Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series): Difference between revisions
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* {{tv.com|592|Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea}} |
* {{tv.com|592|Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea}} |
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* [http://www.vttbots.com Mike's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Zone] |
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* [http://www.iann.net/voyage/ The Irwin Allen News Network: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea] |
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* [http://www.graumanschinesetheater.net/blast/index.html Aurora "Seaview" Model Kit Instructions from 1966 & 1975] |
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* [http://www.daffronanddelaney.com Daffron & Delaney's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea — fan fiction and much more] |
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* [http://www.nimr.org Nelson Institute of Marine Research] |
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* [http://www.iann.net/vaults/voyage/ Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Photo Vault] |
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* [http://thethunderchild.com/Television/1960s/VoyageBottomSea/VTTBOTS.html Thunder Child Source Book] |
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* [http://www.apakistannews.com/voyage-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea-147168 Voyage to the bottom of the sea] |
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Revision as of 20:49, 26 February 2010
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | |
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![]() 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) | |
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 |
Country of origin | ![]() |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 110 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes (including commercials) |
Production companies | Cambridge 20th Century Fox Television |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | 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. 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
In the pilot episode "Eleven Days to Zero", which was filmed in color but shown in black and white, the audience is introduced to the futuristic nuclear submarine Seaview and the lead members of her crew. Most notable is the designer and builder of the submarine, Admiral Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart). We also are introduced to the Nelson Institute of Marine Research (NIMR) in Santa Barbara, California which serves as a support structure for the Seaview. The Seaview is often moored, when at the base, some 500 feet below ground level in a secret underground submarine pen, Dock C-4, carved out of solid rock-although much of the drydock appears to be constructed of large stones. The submarine's official status is for undersea marine research, but its secret mission is defend the planet from all world and extraterrestrial threats. We learn, not for the last time, that the series is set in the then-future of the 1970s. The pilot episode tells the story of how Commander Lee Crane (David Hedison) became the Seaview’s Captain after the murder of her original commanding officer, Commander John Phillips. At the end of the episode, we learn that the series will be about the adventures of the Seaview and her crew roaming the seven seas and visiting many exotic locations. The Seaview and her crew's primary task in the series will be to probe the mysteries of nature and fight forces that threaten the survival of the United States and the entire world.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/03/Nelson_and_Phillips.png/220px-Nelson_and_Phillips.png)
Season One
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". [1] 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
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/Flying_Sub.jpg/220px-Flying_Sub.jpg)
The second season began with a trip inside a whale, 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. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065556/)
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 cemented 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
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.
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, and Star Trek: The Original Series composer Alexander Courage.
Cast
- 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 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)
Episode list
Note: Two different episodes (28 and 73) are both entitled "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" | 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 Frome 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 Beneath 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 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. The comic was also the villain's second appearance, but not his final one as is commonly thought: the character was re-cast mid-way through the filming of the pilot episode, and appeared in five more episodes in the first season. The character was retired when Werner Klemperer joined the cast of Hogan's Heroes in 1965. 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 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.[3] 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 insistance 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 the first 3 seasons on DVD in Region 1. Season 4, Volume 1 was released on March 31, 2009. [2]
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
---|---|---|---|
Season 1 Vol. 1 | 16 | February 21, 2006 |
|
Season 1 Vol. 2 | 16 | July 11, 2006 |
|
Season 2 Vol. 1 | 13 | October 24, 2006 |
|
Season 2 Vol. 2 | 13 | February 20, 2007 |
|
Season 3 Vol. 1 | 13 | June 19, 2007 |
|
Season 3 Vol. 2 | 13 | October 23, 2007 |
|
Season 4 Vol. 1 | 13 | March 31, 2009 |
|
Season 4 Vol. 2 | 13 | TBA |
Notes
- ^ Richard Basehart also starred in Moby Dick (1956 film), directed by John Huston.
- ^ tv.com
- ^ Season 3 Vol 1 DVD extra feature "The Rock and Roll"
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 IMDb
- Template:Tv.com
- Mike's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Zone
- The Irwin Allen News Network: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
- Aurora "Seaview" Model Kit Instructions from 1966 & 1975
- Daffron & Delaney's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea — fan fiction and much more
- Nelson Institute of Marine Research
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Photo Vault
- Thunder Child Source Book
- Voyage to the bottom of the sea