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IRWIN ALLEN: what are YOUR opinion(s) of his sci-fi TV series?

A

Aquehonga

Fleet Captain
I'll rate Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows here from BEST to WORST, in my opinion.

BEST- LAND of the GIANTS
Kept my interest all along. A sort of "forgotten" sci-fi series. Well made show & cool characters, IMO. Interesting, intriguing series.

2nd BEST- LOST IN SPACE
Chemistry between Dr.Smith & Will classic, up there with Dr.McCoy's relationship with Mr. Spock. Loved the Christmas episode.

WORST- The TIME TUNNEL
Great premise,but executed horribly. A great idea for a series but botched bigtime. I saw every episode, or at least 95% of them. I gave this show plenty of chances. Awful!.

Not just the WORST of Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows,but among the worst sci-fi shows period. Maybe among the worst shows overall, period.

NOT RATED|NOT JUDGED- VOYAGE to the BOTTOM of the SEA
I only saw one episode of ths show & it was pretty good & interesting. But its NOT fair to judge a show,whether to condone or condemn it,based on just seeing ONE episode. So until I see alot more episodes of VttBotS, I can't rate it nor flame or praise it.

Irwin Allen's sci-fi shows are shown on American Life TV on Thursday evenings. American Life TV is a cable/satellite network. All of the above IA sci-fi shows are shown TWICE Thursday night into early Friday AM, except LAND of the GIANTS. That they only show once at midnight US EST. Check TV listings in the paper or on your cable/satellite system.

If you DON'T have cable or satellite,then these series may be available for rent or purchase in video stores & places like Best Buy,Wal-Mart,Circuit City & Target. Its possible libraries may have these programs available for borrowing as well. Not to mention YouTube.

In closing, if YOU have seen these IA sci-fi shows, what are YOUR opinion(s) about them?>
 
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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was far better than Lost in Space. No matter how much Voyage devolved in its later years, it never had anything like "The Great Vegetable Rebellion"
 
I often found that each was great in it's first season..then was kiddified for each subsequent season...

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea....1st season was almost like watching a James Bond movie..

Lost in Space..again the first season was far more watchable that the latter seasons..

Time Tunnel..was kiddified almost from day one.


Land of the Giants..other than it's premise was watchable..except for the comic relief Dr. Smith like Fitzhugh character.


His actual favorite series was only made as a pilot..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87KrzQImEF4&feature=PlayList&p=9E3D253BA813BDF2&index=0
City Beneath the Sea
 
The first season Voyage was a submarine based spy type show. Not really sci-fi.

In the second season the network wanted more action and for the show to be less dark. They added the flying sub, redesigned the Seaview, went to color and the show's intelligence level went right downhill as the number of gimmicks and monsters went up.

You can watch all the 1st season eps. on Hulu.com. Give it a look.
 
I'm fond of Land of the Giants, particularly the first season. I didn't watch it when it originally aired but caught it again a few years back. I actually dislike Lost in Space because I can't stand the character of Zachary Smith. I see a lot of Zachary Smith in Mr Fitzhugh, one of the things I dislike about Land of the Giants. I haven't seen much Voyager, but I know that it has a good reputation among fandom, and I must try to catch some episodes at some point. I saw a great documentary about Irwin Allen a couple of years back and it gave me a new appreciation of his work, to be honest. I think he is a major player in genre tv and shouldn't be overlooked. Two of the greatest disaster movies of the 70s, if not of all time, come from Irwin Allen, too. A lot of people forget he was responsible for the Poseiden Adventure, and he brought Paul Newman and Steve McQueen together on screen, too. A major cinematic event at the time. I guess the last two aren't really sf, but they are just across the border!
 
"Lost In SPace" was my all time favourite SF show as a kid. I HATED LoTG because of that evil Russian fat guy scientist. Also, their predicament just felt SO hopeless. Maybe it was because I was a kid and the world for ME was big and scary too that their world just seemed SO....I dunno, HOPELESS.

LiS for me was pure SF escapism and fun and I LOVED it.
 
I would have chimed in earlier but I only just finished gagging. As a life-long scifi nut, Irwin Allen's efforts in the 60s STILL piss me off. If he hadn't done such schlock maybe the tv version of the field would have advanced sooner. Instead, the Great Wasteland offered little until the revival of Trek(maybe oldBSG) that anyone with a knowledge of the far superior written product could stomach. He set the field so far back with his vision of scifi tv as crap-for-kiddies *grits teeth* I better stop-my blood pressure's starting to soar....
 
goldbug said:
I often found that each was great in it's first season..then was kiddified for each subsequent season...

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea....1st season was almost like watching a James Bond movie..

Lost in Space..again the first season was far more watchable that the latter seasons..

Time Tunnel..was kiddified almost from day one.


Land of the Giants..other than it's premise was watchable..except for the comic relief Dr. Smith like Fitzhugh character.


His actual favorite series was only made as a pilot..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87KrzQImEF4&feature=PlayList&p=9E3D253BA813BDF2&index=0
City Beneath the Sea
Click to expand...


Its not hard to understand why that was his favorite. I mean in the first few minutes we see people and objects from virtually all of his shows. I can't believe that they reused the flying sub UNCHANGED.
 
Love all the shows. They are should be enjoyed for what they are and not hated for what they arent. They werent suppoed to be logical serious scifi.(except mayber Voyage) All 4 shows had some camp in their first seasons and mostly degenerated into that later on.
 
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Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea is my favorite of the Irwin Allen shows, but then I didn't see much of the other ones. The first season was a pretty serious one but ABC stepped in and wanted a more humorous show. I still haven't seen the second half of the third season but I do like the third season more than the second so far, but then I hadn't seen the show completely since the late '70s.
 
I watched all the series during their original networks runs, therefore was unscathed by all the advances in technology and filmmaking since. (If you're just watching them now, it's impossible to see them with the same "virgin" eyes because 40 years of culture and science have been ingrained into you).

Even back then, I sensed the Irwin Allen Syndrome of starting off halfway decently and then the Cheese Factor oozing into each one as soon as the ratings went down a point.

VOYAGE - was cool until the seaweed monsters and crap invaded the storylines.

LOST IN SPACE had a great first season. Wish THAT one had been in color ... but the B/W gave it a cool 50's sci-fi movie feel. Then it just got stupid. Not campy-fun stupid, just stupid.

TIME TUNNEL - I was hooked until the aliens and ghosts and magic started entering the picture. I just loved time travel back then, period. Also had a major crush on Lee Meriwether (stupid lab coat of hers ... ).

LAND OF THE GIANTS - Again, for Deanna Lund and Heather Whats-Her-Name. Puberty had hit and they were just major hot to me. And the large props they made were fun.

Allen was a tightwad in his TV dealings, and it was always interesting to spot the lesser-obvious reusage of props, costumes and footage (the main ones were easy). He reminded me of the low-budget movie impresarios of the late 50's and early 60's.

--Ted
 
I wonder if I'm in the minority because I actually liked Land of the Giants better in it's second season - both the redone opening theme music; and the storyline changes where we found that the Giant's world (or at least the area where they landed) was a fascist state; and that they were interested in the 'little people' because of their higher technology, etc.

I also liked the first few episodes of The Time Tunnel; and overall, I still think it's one season was better than ANYTHING Lost In Space did in it's second and third seasons.

And I agree with the assesment that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was more of a spy/adventure series, until it went into color peoduction, at which point the Seaview looked even more like a plactic toy in a fish tank; and they went to their 'monster of the week' format.
 
Noname Given said:
I wonder if I'm in the minority because I actually liked Land of the Giants better in it's second season - both the redone opening theme music; and the storyline changes where we found that the Giant's world (or at least the area where they landed) was a fascist state; and that they were interested in the 'little people' because of their higher technology, etc.
Click to expand...

I liked the second season better, too. I know in my post I said I preferred the first season, but it's the facist storyline I prefer. I got conf'sed.
 
Noname Given said:
I wonder if I'm in the minority because I actually liked Land of the Giants better in it's second season - both the redone opening theme music; and the storyline changes where we found that the Giant's world (or at least the area where they landed) was a fascist state; and that they were interested in the 'little people' because of their higher technology, etc.

I also liked the first few episodes of The Time Tunnel; and overall, I still think it's one season was better than ANYTHING Lost In Space did in it's second and third seasons.

And I agree with the assesment that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was more of a spy/adventure series, until it went into color peoduction, at which point the Seaview looked even more like a plactic toy in a fish tank; and they went to their 'monster of the week' format.
Click to expand...


Land of the Giants is the odd man out among Allen's series. Its the only one that got better in its second season.

With regard to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the first season did have spies, but it was definately science fiction. It was just more believeably done. Amongst the first few episodes a flying saucer crashes in the ocean. They also found a dinosaur filled lost world in Antartica. They still encountered lots of undersea monsters and abuses of science. The first season was just more serious and had a better mix of stories.
 
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