"The Second Hundred Years" (1967) TV series 1967-1968

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Writer:

Robert Lees (writer)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

6 September 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Prospector Luke Carpenter was frozen in suspended animation in the year 1900 while panning for gold in Alaska...

Plot Keywords:

Suspended Animation | Alaska | Second Chance | Father Son Relationship | Army

Cast

Monte Markham	...	Ken Carpenter / ... (26 episodes, 1967-1968)
Arthur O'Connell	...	Edwin Carpenter (26 episodes, 1967-1968)

Runtime:

30 min (26 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Screen Gems Television

Quotes:

Narrator: One upon a time out in California a sixty-seven-year-old man lived with his thirty-three-year-old son. Meanwhile up in Fairbanks Alsaka, there was this big avalanche. Get the connection?
[disappointed]
Narrator: You don't.
Colonel Garroway: Two days ago there was an avalanche in Alaska An frozen object was discovered that been identified as your father.
Edwin Carpenter: After all these years.
Colonel Garroway: Um, Mr. Carpernter there is something I haven't told you.
Edwin Carpenter: I'd like to bring the body back here.
Colonel Garroway: Your father's alive.
Edwin Carpenter: Alive!
Colonel Garroway: Whatever your father may be chronologically, physically and mentally he hasn't aged a day since he fell in that glacier. Your father for all intents and purposes is thirty-three years old.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Master Ninja II (#4.24)" (1992)

One of the unsung gems of 1967! I'd love to see it again!

I remember the promos for this show, which I believe was on the ABC network, being shown in the summer of 1967. I couldn't wait to see it!

Some have commented on the poor scripts. I guess being a kid at the time, I wasn't very discerning when it came to script quality (but maybe my parents were, as they didn't particularly care for the show!). I can't really comment on the quality of the writing, but "It's About Time", and "The Second Hundred Years", were two big favourites from my childhood.

Whether it was a couple of astronauts going back to live among cave people, or this show's post-civil-war prairie man suddenly living in "swinging" 1967, I found the "fish out of water" concept very appealing, and I guess, still do. I'm obviously not alone in this, as it continues to be a popular theme.

Arthur O'Connell was great as the poor, exasperated guy who was always the "meat in the sandwich" between his young father and son. And Monte Markham was wonderful in his dual roles. He played "Luke" as a man possessed of folksy charm and naiveté, with a zest for life. Ken, on the other hand, was a stick-in-the-mud conservative, and Markham's contrast between the two characters was impressive.

Like "It's About Time", this show disappeared too soon for my liking. I would love to see it again! Too many modern shows get their laughs by using "put-down" humour. This show didn't need to do that. It put its main character in funny situations, instead. I still remember Luke's incredulous reaction to seeing a woman in a miniskirt - and his elderly son simply said, "That's 1967!". We laughed at that because the way they did it, it was funny. And we weren't jaded, then.

With the exception of seeing Don Rickels' routine on a variety show or fat jokes directed at Ralph Kramden, nasty insult-humour wasn't terribly common on TV back then. And when a put-down was used, it wasn't anywhere near in the same league as that which takes place on something like "The Drew Carey Show". I miss those days, when it didn't require being cruel and vicious to get a laugh.

There may not be enough general interest to release a boxed-set of this show on DVD, but it would be great if someone would release some sort of anthology of past TV shows for each year. I'd like to see a scenario where we could buy DVDs containing at least one episode of shows that were shown in prime time for every year - in this case, "Prime Time 1967", for example.

Then, we'd get to see our favourite long-lost shows again (like Michael Callan's "Occasional Wife"), even if only one episode! These shows have been long-buried, so I can't see license fees for them being horrendous.