THE INVADERS TV Series: Hollywood tricks used to make the Invaders burn up when they died
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- I'm a retired film editor, but I loved THE INVADERS as a kid...especially the wonderful special effects. Quinn Martin didn't skimp on budgets, and this included the optical effects. According to Roy Thinnes, each "immolation" cost about $190-210 which, in 2024 dollars, is about $1800. That made each optical quite expensive, because it involved frame-by-frame rotoscoping, animation cameras, and optical printers. But the results are gorgeous--and haunting.
I do not own any of this footage. I'm presenting here for educational and film/tv history purposes.
I loved this show when I was young. The immolation was a cool effect. Even by today’s standards, this is still a cool effect given the technology available at the time.
Roy Thinnes was a cool actor. 86 years old!
It’s a show that could be rebooted today with good scripts and a story arc.
I enjoyed it also and had Aurora's plastic kit of the Invader spacecraft. During that time, there was something called "Glow Juice" made by Kenner's and I used it to paint the lit parts of the spacecraft. During the evenings and in bed I'd "energize" the painted parts with my flashlight when I should have been sleeping. That stuff glowed like crazy and really upped that kit's game.
I loved this show when I was a kid. We still had black and white TV, so I never saw the color when the aliens disintegrated.
I bought all the DVDs. So nice to see it again.
life was in black and white back then
Same here.
I was about 8yo when they showed The Invaders on TV here in the UK, and if my memory serves me well it was shown on BBC 2 at 9pm. I was lucky that my mum and dad let me stay up till ten so I could watch it but it scared the crap out of me when the aliens disintegrated. I watched it again a few years back and was impressed by how good the special effects were for the 60s, in fact they're not bad even now. after watching this I think I'll treat myself to the box set and relive those childhood memories of 67/68.
I have the box set. Well worth it.
I agree--the boxed set is great. Good transfers/color/sound. And yes, the special effects hold up very well today!
I used to watch this show all the time as a kid. I never forgot the pinky sticking out as the way to spot the aliens.
This was one of my favorite 1960’s shows. Loved Roy Thinnes.
I met Roy and Lynn Loring in Monterey circa 1970 when he was filming that awful mini series "The Psychiatrist". I was at the then Holiday Inn Motel [newly constructed], and I was essentially just a beach bum kid. Jerry Freeman introduced me to him and he spoke to me like I was actually somebody such was the charm and charisma of Roy. Quite a gentleman. We also share the same birthday. Hope you are still kicking on Roy. In my view, Hollywood never [outside of the Invaders] gave you a role that showed your great talent.
Brotherly love from Australia...
I loved THE INVADERS as a kid as well. Excellent TV sci-fi
I loved the burning-up effect, and still do. You can see that the film is still rolling during the sequences. Then there's a black smudge on the ground. And like you say, you don't see any sign that the ground was disturbed after the actor vanishes. They didn't have much in the way of SFX but it was well done. I liked that show. My only quibble is that David Vincent seemed to get beaten up in every episode.
I loved it. My brother built the model of the flying saucer.
It’s still plays on Saturday night on METV
Nowadays they would digitally remove the chicken, turn the burning alien into twenty terabytes worth of floating, spinning, glowing particles...
and add three lens flares
You are probably right!
Chickens never listen to the director.
This make sense after watching to the end of the video… 👍🏻
Nor do cats! czcams.com/video/Pk7yqlTMvp8/video.html
I remember in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951), Gort the robot was zapping people and objects out of existence right and left. I guess Quinn Martin's people weren't used to SF visual effects. STAR TREK was doing the same thing right along with THE INVADERS, though the latter show added the extra trick of incinerating a moving body, which TREK didn't.
I loved this show too !!!😊😊
I've seen this series twice. Tons of special guest stars.
That was great, but you’d have thought they’d work out that the sun and shadows move over time, so either keep away from any or get the actor out real quick!
I figured they were trying to shoot very quickly, before they lost the sunlight and they didn't want to go overbudget on an episode so early in the season. That whole sequence was filmed as the sun was getting very low--you can tell by the shadows. And when the sun is that low, even waiting 5 minutes will cause a visible shift in the shadows. At least they didn't cut the sequence out of the script!!
The only thing they cant do about is the shadow shifted indicating time had passed.
I won't lie , this tv series used to scare the living chicken soup out of me when i was a kid !!
( some episodes still put a chill up me )
Great show, thanks for posting.
The X-Files in the sixties.
I loved this show!
I always wondered if burning alien left a smell.
They did, oddly, of fresh pine...
Burning Aliens caused the hole in the ozone layer. Those damned aliens!!!
@@Belzediel Bwahahaha~!!
Yes, the smell of victory.
The chickens were not paid as a result of them ruining the shot. They sued unsuccessfully through their union, AFTRA (American Feathered Television and Radio Artists) and ended up working the craft services table - as entrees.
Thanks for the best laugh I've had all week!
The other important thing was the careful selection in shot placement. In most of the shots, the body falls in such a way that the actor could be able to get up and get out of the shot in such a way that reduces the visibility of any raking or sweeping away their footprints. They fall in shadows, or next to something that could be stepped on and not leave prints, or the angle is low enough that any raking wouldn't be easily seen.
Proper Planning Prevents P!ss Poor Performance.
And I'm sure as the series went along, they used all those tricks to speed up production!
In the last bit, the ray gun that the alien dropped fades away too, but not in the red glowy way. Great video :D
I noticed that too....I guess they thought "we've spent enough on this episode, probably $2K on opticals, forget the dropped gun!" There's another episode, out on the oil field, where the alien control center is in a railroad oil tanker. David Vincent strangles the alien to death--one of the out-and-out murders he does that isn't in immediate self-defence--and if you watch VERY carefully, frame by frame, the gun is suspended on a wire or something and is hanging in the air sans alien! It's so quick and I don't know what they intended with it.
Never seen the show, but it looks neat. I remember doing any kind of optical was a hassle when I started out in this industry...so I don't regret going into computer graphics research early on. The one thing I don't miss from back then; doing optical compositing.
I have a friend who did special effects the "old fashioned way"--on film, with optical printers! He told me nightmare stories about STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE where they were working 24/7, paid to keep the film lab open 24/7 (including weekends!!!!), had motorcycle couriers to run the exposed film back and forth to the lab, and just insane work pressures....i.e. the transporter glow. They would call Paramount and ask, "We can try to use gold colored glitter, or try real gold flakes. Which should we do?" The answer for these questions was always, "JUST DO IT. SCREW THE COSTS." And when the film premiered in Washington DC (if memory serves) Robert Wise had never seen the completed film (with all the opticals)!! Even so, my friend laments the change in attitude. It used to be (working on film) "How can we make this look terriffic and believable?" to the computer era, "How cheaply can we do this in CGI.?" To quote him, "there was a massive change in attitude towards visual effects, and the old-school creativity went down the drain."
I remember watching this show whenI was a kid. Always fascinated by the vaporizing alien death scenes. Now I know how it was done. Thanks. :-)
You confirmed in general how the aliens were made to appear to disintegrate..... The blurring of the fire with the matting made it look more realistic... This is a great video on special effects.
Thank you! I'm a retired film editor, and one of my best industry friends is a special effects wizard of the old school--matte paintings, miniatures, forced perspective, rotoscoping, etc. I asked him one day how they would have done these effects and he told me. There was one effect I clearly remember but couldn't find--where an alien falls into a swimming pool and is immolated, and the pool starts boiling with smoke bubbles and waves. I could never find it. But I DO remember it and even at my tender age of 12 I wondered how they did all that--and how hard it would be to pull off both the optical effects AND the physical on-camera effects.
@@1Harpdude I saw that swimming pool episode also.
One of my favorite TV shows! They really succeeded in creating a believable story with the effects, rather than the effects being so cheezy that they'd snap you out of the story (i.e. most Irwin Allen).
The shadows moving were more conspicuous than the chickens.
Indeed. I mean, how long was it after the actors left the shots did they run the camera to get the empty plates. You would think it would be immediately but the shadows have moved a fair distance. It's a nice looking effect but the shadows spoilt the illusion for me.
One of my fave shows: just got the entire series on DVD a couple of weeks ago, finally, and only thing I wish is they had with multiple audio, with its classic translation to Spanish made in Mexico at the time
I really loved the soundtrack!!! Dominic Frontiere was one of the best in its class!!
I got to work once with Dominic Frontiere when I was the sound editor on MODERN PROBLEMS. Alas, they cut a couple of his most impressive cues. He was a nice man and I gushed that I was such a fan of his music on OUTER LIMITS and THE INVADERS. He told me with a wink that even though THE INVADERS never went into syndication (this was in the early 80's) he still got a great royalty every time an episode was shown of OUTER LIMITS: "If you can write the theme for a show, the royalties come in forever!"
Star Trek hand phasers set from "stun" to "kill." Turned glowing red and "dis-integrated".
Not only did they miss the movement in the last example, the rifleman's shadow doesn't move while he's shooting then it does after the immolation effect finishes.
I always wondered why there were not more "immolations" in the shows, never thought about the cost of each one. LOVE this show, of course I have the total set on DVD.
Great show as a kid. This was real TV
This looks like a somewhat better version of what happened when things got vaporized by the Martian ray gun in "War of the Worlds"
Yes, I also remember the series very vaguely, it ran in Germany in the 70s under the title "Invasion von der Wega"
I remember "The Invaders". As a 7 y/o kid, I always thought the disintegration of the aliens was so cool. No muss, no fuss, no body to pick up after...lol. I always wondered how they did that. Now I know, 63 years later, but still good to know.
That was a great TV show.
Upon the first notes of the theme, it was fingers in ears and running terrified from the room. Scary, scary stuff.
I always wondered how they did it. Thanks
Great video, excellent information, I've seen this on one of the dvds in the box set, now! Please give us some background on the building of the saucer prop, very (VERY) little information on that anywhere
I saw a video on CZcams,
czcams.com/video/qqY5wFcTaHE/video.html
that shows the miniature they used.
Not only was Mr.Thinnes in this classic TV show which I love (great music too), but he was married to Lynn Loring, one of the most beautiful, most sexy women to ever appear on television, who later became a highly successful TV executive.
My recollection is that it showed in Australia on Monday night, when my parents were out. I would be terrified!
Actually, that's a pretty good effect. Better than Star Trek.
I was hooked on this show . Would be great to see it re-imagined using today's FX . The concept of Aliens and UAPs are current again in the media. The idea that if an alien is killed or unmasked they would vaporise without leaving any trace (equipment, spaceships and debris as well) fits with our many sightings and reported encounters but no hard evidence. I remember that the aliens could induce heart attacks on anyone who threatened to expose them by placing a disc on their necks... cool. Yes, please make a new series of the invaders. Especially since I now know what a deserted diner is., I didn't at the time the series first aired.
The vaporizing/vanishing act is on full display on the History Channel's THE SECRET OF SKINWALKER RANCH, which I watch religiously! And that cerebral hemmorage disc--if you watch on a big screen and slow it down, you can see the power cable attached to it! Back then they didn't have LEDs, so they had to use very bright miniature bulbs that required more than 1.5-3 volts....hence the power cable. In a couple of episodes it's very clear--but usually it is running out of the sleeve of a sports coat. I still don't know how they got that spinning crystal to work!! It's clearly sitting on a thumb and held by an index finger--but what makes it spin the the length of a shot, which was occasionally quite long!
The affects of the aliens disintegrating was very impressive especially the last scene with the split screen for it works so well and I think the reason the chickens suddenly appear in the scene is that there must have been a UFO somewhere out there in space that had been examining the chickens on board the space ship and decided to beam the chickens back to where they came from just as the alien is killed 😃.
One other mistake in that last scene shown besides the Chickens moving is that the Alien when he gets shot, throws his own weapon away which lands on the ground. Exactly the kind of evidence that David Vincent was trying to find.......they usually go out of the way to have the weapons or devices dissolve too with it in the hands of the alien. Some scenes even have Aliens trying to grab the evidence just before they die so that they leave nothing behind.
True--but then again, the producers never dreamed that people would have 75" and greater TV screens. Back then, if you had a 23" color picture tube you were sitting pretty--with 1 or 2 5" speakers for sound!
Damn chickens!
The Invaders had thee best disintegration in sci-fi! I just finished rewatching both seasons and the way the aliens and inanimate objects dissolve are my favourite and more logical than anything at the time and since then!
Great show! But I remembered another goof when I watched it years ago, which was also revealed in one of the dissolve scenes: What happens to the alien's ray gun when he drops it before disintegrating? Seems like the gun wouldn't burn up and would provide some nice evidence for Vincent to take to the authorities!
As one producer said to me, "you're not supposed to notice those kinds of things!" LOL
adding this comment .... what was great part of the show was how close he got to exposing the invasion but was thwarted at the last minute when the evidence burnt up.
Always!
Nice video, popped up on home page or after another video.
OK, we where told by you and others said answer to question. Went and concentrate on the one thing that could change and was right. Told by you anyway. Not know the program, something we not get on reruns here in UK or me just not old enough. 50 years old. Looks good, a bit of work and cost then for each poor person that died or object. Oil barrel there had it!.
I watched this video bc I had a specific memory that Batman and the Invaders premiered on the same night and time slot. The memory was that I watched the Invaders bc I knew Batman was going to be stupid but the next day at school I discovered I was the only boy who had not watched Batman. So I did some research. Wikipedia has every season of TV in separate articles. My 60+ year old memory was wrong. On the evening of 12 January 1966 instead of the Batman premiere I watched the premiere of Lost In Space. The Invaders did not premiere until a year later on 10 Jan 1967. Wow. I have recalled that memory quite often as Batman overcame the incredibly stupid TV series to become a huge revenue generator.
A much more convincing effect than a Star Trek disintegration. The burnt spot sells it more than a simple dissolve.
Hadn't thought about this show in 40 years, nothing wrong with my little finger.
era incrível assistir nas madrugadas aqui no Brasil. Imperdível e um dos meus mais favoritos shows
The scenes where aliens vapourise is from the episode 'The Mutation', which featured Suzanne Pleshette playing a good alien & being killed from her own kind.
4:59 the alien's weapon is gone from the shot.
talk about labour intensive I would imagine today somebody could replicate the effect digitally in probably less than few hours
yes if they got that for $200 then that was a bargain it must have cost more in terms of man effort
You're probably right. Nowdays a computer could generate a rotoscope matte and it would be a few overlays on AfterEffects or some other program. From my experience editing TV show on film, it probably took a full 5-7 days to do each effect. It would take the lab a day to do a pin-register print, and then all the rotoscoping would take hours. The ink and paint on the cels would take at least a day, and the animation camera another day (including the lab work to develop the high contrast hold-out matte). Then, the optical printer cameraman would probably take 2-3 hours at least doing the hold out matte, burning in the animation cel glow and the fire/spark plate, plus doing the dissolve--and then get the new negative to the lab for developing and making a positive print for the editor to cut into the reel. Plus--the special effects editor/supervisor would have to take METICULOUS notes of the footage, telling the rotoscoper and the optical printer cameraman EXACTLY what to do, i.e. "Film Code A22591 + 6 frames, start glow. Glow builds to A22594 +2, Begin 4 foot hold. St A22598, start 72 frame dissolve. At A22601+2, start fade on animation cells and burn in fire plate. Continue fade out for 4 feet, ending effect at A22605+2." It was probably even more complicated than that, to be honest! But it took meticulous planning because "retakes" would be extremely expensive!! That's why a 10 second effect would cost $2000 today! In some immolations, when the alien was totally motionless, they would only need one rotoscope frame and corresponding animation cel. But if the alien was moving, it was every frame. So if it took him 3 seconds to fall and lie still, that'd be 72 frames to rotoscope and 72 animation cels to be inked and painted. Ouch! I've tried painting animation cels, and it's a very long and tedious process! Even if it's only one color, it would probably take at least 30 minutes per cel.
Those darned photobombing 15 seconds of fame chickens !
That of the chickens was a time error, and could happened even nowadays
The kids in my neighborhood gave the Invaders five stars.
Must be a huge embarrassment for the poor aliens, come half way across the galaxy with super duper ray guns and then get killed by a primitive caveman with a gun powder burning fire stick! Loved the series though!
"No one really knows what they did."
Maybe it was space alien technology.
That is impressive.
At 03:00 you missed Step number 10 from the list. Maybe it got immolated! ;-)
LOL I missed that! I was trying to do that title crawl, and got goofed up while inputting it...and got the numbers wrong. #10. Animators, animation cameraman, and optical printer cameraman scream in frustration, and take a 4 martini lunch!
This process seems to take weeks to complete
That clearly wasn't union-poultry.
Cool Beans!!!
Interesting...
Watching the betrayed right now on Metv
I remember,I did look good .
I loved this series. Can you stream the invaders somewhere?
Did anyone bother to explain to the chickens what was expected of them during the filming?
Bawk!
Where's number 10 on your list???
Chickens are the best