Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Forgotten TV: The Invisible Woman (1983)

After a trio of Gilligan's Island TV-movies, Sherwood Schwartz called upon Gilligan himself, Bob Denver, for one more project.

The result was the 1983 TV-movie, "The Invisible Woman", which was a pilot for a proposed comedy-adventure series for NBC.

A bumbling scientist (Denver) develops a formula for invisibility, but hasn't been able to restore his test subject, a chimp. Subsequently, his niece (Alexa Hamilton) ends up turning invisible. Since she's a reporter, well, you know where this is going. Subtract the insanity of the Invisible Man of H. G. Wells' original story, and add an aspiring heroine who falls between two comic strip babes---Lois Lane and the Invisible Scarlet O'Neil. David Doyle (ex-Charlie's Angels) and Ron Palillo (ex-Welcome Back, Kotter) also star, as you'll see in the following excerpt.



Unfortunately, Denver was still stuck dealing with the stigma of being typecast as a bumbler, and NBC didn't help matters by referencing his most famous role. I remember seeing this when it first aired. I felt this had potential, but it would've worked better if Denver wasn't playing yet another well-meaning-but-dull-witted type.

Rating: B-.

No comments: