History Series / GeminiMan

** Driscoll thinks of himself as Literature/SherlockHolmes and Denby as Moriarty, and states Holmes always got his man. [[spoiler: But apparently Driscoll never read any of those books since Holmes never tried and convicted Moriarty. Rather, they perished together in a fall.]]

''Gemini Man'', based VERY loosely on Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan'', was a [[LiveActionTV TV series]] from 1976 produced by [[Franchise/StarTrek Harve Bennett]] and Creator/StevenBochco which followed the adventures of government operative Sam Casey, who worked for a CIA-like agency known as INTERSECT. After a radiation accident in the pilot episode, he was rendered invisible, but was supplied with a watch-style device called a "DNA Stabilizer" that allowed him to control the invisibility --with the catch that he could only stay invisible for 15 minutes per day or else he'd die. The series premiered on NBC as part of the Fall 1976 lineup (following a two-hour pilot which aired on May 10 of the same year), but was dropped from the schedule after only five of eleven completed episodes were aired. The series was a bit more successful in Europe, particularly in the U.K., where the entire 11-episode run were aired and even had an annual published.

Most mid-'70s action series with a lifespan that short would quickly fade into obscurity. However, a [[CompilationMovie TV movie compiled from two episodes of the show]] entitled ''Riding with Death'' was released five years later and continued to run on television for many years. The episodes used were the series premiere "Smithereens" along with "Buffalo Bill Rides Again", the latter of which didn’t air in the US network run, and are linked via the common themes of vehicles MadeOfExplodium and country singer Jim Stafford. The movie itself was featured on a 1997 episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000,'' introducing it to another generation and ensuring it maintained its notoriety.

!!The show made use of many tropes [[ActionAdventureTropes common among action/adventure fare]] of the era, among them:

* RedScare: Turns out Denby had his bomb-car outfitted in [[CommieLand East Germany]].

* MissingEpisode: The show got fewer than half of its completed episodes on the air. The CompilationMovie partially justified itself by using one of the missing episodes for the second half. The linking factor was that both episodes featured guest shots by country/novelty musician Jim Stafford, as well as being about dangerous vehicles (hence the movie's title).

* MagicBrakes: Actually averted. Though the sinister mechanic Carl sabotages the brakes of the semi, the movie acknowledges this isn't a huge problem. The huge problem would be the series of vicious switchbacks and hairpin curves Casey is bearing down on at high-speed.
** ArtisticLicenseCars: Casey's truck uses a pneumatic brake system, which --unlike hydraulic systems on passenger vehicles-- uses compressed air to force open brakes that are normally clamped onto the wheels under powerful spring tension, and you apply the brake by letting off some of that air pressure. In reality, cutting a brake hose won't keep you from stopping a big rig; it will keep you from ''going'' by locking up the wheels.

** The original 1976 version of ''Riding with Death'' was significantly longer, including an extended sequence from the Pilot rather than the bits of exposition clunkily shoehorned into the later version,[[note]]This is why Richard Dysart is credited as Driscoll, even though William Sylvester plays the character in the actual movie.[[/note]] along with some inserts and ADR narration that made some effort to plug up the aforementioned continuity errors. For whatever reason the movie was reedited for its video release, making it even clunkier than it already was.

* CrystalClearPicture: The monitor Abby uses to... monitor Casey in the second half of the movie has a better resolution than the rest of the film.

''Gemini Man'', based VERY loosely on Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan'', was a [[LiveActionTV TV series]] from 1976 produced by [[Franchise/StarTrek Harve Bennett]] and Creator/StevenBochco which followed the adventures of government operative Sam Casey, who worked for a CIA-like agency known as INTERSECT. After a radiation accident in the pilot episode, he was rendered invisible, but was supplied with a watch-style device called a "DNA Stabilizer" that allowed him to control the invisibility - with the catch that he could only stay invisible for 15 minutes per day or else he'd die. The series premiered on NBC as part of the Fall 1976 lineup (following a two-hour pilot which aired on May 10 of the same year), but was dropped from the schedule after only five of eleven completed episodes were aired. The series was a bit more successful in Europe, particularly in the U.K., where the entire 11-episode run were aired and even had an annual published.

** Buffalo keeps telling Sam about his racing plans in Ontario in ADR.

** When making ''Riding With Death'', they needed something to tie the two episodes together -- so they overdubbed some dialogue in both episodes to tie them together, added some footage they had of [[HotScientist Reasonably Okay-Looking Scientist]] Abby watching a viewscreen which featured the events of the second episode. Occasionally Footage-Abby would chime in with overdubbed dialogue, quite possibly taken from yet a ''third'' (fourth?) episode.

* ILoveNuclearPower: It makes me invisible and stuff! Sadly, since the series was canceled, we'll probably never see a continuation titled ''The Invisible Cancer Patient''.

** Abby has absolutely no purpose in the second half of the film (since she [[AbsenteeActor wasn't in that episode]]) but to forge some sort of link to the first half and not make it look like she just disappeared [[FakeShemp we occasionally see her]] watching the action on a monitor via some stock footage, mumbling some pablum.

* BaldOfEvil: Dr. Hale, the patent paper-wielding villain.

* BarBrawl: A rather incompetently-staged one in "Buffalo Bill Rides Again", which Sam secretly helps Buffalo win; for bonus points, it's also instigated by some stereotypical loudmouthed rednecks with strong DeepSouth twangs. (Considering this is supposed to be taking place in Ontario, and it's implied that they're local boys, not out-of-towners, how they picked up these accents is anyone's guess.)