The Time Tunnel
1 9 6 6 - 1 9 6 7 (USA)
30 x 59 minute episodes
 Two young scientists, Tony Newman and Doug Phillips, are
working on a secret government project miles beneath the surface
of the Arizona desert. Their goal is to build a tunnel to launch
mankind into the past and the future.
Forced to demonstrate the untested tunnel to the Senator who is
holding their purse strings, Tony Newman finds himself
successfully sent back in time. Unfortunately the machine is not
able to bring him back.
His colleague Doug Phillips jumps into the
tunnel to help him, leaving both of them trapped onboard the Titanic
just before it's date with the iceberg!
The two scientists are doomed to travel from one historic
hotspot to another, always knowing the horrible outcome of the
events they are witnessing but powerless to alter anything while
their colleague struggle to bring them back in the nick of time.
You name it, they witness it: The wild west, the French
revolution, Custer's last stand, The Trojan War etc etc.
Occasionally they are even thrown into the future - so that
director Irwin Allen could re-use his Lost
in Space sets and costumes.
Allen also directed Voyage
To The Bottom Of The Sea and Land
of the Giants and many of the same production values were
evident in Time Tunnel.
The tunnel itself was a nine foot drum covered in cellophane
and Christmas tinsel. When filmed through a wide angle lens, the
drum became a kaleidoscope of "time fragments" flying
through the shaft. The actors were suspended by wires in front of
a blue screen and added in later.
Despite all their adventures, Tony and Doug never had a hair
out of place or a suit or polo neck sweater even slightly ruffled.
Historical accuracy flew out the window early on, and an
obligatory fist fight or two had to be written into each episode,
it seems. Time Tunnel series writer Robert Duncan once
commented about the show: "We approached one of the leads
with the idea of providing more substantial material, only to have
him ask us to keep his speeches short. He wanted simple lines like
"Let's go!" or "We have to get out of here" so
we did."
The Time Tunnel slipped into history on 1 September
1967. Maybe one reason The Time Tunnel is so fondly remembered is
the subliminally sexual quick-cut sequence that comes every time
there's a Time Tunnel emergency.
First you see the pulsating power-core of the complex, then the
deep inner corridor, a close-up of the power core, and then the
camera rests on the tunnel itself, spitting sparks and smoking
profusely. Hello?!
EPISODES
Rendezvous with yesterday | One way to the moon | End of the
world | The day the sky fell down | The last patrol | The crack of
doom | Revenge of the Gods | Massacre | Devil's Island | Reign of
Terror | Secret Weapon | The Death Trap | The Alamo | The night of
the long knives | Invasion Robin Hood | Kill two by two | Visitors
from beyond the stars | The ghost of Nero | The walls of Jericho |
Idol of death | Billy the kid | Pirates of deadman's island |
Chase through time | The death merchant | Attack of the Barbarians
| Merlin the Magician | The kidnappers | Raiders from outer space
| Town of terror
|
