Cancelled Before It Began: Time Travelers (1976)

1976’s Time Travelers delivered a decent sci-fi movie and a rare gem from schlock TV master Irwin Allen, though it may not have had a strong enough premise to carry it into a weekly series, and likely would have received little support from its network.

What Is It?

When a deadly virus breaks out in the present day (1976), a team of scientists uses a newly developed time machine to travel back to the year 1871 in hopes of finding the origin of the disease. They believe that a doctor from that time may have come up with a cure, but he perished with all of his notes in the Great Chicago Fire. Because of a miscalculation with the time machine, they arrive only one day before the fire breaks out, and they are in a race against time to get the information they seek.

Aired: ABC, March 19, 1976

Starring: Sam Groom, Tom Hallick, Richard Basehart, Joan Darling

Created By: Irwin Allen

Why Didn’t it Fly?

Irwin Allen was the king of schlock sci-fi TV in the 1960s, having created Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. But after his City Beneath the Sea pilot sank in 1971 (more on that one at this link), he turned his attention back to the big screen, where he got his start, and became the master of disaster with such films as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). By the mid-’70s, though, he was turning back to television, producing this pilot for a quasi-reboot of one of his best ’60s entries, The Time Tunnel.

The new movie seemed to be taking a slightly different approach with the time travel format as the two leads would not be lost in time but would go back each week to find an answer in the past that would help the modern-day world. The pilot did not have the cheesiness of a typical Irwin Allen production and delivered a solid sci-fi tale (based on a story by Rod Serling), but it did not get picked up as an ongoing series.

I cannot find any ratings information for the broadcast, but those may not have mattered anyway. A lawsuit was brought by Charles Willard Byrd claiming that they plagiarized his unpublished 1959 book A Time to Live, and the network ultimately settled with the author. Since that book was never published, I’m not certain what part of the pilot was similar to Byrd’s story or whether an ongoing series could have shifted enough to continue without further litigation. Ultimately, Irwin Allen probably should have just rebooted or revived The Time Tunnel, seeing as it never faced legal action and was the best of his earlier output. But he tried to go in a new direction with the time travel format, only to have it end after the TV movie aired.

Would It Have Worked as a Series?

As mentioned above, Time Travelers delivered a pretty solid sci-fi movie that is worth checking out. None of Allen’s signature cheesiness was on display, perhaps because he had refined his craft with his return to the big screen. And the fact that the story came from Rod Serling (which makes me doubt Byrd’s plagiarism claims) means you have some good pedigree behind the telefilm.

But I’m not certain how well this would have worked as a weekly series if the focus was going back in time to get information that would help in the present day (as was alluded to at the end of the movie). It seems like they would run out of story ideas pretty quickly, though maybe they would come up with other reasons to travel back. And while the movie did not venture into camp, there’s no telling if an ongoing series would eventually move in that direction. We previously saw Allen’s other series like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space start with a more serious bent only to slide into high camp shortly into their runs. And a few years later, Allen would return to that with the oh-so-cheesy Return of Captain Nemo in 1978.

The other factor to consider is that the broadcast networks were not very amenable to sci-fi at that time. They knew there was an audience because shows like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone were pulling in massive viewership in syndication. But they were reluctant to greenlight full-on sci-fi entries for the schedule, preferring quasi-genre shows like The Six Million Dollar Man that followed a familiar procedural format. Sci-fi TV shows tended to get canceled quickly in that decade, and if Time Travelers had gone to series, I doubt it would have lasted long.

Should It Be Rebooted?

While Time Travelers delivered a sleeper of a sci-fi TV movie, I don’t think it’s the best choice for a reboot. It did explore some interesting concepts and took a more serious approach to time travel (establishing the rule that history cannot be changed, even though one of the main characters tried to do it). But there do not seem to be enough story possibilities to carry the show through too many episodes.

The better Irwin Allen entry to reboot is The Time Tunnel, which was the most serious of his ’60s TV shows (though least successful) and has plenty of potential to run multiple seasons. In fact, Star Trek’s Akiva Goldsman is doing just that, along with Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, placing all three in an interconnected universe. That was announced in February 2025 and is currently in the works at Legendary Television. I believe that’s a much better way to go with a reboot than digging Time Travelers back up.

Where Can You Watch It?

Sadly, this TV movie never received a home video release and it is not currently streaming on any of the major services. You can seek it out on YouTube (see above), though the video quality is rather iffy.

Read about more Sci Fi TV pilots that did not fly at this link.

Keep up with the status of all the current sci fi and fantasy shows as well as news and updates on new and upcoming shows at CancelledSciFi.com.

Cancellation Watch: Status updates and breaking news on renewals and cancellations

Sci Fi TV Highlights: Listings for the upcoming week along with the latest sci fi TV news and trailers.

Sci Fi TV Production Report: News on which sci fi TV shows are moving into production.

And be sure to follow us on social media: Blue Sky | Facebook | Mastodon | Twitter.