The Invaders

Re: The Invaders

Your welcome. Check out some of the other pages, I remember seeing part of an, if not the whole episode on there. I know I saw the first 10 mins of one. Been awhile since I last looked.

Re: The Invaders

For those that hate the artwork, you could always buy the French version. It at least is faithful to the spirit of the original:



Harry

THE INVADERS UFOs!!!!!

Things are really humming along just great when THE OUTER LIMITS, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and THE INVADERS dominate the topics of discussion on this forum.

You just can't beat the SF genre it is truly the entertainment of the 21st Century!

The packaging design for THE INVADERS - THE FIRST SEASON 5-disc set is just fine except for the inclusion of the erroneous UFO which surely can be easily corrected...if we can only get some feedback to Paramount Pictures-CBS Home Entertainment on this point-of-contention!

High priced model kits of THE INVADERS UFO are popular premium demand items online including the originals issued by Aurora and the reissues by Monogram so why deny this major point-of-selling on the upcoming INVADERS DVD release?

Provided is a weblink to an online videoclip of the main opening title for THE INVADERS tv series which is one of the best titles ever produced that typifies the stunning colour imagery of this enduring 1960s SF tv classic:

THE INVADERS MAIN OPENING TITLE (Click Here).

You will note that structurally it is identical to THE FUGITIVE with some innovative improvements in that the credits succeed one another through a succession of the Wayne Fitzgerald-designed visual "rips" seen on the screen further effectively augmented by the dramatic accompanyment of Dominic Frontiere's evocatively haunting music scoring.

Jeff T.

Re: The Invaders

I don't care about the covers, only what's inside is really important.

Re: The Invaders

I cannot believe that Paramount would go with that horrible artwork. It is not only woefully inaccurate in terms of the spacecraft, but as anyone who has ever seen the series knows, it is horribly misrepresentative of the series content. Not even in a dream sequence did we ever see such a silly "War of the Worlds"-like scene in the series. Anyone buying this set based on the cover art and expecting to see aliens leveling cities with death rays, is in for a major disappointment. Shame on Paramount for this abomination.

Re: The Invaders

The cover art was clearly designed from a marketing perspective to move copies of a 40+ year-old show off shelves and over to cash registers.

If it helps sell more copies of the show so that the next season is a full set instead of a split set, then I think it's a good idea.

If the show is truly as good as people say it is (which is why I'm picking it up never having seen it), people who buy it based on the cover will start watching it and the quality of the show will make them forget there's no alien death rays or exploding buildings.

Re: The Invaders

I tend to agree. The cover art is not terribly important to me - certainly not as much as the shows themselves are. And if some marketing types have figured out that this is the correct approach, then so be it. But the awful covers that they come up with provide at least a bit of sport as we make fun of them. I still like the "sombrero" description!

The series was a near clone of THE FUGITIVE in the sense that the protagonist became involved in the lives of the people he encountered every week. The difference here is that his mission was to find proof that the invading aliens were indeed here (on Earth) and to convince those around him or to get them to help him in his quest so he could prove his claims to the officials who thought him to be crazy.

Harry

WE REALLY CARE ABOUT THIS FUNTASTIC SHOW!!!!!

I have yet to hear any INVADERS fan express satisfaction with the intended packing design for the upcoming season one DVD release...thus far the consensus has been unfavourably consistent!

Those who have expressed neutrality or indifference have admitted that they are not familiar with the show so I have to conclude that if a disappointing effort were similarily done for a tv series that they like then their feelings would be entirely different. We never suffer the misfortunes and problems of others. This is how I interpret the opinions expressed against our justified objections!

Of course the quality and content of the DVDs themselves is important and in this I hope we won't also be letdown on but part of the excitement and anticipation of this long sought release is the advance preview of the the overall show as reflected by the promotional artwork. But just on the basis of what has been seen this is going to require a lot of faith on our part.

What the (USS) Enterprise is to STAR TREK, what the (SSRN) Seaview and the Flying Sub are to VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, the distinctive UFOs are to THE INVADERS in this fans have been unfairly deprived.

These original designs still fascinate and inspire. A large part of THE INVADERS' attraction, appeal and enjoyment is the distinctive hardware of the extraterrestrials so impressively displayed which were drafted with a specific idea in mind.

I don't mind the different style of the lettering. I don't mind the additional WAR OF THE WORLDS-like embellishments but in radically altering the recognized and famed UFO a serious breach of good judgment and taste has wrongfully been made here.

While it won't deter INVADERS fans from purchasing the DVD set it is difficult to imagine that this lackluster representation seriously marred by the uniteresting and inappropriate spacecraft would have any kind of appeal to the uninitiated layman. Most people do judge the book by its cover something that Paramount (at least in this instance) seems blithely unaware of.

I think this revealingly betrays the fact of just how precious little creative talent and imagination contemporary graphic artists have in this painfully dull and sterile age we live in. Just why do you think that many of us prefer the so-called older SF tv series over the more recent efforts?!

On the topic of unaired pilots Paramount always seems to fall down on this department as well. There has never been any effort on the part of the company to make available the original unaired pilot version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Paramount just seems to be loath to go that extra step to truly serve series fans to their complete satisfaction...sadly this total lack of consideration is also typical of the times we live in!

Jeff T.

Re: WE REALLY CARE ABOUT THIS FUNTASTIC SHOW!!!!!

Jeffrey, you and I have conversed before and you know that no-one is a bigger fan of THE TIME TUNNEL than me (except of course perhaps yourself!). When the artwork for those two half-seasons were made public, I went to the extra lengths here in this forum to draw a scribbled brown-paper version, syaing that I didn't care if the cover looked that poorly, as long as the series was well-mastered and intact.

Well, THE TIME TUNNEL came and went. We all have our DVD sets and view them on and off and will continue to do so as the years progress. Did the in-our-humble-opinions artwork do any damage to the sale of the series? We'll never know for sure, but I don't think so. As the first non-LOST IN SPACE Irwin Allen series release, THE TIME TUNNEL paved the way for both VOYAGE and LAND OF THE GIANTS to likewise have well-mastered DVD sets.

Did FOX improve the artwork on those later sets? Yes. There was bitching and moaning here about the wrong submarine version and flying subs where they didn't belong, and ultimately the VOYAGE covers were done pretty well (at least so far). And Fox went perhaps a bit too far with the LAND OF THE GIANTS mega-set with the fancy packaging, ultimately pricing the series out of the reach of many fans.

Hopefully, someone at CBS/Paramount is monitoring these pages and others like it on the Internet. If they sense that the fans are dissatisfied, perhaps they'll do something, perhaps not. So far most of their '60s DVD sets use fonts and lettering that have nothing to do with the series' proper graphics. They borrowed the movie font for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. THE FUGITIVE is wrong, etc.

So, the point of all this is that hopefully, it's not too late to get the Invaders' spacecraft fixed, but for me, the bottom line is the DVDs themselves. If the episodes are well-presented and well-mastered, I'll be happy to add THE INVADERS to my collection. I won't however be pointing to the cover as great art.

That said, I'm reminded of yesterday, sitting at the table, thumbing through a catalog I received in the mail from Critics Choice Video & DVD. ( Critic's Choice Video -- I have ordered from their CD division so I get their catalogs all the time. Their prices can be a bit high, but the catalogs can be fun to read.) As I got to the science fiction page, there in the center of it all, catching my eye was a small thumbnail of THE TIME TUNNEL VOLUME 1. It stood out far above the other familiar graphics on the page, so maybe that *awful* cover is, in fact, doing its job and selling the package as it's designed to.

Even if Volume 1 of THE INVADERS packaging isn't exactly what we'd like to see, perhaps there's hope for Volume 2 down the road.

Harry

Re: The Invaders

JeffT i cant count the number of times artists have butchered Star Trek. From the font, to the USS Enterprise, but none of it has kept me from buying a book, DVD, or whatever, if the product inside is something worth owning. I have never seen anyone say, that cover art looks like s**t, i am not buying this! You could always make, or find your own custom art if it makes you that mad.
The art reminds me of the cover art used for the 1950's War of the worlds movie, with the modern LA being destroyed. It didnt keep me from buying that DVD.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF!!!!!

I didn't realize that Harry drew up that brown bag rendition of THE TIME TUNNEL art design which at the time I wasn't in an especially too good a mood for any humour because of my profound disappointment to find funny.

I (repeatedly) complained here just why LOST IN SPACE was released before VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and THE TIME TUNNEL and when the official word was made known that THE TIME TUNNEL was (finally) being made available on DVD who wasn't excited about that?

I even recall someone saying just how great the box design would look and everyone (likely) knows the rest of the story.

This is literally the same situation all over again.

When the packaging designs for PERRY MASON, THE FUGITIVE or THE MOD SQUAD are drawn up they accurately reflect the show but when it comes to the SF tv series there seems to be some sort of mental block involved. Maybe these graphic artists just aren't SF enthusiasts and this total lack of enthusiasm is reflected in their work?!

Pertaining specifically to THE TIME TUNNEL the packaging design was absolutely no detriment to its outstanding AMAZON online retail sales in both the U.S. and Canada (at one point peaking at an unbelievable sales rank of 2 or 3). I have to conclude that most people were already well familiar with this tv property and knew precisely what they were buying.

By contrast THE MOD SQUAD despite the heavy promotion and an ultra fancy packaging design didn't place any higher on AMAZON.COM than the 400 to 500 sales rank on its first week which is an abysmally poor showing to be sure.

Jeff T.

Re: The Invaders

Oh - I recall plenty of criticism around here for that first release of THE FUGITIVE.



The package does NOT use the correct font, but substitutes something more akin to the movie font without the italics. It depicts Richard Kimble carrying a briefcase away from the crashed train, which he did not do. It shows him wearing his trademark casual jacket, when he was wearing a suit and tie on the train. It pictures all of this in happening color, which it was not.

And this is from our friends at CBS Paramount. It seems that quite a few shows get no respect when it comes to the original graphics.

And this trend carries over into the movie world as well. Read any number of threads here at the HTF and you'll find plenty of criticism heaped at all kinds of movie DVDs that use some newly-created, floating head, wrong fonted artwork. It's an industry disease I think.

Harry

Re: The Invaders

I was one of the those that criticized the cover to "The Fugitive" for the reasons you cite. Next to "The Invaders" cover, now I can't find anything but praise. At least it's not terribly misrepresentative of the series concept, just obviously cut/pasted.

I have to disagree with the merits behind a marketing ploy to reach out to more fans by "updating" the cover. For a '20-30 something' that is used to CGI and "eye candy" over subtlety and substance all that is going to happen is that he'll remark at what a "slow moving series it is--no hardware, cheap effects, no bikini babes", etc. and not be fooled again into making blind purchases. And I happen to think that a large segment of the younger population, sophisticated as they are these days are wise to these kinds of cheap studio antics anyway.

By the way, Harry, nice shot of the Sombrero galaxy, one of my favorite Messier deep sky objects.

Re: The Invaders

The bottom line is they dont want old shows, or movies, looking old. They want to con a few young people, or even older folks who dont remember a show, or movie, into buying it. Its not geared to the fans. As Harry pointed out, you would buy it if it was in a brown paper bag. Just go look at the cover for this weeks release of The Apartment. A black and white classic with new color art on the DVD cover. Thank god they didnt colorize the movie as well!
Unfortunately TV shows dont have classic movie posters to use, and even if they did, no one but Warner ever uses them for DVD covers.

Re: The Invaders

I have owned the complete series of The Invaders (on ten discs) for about a year. The artwork done by the company from which I bought the set is faithful to the original series, both with regard to the box and disc art. The menus are also very well done and aesthetically pleasing from my perspective. I also appreciate how the entire series fits into one box, which measures about one inch in width. These are some of the reasons that I opted not to wait for this release of the DVDs. One of the drawbacks of doing it this way is that I will not have access to any special features, but that's a compromise that I was willing to make.

Re: THE INVADERS UFOs!!!!!

You probably already know this, but the very effective visual "rips" and the Frontiere score were more-or-less recycled from the proposed-but-aborted OUTER LIMITS spinoff series, THE UNKNOWN (The OUTER LIMITS season one episode, "The Forms of Things Unknown" was largely the pilot for THE UNKNOWN, with a different ending). That's nice company for THE INVADERS to be in, and I'm glad these flourishes for THE UNKNOWN were eventually used for something good, rather than being consigned to the trash heap.

THE UNKNOWN pilot's opening sequence used to be on YouTube, but was taken down, I think. Too bad that it and the PLEASE STAND BY version of "The Galaxy Being" weren't included as extras on the OUTER LIMITS discs.

ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT!!!!!

There is a very strong tie between THE INVADERS with THE OUTER LIMITS as Dominic Frontiere served as the composer for both these classic 1960s SF tv series.

Indeed, THE INVADERS pilot episode "Beachhead" actually has some of Mr. Frontiere's OUTER LIMITS music extensively utilized throughout this sterling presentation so much so that it can be considered the unofficial 50th episode of THE OUTER LIMITS.

This significant information just came to my notice pertaining to the TV SHOWS ON DVD online announcement pertaining to the finalized packaging design of THE INVADERS - THE FIRST SEASON 5-disc set which just may be of interest and offer some encouragement for devout INVADERS fans:

"We also want to assure our readers that the folks at the studio have been advised of fan concerns about whether the first episode, 'Beachhead,' would be the complete original 75-minute version instead of the edited syndication version. They've also been told of fans desire to make sure all episodes are as originally broadcast (and have neither edited nor sped up versions put on these discs), and that fans would love to have Roy Thinnes' participation on extras for these DVDs. While we have no way of knowing yet if the studio will do anything with that feedback, we can tell you that the studio has received the info through at least a couple of sources. It's likely we won't know what we're actually getting, though, until the street date!"

Even if nothing ultimately comes of it at least Paramount Pictures-CBS Television Home Entertainment is now fully aware of just how INVADERS fans would like this impending Region 1 DVD release to be approached and its possible contents.

At this late date I would even settle for the inclusion of the alternate 50 minute version of "Beachhead" (along with some tv promos) which is at least something!

Thank you TV SHOWS ON DVD for your invaluable assistance on this most important matter. We are forever in your dept here!

On the topic of the finalized packaging design I am (resignedly) not going to carp on it any longer albeit I feel that the depicted UFO is not modern appearing at all and that the original UFOs seen on THE INVADERS are infinitely more advanced looking in their esthetically superior design.

Jeff T.

Re: The Invaders

Quite right, Jeff, fully agree. The saucer as shown actually has a B-movie appearance and reminds me much of the "cottage cheese cup glued on top of pie plate" design that people made in the 50s and 60s to photograph and convince the world they saw a genuine UFO.

Time and again we are witness to this folly that we can somehow always "update" something from the past and consequently make it appear to be more accurate, modern or whatever. (We proved that with the new "Outer Limits", right? Boy, the use of color sure lifted that series concept out of the 'stone age'...!)

Re: The Invaders

I just now made a .jpg out of the image that TomIXG posted (pg. 9, #261 of this thread) reduced the image to 75% of original and printed it here at work. His original box art is wonderful and I decided to use this and insert it inside the case as the result was very much to my liking.

Tom, if you're still with us (last post was back in Nov.) I hope this is alright with you. While we're at it, what would you say to making inserts specifically for the set?

Re: The Invaders

Great news.....

Like everyone else....hoping for some extras...a Roy Thinnes interview and maybe a Thinnes commentary on "Beach Head".

Re: The Invaders

I watched Doomsday Minus-One tonight. Although I like Andrew Duggan (the original Mr. Walton--although I must say I prefer Ralph Waite in the role) as the General, I thought that this episode showcased one of William Windom's (as the Major) best performances. He and Vincent played off of one another very well in this one.

The episode had a fair amount of tension in it, a fairly well done car crash (over a short cliff, concluding with the disintegration of two of the aliens), and an action-packed shootout near the conclusion of the episode. I just knew that the General's safe (in Washington) was going to be empty. Vincent surely knew, and the look of horror on the General's face when he phoned in and got the news that his comrade had died of a 'heart attack,' and that the safe was empty, was priceless. Good all-around offering in the series.

Re: The Invaders

Episodes of the new series should be used in a class to teach how to take a classic and absolutely destroy it completely. The original OL was my favorite show. The remake? I'd like 10 minutes in a room with a baseball bat and the producers.

Re: The Invaders

Duggan turns up in everything I watch at the moment, from "Banacek" to "Streets of San Francisco", etc. Good solid actor he was.

Re: The Invaders

A pretty common phenomenon for TV shows of the late 1960's through late 1970's. The same group character actors pretty much just went from one casting call to another to fill out guest star roles on virtually every show from that era.

For example, in one recent period of watching three very randomly selected episodes of Hawaii Five-O, The Wild, Wild West and The Odd Couple, I saw Marj Dusay in all three episodes - quite by coincidence! Just imagine if I had taken the next natural step, and next popped in Season 3 of Star Trek to watch the Spock's Brain episode!

I'm sure others have had similar experiences of seeing the same familiar faces show up in two or more very different series of that particular time period.

Re: The Invaders

On the ITC shows of that era, like The Prisoner, Danger Man, The Avengers, The Saint, etc. there's a whole set of British character actors and pretty girl-types who show up again and again. It's an alternate universe of familiarity!

Re: The Invaders

I don't think you could go through too many series and not run into Susan Oliver, Lois Nettleton, Joanne Linville, Diane Baker and Carol Rossen. I think they must have each guested on 90% of the prime time dramas of the 60s.

Re: The Invaders

I had an odd experience of watching an American show and a British show and running into the same charactor actor.

John Crawford, a mainstay of the Irwin Allen universe, showing up on all of his series multiple times, just happened to be in the half-hour DANGER MAN series episode "The Girl In Pink Pyjamas" that I was watching, right after seeing him in the TIME TUNNEL episode "Billy The Kid."

I love seeing guest actors on these British series that I recognize from their roles in THE PRISONER, the series with which I'm most familiar.

Harry

Re: The Invaders

William Windom must've done every show ever made!

WANTED: SOME ADDITIONAL BONUS MATERIAL!!!!!

The above is much more in keeping with my idea of a worthy packaging design for the upcoming THE INVADERS - THE FIRST SEASON 5-disc set...the original elegant imagery still attractively impresses the sensibilities!

With five discs and but a single episode (apparently) allocated to the fifth surely this is wastefully unproductive and the inclusion of the unaired 75 minute version of the pilot "Beachhead," some tv promos and a possible INVADERS featurette are warranted to properly fill things out.

While expressing one's foremost wishes please strike the video source masters from the original 35mm vault stored elements for optimum pristine picture and sound quality a la the exceptional VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA multi-volume DVD collection.

Let's do something that is reflective of advanced 21st Century technology and responsive to modern day sensibilities in a quality DVD release!

Jeff T.

Re: The Invaders

Regarding the packaging - myself and the other people I know who are serious collectors, discard it anyway and put the DVDs in jewel cases. When you have a couple of hundred pre-recorded DVDs, you don't change your shelving around to accommodate them, you worry more about the tens of thousands of DVDRs you have. These things make up such an insignificant percentage of the collection that it's not worth the bother to have to change things around for them. Just easier to put them in jewel cases so they fit with the rest of the collection.