3. The Time Tunnel (1966–1967)

Producer Irwin Allen would eventually become universally known as the “Master of Disaster” for his 1970s cinematic blockbusters like The Towering Inferno, but in 1966, he turned his sights on the past and the future.

According to historical records on Irwin Allen’s career, The Time Tunnel was his third major science-fiction television outing following Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space.

The premise was delightfully ambitious; deep beneath the Arizona desert, the U.S. government operated “Project Tic-Toc,” a sprawling, 800-floor subterranean complex housing a massive time machine.

Scientists Tony Newman (James Darren) and Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) found themselves hopelessly lost in the timestream, jumping weekly from the deck of the sinking Titanic to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The hypnotic, spiraling black-and-white tunnel remains an enduring, iconic image of 1960s pop culture.