Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Behind the Scenes--Filming the Pilot Episode

    As this section of the site grows, you'll find more and more really nifty behind-the-scenes photos that were taken back in 1963 as a record of the pilot episode's production.  They're fun to look at all by themselves.  Beyond that, I'll attempt to include what information I have about what you see, along with commentary taken from the perspective of a film afficianado.  Any reader having information to contribute about the production can email me here .  Likewise with corrections you may feel need to be made to my ramblings.

Gentlemen, I suggest we do it MY way.
The "Master of Disaster" at work directing "11 Days To Zero."



Wonder Bread builds strong bones 12 ways. Consider this chart here....
Shooting the conference room scene.  There must be a wall behind that curtain--right?  Nope--just dark cluttered studio.

  
    The truth of the matter is that film studios were usually old, dark and often fairly dirty places.  The only areas well lighted were generally right on set.  The photo at right shows how things looked just off the main Voyage set.  While the end product looks real, and in Voyage's case, modern and clean, the reality of working on the show day to day, was something else.
   Typical feel of the studio off set.


Microphones don't fall, but they do go boom, or at least hang from booms--master miking for this shot of John Zaremba and Richard Basehart in one of the early scenes for 11 Days To Zero.  When not actually shooting a scene, there was/is usually a real hub-bub of activity going on.
 Boom town.   
Unidentified pro-duction assistant helps check the working script for the pilot episode.  There is usually far less last-minute alteration of a pilot's script since there has been plenty of lead time to iron out potential problems.  A pilot is usually more like a movie replete with larger budget
 pilot_script_consultant.jpg - 12373 Bytes


IA possibly giving directions on the lining up of a shot.
    Stories of Irwin Allen's quirky temperament are legion, but it's fairly obvious that when he was focused on a project, he had a clear picture of what he wanted to deliver and did in fact create some very entertaining movies and television series.  In spite of the fact that it was not really his intent to turn out "statements", a number of episodes which worked very effectively as social commentary did slip through in Voyage's first two seasons.  "The Sky is Falling," "Doomsday," and "The Peacemaker" are a few examples.
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Pilot show 1

Pilot show 2

Pilot show 3

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