The Invisible Man (1958–1960)

The British television series, "H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man," may have been based on the character created by Wells but had very little to do with the novel or classic James Whale film from Universal. In direct contradiction to the source material, the hero Dr. Peter Brady, was doing remarkably well as a workaholic scientist employed by the British government. He accidentally becomes invisible (fortunately for him, clothes and all) after a radiation leak interferes with his experiments on optical density and refraction. Naturally, the British authorities are suspicious of Brady, wondering what he'll do with his new-found "powers."

Brady becomes a one man Impossible Missions Force. In subsequent episodes, he's dispatched to one mythical Middle Eastern, Eastern European, or African country after another, to foil the forces of evil threatening the British Empire. Despite supposedly being a secret agent, as the series progressed, Brady's invisibility became public knowledge leading to trouble in some episodes.

The special effects were cheap and downright awful by today's standards. For the most part, the "invisibility" special effects were handled by wires holding various objects such as car keys, test tubes, guns, and the like. Scenes were frequently shot from Brady's point-of-view to limit the use of special effects. Despite these shortcomings the series eventually attracted the interests of US television networks. H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man ran for 39 half hours on the CBS network from November 4, 1958 to September 22, 1960.