Shark Bytes

This was typical Irwin Allen--pretty good special effects for the day & writers hired from the local homeless shelter.

When I was a kid I watched this show during its "first run". One night (during its last season, after the "campiness" has sunk in), VTTBOTS was preempted by a news flash (can't remember what for), anyway, just before they went back to the show, the station announcer (don't know if he was local or national) said something like "now we join Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea already in progress --- as usual, some sort of creature is loose aboard the Seaview and the crew is chasing it around". Or words to that effect. It was at that moment that I realized that the show had become a parody of its former self.

The first two seasons were great, being a mixture of espionage and science fiction stories. The first year especially, but I believe it was due to the black and white cinematography. Like "The Fugitive", "Voyage"'s first year had a strong film noir quality, which fit the stories well.

The third and fourth years were abominations as the series fell victim to the "monster of the week" syndrome that ruined its credibility. Irwin Allen's shows had a strong tendency to do just that. But then again, this was during the period of civil rights turmoil and Vietnam and the idiotic stories (like those on "Lost In Space" and, of course, "Batman") garnered the highest ratings, so perhaps Allen was giving the audiences what they wanted.

Still, despite this shortcoming on "Voyage", the program managed to last four seasons and 110 episodes..longer than the original "Star Trek"..and was the longest running sci-fi show prior to the late 1980s "Star Trek" revivals.

that time the sea monster got into the submarine

I loved this show. I was about 6, 7, 8 years old when it was on. The flying sub was the best

What a great show. The first 2 years it was on the air was wonderful. Drama, good scripts and actors galore and even women guest starred.

Black and white the first year, color the second. ABC must have had high hopes for it putting it in color and up against Lassie and Disney's Wonderful World of Color (both highly rated shows) the fall of 1965.

When Voyage did not deliver higher ratings ABC cut it's budget for the 3rd season and with that they cut quality.

Allen was already in production on Time Tunnel and Lost in Space and it seems his attention may have been elsewhere while Voyage sank further beneath the waves.

Add to the fact that Richard Basehart was unhappy with the show. In the latter shows you could tell his heart was not in it. I read that Basehart and Hedison talked with Allen about getting better scripts written but to no avail.

Allen's use of previous footage from earlier shows of Voyage, some in black in white from the first season, tinted did not help. Cost cutting to the extreme. Sloppy editing on the color shows showing the 8 window version Seaview inter cut with the 4 windowed one was bad.

It was canceled in 1968. I feel that if the quality had coninued it could have lasted another couple of years.

Irwin Allen is one of my favorite producers but really don't understand why Voyage sank to such low depths other than it lost it's way catering to children and leaving its adult audience.

It's an Irwin Allen series, so come episode seven ('Turn Back The Clock') we're doing the monster mash. After this installment broke the ice, it was open slather on the cheeseball monsters, week after week. This was a favourite of mine as a kid, but then kids do like to hear the same stories over and over, and for this 'VTTBOTS' was as dependable as a rock. When considered as an adult, it would have jumped as above. As a child however, it only jumped occasionally, and I always gave it another chance next week.

3 things:

As many times as Kowalski was knocked on the melon with a 25 pound wrench, he should have been talking like some brain damaged boxer. Give the poor guy a medical disability retirement & call it a day.

Let's be happy there were ventilation shafts big enough to drive a Mini Cooper through--that seemed to save them every episode.

I actually served aboard a nuclear sub--in our Reactor Compartment, the hatches were locked & we had this stuff called shielding--like, ya know, you couldn't just walk in & pull out the control rods. Go figure.

It was always funny to see when things seemed hopeless, the admiral would go to his cabin, pull out a screwdriver, some wire, and a few other things, then quickly manufacture a ray gun or whatever the situation called for.. and it saved the day. And Sharkey... God almighty.. Brown-noser extraordinaire

This should have been called Voyage to the Bottom of the TOILET!!

It also jumped the shark everytime someone sabatouged the circuitry control room, causing the sub to weave back and forth while sparks flew out of the control panels. You'd think that after the 15 millionth time, that they'd PUT A DAMN GUARD OUTSIDE THE CIRCUITRY CONTROL ROOM!

It jumped the shark big time when they encountered that disgruntled leprachaun who didn't want the admiral to steal his pot of gold! Remember that episode everyone? Even more of a jump sharker than the stinker with Vincint Price controlling those doll duplicates of the crew.

Voyage jumped the shark at the end of the second season with an alful episode called 'The Menfish'. Cartoonish story, childish dialogue. This set the tone for the rest of the series. Gone were the well-done scripts from the first and most of the second year. Irwin must have gotten a note from the network that said 'more monsters'. He more than delivered. My DVD collection of Voyage stops with the second year.

Never jumped for me. I was a kid when it was on, and I knew it was mostly goofy, especially the fist fights in the Circuitry Room, the gunplay in the Reactor Room, the frequent shooting guys off the ship through torpedo tubes, and especially the common device of shocking the monster by sending a charge through the hull. There were serious and good episodes that were a little thought provoking, and it really should be looked at as a forerunner to McGyver and other series where there were miraculous finishes that might not be remembered the next time they were needed. Star Trek was famous for that.

Gosh, I loved this show when I was little! Just hearing that cool theme music brings back memories of plunking down on the rag rug in front of the ol' black and white in the den. The plots were probably ludicrous, but hey, I didn't care! It was SCI-FI! (Remember, we didn't have that much choice back then!)I vaguely remember thinking David Hedison was cute-ish. Ah, youth.