In my previous piece
about Seabase Atlantica, I referenced one Paul Morehouse upon whose
original research these pieces are based on. He had managed to
unearth fragments of the story of the TV series and the reasons for
its ongoing neglect. Although he furnished me with a number of images
and the odd photosopy, all I really have is the original article he
wrote for us back in nineties.
The fact that 'Seabase
Atlantica' was made was down to a number of unique factors at the
time. The two major ones were the confidence the studio had in Irwin
Allen's ability to “create another Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea" and the ever increasing financial problems that Twentieth
Century Fox found itself in as the sixties came to an end.
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The box-out to the right is taken from Paul's original article and sets up the lie of the land
that the new series was born into together with the unique way that
money was found to finance the show.
The over-confidence of
the show's production team to produce episode-after-episode of the
first season saw them continue to produce a second the following year
without realising the series had yet to air on one of the major
networks.
Eventually production
stopped and the financial problems of the studio suddenly took charge
of the situation. The cost and value of the show roughly equated to a
sizeable part of the taxes owed by the studio to the IRS. In a
bizzare series of top secret discussions between studio accountants
and IRS investigators, a contract was drawn up that resulted in the
US Government taking posession of 'Seabase Atlantica' – its assets,
episodes and intellectual ownership – as part payment of the tax
bill. (Apparently, one of the documents that Paul had also allegedly
included a request from a leading Senator for the telephone number of
Julie Andrews who had recently starred in Twentieth Century Fox's
musical flop 'Star!' but whether this was followed up, is something
between the Senator and Ms. Andrews.)
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The second box out to the left is
also taken from Paul's original article and explains the way that the
series vanished from the face of television history and the legacy it
had on future film and TV production.
There may well be hope
on the horizon for television aficionados to finally see 'Seabase
Atlantica' soon.
More on that in part three.
SEABASE ATLANTICA – Episode Guide - part two
Season one - September 1969-March 1970
REGULAR CAST:
ROBERT YOUNG…Professor
Jonathan Crutch
JAMES DARREN…Captain
Anthony ‘Ziggy’ Shapiro
CHAD MARTIN…Aqua, the
Mer-boy
BARBARA EDEN…Susan
Crutch
JUDY ALLEN…Cindy
Crutch
JONATHAN HARRIS…Voice
of Debbie the Robot
1.14
LAND OF THE LOST
CATERPILLARS
Wr. Justin Addiss
Dir. Malachi Throne
Guest cast: Bill
Williams Jnr (Caterpillar man), Tarquin Font (Butterfly man).
Whilst exploring a
beautiful undersea forest, Ziggy and Susan discover a giant chrysalis
which, when hatched, threatens to devour the seabase. Aqua the
Mer-boy must get supplies of a rare seaweed that the creature feeds
on to lure it into a trap in order to electro-fry it to death,
However, the giant caterpillar turns into a mystical sea butterfly
and departs into outer space.
(Actor Tarquin Font was
working as a waiter at a local restaurant when the director noticed
how much he looked like a butterfly and cast him in the episode.)
1.15
RETURN OF THE DEAD SEA
GHOST
Wr. J E Selby (Irwin
Allen)
Dir. Felix Feist
Guest cast: Adam West
(Marlo Pernicker), Bill Williams Jnr (The Ghost of Amelia Earhart).
A wily accountant
threatens to close the seabase down due to excessive costs. However,
he quickly changes his mind when the resurrected ghost of Ameila
Earhart kidnaps him. Prof Crutch is able to convince the dead sea
ghost pilot to release the accountant before trapping the spirit
inside a peutron capsule headed for outer space. (Bill Williams Jnr is
actually wearing the same costume as Florence Henderson did in the
previous ‘Ghost of the Airways’ episode. To hide his distinctive
male features, the costume department issued Williams with a cloak
which he could bring up to cover his face when necessary. Even though
he was agile at this, in one later shot, you can clearly see stubble
on Amelia Earhart’s chin.)
1.16
MONSTER FROM THE TENTH
DIMENSION
Wr. Anthony Wilson
Dir. Harry Harris
Guest cast: Bill
Williams Jnr (Sludge man).
A giant sentient sludge
creature from another dimension kidnaps Crutch and threatens to
absorb his brain. Ziggy and Susan, with the help of Debbie, detonate
its power supply and the monster turns into nothing more than
harmless mud. (The original title for
this episode - as written on an early shooting script in red crayon - was ‘Another Fucking Piece of Shit’.)
1.17
TREASURE OF THE LOST
WRECK
Wr. William Welch
Dir. Sobey Martin
Guest cast: David Wayne
(Shuvvitch), Denver Pyle (Captain Vagishatt), Bill Williams Jnr (Pony
boy).
The team discover a
shipwreck with a vast chest of gold bullion aboard. Evil foreigner
agents steal the gold that is, in truth, a weapon capable of
disintegrating the free will of people’s minds. Jon Crutch is
affected and raids the base’s peutronic reserves. Ziggy and Aqua
the Mer-boy must stop him before Debbie is affected by the power
drain and turns back into a giant fish-eating robotoid werewolf. (Bill Williams Jnr wore
his own Pony boy costume for his scenes in the third act.)
1.18
THE WISHING DEVICE
Wr. Dan Ullman
Dir. Nathan Juran
Guest cast: Bill
Williams Jnr (Golden Octopus man).
Cindy discovers a
wishing machine, capable of granting her every wish, at the base of a
long-dead volcano. The golden octopus man who guards it seeks her out
in revenge, but is destroyed, along with the device, when the volcano
is sent back in time by an alien robotoid from the planet Jupitarius. (This episode is
actress Judy Allen’s favourite least worst episode according to her carer.)
1.19
THE INVISIBLE FRIEND
Wr. Arthur Weiss
Dir. Harry Harris
Guest cast: Davy Jones
(Locka).
Aqua the Mer-boy
befriends an invisible force called Locka which, when smuggled into
the base by Aqua, causes havoc and mischief by playing dangerous
practical jokes on everyone. Prof Crutch loses his atomic powered
fountain pen that, if tampered with the wrong way, will release
deadly peutronic radiation and kill everyone in a ten-mile radius.
The invisible force becomes affected by it and pleads with Aqua to
join with him. Eventually, the force mutates into a giant invisible
werewolf. Tearfully, Aqua the Mer-boy has to destroy his new friend
by flooding his body with deadly gamma rays.
(This episode was
banned in Saudi Arabia which is odd because the series was never broadcast there.)
1.20
THE BLACK STAR OF
CALIGARI
Wr. William Welch
Dir. Sober Martin
Guest cast: Bill
Williams Jnr (Man).
The asteroid Caligari
is on a collision course with Earth. The only way to stop it is to
create a megalonic field around the Earth using the Prof. Crutch’s
peutronic piles. The heroic plan is dangerous and enemy agents are
despatched to stop Crutch. Meanwhile a rampaging sea cucumber
threatens Hawaii. (The episode features
stock footage from the ‘Lost in Space’ episode ‘Blast off into
Space’)
1.21
THE ATTACK OF THE CAT
PEOPLE
Wr. Shirl Hendryx
Dir. Harry Harris
Guest cast: Eartha Kitt
(Pussy Queen), Yvonne De Carlo (Pussy General), Heather Young (Pussy
Alpha), Bill Williams Jnr (Pussy man).
Intelligent Pussy men
from the planet Skargyll invade Atlantica. Jon and Ziggy are forced
into creating a giant fur bomb that will accelerate the hair growth
of every man on Earth turning them into Pussies. Crutch discovers
that the Pussy men are vulnerable to fresh water and drowns them to
death. (Two specially trained
cats were used in the final control room scene but were lost when
special effect technicians flooded the set for the explosive climax
of the episode.)
1.22
FRUITS OF THE DEEP
Wr. Bob and Esther
Mitchell
Dir. Richard Donner
Cindy’s hair is
turned purple when she eats a wild undersea pomegranate. Prof Crutch
races against time to save her from becoming totally purple-ized but
he has become infected by a leaking peutronic container and is in
danger of irreversibly becoming a werewolf forever. (The television show
that Cindy is seen watching in the first scene is actually footage
from Irwin Allen’s unsold TV pilot for ‘The Astounding Captain
Fish’.)
1.23
VENDETTA OF THE MOON
MEN
Wr. William Welch
Dir. Sobey Martin
Guest cast: Fred Gwynne
(Horton Crabtree), Bill Williams Jnr (Moon man), Ken Matthews, Jock
Gaynor (Other Moon men), Bob May (Robo Centurion)
Jon Crutch’s old
college friend, Horton Crabtree, is in league with insane aliens from
the backside of the moon who plan to extinguish the sun and plunge
the Earth into total darkness and invade it as well. Just in time,
Ziggy is able to radio control a giant mirrored satellite into orbit
so as to reflect the sun’s rays onto the alien base, burning the
vile moon men and their army of robot Roman centurions forever. (Munsters actor Fred
Gwynne claimed not to remember “a bloody thing” about filming
this episode in his autobiography… but we know he did.)
1.24
THE ONSLAUGHT OF THE
BLUE PUFF CREATURES
Wr. Harlan Ellison
Dir. Jerry Hopper
Guest cast: Bill
Williams Jnr (Blue puff creature operator).
Cute furry blue
creatures that develop and multiply at an alarming rate plague
Atlantica. They break into the base’s peutronic stores and begin to
grow in size. Jon Crutch has to inject them with a rare seaweed serum
in order to poison them forever. (The blue furry
creatures were actually purchased en-masse from a local toyshop.
Their eyes were removed and their bodies were stuffed with red jello
for their final scenes. Harlan Ellison is the pen-name of writer Cordwainer Bird.)
1.25
RENDEZVOUS WITH DOOM
Wr. Richard Shapiro
Dir. Sobey Martin
Guest cast: Bette Davis
(Lizard Queen), Dianne Summers, Karen Steele, Bill Williams Jnr
(Lizard Women).
An old and ancient race
of Amazonian Lizard women is discovered by Crutch who, believing them
to be evil, eradicates them with a giant peutronic bomb.
(In the Lizard Queen’s
bed chamber, the portrait hanging on the wall is of actor William
Conrad and was originally used in an episode of the western series
‘Have Gun – Will Travel’ that the Cannon actor directed once.)
1.26
GREMLINS FROM MARS
Wr. William Welch
Dir. Harry Harris
Guest cast: Herve
Villechaise (First amphibian).
Small green amphibian
men from Mars pay the base a visit but Prof Crutch is unable to
decipher their electronic language and he electrocutes them. (This was actually the
14th episode to be completed but was left on the shelf until the
spring because someone had forgot about it.)
To be continued in part three by clicking here.
Seabase Atlantica: The Whole Sorry Story
Written by Andrew-Mark Thompson
Based on material originally written and researched by Paul Morehouse and first published in the magazine ‘FanGrok’
With humble acknowledgement to the work of Adam Richards and Owen Richards.