My memories of "City On The Edge Of Forever"

[Zaminhon]

"The Time Tunnel" and "It's About Time" sort of blended into a single show. I was about 6 when those aired. The only thing I remember about "It's About Time" is the theme song and the "Gemini" capsule landing on an island. I didn't remember that one was a drama and the other a comedy.

 

[Maurice]

Yeah, The Time Tunnel was pretty funny. Oh, wait, that wasn't intentional?

 

[Doug Otte]

"The Time Tunnel" and "It's About Time" sort of blended into a single show. I was about 6 when those aired. The only thing I remember about "It's About Time" is the theme song and the "Gemini" capsule landing on an island. I didn't remember that one was a drama and the other a comedy.

Thanks for reminding me about "It's About Time." I hadn't thought about that show for years. And, I loved the theme song!

 

[TrickyDickie]

As I mentioned in another thread, I was born exactly 2 weeks after City first aired. It has always been my favorite episode, but for me it goes way beyond that. It is one of 3 dramas that pretty much shaped my heart as I was growing up. The other two are the two-part episode of The Hardy Boys entitled 'The Last Kiss of Summer' and the movie 'Somewhere In Time'.

There was always something that resonated very deeply within me when it came to any kind of a Romeo and Juliet star-crossed love story.

In late 2004, I was 37 and beginning to think that I would never find anyone right for me. Years earlier, I had found out about Maude Adams who was the inspiration for 'Somewhere In Time' and I had fallen in love with her, but I had set all of that aside because time travel and reincarnation and things like that are all just fantasy, right?

Well....I decided to give an online dating site one more chance, even though previous experiences on there had been abysmal. This time, I met someone who was completely different than the rest. We knew very quickly that we were soulmates. She had not posted any photos of herself with her profile, but it didn't even matter to me.

When I did get a chance to see photos of her, try to imagine my complete shock in discovering that she could be Maude Adams' identical twin! I've never seen or heard anything else quite like it.

Unlike Jim Kirk, I was able to prevent a tragedy. Shortly after we met in person, her ex had asked her to come to a meeting alone. He had another guy ducked down out of sight in his station wagon. I have very little doubt that it was his plan to kill her and dispose of the body. He saw me, the other guy popped up, they took off, and I started chasing them on foot in a scene very much like the one in Lethal Weapon 2 !

Life can be very strange and amazing at times. Lately, I have been noticing a very strong resemblance between my facial features and those of Charles Frohman, though I've never been as heavy as he was.

It's all enough to raise some Vulcan eyebrows....

 

[johnnybear]

Great story and I'm glad you met your other half, Dickie! But the ex and his mate bit was disturbing to say the least! Why are people like that? You get dumped, you get upset and maybe cry and maybe get a bit nasty on the phone but you never, ever do anything like rape, brutalize or murder someone coz they left you!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

I used to date a woman who looked like Queen Kong and I'm glad I never told her where I lived because whenever I tried to end it she'd never take it well and tell me I was confused! HaHa if she'd have found out my address she'd have ripped the front door of my house off it's hinges!
JB

 

[TrickyDickie]

Her ex has MAJOR issues. Oily, glad-handing, ingratiating....and all the while molests his own kids, has a dirty feet fetish to the point where he would keep his infant son's (the one he fathered with another woman while he was married to my wife) dirty socks in ziploc bags. A sometimes minister, sometimes politician, and worked for a county Community Action Program in which his job was to visit lower-income people and see what work needed to be done to improve their homes. Good way to meet more women and kids that way. Most of the time a step or two ahead of the law and has managed to avoid anything really serious to get him locked up where he belongs. Some political connections here and there that may help him with that. Very much needs to be 'equalized'.

 

[kkt]

I never thought of this before, but now it seems obvious: TCOTEOF was a knockoff of The Time Tunnel !

No... there have been time travel stories for centuries. H.G. Wells, Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Ellison wasn't ripping off The Time Tunnel just because he used the a similar plot element.

 

[Captain Mol-Kom]

This is correct. Harlan Ellison was assigned his story for STAR TREK back in March of 1966, That would be in the range of a month or two of THE TIME TUNNEL's pilot being completed, so there would have been no chance for Ellison to have sampled the Allen series beforehand.

Knowing how frugal Irwin Allen was, he wouldn't have paid a known writer to write for his shows - not at that point anyway. He did seek out a few in the early days of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, but then cheaped out on that show too.

THE TIME TUNNEL didn't usually delve into any deeply personal territory with its shows, sticking rather with the fistfights and joining in with whatever the crisis of that time period put them into. There was one story late in the series run where James Darren's character falls in love with a woman back in the Marco Polo episode. He wanted to remain rather than be transferred out but later saw the error of his ways. It didn't have near the emotional impact of the "City On The Edge Of Forever."

A while back, I think I spotted it here on this forum, someone brilliantly made a mash-up photo of COTEOF and TIME TUNNEL:

I'd love to credit whoever it was, but sadly don't have the information - but it IS BRILLIANT!

This is correct. Harlan Ellison was assigned his story for STAR TREK back in March of 1966, That would be in the range of a month or two of THE TIME TUNNEL's pilot being completed, so there would have been no chance for Ellison to have sampled the Allen series beforehand.

Knowing how frugal Irwin Allen was, he wouldn't have paid a known writer to write for his shows - not at that point anyway. He did seek out a few in the early days of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, but then cheaped out on that show too.

THE TIME TUNNEL didn't usually delve into any deeply personal territory with its shows, sticking rather with the fistfights and joining in with whatever the crisis of that time period put them into. There was one story late in the series run where James Darren's character falls in love with a woman back in the Marco Polo episode. He wanted to remain rather than be transferred out but later saw the error of his ways. It didn't have near the emotional impact of the "City On The Edge Of Forever."

A while back, I think I spotted it here on this forum, someone brilliantly made a mash-up photo of COTEOF and TIME TUNNEL:

I'd love to credit whoever it was, but sadly don't have the information - but it IS BRILLIANT!

I agree with you! That composite image is great! Kudos to its creator, and thank YOU for sharing it.

 

[Captain Mol-Kom]

I agree

This is correct. Harlan Ellison was assigned his story for STAR TREK back in March of 1966, That would be in the range of a month or two of THE TIME TUNNEL's pilot being completed, so there would have been no chance for Ellison to have sampled the Allen series beforehand.

Knowing how frugal Irwin Allen was, he wouldn't have paid a known writer to write for his shows - not at that point anyway. He did seek out a few in the early days of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, but then cheaped out on that show too.

THE TIME TUNNEL didn't usually delve into any deeply personal territory with its shows, sticking rather with the fistfights and joining in with whatever the crisis of that time period put them into. There was one story late in the series run where James Darren's character falls in love with a woman back in the Marco Polo episode. He wanted to remain rather than be transferred out but later saw the error of his ways. It didn't have near the emotional impact of the "City On The Edge Of Forever."

A while back, I think I spotted it here on this forum, someone brilliantly made a mash-up photo of COTEOF and TIME TUNNEL:

I agree with you. The composite is great!. Thank you for sharing it, and kudos to its creator.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ellison was probably persona non grata at Irwin Allen Productions after his Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea segment fiasco in which he employed his "shoot them the bird/you fucked my script" Cordwainer Bird pseudonym because...

DID HARLAN REALLY PUNCH IRWIN ALLEN?

Never touched him. But he was in the room when it happened...

Seems Harlan was writing for _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_, and
Harlan, Irwin Allen, the head of ABC Network Continuity (read 'censor'), and
others were in a story conference, and the network head wanted Harlan to make
more than a few "stupid changes" in his script....

Harlan: "Those are stupid! And you're stupid for asking for those things."
Network head: "You'll make them all right."
Harlan: "You don't understand. I will _not_ make them."
Network head: "Writers are toadies. You will do as you're told."
​

Harlan became angry, leapt upon the long conference table, and ran down
the length of it at the network head, intent on kicking him in the face.
Harlan slipped and slid the rest of the way down the table, hit the guy in
the mouth, knocking him backwards out of his chair, knocking a model of the
_Seaview_ off the wall, and it broke the man's pelvis.

Irwin Allen settled out of court for the whole incident.

(Quotes from Comics Journal #53, Gary Groth, interviewer)​

SOURCE: http://harlanellison.com/text/newsfaq.txt

Adrian Samash was the exec in question and, from what I understand, made Harlan off-limits at ABC in general. He apparently lost out on a plum Batman assignment because of it.

http://www.blastr.com/2013-12-2/har...d-batman-tv-show-two-parter-starring-two-face