I remember watching this show as a kid when it first aired in 1983. If I’m not mistaken, it was part of the same evening line-up as the A-Team. I’d look forward all week to seeing it and then watch it while lying on the floor in front of the tv. The special effects and story line captivated me (in fact, I even remember the “making of” segment on Entertainment Tonight). I wanted to be Automan, have his cool holographic helecopter…
(Cut to 20 years later).
I found a copy of episodes 2 and 3 (haven’t watched #2 yet, though).
Hoo boy. Hilarious viewing, though not for the original reasons.
The show stars Desi Arnarz’s son playing a computer geek/police detective who uses his array of “high tech” computers to create a living hologram to fight crime with him. Automan informs him, in the opening segment (helpfully replayed at the beginning of each episode for us dumb schlubs who can’t remember back one week), that “You’ve programmed me to observe other people and do whatever they can do as well as they can do it. Jimmy Conners, playing tennis; John Travolta, dancing. In fact, on a scale of 1 - 10, think of me as an 11!”"
I never realized the whole Tron knock-off connection until now (Tron = '82, Automan = '83). And the guy who did the special effects also did work on Big Trouble in Little China, The Mask, Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure and Mortal Kombat!
In this particular episode, they have to fight gangsters…and inflict bad Bogart impressions on us. All the while, I kept hearing the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” music in my head and expecting to see Auto and his man-bitch Walter Nebicher hop into a hot tub…
Anyway, this thread is dedicated to that magical block of sci-fi/surreal primetime shows that aired in the early 80’s: Wizards & Warriors, A-Team, The Voyagers, Mr. Merlin…I salute you.
Are you sure about The A-Team/Automan combo? A-Team was on NBC, I’m fairly sure Automan aired on ABC.
I remember watching parts of it on SciFi a few years back, I was a mild fan of it during its original run. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it suffered from the same problem a lot of shows with a high concept hero had: low tech, run of the mill villains. hard to get excited about our heroes taking on yet another set of vanilla-looking, suit-wearing criminals or mobsters packing snub-nose .38s or the occasional sub-machine gun.
The interaction of Automan and Walter was much more interesting (especially now) than the actual plot of any given episode.
You’re probably right. It could be that I’m not remembering the channel switch. Or, for that matter, just lumping together several nights of tv viewing due to a few intervening decades…
I was a big fan of Tron, and I got excited when I first saw Automan. But even as a child with no taste in anything I quickly came to the conclusion that Automan sucked.
Another show I wouldn’t mind seeing again would be The Powers of Matthew Starr. I thought it was the bee’s knees when I was short, but I have the feeling it’s gloriously awful now. For the uninitiated (or those who are blocking the memory), it revolved about an alien (and yet strangely humanoid) prince who comes to this world to hide from his political enemies. As he grows up, he gains powers because of…well, because of his alien princiness. Every week, a new episode–every episode, a new power. I have a feeling it makes Manimal and Automan look like Shakespeare…some powers that I can recall him having–astral projection, telekinesis…gah, shades of Uri Geller…
