Automan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With only one more video posting available this week I wanted to showcase at least one science fiction production of Larson’s. While we all know Battlestar Galactica he did try a few others. He wrote a Six Million Dollar Man TV movie. He also did his share of crime shows, all more lighthearted than today’s fare. For example, Manimal is one that seems to have some renewed steam, at least in the reviewing community thanks to Brad “The Cinema Snob” Jones. Larson even got the characters of that show to meet up again for his adaptation of Malibu comics The Night Man. That show suffered from it’s budget. However, ABC did give Larson another chance to do a sci-fi superhero show for them. The result was Automan, one of my favorite shows as a kid. Sadly, I don’t have a posting of this show I can embed through my host rules. I can link you to the pilot from another site, though.
What I can bring you, however, is a behind the scenes look at the making of Automan, posted from a UK-released DVD of the series. And sadly it’s Region 2 so I couldn’t use it if I could even get it. The series followed LAPD computer man Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz, Jr.), who created a program called Automan (Chuck Dixon), who came into the real world. Together, Nebicher and Automan would solve crimes that baffle the police. This was a time that computers hadn’t become the must-have tools they are today. If you think this sounds like Tron in reverse well…that should have been obvious as a major influence. Automan even had a little aid called Cursor, that could turn into whatever our heroes needed in their pursuit of evildoers.
The documentary features interviews with Dixon, Arnaz, and Heather McNair, a woman who I think was an aide or something, I’m not really clear on it. She was also Walter’s love interest and the only other person who knew Automan’s secret. They discuss how the effect was created to make Automan and Cursor’s transformations glow, what it was like being on the show, and why there were only 13 episodes (only 12 having aired). Larson himself also appears in the documentary to discuss his side of things.
If they could keep the tone I would love to see this series get a second chance. Tomorrow we conclude Glen Larson Tribute Week by merging it with the Friday Night Fights with something from the Battlestar Galactica comic.
BW Media Spotlight 