1975 Invisible Man series coming to DVD - and Blu-ray

[23skidoo]

TV Shows on DVD has reported that the 1975 American TV series The Invisible Man, which starred David McCallum a few years before Sapphire and Steel and a whack of years before NCIS, is being released on Oct. 25 to home video.

The surprise here is two-fold - first that apparently this may only be getting a Canadian release. It's being put out by a Canadian company and with release only about 7 weeks away Amazon US isn't listing it. The second surprise is it's coming out in both DVD and Blu-ray formats.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Invisible-Man-The-Complete-Series/15898

The Blu-ray release is a pleasant surprise. We've seen a handful of older series getting the treatment, but it's still rare enough to warrant notice. It also raises the question as to whether we might see Blu-ray "double dips" for shows like Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman from around the same time.

I doubt there's a huge issue for US fans if it's a Canadian only release as they should in theory be able to simply order it through Amazon.ca; after all we have NAFTA and there's usually no problem with Canadians ordering US-only releases from places like Amazon down there...

I have fond memories of the McCallum show. It was low-rent in many respects, though the invisible man effects were impressive for the day. In my part of Canada it aired back-to-back with Six Million Dollar Man on Sunday night.

Alex

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I wanna see this. Funny, last night I was watching Carpenter's version of the invisible man story done in the 90's.

 

[the G-man]

I vaguely remember this show. I also remember reading an article about how they did the special effects as a kid and being fascinated by the whole (then sort of new) "blue screen" technology they used.

 

[spooky spice]

Oh I remember that show, I loved it!

 

[ITL]

Yep, I remember the show well. I won't be buying it, but it's nice that it's getting released.

 

[cb31]

Awesomeness! Now if they'd only release Gemini Man to go along with it!

 

[Greg Cox]

I remember there was even a novelization of the pilot episode.

 

[23skidoo]

I remember there was even a novelization of the pilot episode.

I actually have a copy of that book somewhere. IIRC it was written by either Mike Jahn (who also adapted several Six Mil episodes) or Michael Avallone.

Alex

 

[23skidoo]

Updated information on this release: according to TV Shows on DVD after having been delayed from its end-of-October scheduled issue, it's being released in Canada on Feb. 21, but for some reason the US won't see it until May 1. (That'll show ya for delaying Victorious Season 1 Part 2 here in Canada, ya b*****ds! )

Cover art has also been released - rather minimalist.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Invisible-Man-The-Complete-Series/16268

The Blu-ray release is still a go. It's a good precedent to set - that you don't need to be a long-running, or particularly popular series, or submit to tons of renovating, to warrant a Blu-ray release anymore.

Alex

 

[Harvey]

To those who have seen the series, is it any good? There are a lot of holes in terms of sf on television that I've seen, and this is one of them, but I don't want to plunk down money right away for a series unless it's worth the money.

(The Twilight Zone on Blu-Ray, for example, is totally worth the money, both in terms of programming and extras)

 

[23skidoo]

To those who have seen the series, is it any good? There are a lot of holes in terms of sf on television that I've seen, and this is one of them, but I don't want to plunk down money right away for a series unless it's worth the money.

If you enjoy mid-70s SF/spy shows, then you'll enjoy this. Don't go in expecting anything as deep as The Twilight Zone. There's a reason why the show only lasted a season; it's more the nostalgia factor than anything else, but it's still a cool concept - an invisible man working for a spy agency. Which is probably why they recycled the idea in 2000. Also if you're a fan of David McCallum, it'll be worth watching.

Put another way - if you watch the opening credits to the show and your thoughts are "this looks like fun" as opposed to "I'd rather watch Fringe" then you might go for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3pZR9JEFs8

Just remember, in 30 years people will be calling Firefly and Once Upon a Time and Fringe cheesy as well!

Alex

 

[Harvey]

I know people were excited about this release, but it looks like Millennium Media totally botched it. It's been stretched to a widescreen aspect ratio, all of the episodes have been placed on a single Blu-Ray disc, and on top of that, the video quality is just terrible. There are, of course, no extras.

LINK.

 

[davejames]

They stretched... the picture.... for a blu-ray release?? That is almost hard to comprehend.

 

[inflatabledalek]

This got a (BBC2?) repeat back in the early 90's as part of the general nostalgia kick that saw TOS and things like the Gerry Anderson and Irwin Allen shows fill up teatime viewing. I remember it being harmless fun made that little bit more entertaining by McCallum's general awesomeness.

That Blu Ray sounds nasty though.

 

[auntiehill]

I have only the vaguest memories of seeing this in reruns; all I remember is the glorious David McCallum (like inflatabledalek said, his general awesomeness carried the show) and some really cheesy plots.

 

[diankra]

This got a (BBC2?) repeat back in the early 90's as part of the general nostalgia kick that saw TOS and things like the Gerry Anderson and Irwin Allen shows fill up teatime viewing. I remember it being harmless fun made that little bit more entertaining by McCallum's general awesomeness.

That Blu Ray sounds nasty though.

It did? I can't believe I wouldn't have taped it! Unless it was maybe a bit earlier, in the mid 80s? ('92 ws when BBC2 had the rather aweome Friday night schedule of Stingray, Uncle and Doctor Who for 90 solid minutes...)

 

[inflatabledalek]

It did? I can't believe I wouldn't have taped it! Unless it was maybe a bit earlier, in the mid 80s? ('92 ws when BBC2 had the rather aweome Friday night schedule of Stingray, Uncle and Doctor Who for 90 solid minutes...)

It would have had to be the early 90's as I knew who McCallum was. I guess after the success of the BBC2 Man From Uncle repeats around that time either they or Channel 4 (the other station with a cult-y tea time slot with shows like The Avengers) remembered they had something else with the same star in the vaults.

Considering its short run and how poorly it seems to be regarded it probably wasn't heavily promoted (though perhaps, like Farscape or Due South it did better over here originally that in its home country? The Brit star would have helped) and easy to miss.

I love the show's conceit of having the invisible star get by with a perfect David McCallum face mask.