Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Cover art from the 2006 DVD release of the 1st season of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea showing stars Richard Basehart (l) and David Hedison, with the submarine, Seaview (center)
Format	Science fiction
Created by	Irwin Allen
Starring	Richard Basehart David Hedison Bob Dowdell Henry Kulky Terry Becker Del Monroe Arch Whiting Paul Trinka Allan Hunt Richard Bull Paul Carr
Composer(s)	Paul Sawtell Hugo Friedhofer Alexander Courage Morton Stevens Michael Hennagin (one episode) Jerry Goldsmith (one episode) [[]] Leith Stevens Lennie Hayton Nelson Riddle (one episode) Herman Stein (one episode) Robert Drasnin (one episode) Harry Geller Joseph Mullendore Irving Gertz (one episode)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	110
Production
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Production company(s)	Cambridge 20th Century Fox Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 14, 1964 – March 31, 1968

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the television series. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the first of Irwin Allen's four science fiction television series as well as the longest running. The show's main theme was underwater adventure.

Voyage was broadcast on ABC from September 14, 1964 to March 31, 1968, and was the decade's longest-running American science fiction television series with continuing characters. The 110 episodes produced included 32 shot in black and white (1964–65), and 78 filmed in color (1965–68). The first two seasons took place in the then future of the 1970s. The final two seasons took place in the 1980s. The show starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison.

Show History

Pilot Episode

The pilot episode "Eleven Days to Zero" was filmed in color but shown in black and white. It introduces the audience to the futuristic nuclear submarine USOS Seaview and the lead members of her crew, including the designer and builder of the submarine Admiral Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart), and Commander Lee Crane (David Hedison), who becomes the Seaview's Captain after the murder of her original commanding officer. The submarine is based at the Nelson Institute of Marine Research (NIMR) in Santa Barbara, California, and is often moored some 500 feet below NIMR in a secret underground submarine pen carved out of solid rock. The Seaview is officially for undersea marine research and visits many exotic locations in the seven seas, but its secret mission is to defend the planet from all world and extraterrestrial threats in the then-future of the 1970s.

Season One

Adm. Nelson and Capt. Phillips are attacked after leaving the Nelson Institute of Marine Research.

The first season began with Admiral Nelson and the crew of the Seaview fighting against a foreign government in order to prevent a world-threatening earthquake, continuing with a foreign government destroying American submarines with new technologies in The Fear Makers and The Enemies. The season also had several ocean peril stories in which the Seaview crew spent the episode dealing with the normal perils of the sea. Two examples are "Submarine Sunk Here" and "The Ghost of Moby Dick". The season introduced the diving bell and a mini-submarine, as well as the first alien story and the first sea monsters. The season ended with the Seaview crew fighting a foreign government to save a defense weapon.

In the first season, the gritty, atmospheric, and intense series featured story lines devoted to Cold War themes, as well as excursions into near-future speculative fiction. Many episodes involved espionage and sci-fi elements. While aliens and sea monsters, not to mention dinosaurs, did become the subject of episodes, the primary villains were hostile foreign governments. While fantastic, there was a semblance of reality in the scripts.

Season Two

DVD cover art of the 2nd season (Vol. 2) of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea featuring depictions of Seaview and the Flying Sub (bottom)

The second season began with a trip inside a whale, a trip inside a volcano, and a few Cold War intrigue and nuclear war-themed episodes, and saw several brushes with world disaster. The season ended with a ghost story, one of the show's few sequels.

Due to ABC's demands for a somewhat "lighter" tone to the series^{[citation needed]} , the second season saw an increase in monster-of-the-week type plots, yet there were still some episodes that harkened back to the tone of the first season. The second season also saw a change from black and white to color. The beginning of the second season saw the permanent replacement of Chief "Curly" Jones with Chief Sharkey, due to the death of Henry Kulky, who portrayed Chief Jones.

The most important change in the series occurred during this season when a slightly redesigned Seaview was introduced, along with the Flying Sub. The Flying Sub was a yellow, two-man mini-submarine with passenger capacity, that could leave the ocean and function as an airplane. The Flying Sub was referred to by the initials FS-1. The futuristic craft greatly increased Seaview crews' travel options. The Flying Sub was launched from a bay in the lower part of Seaview that was apparently built between Seasons One and Two. The Seaview’s private observation deck from the first season was never seen again. The Seaview’s eight observation windows became four. The Seaview’s enlisted men were also given more colorful uniforms (red or light blue jumpsuits), evidently to take advantage of the changeover from black and white to color. The officers and petty officers, however, retained their khaki works from the first season. The traditional sailor uniforms worn in the first season were only seen in stock footage from the first season and on characters who were newly filmed to match up with that footage. All these changes occurred between seasons. The Flying Sub was showcased in the show's closing credits for the entire season.

The "Flying Sub' also made an appearance in the 1971 Irwin Allen film, City Beneath the Sea (1971 film) (as did the Seaview itself during the evacuation scene).

A second season episode, "The Sky's On Fire", was a remake of the 1961 "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" movie.

Season Three

The third season of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ran simultaneously with two other Allen-produced television series: the second season of Lost in Space and the premiere (and only) season of The Time Tunnel.

The third season began with Dick Tufeld of Lost in Space playing an evil disembodied brain from outer space. The season continued with a werewolf story that is one of the few episodes to inspire a sequel. In one episode, the Seaview’s officers and crew encountered Nazis who believed World War II was still ongoing. The third season only had two espionage stories and one ocean peril story that were reminiscent of the first season. One of those three stories was about a hostile foreign government trying to steal a strange new mineral with the aid of a brainwashed Admiral Nelson. This espionage story was the end of the third season.

The final two seasons continued the shift towards paranormal storylines that were popular in the late 1960s. Mummies, werewolves, talking puppets, and an evil leprechaun all walked the corridors of the Seaview. There were also fossil men, flame men, frost men, and lobster men.

Fourth and final season

Nelson and Sharkey fight an alien spy, 1968.

The fourth and final season of Voyage began with Victor Jory playing a five century old alchemist. After a few episodes there were revamped opening credits. Near the end of the fourth season, there were three unrelated stories of extraterrestrial invasion in three weeks. There were two time travel stories in two weeks. The second of the two had the Seaview going back in time to the American Revolution. The episode ended with the Seaview returning to the present and sailing into television history.

Ratings for the fourth season took a significant drop as the season progressed, but were not drastic enough for ABC to immediately cancel a fifth season for the series. During renewal discussions between Allen, 20th Century Fox and ABC, Allen instead proposed replacing Voyage with Land of the Giants. Based on a proposal consisting of only a reported two dozen pre-production concept paintings, ABC accepted Allen's proposed new series, and Voyage was cancelled. This of course is an urban legend. Land of the Giants was set to premier in January 1968. As such production had started in September 1967...that just as the 4th season of Voyage was starting. 12 episodes of Giants had already been filmed long before any talks of whether there would be a 5th season of Voyage. Land of the Giants did take over Voyages Sunday night slot for the 1968-1969 season. However the pitch for Giants was made while Voyage was still in its 3rd season. Irwin Allen has said he believed that Voyage would have run for many more seasons.

Music

The series' main theme, "The Seaview Theme", was written by Paul Sawtell. A new darker, more serious theme was introduced at the beginning of the second season (in the episode "Jonah and the Whale", composed by Jerry Goldsmith), but this was quickly replaced by the original version. (However, a version of the Goldsmith suite re-orchestrated by Nelson Riddle was heard as incidental music in the episode "Escape From Venice", and the original Goldsmith suite was used as incidental music throughout the rest of the series.) The series main composer, supervisor and conductor was Lionel Newman. Other guest composers included Paul Sawtell who worked on the show for a while in the first season, Lennie Hayton, Hugo Friedhofer, Star Trek: The Original Series composer Alexander Courage, and Leith Stevens, who wrote the music to seven episodes.

Cast

David Hedison as Lee Crane in the episode "Time Lock", 1967.

• Richard Basehart as Admiral Harriman Nelson
• David Hedison as Commander Lee Crane
• Bob Dowdell as Lieutenant Commander Chip Morton
• Henry Kulky as Chief "Curly" Jones (1st Season)
• Terry Becker as Chief Francis Ethelbert Sharkey (2nd–4th Seasons)
• Del Monroe as Kowalski
• Arch Whiting as Sparks
• Paul Trinka as Patterson
• Allan Hunt as Riley (2nd Season)
• Richard Bull as the Doctor
• Wayne Heffley as Seaview Doctor (2nd Season 1965-66, 3 episodes)
• Paul Carr as Casey Clark (1st Season, Recurring afterwards only in stock footage scenes)

Scott McFadden, Ray Didsbury, Marco Lopez, and Ron Stein provided additional crewman in non-speaking roles often requiring stunt work.

The 1961 film's actress Barbara Eden didn't work in the TV series version and got the main role from the comedy series I Dream of Jeannie.

Episode list

Note: Two different episodes (28 and 73) are both titled "The Creature".

Season One (1964–1965)

Ep #	Title	Airdate
01	"Eleven Days to Zero"	September 14, 1964
02	"The City Beneath the Sea"	September 21, 1964
03	"The Fear Makers"	September 28, 1964
04	"The Mist of Silence"	October 5, 1964
05	"The Price of Doom"	October 12, 1964
06	"The Sky is Falling"	October 19, 1964
07	"Turn Back the Clock"(Guest Starring Yvonne Craig)	October 26, 1964
08	"The Village of Guilt"	November 2, 1964
09	"Hot Line"	November 9, 1964
10	"Submarine Sunk Here"	November 16, 1964
11	"The Magnus Beam"	November 23, 1964
12	"No Way Out"	November 30, 1964
13	"The Blizzard Makers"	December 7, 1964
14	"The Ghost of Moby Dick"	December 14, 1964
15	"Long Live the King"	December 21, 1964
16	"Hail to the Chief"	December 28, 1964
17	"The Last Battle"	January 4, 1965
18	"Mutiny"	January 11, 1965
19	"Doomsday"	January 18, 1965
20	"The Invaders"	January 25, 1965
21	"The Indestructible Man"	February 1, 1965
22	"The Buccaneer"	February 8, 1965
23	"The Human Computer"	February 15, 1965
24	"The Saboteur"	February 22, 1965
25	"Cradle of the Deep"	March 1, 1965
26	"The Amphibians"	March 8, 1965
27	"The Exile"	March 15, 1965
28	"The Creature"	March 22, 1965
29	"The Enemies"	March 29, 1965
30	"Secret of the Loch"	April 5, 1965
31	"The Condemned"	April 12, 1965
32	"The Traitor"	April 19, 1965

Season Two (1965–1966)

Ep #	Title	Airdate
33/ 01	"Jonah and the Whale"	September 19, 1965
34/02	"Time Bomb"	September 26, 1965
35/03	"And Five of Us Are Left "	October 3, 1965
36/04	"The Cyborg"	October 17, 1965
37/05	"Escape From Venice"	October 24, 1965
38/06	"The Left-Handed Man"	October 31, 1965
39/07	"The Deadliest Game"	November 7, 1965
40/08	"Leviathan"	November 14, 1965
41/09	"The Peacemaker"	November 21, 1965
42/10	"The Silent Saboteurs"	November 28, 1965
43/11	"The X Factor"	December 5, 1965
44/12	"The Machines Strike Back"	December 12, 1965
45/13	"The Monster From Outer Space"	December 19, 1965
46/14	"Terror On Dinosaur Island"	December 26, 1965
47/15	"Killers of the Deep"	January 2, 1966
48/16	"Deadly Creature Below!"	January 9, 1966
49/17	"The Phantom Strikes"	January 16, 1966
50/18	"The Sky's On Fire"	January 23, 1966
51/19	"Graveyard of Fear"	January 30, 1966
52/20	"The Shape of Doom"	February 6, 1966
53/21	"Dead Man's Doubloons"	February 13, 1966
54/22	"The Death Ship"	February 20, 1966
55/23	"The Monster's Web"	February 27, 1966
56/24	"The Menfish"	March 6, 1966
57/25	"The Mechanical Man"	March 13, 1966
58/26	"The Return of the Phantom"	March 20, 1966

Season Three (1966–1967)

Ep #	Title	Airdate
59/01	"Monster From the Inferno"	September 18, 1966
60/02	"Werewolf"	September 25, 1966
61/03	"The Day The World Ended"	October 2, 1966
62/04	"Night of Terror"	October 9, 1966
63/05	"The Terrible Toys"	October 16, 1966
64/06	"Day of Evil"	October 23, 1966
65/07	"Deadly Waters"	October 30, 1966
66/08	"Thing From Inner Space"	November 6, 1966
67/09	"The Death Watch"	November 13, 1966
68/10	"Deadly Invasion"	November 20, 1966
69/11	"The Haunted Submarine"	November 27, 1966
70/12	"The Plant Man"	December 4, 1966
71/13	"The Lost Bomb"	December 11, 1966
72/14	"The Brand of the Beast"	December 18, 1966
73/15	"The Creature"	January 1, 1967
74/16	"Death From The Past"	January 8, 1967
75/17	"The Heat Monster"	January 15, 1967
76/18	"The Fossil Men"	January 22, 1967
77/19	"The Mermaid"	January 29, 1967
78/20	"The Mummy"	February 5, 1967
79/21	"The Shadowman"	February 12, 1967
80/22	"No Escape From Death"	February 19, 1967
81/23	"Doomsday Island"	February 26, 1967
82/24	"The Wax Men"	March 5, 1967
83/25	"Deadly Cloud"	March 12, 1967
84/26	"Destroy Seaview!"	March 19, 1967

Season Four (1967–1968)

Ep #	Title	Airdate
085/01	"Fires of Death"	September 17, 1967
086/02	"The Deadly Dolls"	October 1, 1967
087/03	"Cave of the Dead"	October 8, 1967
088/04	"Journey With Fear"	October 15, 1967
089/05	"Sealed Orders"	October 22, 1967
090/06	"Man of Many Faces"	October 29, 1967
091/07	"Fatal Cargo"	November 5, 1967
092/08	"Time Lock"	November 12, 1967
093/09	"Rescue"	November 19, 1967
094/10	"Terror"	November 26, 1967
095/11	"A Time To Die"	December 3, 1967
096/12	"Blow Up"	December 10, 1967
097/13	"The Deadly Amphibians"	December 17, 1967
098/14	"The Return of Blackbeard"	December 31, 1967
099/15	"The Terrible Leprechaun"	January 7, 1968
100/16	"The Lobster Man"	January 21, 1968
101/17	"Nightmare"	January 28, 1968
102/18	"The Abominable Snowman"	February 4, 1968
103/19	"Secret of the Deep"	February 11, 1968
104/20	"Man-Beast"	February 18, 1968
105/21	"Savage Jungle"	February 25, 1968
106/22	"Flaming Ice"	March 3, 1968
107/23	"Attack!"	March 10, 1968
108/24	"The Edge of Doom"	March 17, 1968
109/25	"The Death Clock"	March 24, 1968
110/26	"No Way Back"	March 31, 1968

Other media

• A paperback novel, City Under the Sea, authored by Paul W. Fairman, was published in 1965, to tie into the series. It had a different storyline than the episode of the same name. The book should also not be confused with the later Irwin Allen film of nearly the same name, which was about the attempts of the world's first under-sea city to prevent the earth from being hit by a rogue asteroid. It is not about "A wealthy family attempting to move the Earth's oceans to another planet for resettlement" as has occasionally been stated. [1]

• Western Publishing published a comic book based on the series. Western's comic company, Gold Key Comics put out a series that ran 16 issues from 1964–1970. Most covers were painted, and most had a photo of either Richard Basehart or David Hedison on them. The first issue of the Gold Key comic was a story called "The Last Survivor". The story bought back Dr. Gamma, the villain from the pilot episode, "Eleven Days to Zero". Gold Key's story was the only sequel to the pilot episode. Hermes Press will reprint the entire run in 2 hardback volumes; the first was released in 2009.

• In 1966, World Distributors, a British publishing company in Manchester, England, published a hardback book called the Annual. The British-made book used the series characters in all new stories. The book contained a reprint of a story from Gold Key Comics. Both books were mostly prose stories with some illustrations.

• Aurora Plastics Corporation released a plastic model kit of Seaview as well as the Flying Sub during the original run of the series. Both kits were recently re-released by Polar Lights. The Flying Sub model sold more than the Seaview model.^{[citation needed]}

• Other collectables from the show include a Milton Bradley board game with a drawing based on the pilot episode, and a school lunch box with depictions of Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane trying to save the Flying Sub from an evil looking octopus. There was also a View-Master slide reel based on the episode "Deadly Creature Below."

Popular culture

• The popularity of the TV show inspired Mad Magazine (March, 1966) to spoof the show, their version being called Voyage to See What's on the Bottom, featuring a submarine called the Seapew.

• Australian TV show Fast Forward sent-up the series as Voyage to the Bottom of the Harbour.

• Stock footage of Seaview was used in the Wonder Woman episode "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis."

• An often referenced running joke is that in many episodes of the series, characters lurch to camera movements on the visibly static set, to give the illusion that Seaview had sustained impact. This was an old movie trick, and was commonly used by other television shows of the period, including Star Trek, but none did it so frequently, nor with such relish as Voyage. Hence, the technique is still commonly known as "Seaview Rock and Roll." British television sitcom Red Dwarf frequently utilized parodies of this gimmick, including an extended outtake of the cast lurching from side to side of the Starbug set at the insistence of Craig Charles. On the SciFi Channel's 1995 documentary tribute to Irwin Allen, The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, series co-star June Lockhart recalled this technique being used also on Lost In Space, where the cast also knew it as "the rock-and-roll".

• The Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb has an episode with a pun on the title called Voyage to the Bottom of Buford.

DVD releases

20th Century Fox has released all 4 seasons on DVD in Region 1.

The release in the UK (Region 2) of complete season sets has been announced for seasons 1 and 2. They are presently aimed at release dates in 2011 of 7 March and 21 September respectively and are being released by Revelation Films.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
Season 1 Vol. 1	16	February 21, 2006	Unaired Colour Pilot Behind the scenes home movie from Irwin Allen Promotional Reel featuring Irwin Allen from 1964 Still Gallery
Season 1 Vol. 2	16	July 11, 2006	Still Gallery (22 images) Blooper Reel David Hedison Interviews
Season 2 Vol. 1	13	October 24, 2006	Special Effects Footage (22:04) Concept Art Gallery (5 stills) Episodic Photo Gallery (35 stills) Publicity Photo Gallery (8 stills)
Season 2 Vol. 2	13	February 20, 2007	David Hedison Interview Still Gallery
Season 3 Vol. 1	13	June 19, 2007	Still Galleries David Hedison Interviews Visitors on Set Letters from Fans "The Rock and Roll" David Hedison 1966 Interview (audio only)
Season 3 Vol. 2	13	October 23, 2007	Episodic Photo Gallery Publicity Photos TV Merchandise David Hedison Interviews Richard Basehart 1966 Interview (audio only)
Season 4 Vol. 1	13	March 31, 2009	Eleven Days to Zero (re-cut unaired pilot) David Hedison Interviews: Years 1-4 Irwin's Goal Irwin's Office Work Hours Voice-overs Still Gallery
Season 4 Vol. 2	13	January 11, 2011	Original Unaired Pilot Broadcast Pilot with Vintage Commercials Still Gallery

References

• 'SEAVIEW: The making of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea by Tim Colliver, copyright 1992, published by Alpha Control Press.

• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea DVD sets

• The Irwin Allen Scrapbook Volume One Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Edited by William E. Anchors, Jr.; copyright 1992 by Alpha Control Press.

• TV.Com

External links

• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea at the Internet Movie Database
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea at TV.com