Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Underwater adventure aboard the nuclear submarine Seaview.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction television series created by Irwin Allen, based on his 1961 film. It was the first of Allen's four science fiction TV series and the longest-running, airing on ABC from 1964 to 1968. The show centered on underwater adventure aboard the futuristic nuclear submarine Seaview.
Quick Facts
- Runtime
- 60 minutes (including commercials)
- Creator
- Irwin Allen
- Country
- United States
- Company
- Cambridge Productions Inc.
- Irwin Allen Productions
- 20th Century-Fox Television
- Network
- ABC
- First aired
- 14 September 1964
- Last aired
- 31 March 1968
- Seasons
- 4
Facts from the source article.
Show history
The pilot episode "Eleven Days to Zero" was filmed in color but broadcast in black-and-white. It introduced the nuclear submarine S.S.R.N. Seaview and its crew, including Admiral Harriman Nelson, the submarine's designer and builder, and Commander Lee Crane, who becomes captain after the original commanding officer is murdered. The Seaview is based at the Nelson Institute of Marine Research in Santa Barbara, California, and is moored in a secret underground pen carved from rock. Officially a marine research vessel, its secret mission is to defend Earth from world and extraterrestrial threats in the then-future of the 1970s. The first season's 32 episodes featured Cold War themes and near-future speculative fiction, with villains including hostile foreign governments, aliens, sea monsters, and dinosaurs. Episodes dealt with world-threatening earthquakes, destruction of American submarines, and ocean perils. The season introduced a diving bell and mini-submarine, and featured extraterrestrials in "The Sky is Falling." Nelson was promoted from three-star to four-star admiral during the season, and the Seaview was established as part of the U.S. nuclear armed fleet. The season ended with the crew fighting a foreign government to save a defense weapon. The second season began with episodes inside a whale and a volcano, along with Cold War intrigue and nuclear war themes, and ended with a ghost story.
Music
The series' main theme, "The Seaview Theme," was composed by Paul Sawtell. A darker theme by Jerry Goldsmith was introduced in the second-season episode "Jonah and the Whale" but was quickly replaced by the original. A version of the Goldsmith suite re-orchestrated by Nelson Riddle appeared as incidental music in "Escape From Venice," and the original Goldsmith suite was used as incidental music throughout the rest of the series. Lionel Newman served as main composer, supervisor, and conductor, composing a serious score for the episode credits starting with "The Left Handed Man" that was used through the second and early third seasons. Guest composers included Lennie Hayton, Hugo Friedhofer, Alexander Courage, Morton Stevens, Leith Stevens, and Sawtell. In 1997, GNP Crescendo released a soundtrack album as part of its series tying into the documentary The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, featuring Sawtell's theme and his score for the pilot, as well as Goldsmith's work for "Jonah and the Whale."
Other media
A paperback novel titled City Under the Sea, written by Paul W. Fairman, was published in 1965 as a tie-in to the series, with a different storyline than the episode of the same name. Western Publishing began a Gold Key Comics series in 1964, running 16 issues from December 1964 to April 1970. Most covers were painted by George Wilson and featured a photo of Richard Basehart or David Hedison. The first issue, "The Last Survivor," brought back the villain Dr. Gamma from the pilot episode, and was the only sequel to that episode. Hermes Press reprinted the entire run in two hardback volumes, the first released in 2009. In 1966, World Distributors in Manchester, England, published the first of two Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Annuals, hardback gift books with new stories and a reprint from the Gold Key series. Aurora Plastics Corporation released plastic model kits of the Seaview and the Flying Sub during the original run, with reissues from 1975 to 1977. Both kits were later re-released by Polar Lights, with the Flying Sub model selling more than the Seaview model.
Popular culture
Mad Magazine spoofed the show in March 1966 as "Voyage to See What's on the Bottom," featuring a submarine called the Seapew and a flying sub called Son of Seapew. Stock footage of the Seaview was used in the Wonder Woman episode "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis. A running joke involves characters lurching to camera movements on a static set to simulate impact, a technique known as "Seaview Rock and Roll. This technique was also used on Lost in Space, where the cast called it "the rock-and-roll. The Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb featured an episode titled "Voyage to the Bottom of Buford."
More in American Broadcasting Company Science Fiction Dramas
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