Irwin Allen
Encyclopedia
Irwin Allen 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.
. His film credits include the 3-D film
Dangerous Mission
(1954), The Animal World
(1956
), the critically panned The Story of Mankind
(1957
), The Big Circus
(1959
), The Lost World
(1960
), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
(1961
), which later became the basis of his TV series of the same name, and Five Weeks in a Balloon
(1962). He also produced The Towering Inferno
(1974).
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
, 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 pilot
s 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 Star Wars 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.
, he won an Academy Award
for Best Documentary Feature for The Sea Around Us
, which was based on Rachel Carson
's best-selling book of the same name. Carson was so disappointed with Allen's final version of the script that she never again sold film rights to her work. Three decades later Allen won the third ever Worst Career Achievement Golden Raspberry Award (1985).
episode 'First Spaceship on Venus
'. Here the camera tilts to simulate the spacecraft being hit. During this scene, Joel shouts out "Irwin Allen presents...".
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.
1989 song "Man vs. Nature" referred to Allen, calling him "the Master of Realism
." The song's three verses mention three prominent disaster films of the 1970s, including The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake
(which has nothing to do with Allen, in spite of the song's misattribution), and The Towering Inferno.
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
.
Episode 57 of the Disney TV series Duck Tales screened December 8 1987, titled The Uncrashable Hindentanic features a character called "Irwin Mallard" who films the distruction of Scrooge McDuck's airship called the Hindentanic in the disaster movie style of Irwin Allen.
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.
Biography
Allen was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His film credits include the 3-D film
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
Dangerous Mission
Dangerous Mission
Dangerous Mission is a 1954 American dramatic color film noir thriller starring Victor Mature, Piper Laurie, Vincent Price and William Bendix. The movie was produced by Irwin Allen, directed by Louis King and released by RKO Pictures...
(1954), The Animal World
The Animal World (film)
The Animal World is a 1956 documentary film that was produced, written and directed by Irwin Allen. The film includes live-action footage of animals throughout the world, along with a ten-minute stop motion animated sequence about dinosaurs....
(1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
), the critically panned The Story of Mankind
The Story of Mankind (1957 film)
The Story of Mankind is a 1957 American fantasy film, based on the nonfiction book The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon, which is notable mostly for its campness, and for featuring an ensemble of notable Hollywood performers in the last years of their careers...
(1957
1957 in film
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...
), The Big Circus
The Big Circus
The Big Circus is a 1959 film starring Victor Mature as a circus owner struggling with financial trouble and a murderous unknown saboteur.-Cast:*Victor Mature as Henry Jasper 'Hank' Whirling*Red Buttons as Randy Sherman*Rhonda Fleming as Helen Harrison...
(1959
1959 in film
The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
), The Lost World
The Lost World (1960 film)
The Lost World is a 1960 science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Irwin Allen...
(1960
1960 in film
The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
(1961
1961 in film
The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...
), which later became the basis of his TV series of the same name, and Five Weeks in a Balloon
Five Weeks in a Balloon (film)
Five Weeks in a Balloon is a 1962 science fiction adventure film loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne filmed in CinemaScope. It was produced and directed by Irwin Allen; his last feature film in the 1960s before moving to producing several science fiction television series. ...
(1962). He also produced The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros...
(1974).
In the 1960s, Allen moved into television as "the most successful science-fiction producer of the decade", and was responsible for series such as:
- Voyage to the Bottom of the SeaVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
(1964–1968) - Lost in SpaceLost in SpaceLost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
(1965–1968) - The Time TunnelThe Time TunnelThe Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, his third science fiction television series. The show's main theme was Time Travel Adventure. The Time Tunnel was released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran...
(1966–1967) - Land of the GiantsLand of the GiantsLand of the Giants was an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968 and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was...
(1968–1970) - The Swiss Family Robinson (1975–1976)
- Code RedCode Red (TV series)Code Red is an American television series that ran from 1981 to 1982 on ABC and was produced by Irwin Allen. This was Allen's sixth and final television series....
(1981–1982).
He also produced several TV movies, such as City Beneath the Sea
City Beneath the Sea (1971 film)
City Beneath the Sea is a 1971 science fiction television film and television pilot for a proposed series by Irwin Allen. It started as a conceptual 10 minute demo reel as a means to sell the plot and concept to television studios. The concept wasn't bought initially and a few years later Allen...
, 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
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
's Bill Mumy
Bill Mumy
Charles William "Bill" Mumy, Jr. is an American actor, musician, pitchman, instrumentalist, voice-over artist and a figure in the science-fiction community. He is known primarily for his work as a child television actor....
said of Allen that while he was very good at writing television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
s 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
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
genre. Allen produced the successful The Poseidon Adventure (1972
1972 in film
The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
) and The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno (film)
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros...
(1974
1974 in film
The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...
) 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
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....
) as well as Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure is a 1979 American disaster film, a sequel to the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure. It was directed by Irwin Allen and starred Michael Caine and Sally Field...
(1979
1979 in film
The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
) and produced When Time Ran Out
When Time Ran Out
When Time Ran Out... is a disaster film released in 1980, starring Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, James Franciscus, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Burgess Meredith, Valentina Cortese, Veronica Hamel, Pat Morita, Edward Albert, and Barbara Carrera.Produced by the "Master of...
(1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
). Despite this success, the rise of new filmmakers like George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
took him off guard; the success of Star Wars 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
The Return of Captain Nemo
The Return of Captain Nemo is a 1978 science fiction TV movie directed by Alex March and Paul Stader. It is loosely based on characters and settings from Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea...
(1978) and a star-studded version of Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1985 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a two-part film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. An Irwin Allen production, it was a special made for television and used a huge all-star cast of notable actors and actresses. The title role was played by 10-year-old Natalie Gregory, who wore a blonde wig for this...
(1985). He was planning on making a star-studded musical of Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
, but a decline in health caused an early retirement in 1986.
Allen died from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1991.
Awards
In 19521952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
, he won an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Documentary Feature for The Sea Around Us
The Sea Around Us (film)
The Sea Around Us is a 1953 documentary film directed by Irwin Allen and released by RKO. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was based on the Rachel Carson book of the same name.-External links:...
, which was based on Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
's best-selling book of the same name. Carson was so disappointed with Allen's final version of the script that she never again sold film rights to her work. Three decades later Allen won the third ever Worst Career Achievement Golden Raspberry Award (1985).
Legacy
The "Irwin Allen rock-and-roll" is when the camera is rocked as the on-screen cast rushes from side to side on the set, simulating a ship being tossed around. It is employed in many episodes of "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." This camera technique was employed in the Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
episode 'First Spaceship on Venus
First Spaceship on Venus
First Spaceship on Venus, German: Der schweigende Stern , Polish: Milcząca Gwiazda, is a 1960 East German/Polish film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem...
'. Here the camera tilts to simulate the spacecraft being hit. During this scene, Joel shouts out "Irwin Allen presents...".
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
Killdozer'sKilldozer (band)
Killdozer was an American noise-rock band, formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1983, with members Bill Hobson, Dan Hobson and Michael Gerald. They took their name from the 1974 TV movie, directed by Jerry London, itself based on a Theodore Sturgeon short story. They released their first album,...
1989 song "Man vs. Nature" referred to Allen, calling him "the Master of Realism
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
." The song's three verses mention three prominent disaster films of the 1970s, including The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake
Earthquake (film)
Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...
(which has nothing to do with Allen, in spite of the song's misattribution), and The Towering Inferno.
In the film Ocean's Thirteen
Ocean's Thirteen
Ocean's Thirteen is a 2007 crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring an ensemble cast. It is the third and final film in the Soderbergh series following the 2004 sequel Ocean's Twelve and the 2001 film Ocean's Eleven, which itself was a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film Ocean's 11...
, "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
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
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
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
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
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
, Land of the Giants
Land of the Giants
Land of the Giants was an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968 and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was...
and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
.
Episode 57 of the Disney TV series Duck Tales screened December 8 1987, titled The Uncrashable Hindentanic features a character called "Irwin Mallard" who films the distruction of Scrooge McDuck's airship called the Hindentanic in the disaster movie style of Irwin Allen.
External links
- Irwin Allen's Gravesite
- Irwin Allen Wiki
- Irwin Allen Profile