It trains you to stop caring about the MacGuffin. Dr Monja fires his Time Tunnel open, the kids go tumbling into another era, and by episode nine you understand the Elixir of Life is never getting found, because the show was never about finding it. What it's actually about is the villain trio showing up in the same century with the same goal and a worse plan, and the collision that follows. Fifty-two episodes of that structure sounds like a grind until you clock the rhythm: setup, escalation, total demolition, reset, and Tatsunoko throwing gags at the wall the whole way down. This is 1979 comedy engineering, a chase built so the chase never ends, and the eternal youth gag is that the format itself refuses to age. You come for the sci-fi premise and stay because the bad guys are funnier than the heroes and everybody knows it.

Dr. Monja, a scientist fascinated by the legendary Elixir of Life, wants to learn the truth about a drink said to grant endless life and lasting youth. He builds a device called the Time Tunnel so that a group of young helpers can search through different eras and places for answers. A trio of villains is after the same prize, and they link their own tunnel to his in hopes of diverting it for themselves. The 1979 TV series mixes action, adventure, comedy and science fiction across its 52 episodes.