The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen

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Summary: THE AMAZING IRWIN ALLEN
Review: The series created and produced by Mr. Allen - VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, LOST IN SPACE, THE TIME TUNNEL and LAND OF THE GIANTS - was, and remains to this day, our favorites TV shows. This DVD (Previously launched in VHS format) bring to us, update interviews with some of our heroes, an interesting overview of the backstage of these productions, a brief history of the creator and producer and a lot of fun and good memories. " As creator and producer, Irwin Allen's objective was not to over-analyze or intellectualize the storylines, nor scientifically educate the viewing audience. More often than not, continuity was an afterthought. The show was purely and simply intended to be family entertainment ..." (From James Hatfield & George Burt, authors of LOST IN SPACE: THE ULTIMATE UNAUTHORIZED TRIVIA CHALLENGE, Kensington Books, 1998.)

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Summary: A history of Irwin Allen's film and TV career.
Review: This 1995 documentary on the film and TV career of producer Irwin Allen is hosted by Lost In Space stars Billy Mummy and June Lockhart and the robot(Bob May),with a cameo appearance by Jonathon Harris as Dr. Smith.
Billy Mummy and the robot do a nice little sendup of Billy's 1960's Twilight Zone appearance in the episode "It's A Good Life" with a "that's a real good thing you did" routine.
The documentary begins with a history of Irwin's early films of the 1950's and 1960's,like Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea starring Walter Pigeon and Barbara Eden.It then goes into his 1960's TV productions of Lost In Space,Land Of The Giants,Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and The Time Tunnel with lots of memories of the shows by different cast members.Deanna Lund of Land Of The Giants looks amazing for someone that starred as an adult in the 1960's show.
As a teenager,I was very disappointed when Lost In Space changed from it's eccellent first season into the worst show on television and this documentary gives us a hint as to why.
Lost In Space was put on against the very campy Batman series and Irwin,in a monumental case of misjudgement,turned Lost In Space into the very same sort of ridiculous and campy show.What a pity he did this as the first season was a wonderful show for kids.
This summed Irwin Allen up,for while he could be a great showman,he had no idea of story by often turning his shows into "monster of the week" shows.Thank goodness The Time Tunnel was cancelled after one season,so that Irwin didn't have a chance to ruin it.
The Time Tunnel incidentally,was pipped at the post for a second season by the then new Planet Of The Apes TV series.Irwin received a phone call telling him that they just missed out in favour of that new show which also ran for only one season.
The documentary then tells us about Irwin's successful move back into movies in the 1970's with big hits in The Poseidon Adventure,which was nominated for 7 Oscars(not 8)and The Towering Inferno which was nominated for 10 Oscars(not 8)as the documentary incorrectly states.
There are some interesting out-takes from these films showing Irwin directing the action scenes with comments from stars.
Other directors did the majority of these two films as Irwin directed just the action scenes.
After 1975,Irwin's film producing career took a dive with three awful flop disaster films like the absurd Beyond The Poseidon Adventure,where people go down into a sinking ship(?)and also When Time Ran Out and The Swarm.These films had awful special effects and little story.
Irwin tended to repeat stunt scenes done in previous movies in the last two films which indicated that he had run out of ideas.
He then went back to television with some rejected TV pilots as well as one successful TV series(Swiss Family Robinson),but as one of this documentaries producers is a relative,this down part of his career is glossed over.He then went back to TV movie of the week films like Flood.
The best part of this documentary is the bloopers right at the end and it was good to see that old scene stealer Jonathon Harris one last time.This DVD also has some featurettes on the movies which is a bonus and might interest some fans of those films.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This DVD edition of "The Fantasy Worls od Irwin Allen" blew me away! I bought a VHS copy of the program after seeing it on the Sci-Fi Channel back in '95. It was a great, campy tribute to a great, campy producer. June Lockhart and Billy Mumy were fine choices as hosts. The Robot from "Lost in Space" (Irwin's best known TV series) was fun, too. (I don't want to ruin the surprise ending.) The clips, editing, interviews are great - especially the segments on Irwin's disaster films, "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno." All in all, this is a great program if you like TV Sci-Fi (and love "Lost in Space"). The real news here is THE BONUS MATERIALS! Foxstar Productions and Image entertainment really went all out. There are featurettes galore from "The Towering Inferno", "Man From the 25th Century", "City Beneath the Sea" and "Land of the Giants" (another all-time favorite). Again... WOW!