Jalopnik
Back in the 1980s, two men duked it out for action/adventure supremacy on the nation's airwaves: Stephen J. Cannell and Glen A. Larson. And between the two of them, they provided Generation X with some fine, fine televised entertainent. However, now and then even the greats fall short, and we're betting that Larson's Trontastic Automan was one of the projects that didn't fare as well as its creator had hoped. Bonus? Desi Arnaz junior and a Countach that takes corners at right angles. We almost wish we remembered this show. Almost.
Related:
Lee Majors Shills for Honda in Deutschland! [Internal]
Comments
I almost remember this show, too (not as well as "Manimal") and I think that car is in fact a Vector W2.
I remember watching this show, along with "Probe" and "Street Hawk." When driving in his car, Automan would just say outloud, "Green please," when coming to a stoplight and it would turn green, since he was basically a living avatar tied into the police/government/someone's computer.
Since there was only one Vector W2 built (painted a bunch of times to look like there was more than one), and the W8 didn't go into production until years after Automan withered on the vine, I am going to respectfully disagree, Loverman. Also, Wikipedia states that "Automan was the only TV program to feature the use of a Lamborghini Countach as transport." Then again, it is Wikipedia, but the Countach seems like a much likelier prospect than the Vector. Oh, and freakin' Manimal...
i DO remember this show :)
Oy, the merging.
Street Hawk was better.
Looks like cursor was a perv, I don't remember that part, but then again I was 8.
Yeah, Cursor was a perv, and it looked like Lt. Jack Curtis was thinking Evil Things as he prepared to force himself on that girl walking alone in a dark alley at night.
I watched WAY too much TV in the 80's and always looked for shows with cars as part of the cast. Wonder why I don't remember this one? But, hey Desi Arnaz Jr? Gerald McLoughlin? And, the 80's hair girl? Why didn't this last long, I wonder?
Somehow, I never got around to experiencing this fine example of high quality television programing. I feel so deprived.
Robert Lansing? Wow, what a waste.
We need Automan T-shirts. I think I was like 11 when that came out and it was RAD!
We need Automan T-shirts! I was like 11 when that came out and if I can remember the phrase correctly, TOTALLY AWESOME!
OMFG. I was jus talkin bout this show to my girlfriend. ROFL. Gotta show her the clip. :D
PS: This show was dumber than hell but I laughed thru all of em.
I remember the show. It was awful. Worse than Airwolf. Worse than Streethawk.
It was a cheap cash-in on Tron. Even witness "Cursor" which was a knockoff of "Bit". This was odd since Tron was a huge flop at the box-office. It featured absolutely zero computer effects (which were very expensive at the time) and a variant of the glowy lines effects that Tron used on people (which was also rather expensive due to the manual labor involved).
Every time the car turned a right angle corner, Desi Arnaz, Jr. would be slammed into the door/window. Presumably, the car only took lefts, since I don't remember him whacking into Automan.
I kind of figured we'd see this on this site instead:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7hPWldQ4MrA
Shows sure don't have 90 second intros anymore.
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?