This
science fiction television series is based on the 1961 film of the
same name created by Irwin Allen. Fortuitously, the film's sets,
costumes, props, special effects, models, and occasional footage,
were available for the series. Launched in 1964, the show had a popular four-season run
when compared to Allen's other science fiction series of the period,
Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.
The first season was seen in black and white and seemed to fit the
show's occasional scripts about Cold War tensions or averting a third-world government coup. Not even close to the bottom of the sea. Yet the series never left its science fiction roots, attested to by a first season episode about an off-course flying saucer that submerges into the sea and prehistoric "monsters" discovered under Antarctica's "warm spot." Most networks hopped on the new
trend of color broadcasting by 1965. Viewers were thrilled to watch
their favorite gray actors in color.
THE MAIN CAST
Most
of the action took place on a futuristic,
nuclear-powered
submarine,
the
Seaview.
True to the series title, the Seaview
was on the bottom of the sea quite often due to sabotage or an unknown
force controlling the ship's operating systems. The Seaview
was the brainchild of Admiral Nelson—played
by respected actor Richard Basehart—the
director of the super-secret Nelson Institute of Marine Research. It
co-starred David Hedison as the ship's Captain and featured Robert
Dowdell as the Lieutenant Commander, Del Monroe, reprising a similar
role in the film version, and joining the cast after season one was
Emmy-winning director and producer, Terry Becker.
For
many young viewers, the Seaview was
the star, with its far-reaching technology. Yet the series took place
only about a decade into the future. The final two seasons were set
during the eighties yet technology apparently never advanced further.
In keeping with all the 007 gadgetry of the era, the crew gained the
seldom-seen Sea
Crab,
a self-propelled explorer, a two-person mini-sub in the first season, and the yellow Flying
Sub (FS-1),
a three-person Manta Ray-shaped craft
capable
of underwater navigation or supersonic flight. It was launched
underneath the Seaview's
bow through a sliding panel—even
when the ship was flat on the ocean floor due
to an “editing mishap.”
The Seaview
went
through early design modifications, most notably reducing the number
of front horizontal windows in the bow to four. The view from the interior, however, the windows were decidedly vertical.
THE SINKING SCRIPTS
In the first half of the series, there were many decently written espionage or Communist takeover plots in true spy fashion. The ABC Network wanted a lighter, less serious approach, and what developed was quite outlandish at times. It is doubtful the show could have sustained a four-year run without transitioning into the fantasy world of science fiction of a humanoid sea creature, an invisible alien, or an ordinary-looking house plant that controlled a crew member's mind. It never seemed to matter. Certainly not to the average nine-year-old. The "alien-of-the-week" was well underway during the final two seasons. One of the more silly devices had a villain or creature routinely destroying the Circuitry Room's wall of wires, disabling the ship. The amount of stockpiled wiring must have been astounding. The crew would predictably tossed left and right multiple times from an explosion on board, setting off fires and miniature fireworks. All helped by a studio camera that rocked back and forth in the opposite direction to the actors. As lead officers, Basehart and Hedison were the least vaccinated against alien mind control, who then threatened the ship or crew. Despite lowering the bar during its run, it was likely those episodes that made the series an Irwin Allen cult classic.
Note: Upon returning from the catastrophic climax scene, the final thirty seconds allowed Basehart
to predictably give a rapid summation of what just transpired with
everything miraculously back to normal.
He might end the episode with a reserved smile or quip. I would speculate the two experienced film actors
thought four seasons was plenty.
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