Way-cool American sci-fi television from the 1960s
The Jetsons 24 episodes (1962-63) 30m
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The Hanna-Barbera production team deftly satirised early-60s America in this animated classic set in 2062. George Jetson's stereotypical nuclear family (complete with super-cool dog) takes on the tribulations of everyday life. Captain Video-style kids' shows, capitalism, family values and social change all get the HB treatment.
Questionable SF credentials didn't stop this classic technothriller from being just too kitsch to resist. Tongue-in-cheek agents from UNCLE (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) use high-tech devices to battle the evil THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and Subjugation of Humanity).
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 110 episodes (1964-68) 60m
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Cheap but never nasty - this Irwin Allen production set the standard for low-budget SFX for years to come. Spun-off from the successful film, high-tech sub Seaview battles secret agents, femme fatales, monsters and other disasters. Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane never seem to agree and the world is saved time and time again.
"Danger Will Robinson!" - Irwin Allen still doesn't have any money for special effects. Not to worry, the show became a cult-favourite nevertheless. Swiss Family Robinson gets lost in outer space when the villainous Dr Smith stows away and knocks their flying saucer out of orbit. The robot usually manages to steal the show.
Early steampunk technothriller set in 19th-century America's Wild West. Good guy spies battle a gallery of surreal villains, including height-disadvantaged superscientist Dr Miguelito, played by Michael Dunn. A surprise hit for the American CBS network, re-runs remain extremely popular with sci-fi fans. Timeless.
The Time Tunnel 30 episodes (1966-67) 60m
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Budgetary restrictions saw this show spend most of its time in the past rather than expensive futures. A scientific experiment traps the heroes in a vortex that offers almost unlimited opportunities to stuff-up other societies. Star James Darren managed to travel into the future and show up as a nightclub crooner on a Star Trek holodeck.
50s-style paranoia never translated all that well into the late-60s and, consequently, this show was short-lived. In a Fugitive-style never-ending chase, aliens have invaded and David Vincent seems to be the only one who knows about it. Unfortunately, the aliens disappear whenever they are killed, so things are hard to prove.
Land of the Giants 51 episodes (1968-70) 60m
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Irwin Allen strikes again - only this time with a respectable budget. A suborbital ship carrying the entire cast passes through a portal to a land where everything is really big - although mysteriously Earthlike in most ways. Worked OK for a while, but the series was cancelled before the cast managed to make it back home.
