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Imagine a TV show that combined science, history and adventure. Well, that was the concept even if it was science fiction and loosely based history.

Science fiction was a big deal in the 1960s. Producer Irwin Allen gave us Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. There was also Star Trek, which was produced by Gene Roddenberry at Desilu.

Scientists have invented a time machine that transports two men through time and the scientists can see what the time travelers see. The travelers are Dr. Douglas Phillips (Robert Colbert), Dr. Anthony Newman (James Darren) who are the projects directors who accidentally access the machine and become trapped, traveling backward and forward in time. Lt. General Heywood Kirk (Whit Bissell) is the military overseer. Dr. Raymond Swain (John Zaremba) and Dr. Ann MacGregor (Lee Meriwether) are specialists who operate the machine and move Phillips and Newman through time.

Unfortunately, the time tunnel operation was used before it was fully tested, and the result trapped Phillips and Newman in space. The scientists could only bounce them like a ping pong ball to points in time without being in control of the process. That was one of the selling points for the show.

Time travel has always been a concept that fuels TV and films. George Pal’s The Time Machine (1960), based on the H.G. Wells story is a favorite of mine. Star Trek, It’s About Time, The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone all used time travel. Planet of the Apes (1968) used the concept in a surprising twist.

The Time Tunnel lasted 30 episodes, one season, scheduled on Friday nights, not exactly a hopeful opportunity. In those days, ABC, the network airing the show, was the third of the Big Three Networks, with fewer affiliates and a weaker prime time schedule, so The Time Tunnel was facing uphill battle before the first episode aired. Apparently, it was also an expensive show to produce, which led to its cancellation when Irwin Allen refused to trim the budget.

One thing The Time Tunnel offered that other shows did not was the variety of historical situations that Phillips and Newman were dropped into. The pilot episode sends them to the Titanic the day before hitting the iceberg.

Future episodes take them on the first manned mission to Mars, to Honolulu prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the final battle of the War of 1812, the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, the siege of the Greeks in the Trojan Horse to capture Troy, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, an escape attempt at the French penal colony of Devil’s Island, into the French Revolution with Louie XVI, Marie Antoinette and young Napoleon Bonaparte, the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, the Alamo, D-Day, Battle of Gettysburg, and many other events from history.

The show certainly did not replace your American or World History classes, the stories were fictionalized and time condensed for 49 minute historical journeys. Imagine trying to see the episode taking place during the French Revolution as your base of knowledge on the economic struggles of France and the growth of resentment toward the monarchy.

James Darren had been a teen idol, a singer turned actor, he would have a lengthy show business career. Robert Colbert was a contract player at Warner Bros. so he was placed into whatever television series needed a James Garner-type actor, or minor character in their films. He did play one of the Maverick brothers for a while on Maverick. He later guested on television dramas. Lee Merriwether was Miss America 1955, who turned to acting. She portrayed Catwoman in the Batman film, later as Barnaby Jones’ crime solving daughter-in-law, and a reoccurring role on All My Children.

Character actor Whit Bissell played one of his many military officer roles, alternating those with lawyers, cops, scientists, professors, judges, any type of authority figure. John Zaremba was usually a scientist, military officer, undertaker, cop, professor or doctor, a professional man who followed procedures and was seen more than heard.

The show was a great place for character actors since every week offered a different kind of story. Malachi Throne, Michael Ansara, Lawrence Montaigne, Perry Lopez, Jim Davis, Warren Stevens, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall, R.G. Anderson, Ford Rainey, Kelly Thordsen, Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Mabel Albertson, Regis Toomey, Ellen Burstyn, Mako, Linden Chiles, James Callahan, Paul Fix, John Ducette, Nehemiah Persoff, Carroll O’Connor, John Saxon, Sam Groom, Wesley Lau, and many other fine actors appeared in the various episodes.

Irwin Allen would go on to produce “disaster films” that were popular in the early-mid 1970s. His biggest hits were The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974).