The Invisible Man (1975 TV series)

The Invisible Man
Genre	Science fiction
Created by	Harve Bennett
Starring	David McCallum Melinda O. Fee Craig Stevens
Theme music composer	Henry Mancini
Composer(s)	Pete Rugolo
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	Harve Bennett
Producer(s)	Steven Bochco Leslie Stevens
Running time	60 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	September 8, 1975 – January 26, 1976

The Invisible Man, the second television series with this title, debuted in the USA in 1975 on NBC and starred David McCallum as the scientist Daniel Westin and Melinda Fee as his wife, Dr. Kate Westin. The series was created by the producer Harve Bennett. A pilot TV movie initially aired in May 1975 and was followed by a 12-episode series that fall.

Cast

• David McCallum as Dr. Daniel Westin
• Melinda O. Fee as Kate Westin
• Jackie Cooper as Walter Carlson (pilot episode only)
• Craig Stevens as Walter Carlson
• Henry Darrow as Dr. Nick Maggio (pilot episode only)

Opening credits

MACHINE MALFUNCTION... WESTIN PERMANENTLY
INVISIBLE... KLAE CORPORATION WILL FINANCE
RECOVERY EFFORT... WESTIN WILL RENDER
SERVICES AS SECRET AGENT.
HIS CODE NAME: KLAE RESOURCE.

– Computer-style text, shown in opening title sequence

Plot

Pilot

David McCallum, Melinda Fee, and Craig Stevens

Inspired by the original novel by H.G. Wells, the pilot film depicts Westin working for a company called Klae Corporation, which is doing experiments in molecular disintegration. He discovers the side effect of his work is the ability to turn objects invisible and tries to find medical applications for his invention. He discovers that objects that are made invisible reappear after a few hours, and on living test animals the collars they wear re-appear before the living cells themselves. Obsessed by his invention, Daniel decides to become invisible himself, in part to prove that a human can survive the process, and also to test a serum he has developed to reverse the invisibility.

He reveals the process to his boss (Jackie Cooper), who is initially unimpressed by what he sees as millions spent on a nuclear disintegrator, but he becomes more interested when he realises that the pen Daniel disintegrated is actually still there ("Do you know what you've got here?" "An invisible pen..." "Cute. No, invisible armies..."). He wants to back the project for military purposes, and in the course of the argument it is revealed that the Pentagon has provided the funding for Daniel's research; in effect the military already own the process. Daniel tries to destroy his invention by sneaking into the lab after hours and deleting his research. In order to make his escape he becomes invisible for a second time, before triggering an overload and destroying the apparatus. But it appears that after all the process is unstable, and he becomes only briefly visible before turning permanently invisible; he cannot return to his visible state any longer, and the serum is ineffective. He goes to his friend, Dr. Nick Maggio (Henry Darrow) a skilled plastic surgeon, who creates a disguise for him, a face mask and a pair of gloves using a special material called Dermaplex, that has the same properties as human skin. This enables Daniel to appear in public, and the actor, McCallum, to appear on-screen. The Dermaplex side effect is that Daniel has to remove the mask from time to time because, as Dr. Maggio states, "The beard will be your enemy, and the itch will drive you crazy."

By the conclusion of the pilot, the process' lack of stability renders it effectively useless for commercial or military applications, and the Klae Corporation is persuaded to re-employ him in his research capacity despite his condition, and thus the series begins from this point. Daniel seeks to perfect his work and at the same time find a cure--a means of restoring his visibility.

The series and its international broadcasting

There were subtle differences between the pilot and the series. The pilot depicts Westin as a tragic figure, the "victim" of the invisibility process; despite his continued efforts, he essentially remains invisible all the time and must use technology to "fake" being visible.

The series was lighter and more humorous, featuring invisibility-related gags and scenarios (in the case of the latter, many of these were depicted in the opening titles, such as a telephone receiver rising unsupported off its hook and a Jeep driving itself), and ignoring the tragic side of Westin's predicament. The first post-pilot episode indicates that Westin and his wife have been working as agents for some time. Indeed the character's invisibility was utilised as the Klae Resource of the show's introduction; an invisible man can go places and do things that the visible cannot accomplish.

A less-subtle difference is in the area of casting; in the pilot, Jackie Cooper portrayed Westin's superior, Walter Carlson, but for the series, the role was recast with Craig Stevens playing the part. The character was also altered to be more sympathetic and closer to the Oscar Goldman archetype.

As was common for action/adventure series of the era, The Invisible Man featured episodes that, save the pilot, could be viewed in any order. It was cancelled before the underlying arc of Westin curing his invisibility could be resolved.

Overseas, the series was dubbed in Italian and broadcast on many private channels in different regions of Italy in the early 80's.

Episodes

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Guest stars	Original air date
Pilot	"The Invisible Man"	Robert Michael Lewis	Harve Bennett Steven Bochco	Jackie Cooper, Henry Darrow, Milt Kogan	May 6, 1975 (1975-05-06)
1	"The Klae Resource"	Robert Michael Lewis	Steven Bochco	Conrad Janis, James Karen	September 8, 1975 (1975-09-08)
2	"The Fine Art Of Diplomacy"	Sigmund Neufeld Jr.	James D. Parriott	Ross Martin, Paul Stewart	September 15, 1975 (1975-09-15)
3	"Man of Influence"	Alan J. Levi	Rick Blaine Seeleg Lester	Loni Anderson, John Vernon	September 22, 1975 (1975-09-22)
4	"Eyes Only"	Alan J. Levi	Leslie Stevens	Thayer David	September 29, 1975 (1975-09-29)
5	"Barnard Wants Out"	Alan J. Levi	James D. Parriott	Nehemiah Persoff	October 6, 1975 (1975-10-06)
6	"Sight Unseen"	Sigmund Neufeld Jr.	Kandy Rehak Brian Rehak	Al Ruscio	October 20, 1975 (1975-10-20)
7	"Go Directly to Jail"	Sigmund Neufeld Jr.	Steven Bochco	James McEachin	November 3, 1975 (1975-11-03)
8	"Stop When Red Lights Flash"	Gene Nelson	Seeleg Lester	Scott Brady	November 24, 1975 (1975-11-24)
9	"Pin Money"	Alan J. Levi	James D. Parriott	Helen Kleeb	December 1, 1975 (1975-12-01)
10	"The Klae Dynasty"	Alan J. Levi	Philip DeGuere	Peter Donat	December 8, 1975 (1975-12-08)
11	"Power Play"	Alan J. Levi	Leslie Stevens	Monte Markham	January 19, 1976 (1976-01-19)
12	"An Attempt to Save Face"	Don Henderson	James D. Parriott Leslie Stevens	Charles Aidman	January 26, 1976 (1976-01-26)

DVD and Blu-ray releases

On February 21, 2012, Visual Entertainment released The Invisible Man: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 and on Blu-ray in Region A in Canada for the first time. In the US, the DVD release was on May 1, 2012, and the Blu-ray release on June 19, 2012, and distributed by Millennium Entertainment.

In Region 4, the series was released on DVD in Australia on August 15, 2012, and in New Zealand on September 13, 2012, and distributed by Madman Entertainment.

External links

• The Invisible Man at the Internet Movie Database
• The Invisible Man at TV.com