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The Irwin Allen Teasers and Trailers

TEASERS AND TRAILERS

It is worth sparing a thought for the impact of all the promotional clips, teasers and trailers used within Irwin Allen's television shows and for advertising them when they are broadcast. Each movie had promotional trailers to entice the audience to the cinema.

For instance, teasers such as the countdown for each Lost in Space episode built up the excitement as the marvellous theme music by John Williams approached.

The title sequences to Irwin Allen's television productions were master pieces themselves. The dramatic themes intermixed with clever graphics made them watchable in their own right.

Many of the original trailers at the end of shows such as Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea were lost when they re-aired and arrived in DVD format. This is a tremendous shame as they provided much of the excitement and anticipation for the episode the following week. Each week you would hear "This is Gary Conway..." or for Swiss Family Robinson "This is Martin Milner...Stay tuned for exciting scenes from our next episode ". Occasionally you see these trailers appearing on YouTube, many rescued from old 16mm reels.

It is understandable why they may have been cut if they locked broadcasters into a specific viewing order, but still, something of the experience has been lost in the process.

Most of the Lost in Space trailers remained in situ, as did the endings of The Time Tunnel. In the case of The Time Tunnel this was necessary as our heroes regularly escaped grief in one episode by tumbling through time into the next storyline.

Trailers were also used for good causes in the case of Code Red. Each weekly episode concluded with safety advice from one of the cast. In particular, Adam Rich would deliver good sound advice, the producers understanding that young viewers might be more likely to listen to one of their peers.

Poseidon Adventure Trailer Clip

As the "Master of Disaster", Irwin Allen's movie trailers had to convey the excitement and the tension that a full length movie would bring, despite only having a few minutes to outline the intensity of the action (without giving anything away storywise).