Back in time... continued

Last time I talked about the two most popular TV shows from my childhood, but there were several others that I really enjoyed at the time and still love today.

One of those has to my delight been recently released on DVD. I’m talking about the Misfits of Science, a show revolving around a group of people that could be labeled as superheroes. The team had 4 members: Dr. Billy Hayes (Dean Paul Martin) is the leader and the only one who has no special powers. He was a scientist at the Humanidyne Institute and worked together with Dr. Elvin "El" Lincoln (Kevin Peter Hall), who gave himself the ability to shrink to doll size. They are joined by Johnny Bukowski, a.k.a. Johnny B (Mark Thomas Miller) a Rock n Roll musician who after an accident gained the abilities to shoot lighting from his hands and run extremely fast as long as he is “charged up”. The final member is Gloria Dinallo (Courteney Cox) a teenage girl with telekinetic abilities. Together they help people in need and study supernatural phenomena. The show has a decent mix of action and comedy and became quite popular in Germany. Sadly it never took off in the US and we were left with only 16 episodes.

Another short-lived show from the 80s was Street Hawk, which has sadly not yet been (and probably never will be) released on DVD. Street Hawk was about the police officer Jesse Mach secretly picked to test a new weapon against crime - a high-tech motorbike capable of speeds of over 300mph and equipped with a laser. Jesse was joined by Norman Tuttle, the technical genius behind the Street Hawk project, who stayed in touch with Jesse per computer and lend him remote assistance in his crime fighting. The show had a similar charm as Knight Rider. Although there are only 13 episodes the show still has a huge fan base.

"This is Jesse Mach, an ex-motorcycle cop, injured in the line of duty. Now a police troubleshooter, he's been recruited for a top secret government mission to ride Street Hawk. An all terrain attack motorcycle, designed as a fighter of urban crime, capable of incredible speeds up to 300 miles per hour and immense fire power. Only one man, federal agent Norman Tuttle knows Jesse Mach's true identity. The Man... The Machine... Street Hawk."

All work and no play...

I'm sorry that I have not been able to continue my "Back in TV time" series in the last few days. I'm extremely busy writing a paper on Franz Kafka's "Das Schloß" (which I have started working on way too late) and have therefore no time to work on my blog efforts. As soon as I have handed in said paper I'll continue the series, which will probably be in the week after the 15th of June.
Until that time here are some trailers of the new Batman movie and the animated "Prequel" that are coming up soon to keep you entertained.
Enjoy:

Gotta get back in time

I don't know about you, but for me the shows I watched in my childhood are still among my favorites. Sure some of them don't stand up to the memories I have about them, but they just have a certain charm that I can't escape. Some of them are shows that most of you probably know but some were only around for a single season and still managed to get a place in my all time favorite collection.

The first an probably the most famous is the 1982 series Knight Rider. The police officer Michael Long is critically wounded by a gunshot wound to the face while investigating a criminal organization. After extensive surgery he wakes up in the hospital with a reconstructed face, not recognizing himself. He is approached by a special foundation, the Knight Industries under the supervision of Wilton Knight, to help them infiltrate the crime syndicate that wounded him in the first place. They provide him with a special car the Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T.), fitted with bullet proof alloy and artificial intelligence, to help him with his crime fighting work. After Wilton Knight's death, Michael adopts his last name and becomes part of the Knight foundation. Together with his liaison Devon Miles and the technician Bonny Barstow he fights for good and for the protection of the innocent. The show ran for 4 seasons with a total of 90 episodes and established David Hasselhoff's career. NBC has recently filmed a remake pilot of Knight Rider and the show that has been picked up for the upcoming fall schedule.

"Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law."

I'm sure you remember these 4 maniacs all too well: The A-team. Four Vietnam vets, found guilty of a crime they didn't commit, establish themselves as soldiers of fortune known as the A-team. They are for hire and try to help the helpless anyway they can. Col. John "Hannibal" Smith was the leader of the group, the brain of the organization and an expert at disguise. Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck was the ladies man and the con artist, while Sgt. Bosco "B.A." Baracus was the muscle and a genius mechanic. The final member of the team was Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock, the pilot and loony of the group; before they could accept a job they usually had to break him out of the mental hospital. The team was constantly on the run, pursued first by Col. Lynch and later by Col. Decker. Apparently the movie rights to the film have been bought and there is a new version of the A-team planned for the big screen in 2009.

"If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire, the A-Team."

Over the next few days I will add several posts on this topic so stay tuned if you want to go back in time with me.

Opium for the masses!

It has been quite a while since I last turned on my television, just to get some entertainment. I live in Luxembourg, so most channels are German or French. Scripted programming is usually translated in either of those languages and the big shows from the US are shown here with a delay of at least a year. So if I want to watch any of these shows in English and without the horrendous amount of commercial intermissions I have to watch them on my computer. This just to give you an idea of where I’m coming from.
Now the thing I’d like to rant about is the lack of intelligent programming that has been around for the last decade. When I was a kid, you could turn on your TV and watch a show that had a story and usually a decent amount of entertainment value, sure we had stupid shows like “Married with Children” or “Sledge Hammer” but even these were coherent and meant to entertain; to make you laugh. There were no talk shows, no courtroom “dramas”, almost no reality TV whatsoever. It all started with “Big Brother”, when a bunch of total idiots and social outcasts were locked up in a house and watched day and night. Somehow this voyeuristic concept that would make George Orwell roll in his grave sparked an “entertainment” concept that introduced new shows on a monthly basis into the ether. We now have shows that portray trials in a “real” courtroom, camps with celebrities that are filmed 24/7, girls in bikinis that talk about their body issues (YES there really is a show like that!), etc. The new seasons of “American Idol” and its German counterpart “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” illustrate my point perfectly. The viewer is not supposed to think while watching but to gloat, and to feel Schadenfreude and later on (after the casting shows) even laugh and cry with the contestants. Three moronic judges treat other people like dirt in the name of entertainment and nobody takes issue with this. Seems we all like to laugh at the misery of others just a bit too much to care. Well I guess that’s a good thing, just think what would happen if we started to feel sorry for people that are worse off than us… We might even want to help them! OH NOES! (I know I’m taking a big leap here and a lot of you will not agree with me, but in my opinion the lack of empathy is one of our major problems at the moment. It keeps us from taking issue with poverty and war, as long as we are tucked away happily in our homes.)
The current writers guild strike might seem like a bad thing for the viewer and the networks, but let’s be honest, what better excuse could there ever be for the networks to produce more mind numbing and stupefying shows? Especially in the US where the government wants to keep its people as dumb as possible, quality TV, that might help to keep the viewers critical and interested in a wider variety of topics, is like poison. If the audience still watches TV when there are only reality shows left, then why should the networks finance extremely expensive shows like “Lost”, if they don’t need them anymore? Just keep them clapping their hands like monkeys while the newest one-week-wonders are created, or the “American Gladiators” smash their competition. Just think of the repercussions if they would watch truthful news (which there thankfully are none) and open their minds!
Thank you reality TV for helping us fulfill our full potential. Being FAT and DUMB!

War is peace / Freedom is Slavery / Ignorance is Strength