It's About Time (TV series)
Astronauts travel back in time to prehistoric days.
Sherwood Schwartz created the American sci-fi comedy series It's About Time, which ran for a single 26-episode season on CBS from September 11, 1966, to April 2, 1967. The show reused sets, props, and background music from Schwartz's other concurrent series, Gilligan's Island.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Science fiction
- Fantasy
- Drama
- Sitcom
- Runtime
- 30 minutes per episode
- Creator
- Sherwood Schwartz
- Theme music
- Gerald Fried
- George Wyle
- Sherwood Schwartz
- Composer
- Gerald Fried
- Starring
- Frank Aletter
- Jack Mullaney
- Imogene Coca
- Joe E. Ross
- Cliff Norton
- Mike Mazurki
- Country
- United States
- Company
- Redwood Productions
- Inc.; Gladasya Productions
- Inc.
Facts from the source article.
Description
Astronauts Mac McKenzie and Hector Canfield, played by Frank Aletter and Jack Mullaney, break the speed of light and wind up flung back to prehistoric times. There, they must learn to live with a cave-dwelling family headed by Shag or Shad, portrayed by Imogene Coca, and Gronk, played by Joe E. Ross. The couple's kids are 18-year-old Mlor, played by Mary Grace, and 14-year-old Breer, played by Pat Cardi. The tribe's chief, Boss, played by Cliff Norton, and his second-in-command, Clon, played by Mike Mazurki, never quite trust the two astronauts. The show pulled in strong ratings at the start, but those numbers dropped fast. Creator Schwartz blamed three things for the audience's fading interest: the same old threats from dinosaurs, clubs, spears, volcanoes, and cavemen; the show's unappealing visuals, like caves and dirt streets; and the cave dwellers' hard-to-follow primitive English. Starting with the episode that aired on January 22, 1967, after 18 episodes set in the Stone Age, Schwartz flipped the whole premise. The astronauts fix their space capsule and blast back to 1967, bringing Shad, Gronk, and their children along. Boss and Clon appear for the last time in that episode, which also brings in two new characters who stick around: Alan DeWitt as Mr. Tyler, the manager of Mac and Hector's apartment building, and Frank Wilcox as General Morley, their commanding officer. The prehistoric family then has to get used to life in the 1960s, reacting to all the strange new stuff and setting up a home in 20th-century Los Angeles. For instance, Gronk and Shad have to learn to write their names so they can sign for all the salesmen who show up with "presents" that later come with bills. Meanwhile, Mac and Hector have to persuade their skeptical boss that their time travel was real and not some big prank. Only seven episodes were made with this new setup before the network pulled the plug at the end of the season. Pat Cardi, who played Breer, said CBS thought about reversing the cancellation after summer reruns got better ratings, but by then Imogene Coca and Joe E. Ross had already signed on to other projects, which sealed the show's fate.
Episodes
Originally set to debut on January 15, 1967, the prehistoric episode "The Stowaway" was bumped from the schedule by an installment of Lassie. This happened because CBS reshuffled its evening programming after the first Super Bowl aired that afternoon. Though the episode clearly takes place before the seven that had already aired, it didn't actually make it to television until April 2, 1967. In current syndication on channels like Antenna TV, the episode runs in its proper sequence, right before "20th Century Here We Come...".
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