Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.

Biography

In the 1960s, Allen moved into television as "the most successful science-fiction producer of the decade", and was responsible for series such as:

He also produced several TV movies, such as City Beneath the Sea (1971 film), which used or recycled many of the props and models from Voyage, Lost in Space, and Man From The 25th Century. Both were intended as pilots for new TV series projects, but his small-screen success from the 1960s largely eluded him in the 1970s. Allen's science-fiction series had earned a reputation as being notorious for using nonsensical science and putting too much emphasis on catering to more juvenile audiences. Lost in Space's Bill Mumy said of Allen that while he was very good at writing television pilots that sold, his unwillingness to spend money hurt his shows' quality once on the air. A monster costume that appeared on one of his shows, for example, would appear on another a few weeks later with new paint. In his book Irwin Allen Television Productions, 1964-1970 (McFarland & Co. Publishers, 2006), Writer Jon Abbott described Allen as paradoxical. "Here was a man who, when told the cost of a spaceship for a Lost in Space alien, snapped, 'Let him walk!' ... and then let the show be canceled rather than take a cut in the budget."

In the 1970s, Allen returned to cinema screens and was the most popular producer associated with the decade's fad for the disaster film genre. Allen produced the successful The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) which he also co-directed. He produced several made-for-TV disaster movies: Flood! (1976), Fire! (1977), Hanging by a Thread (1978), and The Night the Bridge Fell Down and Cave In! (both 1979). For theatrical release he produced and directed The Swarm (1978) as well as Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) and produced When Time Ran Out (1980). Despite this success, the rise of new filmmakers like George Lucas took him off guard; the success of reportedly bewildered him at how a film with apparently no stars or love story could enrapture audiences so fervently.

In the late 1970s and mid-1980s, Allen sporadically returned to TV with miniseries efforts such as The Return of Captain Nemo/The Amazing Captain Nemo (1978) and a star-studded version of Alice in Wonderland (1985). He was planning on making a star-studded musical of Pinocchio, but a decline in health caused an early retirement in 1986.

Allen died from a heart attack in 1991.

Awards

Legacy

Allen's career in film and TV was the subject of a 1995 documentary, "The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen," produced and directed by Kevin Burns, co-founder of Foxstar Productions, originally set up as the production unit responsible for creating a series of "Alien Nation" movies for television. Numerous cast members and associates from various Irwin Allen projects appeared in the film, lending recollections of their time working with him.

In 1994, while Senior VP of Foxstar, Burns founded Van Ness Films, a non-fiction and documentary production unit. That same year, he met Jon Jashni, a Fox film executive who shared Burns' interest in Allen's works.

In 1998, the two collaborated on a TV retrospective special, "Lost in Space Forever." Hosted by John Laroquette, it chronicled the series' creation and run on TV in the 1960s and beyond, and featured appearances by Bill Mumy, Jonathan Harris, June Lockhart, Angela Cartwright, Mark Goddard and Marta Kristen, as well as film footage of vintage interviews with Guy Williams. Also appearing were Bob May, who donned the Robot suit, and Dick Tufeld, who supplied the character's voice. The flight deck set of the Jupiter 2 was recreated as the backdrop for parts of the special.

It also was used as a vehicle to promote the upcoming big-screen feature version of the TV classic, starring William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, Gary Oldman, Lacey Chabert, Mimi Rogers and Heather Graham.

Burns and Jashni later formed Synthesis Entertainment and began developing and producing remakes of, and sequels to, several Allen properties, most notably a 2002 Fox Television pilot for an updated version of "The Time Tunnel" [3], which didn't sell, and remakes of films including "Poseidon" (2006) and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."[4] The 2002 TV pilot was included as a bonus feature on Vol. 2 of Fox's 2006 DVD release of the 30-episode 1960s "Time Tunnel" TV series.

In popular culture

In the film Ocean's Thirteen, "Irwin Allen" is a nickname for a con where the mark is manipulated by using the threat of a large natural disaster. In the movie, Brad Pitt assumes the character of a geophysicist who fools the owner of the Bank Hotel into believing his hotel requires an evacuation plan due to ambiguous references made by Pitt regarding seismologic activity in the Las Vegas area. This ruse enables the Ocean crew to carry out their exploitation during a segment of the plot.

On January 3, 2008, BBC Four showed a night of Allen's work which included a 1995 documentary called "The Fantasy Worlds Of Irwin Allen" along with episodes of Lost In Space, Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

References

External links

Category:American film producers Category:American television producers Category:American film directors Category:People from New York City Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:1916 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Film directors from New York City