Gee Whiz, I gust replied to this thread and my reply disappeared???
This was the first time that TCM has run 20K. Unfortunately, Robert Osbourne's commentary was beyond pathetic! There was about a 20 minute intermission between the end of the previous film and 20K, during which time a newsreel short was run, along with some TCM advertisements that have already been beaten to death.
Osbourne's opening commentary was nothing more than a brief synoposis of the film, which added nothing to the presentation. This film is so significant that it is really a shame that Osbourne did not prepare a more in-depth commentary!
Anyhow, the true "star" of this film is Harper Goff's creation, the Nautilus! The Disney Nautilus is one of the most popular Sci-Fi models of all time, and has legions of fans and web-sites. Too bad Osbourne failed to mention any of them, like http://www.disneysub.com/. Not only are there commercially available Nautilus models available (that are usually quite expensive) but scores of model builders have built both static and RC versions of the Nautilus in a variety of scales. All one has to do is a quick internet search, typing in Disney Nautilus.
It is really shameful that Osbourne failed to mention Harper Goff!!
A few years ago Disney had a symposium regarding the film with several displays.
Also, Osbourne's closing commentary regarding was an almost direct plagarism about director Richard Fleischer from on-line articles like Wikipedia.
On-line info regarding the demise of the Disney ride is also available on-line, and the ride was not an origional film prop
