I've got a great Saturday Night Special for you that was on for four seasons from 1964 to 1968, and it's called.......
"Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea!"
This episode titled "The Monster's Web" was about a giant underwater spider!
As always, the stars of the show were Richard (The Satan Bug) Basehart as Admiral Nelson, who was also in "The Twilight Zone" episode titled "Probe 7, Over and Out," and believe it or not, in 1962 he actually played "Hitler" in a movie with the same name!
The co-star was David (The Fly, Live And Let Die) Hedison as Captain Crane! David is still around and has worked steadily on TV for some 60 years!
This is a special episode because the guest star was Dungeon fave Mark Richman, also known as "Agent For H.A.R.M."
Nice shot of the Seaview above the water!
Equally nice shot of the Flying Sub!
Admiral Nelson hits his head and gets knocked out soon after this shot because the story goes that Richard Basehart got sick, and could not complete the mission, and he was actually out for a couple more episodes, but returned full strength in season three. If you ever see this episode, it's pretty obvious that something was going on, because you hardly see him again, and if you do, it's just the back of his head because they were using a double!
For my money, this water spider is pretty neat, but I also read that Richard Basehart was getting tired of being part of 'the monster of the week' club! Too bad because it's all the krazy monsters that makes all these shows so cool!
Great isn't it? He's stumbling around with enough explosive fuel to blow up half the world!
Great shot from out the mini-sub's front windshield!
The monitor on the Seaview shows the mini-sub trapped by the giant spider's web!
I think this is the best shot I got of the spider!
This is the perfect look for a man under a lot of stress! I feel his pain! He should have pulled the Admiral's finger when he had the chance!
There were 16 of these "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" comics made between 1964 and 1969, and four seasons of the TV series, so with something that popular, there must be plans for a new movie or TV show sometime soon, and if not, there sure should be!!
Basehart was laid up for a while, and he also did not appear in the next two episodes, "The Menfish" and "The Mechanical Man." In each, Admiral Nelson was said to be back at HQ or something while the Seaview was at sea on its mission.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Menfish," Gary Merrill played Admiral Park, but his lines were probably originally written for Nelson. Maybe Merrill would have been the permanent replacement if Basehart had not recovered.
Basehart/Nelson did come back in the last Season 2 episode, "The Return of the Phantom." And he and David Hedison stayed with the series until it ended in 1968.
https://www.solie.org/alibrary/VoyagetotheBottomoftheSea_223TheMonstersWeb.html
ReplyDeleteYou're Welcome!