“Rod Serling called Gilligan’s Island the dregs of television… but chances are he would have said the same about It’s About Time…” It had its fans though, and Mark Phillips was one of them -so he warps back to the stone age to revisit this daft but popular space-age comedy!

Frank Aletter, Mike Mazurki, Jack Mullaney, Cliff Norton, and Joe E. Ross in It’s About Time (1966)

“Do

you think there is interest in It’s About Time after all these years?” Frank Aletter asked this author back in 1993. The actor was referring to his 1966-67 series about two astronauts trapped in the stone age. “I see some of the other TV shows being released on video today and I think, well… why not It’s About Time?”

The situation comedy ran only one year and was fiercely derided by critics. One newspaper cartoon showed a flying saucer hovering over an Earth television set that is playing It’s About Time. The panicked aliens scream, “Forget it, next planet, please!” and go zipping off into the cosmos. Even before It’s About Time premiered in 1966, Aletter, who starred as astronaut Glenn “Mac” McDivitt, expressed concern his new show might be dumb and dumber. He trusted the wisdom of his then-wife, actress Lee Meriwether, and asked her to watch some of the early dailies.

When the screening was over, he anxiously asked Lee what she thought. “Well, dear,” she cautiously opined, “it’s hard to tell. We’ll have to wait and see. Time will tell.” Sherwood Schwartz, the show’s creator, made Gilligan’s Island into a big success with its likeable cast, picturesque setting and inventive plots and props. Mercifully, one proposed character was eliminated before filming, that of a friendly talking dinosaur who lived on the other side of the island and gave Gilligan advice. Holy reptilian repartee!

Frank Aletter knew the popularity of Gilligan did not mean automatic success for It’s About Time. “Our show will either be great or it will be terrible,” he said. Still, he confessed, “nothing could be worse than The Cara Williams Show,” his previous failed series. He felt the wacky cavemen names in the series – Gronk, Breer, Clon and Shad – would make for good crossword puzzle clues.

THROUGH THE TIME BARRIER

The show’s premise had astronauts Mac and Hector (Jack Mullaney) smash through the time barrier, where their ship plunges into a swamp “one million years ago.” After saving a young caveboy named Breer (Pat Cardi), trapped on a mountain ledge, the refugees from 1966 are welcomed by Breer’s family – father Gronk (Joe E. Ross), mother Shad (Imogene Coca) and their older daughter, Mlor (Mary Grace).

But the astronauts face danger from superstitious Cave Boss (Cliff Norton) who seeks any opportunity to sacrifice Mac and Hector to the Gods. Meanwhile, the astronauts search for rare copper to repair their space capsule The Scorpio E.X.I. and return to the 20th Century.

Meanwhile they have to adjust to the customs of these primitives. When an angry caveman tells a woman, “Man say – woman do!” the astronauts observe, “How did we ever let that custom get away?”

They also encounter threats like volcanoes, earthquakes and dinosaurs, courtesy of stock footage. “We are telling a strong, dramatic story here, with overtones of comedy,” Schwartz stressed. “Our show is about whether the astronauts live or die.” And like Gilligan’s Island, It’s About Time had a catchy music theme that explained the show’s premise, starting with “It’s about time, it’s about space, it’s about two men in the strangest place.”

Astronauts Frank Aletter (Mac) and Jack Mullaney (Hector)

Joe E. Ross (Gronk) with Imogene Coca (Shad)

Gilligan’s Island had been mercilessly clobbered by critics. In 1964, 350 columnists voted it as the worst show on TV. Even The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling called it, “the dregs of television.” Nevertheless, the series was a huge hit.