# It's About Time - or - I have wasted my brain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521 "2019-12-07T17:52:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/41 "2019-12-08T18:49:12Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend.” “Alex, what is _ **The Courtship of Eddie’s Father** _ with Bill Bixby?” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/42 "2019-12-08T18:53:31Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I kinda miss **Time Tunnel**. One show that’s actually worth suspending your disbelief 100% for an hour, just to see Lee Meriwether in those tight skirts and lab coat! :o ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/43 "2019-12-08T18:54:31Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend.” > [@terentii](#): > > “Alex, what is _ **The Courtship of Eddie’s Father** _ with Bill Bixby?” I remember the MAD Magazine satire was called “The Courtship of Eddie and His Father.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/44 "2019-12-08T19:06:45Z")
> [@Bayaker](#): > > Another execrable show that I am plagued to remember is _The Second Hundred Years_. It’s about a Yukon prospector who has been frozen in a glacier and sixty or so years later gets thawed(of course he’s still alive) and goes to live with his grandson(?) in the lower 48. His \*identical \*grandson. Both were played by Monte Markham, who later went on to play a guy with even more bionic limbs than Steve Austin in _ **The Six Million Dollar Man** _. (Not a bad show, actually; just very, very '70s.) Markham was also in an early episode of _ **Mission: Impossible** _ as a guard at an Iron Curtain prison. That was the two-parter where Barbara Bain got into a catfight with Mary Ann Mobley to create a diversion. Needless to say, Markham was diverted. :rolleyes: \*\*\*M:I \*\*\*is another one of those series that just blew you away once a week fifty years ago, but watching it stripped nowadays you can see how bad most of the episodes really were. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/45 "2019-12-08T19:17:39Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Don’t agree with the dark sets thing, but the others are actually positives for a camp series. From the _ **MAD Magazine** _ satire “Loused up in Space”: **PUNY BOOBINSON [Penny Robinson]:** _Robot, Robot, over there: Is there danger anywhere?_ **ROBOT:** _The-only-danger-on-this-particular-planet-is-from-tripping-over-one-of-the-papier-mâché-sets._ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/46 "2019-12-08T19:23:39Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > "_Ooh! Ooh!" :eek: > “Yes, Gunther?”_ :dubious: > > BTW, its Sue \*Ane \*Langdon. I watched the _ **Dick van Dyke** _ episode “One Angry Man” with her in it yesterday on YouTube. She played a bimbo falsely accused of diamond smuggling, and Rob was Foreman of the jury. Laura was in the courtroom, and of course was POed because he was drooling all over the defendant. (I would have too! :o ) > > She was also in an episode of _ **McHale’s Navy** _ as a Russian liaison officer. Of course, she was cold and off-putting until she let her hair down and donned a sarong: “Wow! No Sherman tank’s built like _that_!” She was also in the movie comedy “A Fine Madness”, with Sean Connery playing a screwball poet. It was a small part for her as a sultry secretary. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/47 "2019-12-08T19:28:05Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I can still remember all the words from the **F Troop** theme song (first season only, when the show was in black and white). How’s that for wasted space in MY brain? **SGT MORGAN O’ROURKE:** (_On numerous occasions_) Agarn, I don’t know why everybody says you’re so dumb! 😉 **CPL RANDOLPH AGARN:** (_Hours later, each time_) Who says I’m dumb?!? :dubious: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/48 "2019-12-08T19:44:02Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Also, NASA’s California launch site is at Vandenberg AFB, located between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Yes, but isn’t Edward’s one of the places where experimental air/spacecraft were tested in the '60s? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/49 "2019-12-08T21:10:58Z")
Do any of you watch the MeTV network? _Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Green Acres_ (which actually is still funny and watchable). Last night I couldn’t sleep and ended up watching an old episode of _Voyage to the Bottom of Sea_. The Seaview discovered a space capsule on the bottom of the ocean and brought it onboard, which was pretty stupid because they didn’t know what it was and it had a pointed nose cone and fins and looked kind of like a big bomb (at least to me). After it was on board it opened up and a lobster man from space emerged. It pretended to be friendly but actually planned to steal their nuclear fuel and use it to destroy the human race. The lobster was an actor in a ridiculously bad rubber costume. It wasn’t meant to be funny but I couldn’t stop laughing. I suppose we only watched this junk and took it seriously because we were kids. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/50 "2019-12-08T21:35:43Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > The lobster was an actor in a ridiculously bad rubber costume. It wasn’t meant to be funny but I couldn’t stop laughing. > > I suppose we only watched this junk and took it seriously because we were kids. I liken it to, say, 1970s-era culture. We all looked stupid but thought we were cool. Same with 1960s TV. That probably represented the cream of the industry at the time, and we all thought it cool. But looking back? Nah. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/51 "2019-12-08T21:39:24Z")
thanks to ted turner(who realized people in the 80s would watch stuff from the 50s and 60s) and channel splitting if you go deep in the lower channels youll find many stations that play nothing but 50s-80s stuff : cozi MEtv MOVIE ect … One oddity that I’ve only seen on the original nick at nite was the smothers bros series where the blonde one was an angel … even after the midnight/1 am reset it was usually the last thing on before it switched back to the normal programming ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/52 "2019-12-08T21:42:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Yes, but isn’t Edward’s one of the places where experimental air/spacecraft were tested in the '60s? IT still is … there’s been a couple of different looking planes that been flying around enough that they put out the normal "those are test planes, not ufos " statement ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/53 "2019-12-08T22:28:43Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I can still remember all the words from the **F Troop** theme song (first season only, when the show was in black and white). How’s that for wasted space in MY brain? > > > [@](#): > > > > The end of the Civil War was near > > When quite accidentally, > > A hero who sneezed abruptly seized > > Retreat and reversed it to victory. > > > > His medal of honor pleased and thrilled > > his proud little family group. > > While pinning it on some blood was spilled > > And so it was planned he’d command F Troop > > > > etc. That’s OK. If you ever need to remember where the duodenum is, they have charts that you can just look it up on. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/54 "2019-12-08T22:44:05Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Do any of you watch the MeTV network? _Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Green Acres_ (which actually is still funny and watchable). > > Last night I couldn’t sleep and ended up watching an old episode of _Voyage to the Bottom of Sea_. The Seaview discovered a space capsule on the bottom of the ocean and brought it onboard, which was pretty stupid because they didn’t know what it was and it had a pointed nose cone and fins and looked kind of like a big bomb (at least to me). > > After it was on board it opened up and a lobster man from space emerged. It pretended to be friendly but actually planned to steal their nuclear fuel and use it to destroy the human race. > > The lobster was an actor in a ridiculously bad rubber costume. It wasn’t meant to be funny but I couldn’t stop laughing. > > I suppose we only watched this junk and took it seriously because we were kids. For most of its run, I remember _ **Voyage** _ being on at like 18:30 CST on Sundays. This is about the time I started falling asleep out of boredom and actually looked forward to going back to school the next morning. “Who the hell watches TV this time on Sunday evenings, anyway?” I used to wonder. When it first came on (in B&W, I think), a lot of the stories were about spying and the Cold War, and I remember thinking it was pretty good. By the time it went color and got the Sunday time slot, I already felt my intelligence was being insulted. There was one story where silver-skinned humanoid aliens wanted the _Seaview_’s nuclear reactor, to hatch their eggs. There was another where they were haunted by a long-dead sea captain (played by Alfred Ryder, “Dr Crater” in _ **Star Trek** _’s “The Man Trap”). And there was one where they found Nazis who had been in suspended animation on the sea floor since the later days of WWII and tried to take over the submarine for the Glory of the Third Reich. (Perennial TV Nazi John van Dreelin was the \*Kommandant \*in this episode.) The one that I laughed longest and hardest at, though, was actually one I watched in German when I was hooked up to satellite TV. It was called “Der Werwolf” (the name of the series in German is _ **Mission Seaview** _) and the guest star was Charles Aidman, the guy who played “USSS Agent Jeremy Pike” on _ **The Wild, Wild West** _. He and some of the other crew paddle a dinghy to investigate a strange island shrouded in mist, and before you know it … well, you can guess what happens. So far as I understood, they offered no explanation of how this transformation came about; it was just triggered by … _the mist_. :eek: For some reason or other, which I also could not fathom, the monster wanted to get his hands on the submarine’s nuclear reactor, which took up about as much space on the set as a kitchen cabinet. Damn, it seemed like \*every \*weird life form that invaded the \*Seaview \*wanted that freakin’ reactor! It was one thing you could count on every other week! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/55 "2019-12-08T22:49:03Z")
I bet Admiral Rickover was sorry he ever came up with the idea by the eleventh or twelfth time that happened… ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/56 "2019-12-08T23:10:45Z")
One man is responsible for a number of bad 60s SciFi shows; Irwin Allen. He was like the Ed Wood of 60s SciFi, except he was somehow successful. Not that I’m comparing him to Wood’s personal life, mind you, just the quality of hia creations. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/57 "2019-12-08T23:19:56Z")
_Voyage_ did start out as a more or less serious show. One thing I heard was that a number of shows switched to ridiculous camp because of the success of _Batman_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/58 "2019-12-08T23:19:59Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Yes, but isn’t Edward’s one of the places where experimental air/spacecraft were tested in the '60s? Missed this one the first time around, dammit! It’s _Edwards_, not “Edward’s.” Maybe I was still thinking of Mr Ed and Connie Hines… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/59 "2019-12-08T23:24:37Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Missed this one the first time around, dammit! It’s _Edwards_, not “Edward’s.” Maybe I was still thinking of Mr Ed and Connie Hines… :smack: You mean it doesn’t belong to Edward? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521/60 "2019-12-08T23:26:49Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > _Voyage_ did start out as a more or less serious show. One thing I heard was that a number of shows switched to ridiculous camp because of the success of _Batman_. Allen’s series basically followed a pattern: Maybe a half-dozen really good episodes to get the network on board, and then a rapid, steady decline as the creative juices ceased to flow. I remember one interview where the guy who wrote the “humanoid vegetables” episode of _ **LiS** _ apologized for it, saying “I just couldn’t think of anything to write anymore.” A better grounding in science (or at least some good science advisors and/or experienced SF writers) might have helped avert this trend, but it was not to be. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-about-time-or-i-have-wasted-my-brain/844521.md?page=4)