Chuck Wagner in the Automan Suit (glow added in post-production).
When one looks at the odd and unusual of Cinema, both TV and movies, you find connections. Rare is the film that truly makes that 'punch' that makes it odd that comes from a newcomer or someone who only makes ONE thing. For example: producer Irwin Allen made four potential Odd Cinema TV series in the forms of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Land of the Giants," "The Time Tunnel," and "Lost in Space" before graduating to higher profile projects like the "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno." Of course, he is quite lucky in that respect: true auteurs of the art of making odd cinema are usually mediocre at best and poverty-stricken at worst. No matter how entertaining the oddballs this site reviews are, making money usually isn't one of their abilities.
Enter Glen Larson.
Glen Larson is the Irwin Allen of the 1980s. Within that decade he produced some of the cheesiest yet somewhat entertaining television programming. From what I got from the Sci-Fi Channel's first episode of 'Sciography,' Glen Larson's first real break into producership came with his revised idea of "Adam's Ark," called "Battlestar Galactica." After that, his influence really started as he started putting out the shows left and right. "Manimal" was his. "Knight Rider" was his (and so is the blame for David Hasselhoff). And so is today's experiment, the forgotten bastard child known as "Automan."
Along with "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," a '90s show called "The Highwayman," "The Fall Guy," and various other productions. Et Cetera, Et Cetera....
If you have a canny eye, you can notice the similarities between each of these shows: all the heroes are comic-book in nature. Brave. Defiant. And often not related (through special powers or such) to any police department to the extent they are loners that are connected to the greater good. Essentially, these are justified vigilantes fighting their way through the Reagan decade where Rambo could flourish. You know, the old "America is Good/Destroy Crime At Any Cost" way of thinking that nowadays is seen as slightly off-kilter. And we used to laugh at the old serials of the 1930s-1950s for being out of date....
Chuck Wagner in the Automan Suit (glow added in post-production).
Anyway, back to "Automan." The series shows the old Glen Larson curse of simplistic technology. That is, technology that has no real backing in reality and is used strictly for moving the plot along. A good example is KITT of "Knight Rider" fame and his various abilities to control electricity. Try watching an episode and see you can understand why KITT is able to:
A hologram that fights crime. Does anybody here find this amusing? A hologram, by definition, is a creation of light alone. If you had a computer hooked up to it that could explain the personality, but the 'solid hologram?' Couldn't our hero/sidekick Walter just build a robot?? Wouldn't that make more sense? Why a hologram?
Answer: so he can do remarkable stuff then disappear. Huzzah.
Plus, this Automan program also has a friend: Cursor, a strange little box who can create anything Automan requires by drawing holograms with mass. Like cars, helicopters, anything the plot requires. So Walter and Automan can fight crime without being required to actually buy anything. Kind of cool, and adding blue neon tubing to a Lamborgini and a helicopter (thus making them 'holographic,' I guess) is quite ingenious. That is, until you realize that that Walter names Automan as a shorter version of 'Automatic Man.' Because he's the world's first automatic man.
Now what the hell does this mean? Aren't all humans automatic? I mean, we don't control the constant beating of our own hearts or sometimes our own breathing. It's involuntary, hence automatic. Or sweating or such. What does being the world's first automatic man mean? Perhaps they should have had said 'computerized man.' Or 'Tronman.' But 'Automan' sounded cooler, so they made up some shit story about his name and, huzzah, it's done.
The second episode of this series (the first real hour-long episode) has quite a goofy title which really dates the material as 1983. Get it? "Staying Alive While Running a High Flashdance Fever?" For a story about the mob blackmailing a gambling-activities official? What the hell does Flashdance have to do with any of it?? Nothing, except for the dates all of these were made. Welcome to post-disco America.
A color photo of the Automan Effect.
The story starts with a police chase and Walter calling Automan on a pay phone to fetch him. This is one point where the writers start paying attention: Walter uses a modem to fetch Automan and to make a Hispanic Pimp and his Hos go running. No, I'm serious. Apparently the world needed another introduction to Automan and everyone involved in production decided to do this by getting a Hispanic actor and a spare Caddy they had lying around. Sigh. Either way, the audience is shown ONCE AGAIN (in case they missed the pilot) of the many abilities of Automan, which involves Cursor 'drawing' the car and turning it into a helicopter. Or, rather, the director edited together footage of the car and the copter and, congrats, you made your first special effect.
Along with the added and baffling running gag of Automan's car making turns on ninety-degrees only, causing everyone but Automan to fly against the windshield and stuff. Now why is this? While it looks cool (and really brings memories of 'Tron' home), it's pointless. If Automan really lived in a world of ninety-degree angles, he wouldn't look human. Since curves would be foreign to him, he would look like a bunch of cubes stacked to look like a man. Plus, he might not be able to distinguish curves or any other design that isn't cube-related. But I'm giving this more thought then the producers did.
The plot, which I should get to, is basically the same as any other Larson production outside of "Galactica." Our heroes fight the bad guys and win, thanks to their amazing abilities. There isn't any real suspense here, outside of a two-part episode, and it's all straight forward in this one. I won't ruin it for you, needless to say that Walter and Automan walk away winners and the nameless bad guys lose in every possible way. Walter's superiors wonder why and how Walter does it and he remains mum and, oddly, doesn't get reprimanded for telling how. THE END.
RATINGS: It's your basic second episode after a extended pilot: everyone gets reintroduced to the main characters and goes through the motions to show how cool their powers are. Fortunately, after watching a few more episodes of "Automan" on Sci-Fi, I can say the show gets better. A little better. So, enjoy the Cliff Notes' version of the pilot with this and let your mind float away, it won't do you any good here. Two and a half Stars out of Four, most of those for nostalgia alone.