I had seen a "Time Tunnel" episode here or there growing up in the '70s but never thought much about them. Recently, I found myself with some gift cards for Best Buy and found both sets of the series (how rude that they broke up a one-season series into two separate DVD sets). Normally, I would have passed them by (having not been too impressed as a youngster), but there was an amazing sale on them. I could buy BOTH sets on sale for LESS than the regular price of ONE of the sets. Cool! Popping in the series, again, I was not expecting much. That first episode with the Titanic I found kind of dull and plodding...even though I can see why the writers went with the Titanic as the first episode. But the tragedy, shock and horror of the disaster were never successfully woven into the story.
I almost decided to pass on the rest of the series and sell the two sets on eBay or something, but I continued to watch the show. It really has grown on me. Sure, the story lines are a bit predictable and the minuscule budget is glaringly obvious (only 6 prisoners on Devil's Island? Ha!) and the incongruity of everyone (in ancient Greece, France, etc.) speaking 20th century English (albeit with a foreign accent) just screams out HOKEY (and let's NOT even go into how they could constantly bring people and objects back from the past to the Time Tunnel lab and then send them back again--but they could NEVER bring back Tony or Doug)...but there's just something fascinating about the show and what they TRIED to do with it. For example, Tony goes back and meets his father OR Tony ends up at the base 10 years before the setting of the show and Doug doesn't know him OR when Tony does make it back to the lab but at an accelerated time than everyone else (everyone seems "frozen"--but Tony is just in a warp and has to return where he came from) were really interesting and novel attempts to break up the show's routine shuffle. I also enjoyed when the show moved off into the "future". At least they were TRYING to be creative.
It may not have been the best thing ever produced for television, but it was far from the worst. Too bad it only had one season. Given time (and a bigger budget), it MIGHT have evolved into a really fantastic series that is far more revered and remembered than it is today.
I almost decided to pass on the rest of the series and sell the two sets on eBay or something, but I continued to watch the show. It really has grown on me. Sure, the story lines are a bit predictable and the minuscule budget is glaringly obvious (only 6 prisoners on Devil's Island? Ha!) and the incongruity of everyone (in ancient Greece, France, etc.) speaking 20th century English (albeit with a foreign accent) just screams out HOKEY (and let's NOT even go into how they could constantly bring people and objects back from the past to the Time Tunnel lab and then send them back again--but they could NEVER bring back Tony or Doug)...but there's just something fascinating about the show and what they TRIED to do with it. For example, Tony goes back and meets his father OR Tony ends up at the base 10 years before the setting of the show and Doug doesn't know him OR when Tony does make it back to the lab but at an accelerated time than everyone else (everyone seems "frozen"--but Tony is just in a warp and has to return where he came from) were really interesting and novel attempts to break up the show's routine shuffle. I also enjoyed when the show moved off into the "future". At least they were TRYING to be creative.
It may not have been the best thing ever produced for television, but it was far from the worst. Too bad it only had one season. Given time (and a bigger budget), it MIGHT have evolved into a really fantastic series that is far more revered and remembered than it is today.