It's About Time (1966-67) was about two astronauts who, after breaking the speed of light, accidentally travel back in time to prehistoric Earth. Unable to return, they make friends with the "natives" in the stone age. An attempt to do a live-action version of The Flintstones.
Halfway through the season, having run out of stone-age jokes, the show was retooled by having the astronauts manage to fix their spacecraft and return, bringing some of the stone-age characters with them, turning the show into a Fish out of Temporal Water about stone-age characters trying to figure out modern life. This wasn't very successful either, and the show only lasted the one season.
Tropes:
- Accidental Time Travel: The premise of the series. Astronauts Mac Mackenzie and Hector Canfield fly the experimental Scorpio EX-1 on a NASA mission. They inadvertently fly around the earth faster than the speed of light and break the time barrier. They land, and find themselves stranded in prehistory. After several months of attempts, they finally manage to fix the spacecraft and return to the future. Albeit with Shad, Gronk, Mlor and Breer along for the ride.
- A Lesson Learned Too Well: In "To Sign or Not to Sign", Captain Mackenzie and Lieutenant Canfield teach Gronk and Shad how to sign their names. The two end up signing up for a large variety of goods and services sold by door-to-door salespeople.
- Animated Credits Opening: Revamped with its plot points reversed after the Retool.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: In "Stone Age Diplomats", the food that Shad and Gronk prepare for the astronauts and the "Ambassador of Nordania". It's a mixture of everything with a generous helping of hot sauces mixed in. Naturally, the astronauts, the ambassador and the landlord choke or gulp down water. Shad and Gronk love it.
- Combat by Champion: In "The Champ", the neighbouring tribe of "painted ones" is threatening a war that would certainly destroy the tribe Mac and Hec are staying with. Mac and Hec convince Boss and the leader of the painted ones to forego to the war in favour of a fight between a champion of each tribe. Gronk is chosen to be champion of the tribe. . . and Hilarity Ensues.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: One issue long.
- Contemporary Caveman: After Shad, Gronk, Breer and Mlor return to the 20th century with Mac and Hec.
- Decided by One Vote: In the episode "Mark Your Ballots", Mac and Hector convince the cave-people to have an election, running Boss against Gronk. The election results in a tie, but at the last minute an old woman named Trong, who lives near the tar-pits, arrives to vote for Boss.
- Everytown, America: Riverview, Ohio; Lt. Hector Canfield's oft-mentioned hometown.
- Expository Theme Tune: '"It's About Time, It's About Flight, It's About Travelling Faster Than The Speed of Light". In an interview, series creator Sherwood Schwartz said it was the best theme tune he ever wrote. That's something, considering he was responsible for the iconic and well-loved The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island theme tunes.
- Fantastic Comedy: Time travel, astronauts, cave-people, dinosaurs.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: The astronauts in One Million B.C., particularly Hector who never seems to try to adapt or adjust his behavior to the circumstances. Later, Shad, Gronk, Breer and Mlor in the 20th century. It's implied, though, that they'll slowly get better.
- Half-Hour Comedy
- Kissing the Ground: In "Twentieth Century Here We Come", upon landing back in the twentieth century, Hector remarks to Mac that they ought to kiss the ground, the astronauts being grateful for being back in their own time. Unfortunately, Literal-Minded cave-people Gronk, Shad, Mlor and Breer believe this is actually a ceremony one practices on the astronaut's "side of the hill." They kiss the ground.Shad: Strange custom.
- Loser Gets the Girl: it happens in the episode "The Stowaway". Mlor runs away rather than be forced into marriage to Boss's vain son. Hector won't stand for this, and ends up facing Boss's son in a fight to the death for Mlor. Hector wins with the help of some of his astronaut vitamins (although he doesn't kill Boss's son). Still, Mlor immediately runs to her unconscious would-be groom weeping. Fortunately for Hector, Mlor and her family would in the very next episode return to the future with the two astronauts.
- Machine Worship: In "School Days, School Days", Shad and Gronk make a sacrifice to the garbage disposal calling it the "god of Garbage"! At the end of the episode, after Mac and Hector enroll them in night school to catch up on a million years of civilization, Gronk mentions they're going to be taught about Edison, god of the Electric light.
- Man-Eating Plant: In "Androcles and Clon", the astronauts are attacked by a man-eating plant in the jungle. The plant attacks them with its vines and tries to pull them into a thicket. Mac and Hector are able to free themselves with a little difficulty.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In "Androcles and Clon", it was said by both astronauts after a narrow escape with being clubbed and pushed off a cliff by Clon.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In "The Cave Family Swingers", Shad, Gronk, Breer and Mlor appear on a Variety Show called The Fred Gulliver Show, which parodies The Ed Sullivan Show.
- Nubile Savage: Cavegirl Mlor, the daughter of Shad and Gronk. She's a beautiful teenaged blonde, dressed in animal furs. This is in spite of living in a cave in One Million B.C., amongst a very primitive tribe. Astronauts Mac and Hec were both instantly smitten when they first met her in "And Then I Said Happy Birthday To You".
- Slapstick: Shad tended to suffer from more slapstick misfortune once she returned with the astronauts to the present, especially in the episode "To Sign or Not to Sign" where she joins a gym.
- Stock Footage: In "The Cave Family Swingers", footage from Bye Bye Birdie is used to represent teenagers gathering outside Mac and Hector's apartment building demanding to hear the cave family sing "Dinosaur Stew".
- There's No Place Like Home: The astronauts, having been stranded in prehistory, fix the Scorpio E-X-1 and get back to the future midway through the series ("Twentieth Century Here We Come"). However, they take their friends Shad, Gronk, Mlor and Breer with them, and Hilarity Ensues as the cave family reacts to modern life.
- Time Travel: A round trip for the astronauts, one way for Gronk, Shad, Mlor and Breer.
- Trapped in the Past, turning into Get Back to the Future when they fix their spacecraft.
- Voice Changeling: In "Witch Doctor's Which", Hector perfectly mimics Boss' voice so as to fool the tribe into thinking Shad turned Boss into a monkey.
