Irwin Allen shows.

[Dave]

We have a 'Time Tunnel' thread, but we don't yet have threads for the other Irwin Allen shows -- probably because they weren't that good (IMHO).

What do you think?

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

A precursor to 'SeaquestDSV'. That sonar noise (DOOWHOOP!) used to get on my nerves after a while, and there are only so many monsters that could have been hidden under the sea.

It went on for 4 seasons though. The episodes are listed here: http://www.iann.net/voyage/episodes.htm

Lost in Space

Probably his most successful series, but it ran in direct competition to 'Star Trek' and it just doesn't compare at all. I'm sorry if you liked the Robinsons, you can start another thread if you did, but I never liked it. I liked the recent film though.

Time Tunnel

I started a thread on this already: http://www.ascifi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=8149
It would be my favourite easily.


Land of the Giants

This replacement for the 'Time Tunnel' featured a group of passengers and spacecaft flight crew who are knocked off course and land on a planet where everything is bigger. As a adult version of the 'Borrowers', I liked the premise, but it never quite worked for me. They ended up just being captured and escaping each week. After the first few episodes, we never found out any more about the characters -- where did the 'cowardly man' rob the money from, why was the boy on his own, who did the executive work for -- they all became the same, and the pilots uniforms never wore out.

 

[ray gower]

I don't know about Time Tunnel as I've never seen enough of them to form an opinion. The rest do look hideous now. But back in the sixties and seventies? I bet you still hurried your Saturday chores so you could watch?

The lack of discernable plot, cardboard scenery and even more wobbly acting never seemed to matter so much then.

I think Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea would have to come as my best of the pile. At least for the first couple of seasons. Then the plots became too fantastic. And the security guards were even worse than Trek red shirts, never able to find the button on the oversize holsters before being struck down by the weeks monsters.
Never got off on Seaquest though.

Lost in Space episodes spent so much of the time with Smith and the females screaming and Robot waving his arms shouting 'Warning' that one forgot what the story was supposed to be. And I HATED Wil Robinson. An even more nauseating TNG Crusher.

 

[Dave]

I agree about Lost in Space, and yes, even though Land of the Giants was awful, I watched every episode. But we had nothing else to watch in those days!

 

[Tabitha]

Just in case you were wondering...

It were me what voted for Land of the Giants.

I did quite like Lost in Space, but LotG was just great, I loved all the giant sets they built to make the actors look as if they were tiny I can't really remember anything of the plots of either of these shows, and no doubt I couldn't sit through an entire episode if I were to try today...

Maybe I just liked LotG because there was always the chance one of them was going to get squished :evil:

 

[Dave]

So, who voted for Lost in Space?

 

[ZachWZ]

i think that VBS and LOTG are just plain great shows. A lot of the plots for VBS were just plain fantastic. i loved when Blackbeard helped by the mystical power of Solomen's throne nearly nuked the president. then their is an ep where Lesile nealson played an ahab like comannder after a sea serpent.

LotG. I agree the little people got captured too often. However the route the show was going is that the little people were going to help overthrow the giant communist type government. I love the ep were the time travelers from the future tried to conquer the little earth.

ZachWZ

 

[Dave]

I did watch VttBotS when I was very small, practically every week, but it is such a long time ago that I can't remember actual episodes.

I have seen repeats of Time Tunnel and LotG much more recently, so they are fresh in my memory.

 

[BAYLOR]

His best show was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea . Allen could come up with some very imaginative concepts, but when came to doing the actual stores he tended to sacrifice story telling in favor of thrills and spills.