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Written by Zaphod Sparks
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Sunday, 30 July 2006 |
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Sherwood Schwartz, the genius behind the Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island had an unrecognized effect on science fiction television. He was the first to present time travel on a weekly series in the classic “It’s About Time.” The series, about astronauts who travel back in time to the caveman days, made front page news when the actual Apollo 4 mission did indeed travel back in time and brought back cave people.
Mr. Schwartz was also brought in as a script doctor on the pilot for “My Favorite Martian,” and pretty much established how aliens would be portrayed on television for that day forth. Leonard Nimoy clearly based Mr. Spock on Ray Walston’s Uncle Martin. And what is ABC’s “Lost,” except a retelling of the struggles of the castaways on Gilligan’s Island? See Lost vs Gilligan’s Island. And who could forget the 70s cult classic, Oliver’s Twist (see above), which still sends chills up my spine when I think about it. Yes, TV scifi owes a lot to Mr. Schwartz, who turns 163 this year. I say we induct him into the Science Fiction hall of fame before Mandy Patinkin takes him off to heaven. |
