Some shows just have a short run.

In my profession/hobby, you come across many of them.  The 1975 Invisible Man series with David McCallum only had a run of 13 episodes (12 only aired) while the Planet of the Apes series only aired 12 of its total 14 episodes.  Of course, nowadays this is a very common practice:  the last five years have produced a record amount of TV series that have crash and burned with a great majority of their in-the-can episodes locked in a vault, never to see the light of day.  Fortunately, the last I heard Showtime was going to make a pay channel that would air all of these hidden shows and put them into constant reruns ala any other cable channel out there.

TBS and USA, I'm looking at you.

Nevertheless, while this may seem like a travesty, there are often very good reasons why shows fail.  In today's environment, it's common for a good show to get canned when it doesn't perform well enough quickly enough.  But twenty years back, it was quality and ratings.  Which brings us to Gemini Man.

Gemini Man only had 13 episodes to its name, five of which aired back in 1974.  That means that seven hours of material was left sitting, deemed unviewable to the public.  Why?   Hence, we come to the final episode of Gemini Man back in 1974, "Run, Sam, Run."

"Run, Sam, Run" starts with Sam Casey waking up in a hotel room, not remembering what has occurred the past few days.  He has a clue when he returns to work to find his boss waiting to take him into custody after a murder has occurred of a fellow agent.  The capper:  InterSECT (Sam's super secret agency which also posed as the Klae Corporation in 1975's Invisible Man, which was made by the same people) has a videotape of Sam committing the act.  So Sam must use his fifteen minutes of invisibility to prove his innocence against his friends by using a deaf Christian who can't drive and plenty of action.  Eventually, he does prove his innocence and...well, that's the plot.  Even for an hour long show, it's pretty threadbare and quite basic.

Which brings me to my point:  what happened to Gemini Man?  Due to a lack of most of the run (not many people taped it when it ran on Sci-Fi a few years back), I only own the latter episodes aside from 'Minotaur' which was the second regular episode aired.  'Minotaur' starts very differently:  Sam, in a nice tuxedo, is romancing a woman when he is called by InterSECT to deal with a scientist (Ross Martin from the original Wild, Wild West--he was probably on contract by Universal as he did an awful Night Gallery segment during this time) who has built a powerful robot and intends to use it to destroy the world.  So, Sam only has his fifteen minutes of invisibility to defeat the robot in an underground maze.  If you haven't figured it by now, the robot is named "the Minotaur" and is possessed of superhuman reasoning and logic.  It also figures out that Sam Casey can become invisible, which leads to the predictable plot development of Ross Martin denying the super smart Minotaur which ends his life when it goes predictably mad.

Anyway, Sam Casey defeats the Minotaur in his maze and saves the day.  Like you needed to be told that.

I admit that Gemini Man isn't the smartest show in the world.  But the difference between 'Minotaur' and 'Run, Sam, Run' is astonishing at least.  According to epguides.com,  the difference with Sam as James Bond and Sam as Good-Ol-Boy Agent was two WEEKS.  Possibly sooner if we look at 'Night Train to Dallas', the episode preceding 'Run, Sam, Run.'  What happened?  Why was this changed?  I do know that Gemini Man was created in response to the troubles surrounding the 1975 Invisible Man Show (an permanently invisible academic type running around naked isn't that exciting as an no-nonsense agent who can keep his clothes on and still remain invisible) but the change in character is baffling.  Why change from a Bondian agent to just a basic 'Good Ol Hazzard County boy agent doesn't make sense, through I do have the feeling it could have been Ben Murphy (Sam Casey)'s decision as he played the latter characterization with more heart.  Yet, it was too little too late:  if everyone had stuck with the Bondian stuff the show may have lasted longer and had a better chance at immortality.   Adding more confusion to this is that the episodes may have been aired out of the order that they were made (another later unaired-initally episode, 'Escape Hatch,' features the Bondian Sam Casey) and that could have killed the series.  Either way, the changeover could still be blamed for the show's early--or earlier than expected--demise.  Which is sad, since the show isn't truly awful but rather flawed in many ways.

BOTTOM LINE:  The show is an interesting way to spend an hour, and it's not that bad but rather a curio on '70s Action with a dose of Sci-Fi thrown in for good measure.  Shame I don't have the rest of the series.  For Run, Sam, Run, I'll give it one and a half stars for trying and Minotaur three stars for having a great guest star--Ross Martin--, a great robot, and one hell of an interesting premise.  Hell, they tried.

EXTRA:  I am interested in obtaining more Gemini Man episodes in a fair deal.  If you have any of the following episodes:

The Gemini Man (2 hour pilot)
Smithereens
Sam Casey, Sam Casey
Targets
Buffalo Bill Rides Again

Please contact me at [email protected] and we can make a deal.  Thanks, as I would like to review the whole series and see if the changeover in characterization as described in the review is accurate or not.  Many thanks.