The Time Tunnel

**The Time Tunnel** is a science fiction television show that aired between 1966-1967. *"The Time Tunnel"* was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for a single season of 30 episodes.

## Cast

* James Darren as Dr. Tony Newman
* Robert Colbert - Dr. Doug Phillips
* Whit Bissell - General Heywood "Woody" Kirk
* Lee Meriwether - Dr. Ann MacGregor
* John Zaremba - Dr. Raymond Swain

## About the Show

The adventures of scientists Tony Newman and Doug Phillips, lost in the vortex of time during an experiment to prove the effectiveness of the Time Tunnel. Both men are bounced from one era to the next as the personnel of the Tunnel keep them alive while they try to bring them home.

## Premise

Project Tic-Toc is a top-secret U.S. government effort to build an experimental, known as "The Time Tunnel" due to its appearance as a cylindrical hallway. The base for Project Tic-Toc is a huge, hidden underground complex in Arizona 800 floors deep and employing more than 12,000 specialized personnel. The directors of the project are Dr. Douglas Phillips, Dr. Anthony Newman and Lt. General Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissell). The specialists assisting them are Dr. Raymond Swain (John Zaremba), a foremost expert in electronics, and Dr. Ann MacGregor (Lee Meriwether), an electrobiologist supervising the unit that determines how much force and heat a time traveler is able to withstand. The series is set in 1968, two years into the future of the actual broadcast season, 1966-67.
Project Tic-Toc is in its tenth year when United States Senator Leroy Clark (Gary Merrill) comes to investigate to determine whether the project, which has cost $7.5 billion, is worth continuing. Senator Clark feels the project is a waste of government funds. When speaking to Phillips, Kirk, and Newman in front of the Time Tunnel, he delivers an ultimatum: either they send someone into time and return him during the course of his visit or their funding will cease. Tony volunteers for this endeavor, but he is turned down by project director Doug Phillips. Defying this decision, Tony sends himself into time. Doug follows shortly after to rescue him, but they both continue to be lost in time. Senator Clark returns to Washington with the promise that funding will not be cut off to the project, leaving General Kirk in charge.

The stage is set for the progress of the series as Tony and Doug are now "switched" from one period in history to another, allowing episodes to be set in the past and future. Episodes 2–23 begin with the following narration (voiced by Dick Tufeld): "Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time."

Tony and Doug become participants in past events such as the sinking of the *Titanic*, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the eruption of Krakatoa, Custer's Last Stand, and the Battle of the Alamo among others. General Kirk, Ray, and Ann in the control room are able to locate them in time and space, observe them, occasionally communicate with them through voice contact, and send help. When the series was abruptly cancelled in the summer of 1967 by ABC, they had not filmed an episode in which Tony and Doug are safely returned to the Time Tunnel complex.

## Recurring themes

* A short "teaser" from next week's episode was shown at the end of each episode as Doug and Tony arrived at their next destination. There was one episode with an intriguing teaser that did not have to do with the next episode: Episode 3's ending teaser has a scene where Tony lands 10 years before 1968 in the desert, at the time tunnel complex. He tries to tell Doug that he works there and he knows him. Nothing more was made of it. This same technique was used in other Irwin Allen shows.
* The impressive introduction to the scale of the project (over 36,000 people and huge underground buildings) is never seen after the first episode except for two clips (used over and over) of the giant power generator flashing, and Tunnel Security running across a walkway. Some of these shots were homages to the Krell complex from the classic 1956 MGM film *Forbidden Planet*, but new matte paintings and models were created specifically for *The Time Tunnel* pilot episode.
* Most episodes involved the capture or detention of Doug, Tony, or both, their escape, their recapture, and their escape *again*, before their move to the next episode.
* Nearly all location shooting was filmed in and around southern California. This causes scenes set in different parts of the country (or the world) to have the same general hilly landscape with arid-type trees and brush typical to the local region where filming occurred.
* The majority of episodes placed Tony and Doug in stories set in past historical contexts.
* Aliens and people from the future were similarly dressed, often in metallic silver clothing, like other Irwin Allen television series of the same era.
* Many episodes used stock footage from previous 20th Century-Fox and Irwin Allen productions. These shots ran the gamut from episodes on General Custer, to the sinking of the *Titanic*, and many other historical events.

## Episodes

1. *Rendezvous with Yesterday*
2. *One Way to the Moon*
3. *End of the World*
4. *The Day the Sky Fell In*
5. *The Last Patrol*
6. *Crack of Doom*
7. *Revenge of the Gods*
8. *Massacre*
9. *Devil's Island*
10. *Reign of Terror*
11. *Secret Weapon*
12. *The Death Trap*
13. *The Alamo*
14. *Night of the Long Knives*
15. *Invasion*
16. *The Revenge of Robin Hood*
17. *Kill Two by Two*
18. *Visitors from Beyond the Stars*
19. *The Ghost of Nero*
20. *The Walls of Jericho*
21. *Idol of Death*
22. *Billy the Kid*
23. *Pirates of Deadman's Island*
24. *Chase Through Time*
25. *The Death Merchant*
26. *Attack of the Barbarians*
27. *Merlin the Magician*
28. *The Kidnappers*
29. *Raiders from Outer Space*
30. *Town of Terror*

## Cancellation

Although *The Time Tunnel* was scheduled on Fridays (often considered the "death zone" for TV programs), the ratings for the series were solid and it looked very likely that the series would be renewed. ABC pointed to *The Time Tunnel* as one of the few successes in a disastrous schedule.

An ABC executive, however, gathered support for a series titled *The Legend of Custer* that he was in favor of and, since the fall schedule hadn't been announced, he lobbied to drop *The Time Tunnel* in favor of *Custer*. The network headquarters faceoff produced a green light for *Custer*, and *The Time Tunnel* was given a ticket to oblivion.

*The Legend of Custer* was quickly cancelled after airing 17 low-rated episodes, skewered by critics and performed worse than *The Time Tunnel*.

## History on Cartoonito UK

The show joined Cartoonito in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2012.