony launch himself into time from the Break Room:

One of the upper windows in the first picture is seen in close-up in the second picture. All of these windows would have been on the left wall of the big matte shot above.

Of course in reality none of that existed. The main set was just the front of the tunnel itself and the computers and consoles in front of the tunnel and off to the right side. They never again photographed in the other direction, though they did occasionally reference some rear and close-in consoles on that left side.

This shot below is from the "City Beneath The Sea" TV movie. The oval window with the view of the underwater "city" outside is actually a remnant of the actual Time Tunnel itself, as are the oft-used Irwin Allen colored jumpsuits.

 

[Christopher]

The Senator's tour group sees Tony launch himself into time from the Break Room:

I still find it funny that Catwoman is standing right behind Batman in that shot. Not only that, but I just realized that Meriwether and Merrill both shared those roles with two other actors in their respective series (Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt for her, Stacy Harris and Matt Crowley for him).

All of these windows would have been on the left wall of the big matte shot above.

Yes, in theory, of course. It's just that in that particular shot, the wall doesn't look far enough away to match the proportions in the matte painting. It looks like it'd be about where the walkway is in the painting. Although I suppose you could assume that the shot is using a zoom lens that foreshortens the apparent distance. They probably fudged the distance on the set, though, put the windows closer because they didn't expect anybody to notice.