CITY BENEATH THE SEA (1967) NBC UNSOLD PILOT
✰ In
1967 Irwin Allen produced this network promo for
NBC as a potential replacement series for
Star Trek. It combines themes and plot-devices from all of Irwin Allen's previous series (specifically
Voyage To
The Bottom Of
The Sea), as well as several subtle (yet obvious) nods to Star Trek
. The costumes (designed by Paul Zastupnevich) have the ribbed turtleneck-like collar similar to both of the Star Trek pilots,
as well as color co-ordinated department stripes (gold, red, blue, green) - decades ahead of
Rick Berman'
s prequel series - "
Star Trek: Enterprise".
✰
Irwin's ensemble cast included
Glenn Corbett (whom also played
Zefram Cochrane, the founder of warp drive in Star Trek's "
Metamorphosis" episode),
Lawrence Montaigne (whom played
Spock's rival Stonn in the episode "
Amok Time") as the human/amphibian hybrid medical and science officer "Dr.
Raymond Aguila",
Francine York as Yeoman "Lia
Holmes" (a role much like
Yeoman Janice Rand on Star Trek),
Norman Grabowski as "
Irish" (a cousin of "
Scotty" perhaps?),
Cecile Ozorio as the
Asian security chief "Choo-Choo" (perhaps an unintentional a nod to
Trek's
Sulu),
James Brolin as "
Wild Bill" appears to have the same firey temper as
Mark Goddard's
Major West on
Lost In Space, and
Lloyd Bochner as the ever present villain akin to Irwin Allen villains
Dr. Smith on Lost In Space, and Mr. Fitzhugh on
Land Of The Giants.
✰ To make this presentation appear more lavish than it actually was at a cost of next to nothing, Irwin made use of chroma-key compositing and stock-footage.
✰ When NBC declined to pick-up the series, Irwin expanded this concept into a motion picture in
1970 and recruited the majority of his stable to reprise similar roles.
✰ The cockpit of this
Flying Sub (now called an "Aquafoil") is basically a modified version of the
Spindrift from Irwin's Land Of The Giants (which was already in production at that time), however, when this pilot was expanded into a full-length feature, the Flying Sub/Aquafoil retained its original set design as seen in seasons 2 thru 4 of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.
✰
The music contained in this pilot reel was stock-footage culled from a variety of sources including the
1953 film "
Beneath The
12 Mile Reef", as well as Irwin's previous series "Lost In Space" and "
The Time Tunnel".
✰ Here is further information pertaining to this subject:
the then Vice-President of Programs at NBC
Burbank Herb Schlosser requisitioned a pilot script from Irwin Allen at his
Kent Productions office at
20th Century Fox in 1967 to replace Star Trek (which was originally slated to be cancelled after wrapping "
Operation Annihilate") with a show that appealed to the same demographics that would score the same ratings
ABC and
CBS were achieving with
Allen's productions. Believing
Roddenberry's "a wagon train to the stars" concept was a failure, perhaps Schlosser felt the focus should be shifted to inner-space rather than outer-space so NBC could benefit from a similar success as
ABC-TV's long-running "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" then entering its fourth season.
After obtaining the script entitled "
And Then It Rained for
Five Hundred Years" written by
William Welch, Mr. Schlosser had several changes made which resulted with some of this seemingly Trek-inspired footage seen here. A massive campaign accompanied by several demonstrations saved Star Trek and IA's CBTS series was not picked-up (but ABC was interested in the Land Of The Giants, so Irwin went ahead with that instead).
When Star Trek was indeed cancelled the second time in
1969, it was replaced by another 20th Century Fox production instead :
Del Reisman's "
Bracken's World" starring
Warren Stevens.
3 years later when Land Of The Giants was not renewed for a third season by ABC in 1970, Irwin produced another
City Beneath The Sea pilot (rewritten by
John Meredyth Lucas).
I believe this version was broadcast on the NBC
Monday Night Movie January 25,
1971 (following
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), but again it failed to be picked up as a series.