Pure Genius

Dr. Peter Brady (Tim Turner), a physicist working for a British government laboratory on a problem concerning light refraction, receives an overdose of radiation during an experiment that renders him invisible. At first, his superiors, unable to know what to make of this tragedy/miracle, try to keep him under wraps -- but Brady won't be held a prisoner, nor does he intend to remain invisible a second longer than it takes him to find a solution to his problem, and he escapes their custody, returning to the home of his astonished widowed sister (Lisa Daniely) and her daughter (Deborah Watling). After some verbal and physical jousting with his superiors, it's agreed that Brady's condition and situation will remain a top secret, but that he will be free to come and go as he pleases, while trying to find a cure for his condition. This accommodation works for a time, and Brady does voluntarily go to work on behalf of the government on various espionage and rescue missions, although enough people -- both in and out of the government -- gradually come to learn about his condition, so that he isn't much more of a "secret" than James Bond's real work is a "secret" to anyone but the surrounding ordinary public. His condition does become public knowledge by accident midway through the run of the 26-episode series, and he ends up as an unwilling celebrity, with the police and ordinary people coming to him for help after that. Actor Tim Turner, who played Brady (whose face is never seen) in the opening moments of the first episode and voiced the part for the run of the series, was never credited on the show, nor was his identity revealed until it had been in reruns in England for a half-decade -- as a sort of "in" joke, he actually played a villain on-camera in one episode.

Hong Kong action-movie superstar Sammo Hung keeps the kicks flying in this TV action farce about a Chinese lawman (Hung) brought to Los Angeles to join forces with detective Louis McGray (Louis Mandylor) and detective Dana Doyle (Tammy Lauren). It's not long before this trio has the bad guys on the run. Filmed in Van Nuys, this series premiered September 16, 1998 on CBS.

A well-regarded '50s anthology show featuring four marquee actors who starred on a rotating basis. Originally, two of the four were to be Joel McCrea and Rosalind Russell, but they were replaced by David Niven and Ida Lupino (joining Charles Boyer and Dick Powell). A recurring character, nightclub owner Willie Dante, was spun off into his own series called 'Dante' in 1960, with Howard Duff taking over the role originated by Powell.

An iconic, enduring soap opera, this is the steamer set in Genoa City, where the Newman and Abbott dynasties stir it up in the bedroom and the boardroom. Best known for long-term love triangles, issue-oriented plots, a multi-ethnic cast and slick production values, 'Y&R' has been showered with Emmys, launched countless careers and spawned the equally lavish 'The Bold and the Beautiful.' Former cast members include Tom Selleck and David Hasselhoff.

Among the best of the many Western series cluttering the TV landscape in the '50s, CBS' weekly, half-hour Wanted: Dead or Alive was introduced in pilot form as an episode of another Western, Trackdown, on March 7, 1958. Officially launching its run on September 6, 1958, Wanted, like Trackdown, dealt with the exploits of a professional bounty hunter, whose job it was to capture wanted criminals and deliver them to the authorities -- alive if possible, but dead if necessary. Steve McQueen, formerly a journeyman actor best known for his leading role in the drive-in horror epic The Blob, was catapulted to stardom in the role of taciturn bounty hunter Josh Randall. Though not bound to honor the edicts of the law, Josh adhered to a personal code of honor, like many other loner cowboy heroes of the era. He also toted a specially designed weapon which he affectionately referred to as his "Mare's Laig" -- a .30-.40 gauge sawed-off carbine which could be used as either a pistol or a rifle. During most of the series' first two seasons, Steve McQueen was the only regular. Beginning with the 57th episode in the spring of 1960, and continuing until episode number 68, Wright King was added to the cast as Josh's sometime partner, deputy sheriff Jason Nichols. Lasting 94 episodes, Wanted: Dead or Alive closed out its CBS run on March 29, 1961. Twenty-six years later, a modernized feature-film version of Wanted: Dead or Alive was released, with Rutger Hauer as Josh's great-grandson Nick Randall. (But where did he pick up that German accent?)

A tough, cynical PI works L.A. in a long-running series of crime tales that were taut and violent. Originally, Joe Mannix worked for an ultracomputerized organization; later, he set up his own shop. But mayhem always predominated.