Eight years ago today The Invisible Man appeared on our TV sets for the first time. It premiered with the highest ratings of any other Sci Fi Channel show up to that point; and was the number two show on the network during its two-season run. It received several Saturn Award nominations and won a best ensemble award from TV Zone magazine. In addition, several episodes were among the Futon Critic’s Top 50 Episode picks for 2001 and 2002. At the time of its cancellation it was the only show growing in syndication.
I remember coming into the Pilot 15 minutes late because I almost forgot it was on! I was kicking myself because I had been watching the commercials for the show and was really looking forward to checking it out. I had hoped it would be good and I was pleasantly surprised. I decided then to give this show a chance and by the third episode I was hooked.
Little did I know back then what a profound effect this show would have on my life. I could have never imagined that I’d be doing what I’m doing today. But here I am years later working on getting the cast back together again and having a blast doing it. Yes, it is a heck of a lot of work and sometimes I have to deal with frustrations, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m going to keep at it until I get our cast together again in a film. And who knows where that will lead? Maybe someday we’ll get to see more I-Man too.
Anyhoo, in honor of this day, I thought I’d create a poll. Remember those? I haven’t done one in ages. So I’m asking two questions this time: 1) When did you start watching The Invisible Man? and 2) Where have you watched it? To answer the poll questions, go to the Shoom Zone home page (yeah, I’ve been playing around with the design again) and scroll down a bit until you see the poll. It’ll be fun to see your answers!
Times are hard for a lot of folks right now and, unfortunately, the I-Maniacs fan club board hasn’t escaped feeling some financial pressures as well. So, I’m sorry to say that this year the fan club will not be hosting an I-ManiCon.
I always look forward to our annual gathering of cast and fans, so I do have to say I’m disappointed. But this isn’t the first time that a year or two has been skipped, so if you were saving your spare change to attend, please keep saving. The fan club board will, hopefully, be able to swing it financially next year. I’m crossing my fingers!
The first season of The Invisible Man is now available to watch online! NBC/Universal and Fox have joined forces to create an online video on demand service that offers full-length episodes of their current and past TV shows as well as a limited selection of movies, clips and other content. The site, called Hulu, which has been in beta mode for months, made its public launch today. And I’m happy to say that The Invisible Man is among the TV shows that are available for streaming!
All of the first season episodes of I-Man are up and I’m hoping that we get season two at some point, but that will most likely depend on how popular the show becomes. Hulu has a nifty feature that lists shows and episodes in order of popularity, so the more people that watch, the higher the show goes in the popularity rankings. Viewers can also rate the episodes and leave reviews.
In addition to Hulu, all the first season episodes of I-Man are available for viewing on AOL Video.
One of the really neat features of Hulu is that it allows the embedding of its videos onto other websites. So, with that, I present The Invisible Man’s Pilot episode courtesy of Hulu.com.
If you’re itching to show your support for the I-Man DVDs that are being released on March 25, I highly recommend that you pre-order your DVDs. Pre-ordering will help NBC/Universal to gauge how much interest there is in the DVDs. Strong initial sales just might help to facilitate the release of season two. We all want that, right?
You can pre-order the DVDs right now directly from the NBC/Universal store. They will ship them on March 25. The suggested retail price for the DVDs are $59.98, but through the NBC/Universal store they are $44.98. I can’t think of a better way to let them know that there is an audience for this show.
Thanks to Ed for alerting me that the box art is now out for the first season Invisible Man DVDs. Pretty cool. Take a look!
Some of you might recall that I-Man was originally shot in widescreen, but we never got to see that during its two-year run. Now we will get that opportunity since the DVDs are in widescreen format!
Also, Amazon.com has the DVDs listed now and you can add it to your wish list if you want or sign up for email updates.
