Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV Show

Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea, based on the 1961 movie by the same name, aired from 1964 to 1968, both the movie and show were created by Irwin Allen. After the movie was filmed, all the sets, props, and models used to create the submarine were stored, so to make the TV show, it was all re-assembled and recycled along with the same writers and director, making the television production much faster and less expensive than starting from scratch.

The star of the show was a futuristic submarine named the Seaview, which officially was an underwater research vessel, but it's stealth mission was national defense. The Seaview was kept in a secret underwater cave 500 feet below. A total of 110 episodes were filmed, of which 32 were black and white. Admiral Nelson was played by Richard Basehart, and commander Lee Crane was played by David Hedison. On the second season, an innovative flying mini-sub was introduced, which was launched from the bottom of the Seaview and gave the crew unlimited travel options.

The first two seasons of Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea were set in the following decade of the 70s, while the last two were set in the 80s. Initial plots featured several cold war and related espionage stories, mostly relating to some evil foreign government bent on stealing classified secrets or secret weapons. Other plots included Nazis thinking World War II was still ongoing. The last two seasons veered more toward extraterrestrials, dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters, time travel, Sea Monsters, Werewolves, and other paranormal subjects popular in the late 60s. This shift may have contributed to a drop in ratings for the final season.

Irwin Allen continued expanding the science fiction genre with Lost In Space, Time Tunnel, and Land of The Giants, which replaced Voyage after 4 seasons.