David McCallum's Invisible Man

If you watched much TV in the 1960s, you undoubtedly watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. If you were a female viewer of the show, perhaps you too were enamored with teenage heartthrob David McCallum’s portrayal of Russian agent, Illya Kuryakin, noted for popularizing black turtlenecks and being the “blond Beatle.”

But you don’t have to be a Baby Boomer to be a fan of NCIS, the popular CBS drama airing Tuesday nights since Sept. 23, 2003. For 14 seasons now, David McCallum has played Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the team’s chief medical officer spending most of his time with the bodies of murder victims, his character full of esoteric trivia.

In between these two successful shows, did you know McCallum had a short try as a leading man in one of many TV versions of The Invisible Man that ran on NBC from Sept. 8, 1975--Jan. 19, 1976?

The story went like this:

In May 1975, NBC aired a 90-minute movie written by Robert Bochco starring David McCallum as scientist Daniel Westin. Researching molecular reduction and transformation in laser experiments for a West Coast think tank called the Klae Corporation, Westin discovered the secret of invisibility. After using himself as a guinea pig, Westin learned visibility could occur at any time without advance warning. Westin was idealistic and naïve, becoming horrified when his discovery was financed and controlled by the military. Destroying his lab, Westin went underground but ultimately agreed to work as a secret agent with his wife, Dr. Kate Westin (Melinda Fee) in exchange for the Klae Corporations agreement to help him find a cure for his condition. Walter Carlson (Jackie Cooper(, the head of the sinister Klae Corp., provided Westin with gloves and a special mask of his old face so both viewers and cast members could see Westin when not on duty.

The film was a ratings success, so that fall 12 episodes followed. At first, according to McCallum, the idea of the character was total fantasy, a fusion of Superman, Mission: Impossible, and Claude Rains (the first movie invisible man). Later, he said he'd signed on to do The Fugitive and ended up doing "Topper." From the beginning, producers Bochco, Harve Bennett, Leslie Stephens, and Robert O’Neill admitted they were imitating The Six Million Dollar Man. As a result, more effort went into the gimmicks than the characters or stories. To make the series lighter than the film, Jackie Cooper was replaced by father-figure Craig Stevens, the former Peter Gunn. He gave the Klae Corporation a more benevolent flair than in Botchco’s concept.

According to Fee, the series centered on the relationship of Daniel and Kate, and that Kate Westin came along about the same time as women’s liberation. Fee’s most difficult job was playing to an invisible husband, which at that time wasn't as easy as it would become with improved special effects in subsequent decades. Shooting a simple scene in which a hypodermic needle was passed from hand to hand could take half a day to film. It was difficult for an unseen agent to express emotion. To let viewers know where he was, The Invisible Man bumped into pots and furniture so often, he seemed the clumsiest man on earth.

Despite the talent involved, including a theme by legendary composer Henry Mancini, producer O’Neill admitted, "The Invisible Man was really a one-joke show. The minute you’ve taken the wrapping off his head, you've seen the joke.” Other jokes included McCallum going undercover for a cleaning woman, and one effort had him Held in a hick town by a corrupt sheriff for bogus traffic violations. The nadir of the series was one episode titled “Pin Money” featuring bank robbers with Frankenstein monster masks. The writer, James Parriott, admitted he was asked to write the script in the mold of the Six Million Dollar Man.

In this climate, commentators were reduced to speculating about the sexual possibilities for the couple. As the invisible man had to be naked to be unseen, he was often shivering and complained about freezing in public. One odd controversy arose when representatives from America's Bible-Belt in the mid-West complained that the show was obscene because it featured a naked, if unseen, man on TV.

For most observers, the format simply didn’t jell and Harv Bennett noted networks were still uneasy about British leads on American television. Some felt McCallum was better suited to a supporting “color” character like Illya Kuryakin rather than a straight lead. More importantly, few shows could compete in the Tuesday night time-slot against MTM’s double-shot of Rhoda and Phyllis. Whatever the case, the show enjoyed great popularity in Europe, especially England, where the ratings soared after the cancellation. NBC thought enough of the concept to revamp it with an American lead, which became the equally short-lived Gemini Man.

As a quick coda, McCallum also played a supporting character in the late, lamented 1995 VR.5, playing Dr. Joseph Bloom, a neurobiolotist pioneer. In 2006, McCallum lent his voice to the gadget-laden robot car, C.A.R.T.E.R., for the Disney Channel’s cartoon, The Replacements.

In a Sept. 2006 interview, “TV's Original Invisible Man Takes On Heroes' Newcomer,”
McCallum compared his role with that of the invisible character in Heroes.
http://www.tvguide.com/news/tvs-origi...


Wes Britton’s review of McCallum’s 2016 novel, Once a Crooked man, is posted at:
goo.gl/M9HZBt