Going to the past on a risky mission has many dangerous possibilities, especially if you decide to stay there for that old human emotion called love. Sam Groom and Tom Hallick head back to 1871 Chicago the day McLeary's cow chose to kick a lantern (and the bucket), and if it's not steak for dinner, it's going to mean the difference between life and death as they try to find the cure for a rare disease. Doctor Richard Basehart, who had just discovered a cure, died in the fire, and his notes were lost as well. Getting there and back quickly is imperative, and for one of them, falling for pretty Trish Stewart almost makes him make a deadly mistake.

Obviously a pilot for a series that wasn't picked up, it showed potential although I found Booth Colman's overplaying to make his scientist character seem like a clown and not a commanding medicine man. Fortunately, he disappears for the middle section, and Basehart gives a more commanding performance in the Chicago sequences. Still a very enjoyable time travel movie that keeps all the rules simple and clear, and has an ironic twist concerning the cure they find. Definitely worth watching!

This review comes to you from the future. Having watched this movie in 2019, I hasten to let you know it's a charming movie and enjoyable to watch.

This message is mainly produced for those fans who watched this movie some 8 years ago and earlier. You might come across some other messages from my era as we are able to time travel without moving at all.

Signing off and going back to my time. Goodbye and good luck!

Time Travelers was scripted by Jackson Gillis (whose career stretched back to radio) from a story by Rod Serling (which led to a lawsuit, as Charles Willard Byrd claimed that this movie was taken from an unpublished 1959 book A Time To Live. Byrd and the producers reached a monetary settlement that allowed Byrd to claim the original story as his work). It was developed by Irwin Allen in the hopes that he could relaunch his series The Time Tunnel, but the litigation kept the show from being bought and it ended up running as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 19, 1976.

Dr. Clint Earnshaw (Sam Groom, Deadly Eyes) and Jeff Adams are trying to cure the XD virus that has been slowly wiping out humanity. When they discover that a similar disease had been seemingly cured around the time of the Chicago fire, they head back in time to see if they can learn anything from Dr. Joshua Henderson (Richard Basehart!) Jeff ends up falling for Henderson's niece Jane (Trish Stewart, who played Basehart's daughter in Mansion of the Doomed) and nearly stays behind. However, the timeline must be protected and our heroes end up saving the day, if not every person.

Director Alex Singer went to the Bronx's William Howard Taft High School with Stanley Kubrick and one of his first jobs was as the cinematographer on Kubrick's short Day of the Fight. He also made the films A Cold Wind in August, Glass Houses and Captain Apache*, but the majority of his credits were in television.

*Written by Night Train to Terror impressario Philip Yordan!