Went into my local Wal-Mart today... and to my surprise, saw Volume 1, season 1 of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on the shelf. Looks like their stock crew messed up & put the thing out ahead of the official street date. (Next Tuesday.)

Naturally, I bought a copy... gotta get my Irwin Allen fix!

Have only watched the first episode so far... classic early 60s Allen... a cheesy-lookin giant squid, mismatched Seaview models, a tad overacted in places... but darn if it isn't STILL all good! :dude:

I'll be getting mine when the prices come down. I"m little peeved about the season being split into 2 parts for a slightly higher price tag. It's an old chow, it's in b&w and no excuse for the price they're asking for.

They have been splitting the Irwin Allen shows, into two volumes per season, because Fox says it will sell better than a full set. RIGHT! Can we say con?

Yes Ricky, it is an old chow but when I get my copy everyone better chaddap and let me watch it! :)

Huzz

They have been splitting the Irwin Allen shows, into two volumes per season, because Fox says it will sell better than a full set. RIGHT! Can we say con?


That would be kinda like season 2 of the new BSG. Which I won't buy for that reason.

Clearly, the new wave of analyst are not doing a very good job of a market analysis. I'm betting the extra cost of packaging is going to cut into their profits after prices fall. Hope this teaches them a lesson .

I haven't had a chance to watch my Voyage set yet. But it'll get thrown on tonight. :)

The Voyage set has only been sitting for two days. My poor Rat Patrol set has been setting patiently on the shelf unloved for over two weeks now! That one goes on the player tonight as well. :D

I have box sets, and singles, that I have never watched. Some of them have been on the shelves for years. DVDs come out too fast for me, to watch them as I buy them.

I've now watched the pilot episode, titled Eleven Days to Zero (both b&w and color versions) and the first production episode, City Beneath the Sea, and I've gotta tell ya, they look great. Excellent transfers.

There is one curiosity, though. On the color version of the pilot, the last shot of the opening title sequence is of the later, four-windowed Seaview with the Flying Sub doors. Perhaps there was a reason to replace this shot for the DVD transfer, and the only other color record of a similar shot was from a later season. Interesting. I need to go back and see if the same shot is on the b&w version.

There is also over thirty minutes of "home movies" taken on the set during setups and rehearsals of the pilot episode. They are silent and in color, and look beautiful, considering that they were from either 8mm or 16mm sources. The picture quality is absolutely superb, and very revealing behind-the-scenes material for those who are curious about what goes on off-camera and between takes. An ABC network proposal, hosted by Irwin Allen, is also included, and is quite good.

There are also several still photo galleries, including a merchanising one that is very good.

Even for a half-season, at less than $30, it was well worth it.

Hey Mike! Which walmart? Gulfport,Pinellas Park??

I got the box set today, for the unbelievable price of FREE! I didn't know till I got home that they didn't scan it. The employees were talking, so I guess she missed it.

Trek Ace's mention of the flying sub door version, I noticed, and the B&W version is the right sub view. I saw the color episode and recorded it, back in the 80's, on a local station. They were having a all night of TV pilots.

Dang, that's better than the $9.99 Voyager Season 5 set I got at Best Buy last year!

To nickpick the DVDs, the color unaired pilot, has a different main credit, than the original color episode. I have the original on VHS, and after the man fell off the rope ladder into the sea, the credits have different music, and the background has just rolling sea. That would explain the Flying Sub bay Seaview shot on the pilot. Must not have had a color version of the shot, so the used it fron the color seasons. Also, the title Eleven Days to Zero, was not showed during the scenes of distruction,but with rolling sea background.

How could FOX not think that the fans would not notice. But I think that they would think we are just happy to get them. Of course they are right, but original is original.

To nickpick the DVDs, the color unaired pilot, has a different main credit, than the original color episode. I have the original on VHS, and after the man fell off the rope ladder into the sea, the credits have different music, and the background has just rolling sea. That would explain the Flying Sub bay Seaview shot on the pilot. Must not have had a color version of the shot, so the used it fron the color seasons. Also, the title Eleven Days to Zero, was not showed during the scenes of distruction,but with rolling sea background.

How could FOX not think that the fans would not notice. But I think that they would think we are just happy to get them. Of course they are right, but original is original.You are 100% correct sir. I have the five Columbia House tapes. One has the Color/Unaired pilot. It has the rolling sea and different music.

I picked up this set yesterday and Fox really has done a stellar job. So they are 2 for 3 in terms of quality.

I suspect that they have taken a common shortcut with regards to the opening credits of the color pilot. Regrettably, it has become a widespread practice to use a generic credit sequence for shows rather than transferring every credit sequence for each episode individually. Fox probably made ONE transfer for the B&W shows and ONE transfer for the next batch of color shows.

I'm guessing that they probably have the proper material but probably just stuck the generic "...Starring Richard Basehart and David Hedison" credit sequence onto the pilot without really giving it much thought.

This happens all the time now (even with the Johny Quest cartoons).

I wonder if FOX will replace Jerry Goldsmith's 2nd season theme , heard on the episode JONHA AND THE WHALE, with the generic theme. It was only heard just that one time.

Something I noticed when viewing the color pilot episode; the stuntman who spray-paints the great big "X" on top of Capt. Phillips car (over the heads of the most oblivious MP's in TV history!) is the SAME stuntman who fires his MP-40 schmeisser from the helicopter and falls 3 gazillion feet to the waves below (which only scant seconds earlier was a mountain valley).
I also noticed that "Dr. Gamma" is portrayed by both Theo Marcuse AND Werner Klemperer in different scenes.
All in all, not dull and worthy of my Irwin Allen DVD library. :thumbsup:

And notice the "X" on the car roof. The X seen on the car roof as it drives down the highway is about three times the size of the X when it was first painted at the gate to the base.

The wind made the paint run????

I do hope they transfer all the different main and end title sequences and apply them correctly. The pilot is a special case and although it's frustrating not to get the pilot title sequence which is interesting by itself, you can see why they did it because it is so radically different from the regular TV title sequence that it almost makes the pilot play like a stand-alone movie, which it really was. Goldsmith's theme does play over the standard 2nd season opening shots and then in the third season (or maybe even mid-2nd season) we get the Flying Sub in the main title (interestingly, while Goldsmith's main title is jarring and was unceremoniously dumped, it's actually far more useful in terms of the individual episode scores than Sawtell's theme--Goldsmith's Seaview theme, both from his "Jonah and the Whale" score and as adapted by other composers on the show, showed up throughout the rest of the program's run). The orchestration of Sawtell's music was changed and there's another redone title sequence in year four. The main titles are distinctive signals as to which season you're watching so to stick with a single "color" title sequence would be a terrible idea. I'm very happy with these sets so far so hopefully they'll do the right thing with the rest of the main title sequences...