Thursday, June 19, 2014

What Might've Been: Time Express (1979)

Vincent Price had made guest appearances on shows as diverse as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Mod Squad, and The Bionic Woman, and his previous series gig was the children's series, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Surely, he had the name recognition to carry a series of his own in primetime.

CBS thought so, and introduced the sci-fi time travel series, Time Express, in the spring of 1979. Price and his wife, Coral Browne, were the couple in charge of the titular train, which took passengers back in time to specific events they wanted to change. Yes, it was another anthology series, not unlike, say, Fantasy Island, which seemed to be what CBS & Warner Bros. aspired to emulate, though Express aired on Thursday nights. However, 10 pm (ET) seemed to be too late a time for fans of the debonair Price, and the Express was sent back to the station after 4 weeks. If I'm not mistaken, the last time this series aired anywhere, it was on the then-Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy), back when they aired short-lived series under the umbrella of the Sci-Fi Series Collection.

Here's the open:



No rating. Never saw the show.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Fantasy Island + Super Train divided by Love Boat gives you Time Express.

I don't think it was so much the time the showed aired (and certainly not the fault of Price), but I think it was just too derivative.

hobbyfan said...

Most viewers seem to agree. If I'm not mistaken, this might be the only project he did for television with his wife.