Thursday, September 15, 2011

News: THE INVISIBLE MAN (1975) Coming to DVD

According to TV Shows on DVD, the 1975 David McCallum sci-fi adventure series, The Invisible Man, is coming to DVD in October from Canadian company VEI. The complete 12-episode series will be offered on DVD and - rather surprisingly, for a show of this vintage - Blu-ray.

In this version of The Invisible Man, which was clearly intended to be the network's answer to The Six Million Dollar Man (and was even co-created by Harve Bennett), McCallum played Dr. Daniel Westin, a scientist who accidentally turns himself permanently invisible in an experiment. With the help of his wife (Melinda Fee), he creates a remarkably lifelike rubber mask and pair of gloves, and is soon recruited by the government to be a secret agent. Westin received his orders from Walter Carlson (Craig Stevens).

I enjoyed the show as a kid, of course, and saw a few episodes on the Sci-Fi Channel back in the 90s. I seem to remember that it had a slightly lighter tone than the bionic shows, and I liked that the hero was married and that his wife was his partner in his adventures.

At the moment, the set looks like it will only be available in Canada, at least initially. Amazon.ca is already taking pre-orders.

3 comments:

  1. There's even a reference to the bionic shows in the novelization of "The Invisible Man"'s pilot episode (yes, there was a novelization, and yes, I used to own it). The Invisible Man, Dr. Daniel Westin, receives plastic skin so he can function in normal society -- the doctor who gives him the skin mentions that it was used on Colonel Steve Austin a few years ago. That "Invisible Man" novelization was written by Mike Jahn, who also wrote the novelizations to several SMDM episodes, so it's pretty cool that he tried to link the two shows...

    ReplyDelete
  2. And thus, via the novelization, The Invisible Man joins Steve Austin in the Crossover Universe.

    Tex
    (sad that way)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I liked this when it was on first. I preferred it to 'Gemini Man' which came later. But what happened to Melinda Fee, who played Westin's wife? She was gorgeous as I recall!

    ReplyDelete