For me, the Terrible Leprechaun. Unbelievable garbage.
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jejozi — 13 years ago(March 16, 2013 09:32 PM)
Actors can't break contracts regardless of their character. People from the 60s weren't any more moral than they are today. Bigger hypocrites? Yep.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here. -
mec50 — 18 years ago(January 21, 2008 07:36 PM)
By the start of Voyage's third season Irwin Allen had three shows in production (Voyage/Lost In Space/Time Tunnel) and was already prepping for production of LAND OF THE GIANTS.
Quality control was going down the tubes since Irwin kept the same writers and directors working on all of his shows. William Welch was a perfect example; he wrote several decent first season Voyage episodes and had been promoted to story editor when the talented William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter departed for Mission:Impossible. Welch's output for Voyage resulted in many bad episodes most likely due to him being over-worked while contributing scripts to LOST IN SPACE and THE TIME TUNNEL. He should have turned down a few assignments but writers were well paid and he probably didn't want to lose the income.
I wouldn't blame the ABC for this situation. Irwin made all the important decisions and should have realized his 'regulars' were overtaxed and brought in some new blood.
Another factor was the cost of network television production. At the time, costs were increasing rapidly due to inflation and the use of color film (including processing and special effects). Networks pay a set license fee for shows and the evolving costs dictated that most of the episodes would have to take place on the Seaview with as much re-cycled footage as possible. That's why you see so many shots borrowed from Irwin's THE LOST WORLD feature, and why the creature costumes were recycled for LOST IN SPACE with only a minimum revamp. The same situation happened to STAR TREK and BATMAN. Remember how spare those third season BATMAN sets were?
Welch also wrote one of the fourth season's best episodes, "The Man of Many Faces," which proved he could deliver the goods given a little time and rest.
When you think of what could have been if writers like Harlan Ellison were allowed to write for the showwe'd be talking about classic episodes forty years laterinstead of the turkeys!
Mike Clark -
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alpha128 — 18 years ago(February 24, 2008 12:31 PM)
Harlan did write "The Price Of Doom" in Voyage's first season, but was so unhappy with the result (after 18 rewrites I believe) that he took his name off it and used his nom-de-plume Cordwainer Bird. ytsejammer
True. But that doesn't mean it was a bad episode. In fact, it was a very good one.
Episode 5, "The Price Of Doom": First "monster" story, albeit a great one!
http://www.vttbots.com/season_one_landmarks.html
In fact, Mr. Ellison was very demanding and even wanted his name removed from "The City on Edge of Forever"
Harlan Ellison was dismayed with the changes Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana made to his story (which included, among other things, a drug-addicted Enterprise crewman) so much so, that he wished his credit to read "written by Cordwainer Bird," a request Roddenberry denied. Though Ellison had the final right to have his pseudonym attached, he claims that Roddenberry made veiled threats to the effect that if he did so he would "never work in this town again."
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever
which went on to become the most highly acclaimed episode of the original
Star Trek
.
By popular acclaim, this is the single best episode of the original series, earning a 1968 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (and the other four nominees were all episodes of Star Trek). It was 25 years before another television program received the honor, "The Inner Light". TV Guide also ranked it #68 in their 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History feature in the 1 July 1995 edition, and also featured it in another issue on the 100 greatest TV episodes of all time.
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever -
ddc300 — 17 years ago(March 22, 2009 04:59 PM)
Harlan Ellison is a spoiled, overrated, egotistical maniac.
I met him at I-Con (a Long Island-based SF convention) around ten years ago. I brought with me an original copy of "The Price of Doom" for him to autograph. When I finally got to Ellison, he literally FREAKED OUT when he saw the script! He yelled at me with: 'where did you get this?! Do you know this is studio property and that I have the right to coinfiscate it?!' I was dumbfounded, and stuttering a bit. Finally, I told him that a friend had given it to me (not true I bought it some years earlier from a vendor). I asked him if he'd be kind enough to sign it, but he refused to do so. Ellison waved me off and that was the end of that. What a Drama-Queen! You'd think that a script from a series done more than two decades earlier wouldn't even merit such an over reaction. All I can say is: Mr. Ellison, you are a BIG JERK! -
captgage-1 — 14 years ago(February 21, 2012 10:53 AM)
I know. I own the box set that includes The Price Of Doom LOL. Does anyone know if the original script can be read somewhere? I know there's a book about the original Trek episode City on the Edge Of Forever.
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information_police — 17 years ago(March 10, 2009 05:10 PM)
It's been ages since I've seen this but I remember an episode where the Seaview was sailing under the South Pole (unbelievably stupid scientific error #1) and there was some flying fire monster hovering in the sky, causing the South polar ice cap to melt and sending chucks of ice down where they were crashing into the sub (incredibly stupid scientific error #2).
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powersroc — 14 years ago(October 09, 2011 04:49 PM)
The scriptwriters simply followed the commands of Irwin Allen.Make no mistake about it,Allen was the man in charge & everyone knew it.He was infamous for having his TV series lack logical plots,character development & consistency.He would chastise writers if they introduced lengthy dialogue that was character revealing.If the writers attempted to address issues of plot rationale or continuity Allen would refer to it as "quibbling."He often said that his shows were about action,grand sets & FX.He called them "running,jumping" shows.He wasn't at all interested in producing episodes that dealt with issues or intriguing characters.Twilight Zone,The Outer Limits & Star Trek were sf series that offered substance & depth.Allen's shows were all sizzle & no steak.They were exactly what he wanted them to be.
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a_l_i_e_n — 14 years ago(October 15, 2011 11:11 PM)
The scriptwriters simply followed the commands of Irwin Allen. Make no mistake about it,Allen was the man in charge & everyone knew it.
I wouldn't be surprised considering this was also the guy who directed both "The Swarm" and "Beyond The Poseidon Adventure". It's hard to believe it was all studio interference that accounts for the lack of quality in some (or even alot) of his work. -
ddc300 — 14 years ago(November 09, 2011 08:13 AM)
I wouldn't be surprised considering this was also the guy who directed both "The Swarm" and "Beyond The Poseidon Adventure". It's hard to believe it was all studio interference that accounts for the lack of quality in some (or even alot) of his work.
Actually, your last sentence in the quote should read: 'It's hard to believe it was all studio interference that accounts for
any quality
in some (or even alot) of his work.'
Irwin was his own worst enemy. That's why when Irwin threatened to leave 20th Century-Fox in 1976 unless they allowed him to direct 100% of his movies or he'd leave, Fox said 'leave' and that's when he went over to Warner Bros. who said that they would let him have 100% creative control over his films (they later had to eat their words when "The Swarm" was released. LOL). They even built a new building on the backlot just for Irwin, to entice him to sign with them. Irwin was able to once again talk Warner's into letting him direct "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure". When that flick also tanked at the box office, Warner's told Irwin 'get someone else to direct'. And of course James Goldstone was brought onboard to direct "When Time Ran Out". That flick did only slightly better than the other two turkeys, hence Warner's and Irwin parted ways in 1980. -
ddc300 — 14 years ago(November 10, 2011 07:07 AM)
By far the worst season of "Voyage" mirrored the second season of "Lost in Space" where nonesencial storylines involving fairytales and wacky aliens were the norm. Not surprising that the worst years for both shows was the 1966-67 season when of course Irwin turned his energies to bringing
"Time Tunnel" to the TV screens. Thankfully, both 1967-68 seasons of "Voyage" and "Space" got back to basics with some much better scripts and episodes that were similar to what got the shows off the ground in the first place. But, the innane, and 'goofy' episodes slowly creeped back in, so that by the end of 1968 "Voyage" and "Space" had worn out their welcomes at thier respective networks. -
megalon3 — 12 years ago(April 29, 2013 07:00 AM)
I agree. The first season in black and white had much better and believable stories. The seasons where they went into fantasy: mermaids, rock people and so on was a bad turn to the show. It went downhill after than. It is on MeTV here on U-verse 2013.
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sized-2 — 12 years ago(June 29, 2013 10:05 PM)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
'Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that was used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery, which is usually a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest.
The phrase jump the shark comes from a scene in the fifth season premiere episode of the American TV series Happy Days titled "Hollywood: Part 3", written by Fred Fox, Jr.,[4] which aired on September 20, 1977. In the episode, the central characters visit Los Angeles, where a water-skiing Fonzie (Henry Winkler) answers a challenge to his bravery by wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket, and jumping over a confined shark. The stunt was created as a way to showcase Winkler's real life water ski skills.
For a show that in its early seasons depicted universally relatable adolescent and family experiences against a backdrop of 1950s nostalgia, this incident marked an audacious, cartoonish turn towards attention-seeking gimmickry. Initially a supporting character, the faddish lionization of an increasingly superhuman Fonzie became the focus of Happy Days. The series continued for seven years after Fonzie's shark-jumping stunt, with a number of changes in cast and situations. The phrase implies a belief that the show began a creative decline in this era, as writers ran out of ideas, and Happy Days became a caricature of itself.'