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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2024 11:44 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Space was not the only Final Frontier that people were excited about in the 1960s and 1970s. This was also a golden age of undersea exploration. It was a time when Jacques Cousteau was a household name. Scuba diving was a popular sport, with whole TV series (Like "Flipper" and "Sea Hunt") dedicated to it. Cousteau's Conshelf stations, Edwin Link's Man in the Sea project, the U.S. Navy's Sealabs, and others were trying to make underwater human habitats a reality. Visionaries spoke of colonizing the seafloor with underwater cities.
Hanna-Barbera tried to tap into this with a Saturday morning cartoon series called "Sealab 2020." It debuted in 1972, and was sadly not a success. Only thirteen of a planned sixteen episodes were actually produced and aired. It got one season on Saturday mornings, and a little play in other time slots. I must have seen a few episodes of it in later showings, when I was about six or so. Though I don't recall very much from those childhood viewings, I recall liking it. I liked anything having to do with diving and undersea exploration. Growing up in a landlocked rural community, scuba diving seemed like one of those incredibly cool things, like flying and sailing and rocketing into space, that I would never actually have a chance to do.
I never forgot the series. I was reminded of it when I heard about the "Sealab 2021" parody decades later. It interested me no more than any of Adult Swim's other sophomoric efforts. What I wanted to see was the real original! A few years back, I finally found one episode as part of a grab-bag DVD sampler collection of 1970s cartoons.
Now I've finally found the whole series on DVD. So let's see what it's like....
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2024 12:06 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Deep Threat
The debut episode--the one I had a chance to see on that DVD sampler of '70s cartoons--introduces us to Sealab, a pioneering underwater research settlement of 250 men, women, and children located on an undersea plateau called Challenger Seamount. People there farm kelp and do oceanographic and marine biology research. They do a lot of scuba diving. For additional mobility they have what look like sleeker versions of the 1960s "Sea-Tow" diver propulsion device, neat little two-person craft that resemble underwater hovercraft, and a proper submersible called the Deep Diver. The kids on the base go to a futuristic-looking one-room school.
Danger arises when Geiger counter signals indicate that drums of nuclear waste (Dumped during the less-enlightened 1970s, don't you know) near Sealab are starting to leak. While the adults are out looking for the junk in the Deep Diver, Bobby Murphy, grandson of base security chief Captain Murphy, goes diving with one of his young friends named Sally. They fool around and get lost. They only have so much air, and surfacing is NOT an option. All Sealab residents are saturation divers, so acclimated to deep-sea conditions that they would need 48 hours of decompression before being able to surface without suffering potentially fatal decompression sickness, aka "the bends."
It all ends well, of course, with the kids found and the nuclear waste more or less safely (one hopes) disposed of. The kids helped locate the junk, which no doubt helped them not to get into as much trouble as they should have for risking their lives and worrying everybody.
I have vague childhood memories of this episode, mainly having to do with the fact that Bobby and Sally kept having to monitor their air supply. I remember being struck by the idea that kids were being depicted doing something as cool and grown-up as scuba diving. I didn't remember how Sally keeps trying to panic and forgetting her diving knowledge, and Bobby has to keep reminding her to stay calm and do the right thing. Presumably the writers used this as a device to give Bobby a chance to explain various stuff for the viewer's benefit. But it makes Sally, who has presumably gotten the same training as Bobby, look kind of panicky and stupid.
For a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon, there's a lot of movement, what with all the fish swimming by and undersea effects. The designs, done by the great Alex Toth, are often quite good. It's pretty well-written, too. The script is aimed at a very junior level, of course, but they trust their young viewers to deal with quite a bit of information and several scientific and technical concepts. It's not as written down to the viewer as many shows of the time were. If they had just not made Sally look quite so silly....
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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Beachy
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2024 2:05 pm |
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Mr. IMWANKO
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Joined: | 18 Sep 2005 |
Posts: | 73838 |
Location: | the Moist Periphery of Pendulum Tide |
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2024 12:14 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Which is why we're here!
Lost
A lost juvenile dolphin wanders into Sealab's area. Gail Adams, one of Sealab's research divers, adopts him and tries to train him to become a rescue response animal. An emergency arises and...the dolphin isn't really that much help. Gail is forced to admit that her idea didn't pan out, and releases the dolphin.
I can recall several stories in children's media back in the day that were about kids trying to adopt wild animals, failing, and having to release the animal and watch it go, sadder but wiser. The fact that wild animals don't tend to make suitable pets was a fairly common lesson in children's media.
The message doesn't work too well here, for a couple of reasons. First, Gail is not a kid. She's a grown woman, one of Sealab's presumably well-educated and experienced staff. Second, she's trying to train a dolphin to do something useful that was actually tried in real life back in the 1960s and 1970s. Today public sentiment is very much against humans interfering with dolphins' lives by trying to take them captive and train them, for any reason. Back in the 1970s, though, some underwater researchers really thought that they could make dolphins into useful underwater partners, the way dogs work with people on land. Gail's attempt wasn't just a foolish or immature whim. Gail comes across as less than adult here, because she's an adult character being used to teach a kids' lesson.
First young Sally almost went hysterical under pressure, and now Gail does this. The writers of the series are making Sealab's girls and woman look not very bright here.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2024 12:38 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Green Fever
The trailing anchor of a ship floundering overhead during a storm accidentally strikes Sealab. The resulting breach threatens to render the whole habitat uninhabitable. While most of the crew labors to make emergency repairs, preparations are made to decompress the community's children and evacuate them to the surface, if necessary. Meanwhile, Sealab's surgeon is forced to go ahead with an emergency operation despite the bad situation. And the great stress of the emergency pushes one technician, who is suffering from "green fever"--a psychological condition caused by prolonged lack of exposure to open air, the sun, and familiar surface vegetation--over the edge into outright psychosis. He starts running around trying to sabotage essential equipment at the most inopportune time imaginable.
It's touch-and-go for awhile, but Sealab's people win through their multiple crises. At the end we see the ailing technician back in his right mind, preparing to leave for some much-needed rest time on the surface. The others cheerfully tell him that he'll be welcome when he's ready to come back. One suspects, though, that he probably won't be back. Most likely he'll either decide that the undersea life is not for him, or have that decision made for him by the off-screen psychologists who are no doubt required to certify that every Sealab crew member is psychologically up to the demands of living and working down there.
Saturday morning cartoons of the 1970s tended to have fairly limited casts of characters. "Sealab 2020" has quite a large and diverse cast, including men and women, boys and girls, and workers with a variety of specialties. It's also a racially diverse cast. Head oceanographer Dr. Paul Williams, who's at least as much in charge of Sealab as Captain Murphy is, comes from a Chinook background. And there are multiple black characters, including the base surgeon, the teacher at Sealab's school, and Ed Thomas, one of the most prominently-featured research divers. Up to this point, black characters in cartoons had been pretty rare. This was the same year that "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" became known for its all-black cast of characters. Thanks to "Sealab 2020" (And a cartoon version of the ever-popular Harlem Globetrotters that was running about the same time) they weren't alone.
Today, a large, diverse ensemble cast for a TV series tends to be pretty much the norm. In 1972 it was unusual even in prime-time. This series was ahead of its time. Note that everybody, apart from the poor guy with the green fever, is shown acting like cool, competent professionals. Even Gail gets to shine a bit this time.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 11:25 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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The Singing Whale
A big-game hunter in command of a large yacht is obsessively hunting the biggest game of them all--a blue whale! He chases the creature to the vicinity of Sealab. Naturally nobody at Sealab sympathizes with his goal. Though the adults aren't quite sure how to react when Bobby Murphy and one of his young friends intervene to spoil the hunt, and the hunter complains about the kids harassing him. The hunter ends up getting himself into a jam under water, and the boys bail him out. He is realistically NOT shown suddenly seeing the error of his ways. It does, however, appear that the hunt is over for now, and perhaps he'll now start to reconsider re-starting it.
The primary message of the episode is not "whaling is bad." It's really more about Bobby's friend, the son of a visiting researcher who had just come to Sealab. The new kid has weak legs (condition unspecified), and is mostly confined to a wheelchair. Bobby encourages him to take up diving, and he soon finds that he can get around in neutral-buoyancy conditions. He starts helping out with the research, and gets to be something of a hero at the climax. This is actually one of those stories--quite common back in the day--about how people with visible disabilities are just like anybody else, with the same right to consideration and inclusion. It was a message that people were still struggling with a few decades ago. Some, even now, don't seem to get it today for some reason.
Introducing a character with disabilities in a single done-in-one episode, never to be seen again, isn't a great way to convey such a message, precisely because it reduces the character to a message. A recurring character with his or her own story arc does the matter more justice. But such was the nature of old-school episodic TV. At least they were trying.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 11:44 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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The Shark Lover
Schools of sharks of all different species have invaded Sealab's waters. Though there have been no actual attacks, the multiple worrying close encounters between sharks and divers each day are seriously interfering with the base's work. Captain Murphy is considering a violent cull of the sharks. Before they escalate to that level, they welcome a visiting shark expert who tries to figure out another way. They try several things. At one point they even go to the trouble of rounding up a bunch of dolphins, in hopes that they'll run the sharks off. Nothing works. Meanwhile, Dr. Williams is conducting some research of his own into the situation. They finally learn that a natural food-chain cycle has brought the sharks into the area temporarily. They just have to sit tight and wait for them to move on. It's a humbling reminder of how nature continues to have lots of surprises in store.
The sharks are realistically portrayed more as something to be wary of than an acute threat. In normal times they and the divers mostly just avoid each other and practice live-and-let-live. Unfortunately, only three years later the blockbuster movie "Jaws" (And its sequels and imitators) would hugely inflate sharks' traditional image as the ocean's bad guys. Peter Benchley, author of the bestseller on which the movie was based, later went on record as regretting the harm he had inadvertently done to sharks' reputation. In recent decades there has been a growing awareness that sharks are an essential part of the marine ecosystem that needs to be preserved. "Sealab 2020" was already there, many years ago.
The Basking Shark
Back-to-back shark episodes! A sample-return space probe from Neptune (!) splashes down near Sealab and is lost. Visiting U.S. authorities fearful of the probe falling into the hands of an unspecified "foreign power" come looking for it. Sealab's people help--only to find one of their colleagues accused of being a possible foreign agent. He spends a bit of time under detention in a decompression chamber before the misunderstanding is cleared up. Meanwhile, we learn that the probe has been swallowed by a huge basking shark. The authorities want to have the shark dissected to get the probe back (Presumably it's too big for the shark to "pass" naturally). Sealab's people persuade them to let them perform a tricky underwater operation to remove the probe without killing the innocent shark.
Captain Murphy, who so recently was prepared to massacre a bunch of intruding sharks in the interests of diver safety, finds himself in the position of trying to persuade the authorities to spare this one shark's life. It goes to show that he presumably never really wanted to carry out that proposed shark cull in the first place.
We're told early on that the lost probe has spent twenty-odd months going to Neptune and back. Pretty impressive, when you consider that in the real-life 2020s they're talking about possible missions to Neptune that would take 16 years just to get there one way.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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Greg McPhee
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 1:46 pm |
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King of the Wicker People
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Joined: | 11 May 2011 |
Posts: | 883 |
Location: | Manchester, England |
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Used to watch Sealab 2020 when they repeated it in the 80s when my family lived in the Bahamas. Loved it.
I'll say this, I bet it holds up better than "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "seaQuest DSV"!
_________________ It's bad luck to take advice from a crazy person.
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Simon
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 2:01 pm |
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...
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Joined: | 26 Oct 2006 |
Posts: | 59398 |
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I LOVED this show as a kid, thank you for reminding me about it!
_________________ "They'll bite your finger off given a chance" - Junkie Luv (regarding Zebras)
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2024 12:26 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Where Dangers Are Many and Backfire
These two episodes (NOT one episode entitled "Where Dangers Are Many and Backfire") are so similar in their basic premise and message that if one had appeared a season or so later, it would be easy to assume that it was a remake of the first. But no, they aired back-to-back. They're both about the environmental dangers of careless undersea mineral extraction. The first features a wildcat undersea remote-control mineral dredging operation that's tearing up the sea bottom--in what's supposed to be an undersea biological preserve, yet! The second features oil field development, in the same environmentally sensitive area. The oil drillers at least go about their business with some sensitivity and efforts to avoid environmental damage. Then an earthquake and tsunami strike....
Both episodes acknowledge underwater mining and drilling as legitimate activities. One of the selling points of real-life undersea colonization advocates was the idea that colonies could extract much-needed new mineral deposits. The issue here is the needless recklessness of the activity, and the failure to keep it away from especially environmentally sensitive areas in case something goes wrong. Sealab's crew actually helps the miners in the first episode rejigger their equipment to operate less destructively. In the second, they go to the trouble of finding the oil company a new oil field in a presumably less sensitive area. Each time, it's a win-win situation, both environmentally and economically.
Sad to say, in real life it just doesn't work that way. Fossil fuel extraction, even if it can be done in a less inherently destructive manner than usual (In fairness, they have gotten somewhat better about that over the years),still releases pollutants that are causing dire long-term environmental harm. And seafloor mining--now being advocated as a means of getting the minerals we need to develop alternative energy supplies--risks devastating deep-sea ecosystems that we're only just beginning to learn about. When global society's demands for resources are as vast as they are, there's just not any way of meeting them that doesn't have serious environmental costs. Which can only be mitigated by accepting economic costs that people aren't keen on accepting, or would like to push off on somebody else. We live in a world of choices that are way too hard to explain to children easily.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2024 12:44 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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The Deepest Dive
Sealab has just been testing a new extreme deep-sea submersible. Its first operational mission is to place a seismograph unit on the seafloor as part of a much-needed earthquake early-warning network. They must dive to the bottom of a trench at the foot of Challenger Seamount, over 18,000 feet down.
No sooner have they placed the device when it goes on the blink. A second dive to set down a replacement discovers that a gigantic cephalopod has been messing with the first seismograph. And now it tries to kidnap the submersible! Sealab's usual Deep Diver submersible is no help, as it is rated to "only" 10,000 feet. The nearest other submersible capable of going deep enough to mount a rescue is two whole days away. One would think that the stranded submersible would carry at least enough contingency life support to last that long, but apparently not.
Fortunately the resourceful crew figures out how to get themselves out of the situation. They even manage to salvage the original mission in the process.
Gail, who was on the first dive, spotted the sea beast and tried to warn the others about it. They dismissed her warnings. Though they don't belabor the point here, it's not hard to detect a whiff of sexism in the casual way the guys blow off Gail's concerns. It's nice to see her vindicated in the end, for a change.
Highlights in the episode include some vivid use of coloring and "lighting" to suggest the sunless world of truly deep-sea waters. And as always, there's some good animation of sea life. The animation isn't too impressive by the standards of recent decades. Compared to the usual cheap-jack animation of 1970s Saturday morning cartoons, it looks very good. They really did put noticeably more effort into this series than usual. Hanna-Barbera and the network must have believed in what they were doing. Had "Sealab 2020" enjoyed more popular success, we might have seen more ambitious TV cartoons, a good two decades before we ended up getting them. It's unfortunate that the creators of "Sealab 2021" seem to have regarded the original series as the quintessence of quaint, goofy 1970s cartoons. It deserves to be remembered as better than that.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:26 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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The Challenge
A marine archaeologist has spent seven years trying to locate a ship that was lost in World War I with a cargo of priceless Mayan artifacts. Now he has located it in a distant corner of Challenger Seamount. How come the Sealab team didn't find it sooner? Well, as Dr. Williams points out, they have over a hundred square miles of undersea plateau to keep track of. It's not like they've had time to go over the whole thing. Besides, they've got other things to do besides hunt for sunken ships.
Which doesn't keep the Sealab crew from going all-out to help the archaeological salvage effort. They loan them an undersea team, a portable underwater habitat to serve as a base camp, and all sorts of other gear. The century-old wreck's precarious perch on the edge of the seamount makes salvaging it a delicate business. It doesn't help matters when the marine archaeologist's brother misguidedly sets off an unauthorized explosive charge to try to speed things up. His foolishness gets people trapped. Captain Murphy orders an all-out rescue effort, which Dr. Williams commands on the scene. Williams does a fine job in the emergency. It looks like, when all is said and done, they might yet salvage the artifacts. The explosives-happy younger brother is suitably chastened.
A good adventure episode. One of its more interesting features is the way it deals with a type of ship most people don't know much about--an early 1900s steel-hulled windjammer. Though they were powered by sail, these lesser-known descendants of the old clipper ships were as large and as technologically sophisticated as many early steamers. They kept oceangoing sail economically viable all the way into World War I. A few examples remained in service until World War II. The "tall ships" were still a living memory when this episode was made in 1972. Four years later, surviving sailing vessels from all over the world participated in a "parade of tall ships" as part of the celebration of the American Bicentennial. I recall watching it on TV, and hearing that we would likely never see anything like it again. It made for a great National Geographic article as well.
I have specific childhood memories of a scene in this episode where the trapped divers check their air supply. The understanding that they had to do that must really have made an impression on my young mind. The diving lesson in "The Singing Whale" mentions that Sealab's standard advanced scuba gear provides five hours' worth of breathing time. Here it appears to be closer to six, if they conserve their effort. The seeming discrepancy can be explained if we assume that the gear is rated for five hours' normal diving time, with up to an hour's safety reserve. The sixth hour is there if they really need it, but they don't PLAN to use it when planning a dive.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2024 10:44 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Collision of the Aquarius
A large submarine fools around and collides with the side of Challenger Seamount, more or less directly below the section where Sealab is perched. Fortunately it's a nuclear sub, so the minor spill of what is presumably lubricating oil is easily contained. Unfortunately it's a nuclear sub, and its damaged coolant system creates a danger of a catastrophic meltdown and release of radiation. Sealab's children and nonessential personnel are quickly evacuated. You'd think they'd be safer staying inside at Sealab. Perhaps they have temporary habitats farther away from the wreck site that everybody can crowd into.
Meanwhile, it's all hands on deck to try to prevent the disaster. Captain Murphy swims down to deal with the scene personally. He is not welcomed by the sub's commander, who has a history with Murphy. Murphy apparently reprimanded him back when he was the man's superior officer in the Navy. Now he figures Murphy blames him for the disaster. He evidently blames himself as well, as he assumes responsibility for trying to fix things in a way that will surely cost him his life (Think Spock at the climax of "The Wrath of Khan"). Murphy seeks to persuade him in time that there's another way.
Another episode where the antagonist, though unsympathetic and prone to serious mistakes, is not depicted as a villain. The violent cartoons of the 1960s (Jonny Quest, for example, showed a LOT of people getting killed) created such a backlash of concern about their possible effects on children that early-1970s cartoons were essentially forbidden from showing fighting between good guys and bad guys. The "Scooby Doo" comedy adventure formula was one approach to trying to make exciting cartoons that didn't show a bunch of fighting. In "Sealab 2020" they pit their heroes against a hostile environment and non-villainous goof-ups. There are even principled, reasonable disagreements on the best course of action now and then. Once again, "Sealab 2020" was trying to be something a little more sophisticated than the average kids' show.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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Ocean Doot
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2024 12:34 pm |
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Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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Joined: | 25 Oct 2007 |
Posts: | 50998 |
Location: | Milwaukee |
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That meddlin kid wrote: Collision of the Aquarius
A large submarine fools around and collides with the side of Challenger Seamount, more or less directly below the section where Sealab is perched. Fortunately it's a nuclear sub, so the minor spill of what is presumably lubricating oil is easily contained. Unfortunately it's a nuclear sub, and its damaged coolant system creates a danger of a catastrophic meltdown and release of radiation. Sealab's children and nonessential personnel are quickly evacuated. You'd think they'd be safer staying inside at Sealab. Perhaps they have temporary habitats farther away from the wreck site that everybody can crowd into.
Meanwhile, it's all hands on deck to try to prevent the disaster. Captain Murphy swims down to deal with the scene personally. He is not welcomed by the sub's commander, who has a history with Murphy. Murphy apparently reprimanded him back when he was the man's superior officer in the Navy. Now he figures Murphy blames him for the disaster. He evidently blames himself as well, as he assumes responsibility for trying to fix things in a way that will surely cost him his life (Think Spock at the climax of "The Wrath of Khan"). Murphy seeks to persuade him in time that there's another way.
Another episode where the antagonist, though unsympathetic and prone to serious mistakes, is not depicted as a villain. The violent cartoons of the 1960s (Jonny Quest, for example, showed a LOT of people getting killed) created such a backlash of concern about their possible effects on children that early-1970s cartoons were essentially forbidden from showing fighting between good guys and bad guys. The "Scooby Doo" comedy adventure formula was one approach to trying to make exciting cartoons that didn't show a bunch of fighting. In "Sealab 2020" they pit their heroes against a hostile environment and non-villainous goof-ups. There are even principled, reasonable disagreements on the best course of action now and then. Once again, "Sealab 2020" was trying to be something a little more sophisticated than the average kids' show. This episode is remade, almost line for line accurate, in the "2021" episode titled (I believe) "7211." I think the only thing they changed are the character names, to match their 2021 versions, and then they cut some stuff for time, since "2021" episodes are only 10 minutes long.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 10:50 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
Posts: | 25142 |
Location: | On the highway, looking for adventure |
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Ocean Doot wrote: That meddlin kid wrote: Collision of the Aquarius
A large submarine fools around and collides with the side of Challenger Seamount, more or less directly below the section where Sealab is perched. Fortunately it's a nuclear sub, so the minor spill of what is presumably lubricating oil is easily contained. Unfortunately it's a nuclear sub, and its damaged coolant system creates a danger of a catastrophic meltdown and release of radiation. Sealab's children and nonessential personnel are quickly evacuated. You'd think they'd be safer staying inside at Sealab. Perhaps they have temporary habitats farther away from the wreck site that everybody can crowd into.
Meanwhile, it's all hands on deck to try to prevent the disaster. Captain Murphy swims down to deal with the scene personally. He is not welcomed by the sub's commander, who has a history with Murphy. Murphy apparently reprimanded him back when he was the man's superior officer in the Navy. Now he figures Murphy blames him for the disaster. He evidently blames himself as well, as he assumes responsibility for trying to fix things in a way that will surely cost him his life (Think Spock at the climax of "The Wrath of Khan"). Murphy seeks to persuade him in time that there's another way.
Another episode where the antagonist, though unsympathetic and prone to serious mistakes, is not depicted as a villain. The violent cartoons of the 1960s (Jonny Quest, for example, showed a LOT of people getting killed) created such a backlash of concern about their possible effects on children that early-1970s cartoons were essentially forbidden from showing fighting between good guys and bad guys. The "Scooby Doo" comedy adventure formula was one approach to trying to make exciting cartoons that didn't show a bunch of fighting. In "Sealab 2020" they pit their heroes against a hostile environment and non-villainous goof-ups. There are even principled, reasonable disagreements on the best course of action now and then. Once again, "Sealab 2020" was trying to be something a little more sophisticated than the average kids' show. This episode is remade, almost line for line accurate, in the "2021" episode titled (I believe) "7211." I think the only thing they changed are the character names, to match their 2021 versions, and then they cut some stuff for time, since "2021" episodes are only 10 minutes long. I vaguely recall hearing about a "Sealab 2021" episode that was actually a straight adaptation of the original, for a change.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 11:06 am |
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The Capture
Young Bobby Murphy and his friend Sally are upset when an animal collection expedition comes to the Challenger Seamount collecting examples of fish, turtles, and dolphins for an aquarium. The adults who assist in the effort aren't happy about the work of taking sea life captive either, but it's part of their job to cooperate (It IS a type of scientific expedition, after all). Bobby and Sally use childish logic to persuade themselves that the reservations the adults express are tacit encouragement to sabotage the collection efforts. They repeatedly release animals when nobody is looking (Sealab rather strangely seems to have none of the remote cameras and video feeds to keep an eye on things outside that one might reasonably expect it to have...).
Then the kids get caught in the act--quite literally, when they find themselves trapped in a dolphin trap they're trying to sabotage. And it somehow breaks loose! And the current sweeps it toward the edge of the seamount and much deeper water! Their absence isn't noticed for some time. When it is, there's a frantic search and rescue effort. The kids are found just in time, as Bobby's air is cutting out and sharks are moving in. A timely intervention by dolphins saves the day.
In the end, the adults convince the kids--a little too easily and patly--that taking animals for aquaria and zoos where they'll be treated well and can become familiar to a broader public, is all in a good cause. Taking wild animals captive has become more controversial in recent years, even as the conditions in which they're held (at least in reputable institutions) have generally improved. There are plausible justifications for it--preservation of endangered species, gathering scientific knowledge, raising public awareness of these fantastic creatures and the need to preserve their habitats worldwide--that this episode doesn't really do justice to. More examples of how we live in a world of less-than-easy choices.
Once again, I have specific memories of an episode having to do with characters in danger of running out of air. That aspect of diving really made an impression on me as a child. I also recall being amazed at the thought of kids not so many years older than myself getting to do a dangerous and grown-up thing like scuba diving.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 11:22 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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The Arctic Story
A team from Sealab heads to the Arctic in a long-range submarine to an ice floe station whose two-man crew has been stranded in rapidly-deteriorating conditions. This mission begs all sorts of questions. For example, where did that never-before-seen submarine come from? Mainly, though, we have to wonder why Sealab's crew is tasked with an Arctic rescue, when Sealab doesn't seem to be anywhere near the Arctic. Especially when they have to spend two whole days decompressing to sea-level atmospheric conditions before even heading that way! Wasn't there ANYBODY--the Navy, or the Coast Guard, or a standby logistics and safety team--closer to the scene?
It turns out that Sealab's particular expertise is indeed needed, when they arrive at the scene to learn that the little station's ice floe has capsized, trapping the crew underwater. There is much use of the standard suspense-building device of cutting back and forth between the searchers and the increasingly desperate stranded crew. You really have to feel for the guys as their situation goes from bad to worse. One of them has to work to keep the other from panicking. The poor panicky fellow is even shown having nightmares when he dozes off. You can't really blame him. Our heroes from Sealab once again prove their mettle.
And this story with its doubtful premise turns out to be "Sealab 2020's" final episode. The series was originally planned to have a standard sixteen-episode season, like most Saturday morning cartoons of the time. Had it been judged a success, it might have received a follow-up "second season" of eight episodes. Instead, the final three episodes were never actually produced. My guess would be that the more-ambitious-than-usual animation of the thirteen completed episodes used up the season's budget.
Some TV series just don't get the recognition they deserved. This one deserves to be remembered as an attempt to do something different and better in the all-too-often shoddy world of Saturday morning TV.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 11:38 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Joined: | 26 Mar 2007 |
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Some thoughts about "Sealab 2020":
How Deep Down Was Sealab? We're not told in the first few episodes. The first one does tell us that Sealab's inhabitants would need 48 hours of carefully staged decompression to return to sea-level air conditions safely. This is because divers breathing under a pressure of several atmospheres have tiny gas bubbles forced into their body tissues. Return to the surface too quickly, and the expanding gasses will cause decompression sickness. This is both excruciatingly painful--they call it "the bends" because it makes sufferers double up in pain--and potentially fatal.
Divers who stay at depth until their body tissues are saturated with gas are called "saturation divers." A quick check online for decompression times for saturation divers suggests that Sealab's people must be at about 150 feet. Then the episode "The Shark Lover" tells us that it's really about 120 feet. Either I misinterpreted the data somewhat, or they're being very cautious. Caution would make sense when one considers that Sealab's people have spent more time at saturation depth than anybody ever has in real life.
That 120 feet is presumably the depth of the base's "moon pool" entrance. The whole habitat would have to be pressurized to that level to keep the water in the moon pool at a constant level. The moon pool appears to be at least 20 feet or so above the actual bottom.
Establishing shots make Sealab look MUCH deeper. The central headquarters wing appears to tower over 100 feet above the seafloor in some shots, and it has a lot of water above it. Presumably there has been a certain amount of artistic license exaggeration. It just looks cooler when it looks like it's in three or four hundred feet of water.
How Low Can They Go? (And How High Can They Fly?) Never addressed--probably for fear of confusing the viewer--is the fact that divers experience constant changes of pressure as they go up and down to different depths. A change of only one atmosphere in either direction--equivalent to a little over 30 feet of vertical depth--would create no issues. This gives saturation divers a band of about 60 feet or so in which they can work more or less freely. Presumably most of the plateau surface of Challenger Seamount lies within this band.
If they dive much below 150 feet, and stay for any length of time, divers will have to spend some time decompressing before returning to base. Depending on just how low they dive, and just how long they stay there, this decompression time can vary from a few minutes to hours. Since their gear gives them five hours of working time, an experienced diver can probably descend well below 200 feet and have a worthwhile amount of time at depth before having to start back.
The Deep Diver submersible has an air lock that lets them "lock out" divers. If they had to make an unusually deep EVA, they could lock out a team equipped with a special deep-water breathing mixture, and use the air lock as a decompression chamber. Deep Diver's air lock could also be used to rescue divers who had somehow been caught down deep too long to have enough air to decompress safely. If Deep Diver was for some reason unavailable, a desperate diver could be rushed directly to Sealab and popped into a decompression chamber in hopes of heading off the worst of the bends. That would be a chancy business. Better hope Deep Diver IS available!
Divers acclimated to 120 feet wouldn't want to rise much above 90 feet. They could probably go a little higher for a short time without too much trouble. A diver who rashly rose all the way to the surface would need to rush right back down, or else have a ship with a decompression chamber waiting up there. Not something you'd want to try.
"Where Dangers Are Many" shows a visitor to Sealab needing to spend only a few hours of decompression time before heading back to the surface. Alert viewers who recalled the 48-hour decompression business might wonder about the apparent discrepancy. In fact the visitor didn't need nearly as long a decompression period, because he had not spent nearly long enough at depth for his body tissues to achieve saturation. The writers seem to have done their homework there.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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Ocean Doot
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2024 4:51 pm |
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Dendritic Oscillating Ontological Tesseract
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Joined: | 25 Oct 2007 |
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Location: | Milwaukee |
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That meddlin kid wrote: Ocean Doot wrote: That meddlin kid wrote: Collision of the Aquarius
A large submarine fools around and collides with the side of Challenger Seamount, more or less directly below the section where Sealab is perched. Fortunately it's a nuclear sub, so the minor spill of what is presumably lubricating oil is easily contained. Unfortunately it's a nuclear sub, and its damaged coolant system creates a danger of a catastrophic meltdown and release of radiation. Sealab's children and nonessential personnel are quickly evacuated. You'd think they'd be safer staying inside at Sealab. Perhaps they have temporary habitats farther away from the wreck site that everybody can crowd into.
Meanwhile, it's all hands on deck to try to prevent the disaster. Captain Murphy swims down to deal with the scene personally. He is not welcomed by the sub's commander, who has a history with Murphy. Murphy apparently reprimanded him back when he was the man's superior officer in the Navy. Now he figures Murphy blames him for the disaster. He evidently blames himself as well, as he assumes responsibility for trying to fix things in a way that will surely cost him his life (Think Spock at the climax of "The Wrath of Khan"). Murphy seeks to persuade him in time that there's another way.
Another episode where the antagonist, though unsympathetic and prone to serious mistakes, is not depicted as a villain. The violent cartoons of the 1960s (Jonny Quest, for example, showed a LOT of people getting killed) created such a backlash of concern about their possible effects on children that early-1970s cartoons were essentially forbidden from showing fighting between good guys and bad guys. The "Scooby Doo" comedy adventure formula was one approach to trying to make exciting cartoons that didn't show a bunch of fighting. In "Sealab 2020" they pit their heroes against a hostile environment and non-villainous goof-ups. There are even principled, reasonable disagreements on the best course of action now and then. Once again, "Sealab 2020" was trying to be something a little more sophisticated than the average kids' show. This episode is remade, almost line for line accurate, in the "2021" episode titled (I believe) "7211." I think the only thing they changed are the character names, to match their 2021 versions, and then they cut some stuff for time, since "2021" episodes are only 10 minutes long. I vaguely recall hearing about a "Sealab 2021" episode that was actually a straight adaptation of the original, for a change. That's the one!
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 11:44 am |
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Biker Librarian
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Where IS Sealab, Anyway? Challenger Seamount is a fictional location. There is a real-life undersea region known as the Challenger Plateau somewhere in the vicinity of New Zealand. It's named after the pioneering oceanographic survey vessels HMS Challenger (So was the ill-fated space shuttle of that name. Shuttle orbiters were all named after notable survey ships). Though Challenger Seamount may have been inspired by the Challenger Plateau, it wasn't closely modeled on it. Challenger Plateau is thousands of feet down, for one thing.
In "Backfire" a volcanic eruption and earthquake off Alaska causes a tsunami that reaches both Hawaii and Challenger Seamount. This indicates that Challenger Seamount must be somewhere in the North Pacific, thousands of miles from Alaska. It is presumably one of those underwater upheavals that never quite broke the surface to form an island. Or perhaps did do so in the distant past, before subsiding.
Note that real-life underwater habitats were generally located in continental shelf waters. A continental shelf is a relatively shallow (down to about 600 feet below sea level) area sloping down from the seashore. It's considered an undersea extension of a continental land mass, rather than a part of the sea floor proper. Continental shelf zones were considered prime locations for undersea colonization because their relative nearness to dry land facilitated construction and logistical support. Jacques Cousteau's experimental undersea habitats were called "conshelf stations" after the continental shelf.
Sealab's location on an oceanic seamount, far from land, gives its scientists access to a different sort of marine environment. It must also make construction, logistical support, and any rescue assistance that might be needed much more challenging. Sealab's audacious location is what makes it special, perhaps even unique, in a world that presumably already had multiple continental shelf undersea settlements.
Who Has Authority Over Sealab? Though Sealab's crew is diverse, it is not international. Sealab is clearly an all-American operation. Challenger Seamount can't strictly speaking be considered American "soil," but there is a long history of nations claiming sovereignty over shallow regions and their valuable fishing grounds and mineral resources. There are a number of active international boundary disputes involving such regions today. We learn in one episode that Sealab operates under the auspices of some sort of international undersea agency. Presumably it regulates and coordinates undersea ventures. There must be some sort of international agreement to provide for overlapping international and national authority at Challenger.
In "Backfire" we learn that Dr. Williams, who appears to be the leading authority at Sealab, has signed off on a permit for oil exploration on Challenger Seamount--even though it is supposed to be a marine biological preserve. He complacently tells his concerned colleagues that there's little chance of the oil seekers actually finding anything. He ends up with ostrich-sized egg on his face when they DO find oil, and invoke their right to drill for it. You'd think he would be in big trouble from his superiors for pulling something like that, perhaps even forced to resign.
But...it's well known that oil and mining lobbies have many Friends in High Places, and a very long reach. Real-life news reports regularly carry stories about proposals to open up what are supposed to be preserved lands or waters for potentially destructive mineral exploration or tourist development. In a crowded world constantly hungry for more resources, no preserved lands can be considered permanently safe without constant vigilance. Dr. Williams was probably forced by political pressure to sign off on the oil exploration at Challenger Seamount against his better judgement, no doubt hoping against hope that it wouldn't lead to disaster. Hopefully the near-catastrophe in a marine life preserve will encourage new public efforts to keep such places truly safe against short-sighted interference.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 12:04 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Sounds of Sealab Today's animated cartoons often boast impressive music and sound effects. It's standard practice for anime series to have whole soundtrack albums' worth of often impressive and innovative music. My small sound CD collection includes several anime soundtrack albums.
Old Saturday morning cartoons had much more bare-bones music and sound. A Scooby Doo fan who pays close attention while watching "Sealab 2020" will recognize lots of familiar musical cues and effects. The series' limited original music unfortunately has a rather generic 1970s TV music sound.
Voices of Sealab The vocal cast is more impressive. The large cast of recurring characters, and frequent "guest" characters, gives us a chance to hear many different voices. Some are old Hanna-Barbera standbys, like John Stephenson (Captain Murphy) and Don Messick. Others are actors who did voice work for only a few years around this time, such as Pamelyn Ferdin, who plays Sally. She did quite a bit of voice work as a child actress, including a couple of turns as Lucy in "Peanuts" specials. Though she did some onscreen work as well, she ended up becoming best known as a longtime animal rights activist. Which is kind of interesting when you consider her character Sally's stance on capturing sea life in "The Capture"....
Another notable name in the "Sealab 2020" cast is Ann Jillian, who played regular Gail. She would go on to become a well-known onscreen TV performer for some years, as well as a noted breast cancer activist. She was one of several 1970s voice actors--Mark Hamill comes to mind, though he seems not to have done any "Sealab 2020" work--who later appeared onscreen. You never know whose voice you might hear in those old cartoons.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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That meddlin kid
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Post subject: Sealab 2020 Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2024 12:33 pm |
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Biker Librarian
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Kidz Rule...Or Maybe Not Since Sealab is supposed to be a long-term undersea settlement, it includes several families with children. Several episodes prominently feature these young inhabitants, most notably Captain Murphy's grandson, Bobby. The kids were presumably there to give young viewers characters that they could identify with. I know that most of my sparse childhood memories of the series feature the kids.
In most episodes, though, it's the grown-ups who get most of the screen time and have most of the adventures. Which of course is only believable--undersea exploration is a grown-up business. The young Sealab citizens spend most of their time in the background.
Kids' TV shows have to be written so that they can understand them. It's hard to strike that fine balance between making the show clear and accessible to a young audience, without striking a patronizing tone or writing down to them. "Sealab 2020" had a mixed record on this. I must say, though, that I'm impressed at how often they seemed to trust that their young viewers to understand sophisticated concepts, like decompression and the idea that sharks are potentially hazardous without being evil, and specialized terminology like "moon pool" and "locking out." The latter terms are presented without a lot of exposition--viewers had to understand them from the context of what they were shown. The writers seem to have thought well of their young viewers' capabilities.
Sealab Continuity Old-school Saturday morning TV series didn't have continuity in the sense in which that word is usually used. They told strictly done-in-one-episode stories. There were never any references to events of past episodes. Serialized story arcs would come along much later.
But continuity can also refer to consistency in the depiction of a series' characters and world. This might not be much of an issue in a zany comedy show. In a more serious production like "Sealab 2020" it matters. And they were generally pretty good at it. They were consistent in things like the need for decompression before divers from Sealab could surface, the rule that you NEVER went diving all by yourself, and so on. There were more subtle consistencies too, such as the way Dr. Williams was normally in charge, but would defer to Captain Murphy in emergencies. "The Capture" even includes a kind of call-back to the first episode. In the first episode Sally runs down her air supply more slowly than Bobby, due to her body's different demands for oxygen. This is not specifically mentioned in "The Capture," but Bobby is shown running out of air first there.
Mind you, there were occasional signs that somebody in the writers' room wasn't thinking consistently, as when they had that out-of-left-field decision to send Sealab's team on a rescue mission to the Arctic. That one sounds almost like a script or concept for a different show that got repurposed.
One head-scratcher I noticed had to do with an anti-shark device that appears in "The Basking Shark." It's a kind of "bubble gun" that uses harmless bursts of compressed-air bubbles to ward off sharks. Would have come in awfully handy when sharks come around in "The Capture"--but it's nowhere to be seen there. Would have been even handier to have the device in "The Shark Lover," yet it is not among the numerous ideas discussed or tried to deal with that episode's siege of sharks.
Potential No-Prize explanations: The rescue in "The Capture" was organized in great haste, so perhaps they didn't think to bring that particular specialized piece of equipment. It may also be an experimental device that isn't widely available. As for why they didn't try using the bubble gun in "The Shark Lover," they may have figured that it would be ineffective against whole schools of sharks, and might even backfire by overstimulating them.
Too bad Hanna-Barbera doesn't award No Prizes....
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
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