Manimal (30 Sep. 1983)

Jonathan Chase is a British college professor at New York University who has the unusual ability to transform into any kind of animal he wants. He decides to use his power to assist the New... See full summary »

Director:

Russ Mayberry

Writers:

Donald R. Boyle, Glen A. Larson

Stars:

Simon MacCorkindale, Melody Anderson, Reni Santoni

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Simon MacCorkindale	...	Dr. Jonathan Chase
Melody Anderson	...	Brooke MacKenzie
Reni Santoni	...	Lt. Nick Rivera
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ursula Andress	...	Karen Jade
Gerald Berns	...	Lt. Griggs
Lloyd Bochner	...	Jordon
Robert Carricart	...	Old man
James Carroll	...	Guard (as James Lough)
Avner Garbi	...	Sheik
Michael Gregory	...	Kramer
Del Hinkley
Ed Hooks
Wynn Irwin
Elias Jacob	...	Sheik
Terry Kiser

Storyline

Jonathan Chase is a British college professor at New York University who has the unusual ability to transform into any kind of animal he wants. He decides to use his power to assist the New York Police Department in solving unusual crimes, and in this series pilot, he teams up with cute cop Brooke and war buddy Ty to stop some terrorists from stealing a supply of toxic gas.

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Plot Keywords:

animal | police | nerve gas | tv series pilot | turns into animal | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1983 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The two hour pilot's set description had the hero living in a New York Town House, with a subterranean safe room where the beasts were housed. Another set, which would be adjacent, was the garage where his auto was stored. The production's designer, Hub Braden, proposed a two story main house interior with the second floor having a center open well to view the first floor, with a glass sky-light ceiling. The proposed budget for this newly constructed main set was $150,000.00. The safe room for the animals was $75,000.00. Glenn Larson and Harker Wade, (sort of) went along with the main sets' estimated costs until the 20th Century Fox Television Division balked at the expense. In stead of building the new set, a standing film set (from a recently shot film) was ordered to be used, revamping for the required hero home base. After all the alterations and additional requirements for the productions needs, this one main interior set resulted costing over $350,000.00 (in revisions) for the pilot. While the "panther and hawk" enclosure safe room remained in the budgeted $75,000. An exterior Fox Lot-studio New York Street facade was used for the exterior Hero house, which had a lower ramp-up to the studio street, which became the main garage driveway entrance, revised with a new automatic garage door addition.

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Goofs

Whenever Jonathan turned into a bird his hands became talons. His feet should have turned into talons and his hands and arms to wings.

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Connections

Edited into Automan (1983)

User Reviews

Too much recycling of footage

Alas, the producers evidently could not afford new first-class special effects every week, so the man-to-animal transformations, though impressive the first time you saw them, were quickly worn out by re-use. But the idea was a good one and I hope that one of these years we'll see a remake.