(CBS Primetime, 1958 - 1959; Syndicated) [This is the first of several television series and made-for-TV movies based upon H. G. Wells classic novel, which also was the basis for the 1933 Claude Rains hit movie of the same name scored by Hollywood veteran composer Heinz Roemheld; After the 1933 film, there followed several other movies (over a dozen films were produced in several countries based upon this Wells classic, since the original 1933 American film); Ralph Smart produced this TV series of 26 episodes for British ITV, in conjunction with the U. S.-based "Official Films", a division of CBS Films; The first 13 episodes aired on CBS television from 1958 - 1959, and then all 26 episodes were syndicated nationwide in years following that; In this television version of the legend, the character of the man who becomes invisible was a scientist named Peter Brady, who tries the "secret formula" involving the refraction of light on himself; but discovers the effect is irreversible; Deciding to make the best of his bad situation, he enlists himself as a British secret agent, and fights the forces of evil spooking bad guys out of their wits in the process... Two actors played the character for this tv series -- one performing the action when his clothed outline was "seen", and another actor did the speaking part; Perhaps since it was really two actors creating the role, the studio tried to hide the "identity of the invisible man" involved in the illusion. Later the identities of those two obscure British actors were discovered - the physical actor was named Johnny Scripps and the voice actor was named Tim Turner; In 1975, NBC had a go at the concept in a 2nd series starring David McCallum (who had played Russian agent on "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."), and co-starring Craig Stevens (the former "Peter Gunn"), which see; There was also a Cable-TV production of "The Invisible Man" in 2000 which aired on The Sci-Fi Channel and was re-run on The USA Network]
[British media music expert John R. Docherty says he thinks the Main Title theme was composed by Sidney John Kay whose name appears on screen credits although the exact THEME title isn't listed in U.S. copyright records nor in ASCAP/BMI databases; John informs us that Sidney J. Kay was originally German; then he relocated to Australia; The spelling of Sidney's first name is sometimes confused with the Australian spelling -- "Sydney", which in fact is the way his name is spelled in the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), in BMI records and in other movie credits...other U. S. Copyrights list it spelled BOTH ways...but here is the way it appears in ASCAP, using the original German spelling of 'Sidney'..] Composer: Sidney John Kay (British PRS/ASCAP/BMI) [professional name of Kurt Kaiser] 1978 Publisher [of cues]: Peter Maurice Music Co., Ltd. (of Britain) (British PRS/ASCAP) 2001 Publisher: [cues listed without publisher in the ASCAP ACE database; some cues co-written with Geoff Parsons copyright Colgems-EMI Music Publishing of New York] Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recordings: