The Gemini Man: Sam Casey (
Ben Murphy) is an agent for INTERSECT, a government think-tank and operations center specializing in secret missions. While on a diving assignment, Sam was irradiated by an underwater explosion. The radiation rendered him invisible, but INTERSECT devised a way to control his invisibility, by fitting him with a computerized watch that kept him visible. He could, however, shut it off, and become invisible again, for short periods of time. If he did this for more than 15 minutes in any 24 hour period he would die.
Only two month after the demise of Universal's
The Invisible Man, this variation on the same theme debuted on the same network, under the stewardship of the same producers,
Harve Bennett and
Steven Bochco... so I think it's fair to look at it as a "retooled" version of the same show.
Unlike
David McCallum's intellectual (and married) Daniel Westin, Sam Casey was a bell-bottom bluejeans/denim-shirt wearing, hunky "everyman" in the Steve Austin mold, and not tied down by the bounds of matrimony. But that wasn't enough to bring in viewers, and
Gemini Man folded quicker than its predecessor, cancelled after airing only
five episodes.
Eleven episodes were shot in all, and were shown in syndication (and later on the Sci-Fi Channel), and a couple were edited together into "movies" for TV and home video release (one of these was skewered by the 'bots of
MST3K in one of it's later seasons).
I was not a fan of this show... and I haven't seen an episode since the Spring of '76. One of these days, I guess I'll need to revisit it.
I remember it from watching it as a kid when it was shown on the BBC. It was a fun adventure show, and I would like to revisit it at some point as a bit of nostalgia. Just a pity that neither this series or The Invisible Man are available on DVD here in the UK.
ReplyDeleteLooks like they blew most of the budget on Ben Murphy's trousers. Never seen such massive flares, even in the 70's
ReplyDeleteI have some very bad memories of this program; the fact that one of the edited together films got the MST-y treatment should be a warning.
ReplyDeleteI know you have a "no-slam" policy for materials from this period, but if ever there was anything to make an exception for, this was it. Save yourself the trouble, don't try and sit through an episode...
Love that ad. A punch to the breadbasket is gonna put you down, invisible or not. (And man, Ben Murphy in his Canadian tuxedo. Yow.)
ReplyDeleteThose bell bottoms deserved their own co-starring credit. :p
ReplyDeleteI always thought the pilot episode was pretty good; it was trying to get around that stupid 15 minute rule (or make it a threat) that killed the series. Even more ridiculous than Steve Austin getting trapped in a freezer again.
ReplyDeleteThe MST episode they made from this was great fun. I really enjoy the first half of that episode, which is basically the 1970s in concentrate form. Oil embargo! Right on handshakes! Groovy Denim! It was totally dece and torqued, turkey!
ReplyDeleteWhich MST3K episode was it?
ReplyDeleteMST3K Episode #814: Riding With Death.
DeleteThis is a fantastic site. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI picked up GEMINI MAN on a French DVD set. Turns out it's pretty darn entertaining. The first half of the series is, actually, quite good. (The second half makes a bit of a format shift. Not for the better.)
I've been reviewing the episodes over on my blog. If you get a chance, please read and enjoy. Have an excellent day.
http://bit.ly/1E6kKIf