V - The Original Mini Series

Early 1980s TV sci-fi. Hordes of human-like aliens invade Earth in 50 enormous, saucer-like spaceships, landing in nearly every major city. The 'visitors', as they like to be known, claim to be on a peace mission, but their more sinister nature is revealed once they begin to engineer a take-over. Earth's resources are essential for the aliens' future survival. Kenneth Johnson's sci-fi series was inspired by Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel, 'It Can't Happen Here', a fictional account of a fascist take-over. Among the characters trying to save Earth are TV cameraman Mike Donovan (Marc Singer), his girlfriend and news anchor Kristine Walsh (Jenny Sullivan), biochemist and resistance leader Juliet (Faye Grant), and head of a Jewish family Abraham Bernstein (Leonardo Cimino). Amongst the aliens they are fighting are supreme leader John (Richard Herd), Diane (Jane Badler) and Willie (Robert Englund). The series was followed by 'V - The Final Battle' during 1984-5 and Johnson went on to create the successful mini-series 'Alien Nation' several years later.