Here's the series premiere of Filmation's adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth, which aired on ABC from 1967-70. All the voices are performed by just three actors: Jane Webb, Ted Knight, & Pat Harrington, Jr., whose voice for Alec McEwen sounds like Ray "Atom" Palmer (Superman-Aquaman Hour of Adventure) that same 1st season.
Here's "Arena of Fear":
Fox owns the rights to the series, so it's on them to release it on DVD.
Rating: A.
7 comments:
I used to like this show - although while they went to the trouble of setting things up in the pilot, it would have been nice if we got the conclusion to this version of the story. This show was largely based on the 1959 film version and I'm curious if it would have ended the same way or not (although I'm certain Gertrude WOULDN'T have ended up on the menu!). We deserved that much.
At the time I didn't realize Pat Harrington was doing the voice for Alex. I only knew the actor as "Schnieder" from "One Day At A Time", and not so much for his voice acting until much later.
I had thought this show was part of Classic Media/DreamWorks due to being a Filmation product but since it is based on a big studio film, that accounts for the different owner.
When production ended abruptly on Journey, I'm afraid Gertude went into a bit of a tailspin. Lou Scheimer took pity on her when she hit bottom a few years later and gave her a job on Fat Albert, but her heavy drinking became an insurmountable problem on set, causing much friction with Bill Cosby. Only a few episodes in, it became apparent either Bill or Gertrude had to go, and obviously it wasn't going to be Bill.
Ho, ho!
SaturdayMorningFan: I too find that funny. Problem is, the Cosby Kids had a different duck, at least for the first season. I think Russell ended up selling him to a carnival or something.
Currently, there is a new series of films supposedly based on the original Verne novel. Brendan Fraser starred in the first, but Journey 2, which also covered another Verne story, and subsequent sequels, star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Totally different from the 1959 movie with Pat Boone and the cartoon.
Personally, I think Gertrude was there as comedy relief for Lars (also Pat Harrington).
"Brendan Fraser starred in the first"
I haven't seen this yet, but it's in my Netflix Queue. Is there a duck in it?
No ducks. There is a glowing hummingbird like creature, however.
Nope. I don't think Verne included a duck in the original story. Gertrude might be a made-for-TV comedy relief creation.
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