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[]
- Whit Bissell - Lt. General Heywood 'Woody' Kirk
- Lee Meriwether - Dr. Ann MacGregor
- John Zaremba - Dr. Raymond Swain
Premise[]
Project Tic-Toc is a top-secret U.S. government effort to build an experimental time machine, 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 (Robert Colbert), Dr. Anthony Newman (James Darren), 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 (equivalent to $55 billion in 2019), 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.
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.
Episodes[]
DVD releases[]
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 2006 in two volumes. Volume Two includes the unaired 2002 pilot and the made-for-TV film The Time Travelers as special features. The DVD box sets include nearly all full-length, uncut and unedited original network prints, but one episode, "Chase Through Time", was edited.
In Region 2, Revelation Films released the entire series on DVD in the UK in one complete series box set.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia on August 20, 2014.
Cartoonito in the UK started repeating the series on Monday 2nd January 2012.
External links[]
- The Time Tunnel at IMDb
- The Time Tunnel (2002 pilot) at IMDb
- The Time Tunnel at TV.com
- The 1964 book by Leinster at isfdb.org