Irwin Allen in Men Behind the Monsters Forum

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Irwin Allen

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Crow T Robot		#41	[-]
Feb 4 12 9:06 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I can see why the WB pilot film failed. As to the Melchior story - I believe Tom Weaver wrote an article on it for Monsters From The Vault, if I'm not mistake.
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pringly		#42	[-]
Feb 4 12 3:22 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It was bugging me, so I had to look it up. It was a series of articles done by Robert Skotak on IB Melchior. The particular article I'm talking about was in Film Fax 62; to summarize what was said in the article: Melchior had been working on what he called Space Family Robinson since 1960, registered it in Feb/64 and passed it around to various producers, etc, etc. It doesn't say who picked it up or if it was at all, but ads appeared in Variety and the Hollywood reporter in July of that same year announcing it was in preparation. 10 days after those ads appeared, other ads appeared in the same papers where Irwin Allen announced that he himself was producing a project named Space family Robinson. The article then gives some evidence to the fact that the treatment and idea were appropriated by Allen. It seems credible, but only one side of the story is given, so I was just wondering how credible it is.
WalesGuy		#43	[-]
Feb 6 12 4:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I grew up with VOYAGE, so it's still a big fave of mine (have all the seasons on DVD, plus the starry movie). Loved the Seaview, but really adored the Flying Sub.
bipolarber		#44	[-]
Feb 7 12 3:31 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Irwin Allen's shows were like mana from heaven for kids. They all started out as serious, high adventure, but within a season or two, they would run out of ideas, and the shows would devolve into kiddie fantasy/camp. But, they all had some beautiful hardware designs. The Jupiter 2, The Spacepod, the Chariot, the Robot... Tic-Toc base... The Spindrift... The Seaview, the Flying Sub, etc... Sometimes it was obvious where he got his inspirations... Lost in Space/Forbidden Planet... Tic-Toc base/CMDF... but it didn't matter, really. It was all cool stuff! I still remember (although vaugely) the night that Land of the Giants premired... It was one of the most breathless experiences I'd had... or would have, until years later when watching Star Wars for the first time. "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
BijouBob8mm		#45	[-]
Feb 9 12 10:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The look of Allen's monsters and aliens could be pretty hit and miss, but the hardware on his shows was always cool. There were a lot of cool-looking vehicle designs in cinematic sci-fi back then: The Proteus, the Seaview, the Flying Sub, the Spindrift, the Enterprise, the spaceship from PLANET OF THE APES (regardless of whether you call it the Icarus or one of the other designations that have been attached to it), the numerous vehicles found in Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's TV shows, the various spacecraft from Toho films, etc. And the designs of Kubrick's spacecraft from 2001would impact the incoming decade of the Seventies (even influencing Gerry Anderson's live-action SPACE: 1999 and the Imperial ships used in STAR WARS).
TomWeaver999		#46	[-]
Feb 9 12 11:56 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< As to the Melchior story - I believe Tom Weaver wrote an article on it for Monsters From The Vault, if I'm not mistake. << In MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #20, I had a story on Melchior's can't-catch-a-break LOST IN SPACE experiences: In the 1960s, Irwin Allen pretty much stole a Melchior script and used it as the basis for the TV series, and then in the 1990s the makers of the LOST IN SPACE movie provided a follow-up screwing.
pringly		#47	[-]
Feb 9 12 4:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	How did they screw him?????
scotpens		#48	[-]
Feb 9 12 4:25 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	bipolarber wrote: . . . they all had some beautiful hardware designs. The Jupiter 2, The Spacepod, the Chariot, the Robot... Tic-Toc base... The Spindrift... The Seaview, the Flying Sub, etc... Sometimes it was obvious where he got his inspirations... Lost in Space/Forbidden Planet... Tic-Toc base/CMDF... but it didn't matter, really. It was all cool stuff! Back when Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea debuted as a theatrical feature film, it was pretty obvious that the back end of the Seaview was inspired by an early-1960s Cadillac.
TomWeaver999		#49	[-]
Feb 11 12 2:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< How did they screw him????? << In the '60s, Irwin Allen just simply stole his script and revised it into LOST IN SPACE. Ib felt that if he went up against Irwin Allen, Fox, CBS, etc., etc., he'd get blackballed in Hollywood so he let it slide. But in the '90s when he heard a movie version was about to be made, he made the moviemakers aware that they were getting ready to remake something he originally wrote, and he must have proved it to their satisfaction because the LOST IN SPACE moviemakers promised him money, promised him the moon, signed all kinds of agreements with him, and he allowed the movie to be made. Then after the movie came out and made its money, they told him to go scratch. Ib sued but, according to him, a judge who just plain admitted he didn't understand Hollywood contract legalese told him to go scratch. Ib can't catch a break LOST IN SPACE-wise.
clore103051		#50	[-]
Feb 11 12 11:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	scotpens wrote: Back when Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea debuted as a theatrical feature film, it was pretty obvious that the back end of the Seaview was inspired by an early-1960s Cadillac. It looked more like the tail fins of a 1959 Pontiac.
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davlghry		#51	[-]
Feb 12 12 11:33 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: << How did they screw him????? << In the '60s, Irwin Allen just simply stole his script and revised it into LOST IN SPACE. Ib felt that if he went up against Irwin Allen, Fox, CBS, etc., etc., he'd get blackballed in Hollywood so he let it slide. But in the '90s when he heard a movie version was about to be made, he made the moviemakers aware that they were getting ready to remake something he originally wrote, and he must have proved it to their satisfaction because the LOST IN SPACE moviemakers promised him money, promised him the moon, signed all kinds of agreements with him, and he allowed the movie to be made. Then after the movie came out and made its money, they told him to go scratch. Ib sued but, according to him, a judge who just plain admitted he didn't understand Hollywood contract legalese told him to go scratch. Ib can't catch a break LOST IN SPACE-wise. I'm sure Melchior's story is true but the origins of LOST IN SPACE are probably murkier than that. In 1962, Gold Key start publishing a comic book called SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON along similar lines. When LOST IN SPACE premiered in 1965, Gold Key made some kind of agreement with CBS or Irwin Allen that allowed them to change the title of their comic to LOST IN SPACE. Of course, a "Space Family Robinson" concept is sort of a no brainer and could have occurred to many writers back in the heydey of science fiction when authors were constantly taking various classic stories and setting them in outer space.
bipolarber		#52	[-]
Feb 12 12 11:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This thread is starting to support my thought that maybe we should do a thread on "cars of the 50's and 60's monster films." LOL "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
pringly		#53	[-]
Feb 12 12 12:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	davlghry wrote: TomWeaver999 wrote: << How did they screw him????? << In the '60s, Irwin Allen just simply stole his script and revised it into LOST IN SPACE. Ib felt that if he went up against Irwin Allen, Fox, CBS, etc., etc., he'd get blackballed in Hollywood so he let it slide. But in the '90s when he heard a movie version was about to be made, he made the moviemakers aware that they were getting ready to remake something he originally wrote, and he must have proved it to their satisfaction because the LOST IN SPACE moviemakers promised him money, promised him the moon, signed all kinds of agreements with him, and he allowed the movie to be made. Then after the movie came out and made its money, they told him to go scratch. Ib sued but, according to him, a judge who just plain admitted he didn't understand Hollywood contract legalese told him to go scratch. Ib can't catch a break LOST IN SPACE-wise. I'm sure Melchior's story is true but the origins of LOST IN SPACE are probably murkier than that. In 1962, Gold Key start publishing a comic book called SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON along similar lines. When LOST IN SPACE premiered in 1965, Gold Key made some kind of agreement with CBS or Irwin Allen that allowed them to change the title of their comic to LOST IN SPACE. Of course, a "Space Family Robinson" concept is sort of a no brainer and could have occurred to many writers back in the heydey of science fiction when authors were constantly taking various classic stories and setting them in outer space. You're right about the comic, but the actual lifting of the Space Robinson story is a different matter. David Hewitt, who was planning out the special effects for the Melchior version, was invited over to fox by Felix Feist who was directing Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea for Allen at the Time. Apearently, Feist hated Allen and directed Hewitt to the writers building where he saw, on the wall, everything that Melchior wrote and drew for their project. He said it was to similar to be a coincidence. Still, I've only read about these accusations from Melchior and Hewitt in the series of articles I mentioned above. I've never heard anything from anyone who was involved in the development of Lost in Space for Allen, but what's come out and the fact that Melchior could get anything in writing from the makers of the remake is pretty convincing. Sometimes its a curse knowing this stuff. I used to really like Lost in Space, now I have a hard time stomaching it. By the way, thanks for the info Tom. I read about this before the remake was released, so I didn't know that he got screwed again.
BijouBob8mm		#54	[-]
Feb 13 12 1:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Of course, a "Space Family Robinson" concept is sort of a no brainer and could have occurred to many writers back in the heydey of science fiction when authors were constantly taking various classic stories and setting them in outer space. Melchior's own ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS did just that in 1964...the year before LOST IN SPACE went on the air. In his book The Making of STAR TREK, Stephen E. Whitfield talks about Gene Rodenberry getting burned by LOST IN SPACE. Rodenberry was trying to get his space series on the air and had set up a meeting to pitch the project to CBS. The executives sat around and listened to Rodenberry discuss the concept, and how they could economically deal with the challenge of doing the FX on a weekly basis. At the end, the "suits" thanked Rodenberry for his time and told him that they already a space show of their own. Rodenberry left, fuming that they could have at least hired him as a consultant and pay him for the production info he'd just handed them for free during the Q&A part of his presentation. Scott--I like that base you came up with for your Seaview! Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm Feb 13 12 3:32 PM. Edited 1 times.
dracsback		#55	[-]
Feb 19 12 4:29 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I always thought LOST IN SPACE was just SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON in outer space. Thus, SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON, etc. Too bad they can't take this pretty good concept and create a decent cable program out of it. My guess is they will try this again on TV, but after all of us original LIS fans die - so they can change it all up w/o upsetting anyone. I like the look of the original classic LOST IN SPACE hardware - J2, B9, Pod, Chariot. "I saw what I saw when I saw it!"
scotpens		#56	[-]
Feb 19 12 10:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	clore103051 wrote: It looked more like the tail fins of a 1959 Pontiac. That looks like two Seaviews. BijouBob8mm wrote: Scott--I like that base you came up with for your Seaview! I can’t take the credit for that — it isn’t my model. It’s just a stock shot of the old Lunar Models vacuform Seaview kit that I pulled from my files. It does look pretty cool, though.
Paul Haight		#57	[-]
Apr 16 12 1:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Composer Jerry Goldsmith was not a fan of Irwin. He still delivered a first-class score for VOYAGE, though.
IMSWM		#58	[-]
Jun 4 12 5:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I bought the second Time Tunnel DVD collection as a lark, and it was HIGHLY entertaining. So much so, I went out and got the earlier set. It's just hilarious how the scientific team would come up with gimmicks never mentioned before that just so happened to play into the storyline of that episode...then completely "forget" them in future episodes. In the episode concerning Custer at Little Big Horn, they were able to lock onto an "Indian"--with blue eyes--and bring him back to the Tunnel with no problem whatsoever (and also return him to his exact time and location), but never attempted the same on Doug and Tony thereafter!!! BTW, visually, the first quarter of the debut episode is absolutely stunning. Especially when you consider it was a Sixties TV show. /\ /\/\ \ \ / \ / \/\/ \ visit www.ManorOnMovies.com A new concept in new concepts
BijouBob8mm		#59	[-]
Jun 25 12 11:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	BTW, visually, the first quarter of the debut episode is absolutely stunning. I've always thought THE TIME TUNNEL pilot was one of Allen's better efforts for the small screen. Last Edited By: BijouBob8mm Jun 25 12 12:35 PM. Edited 1 times.
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Irwin Allen