April A to Z Challenge

It's time for the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  This year I decided to focus on TV shows, particularly short-lived shows of one season or less that few people remember.

Let's start with Automan.

A mid-season replacment on ABC, Automan ran from December 15th 1983 to April 2nd 1984.  It was the brainchild of the prolific writer and producer Glen A. Larson, who also gave us Battlestar Galactica, Magnum P.I., and Knight Rider among others.  The concept was borrowed from the 1982 film TRON, and in fact, TRON producers Donald Kushner and Peter Locke were brought on board in an attempt to avoid plagiarism.  Instead of humans entering the computer world, a program from inside the computer was brought into the humans' world.

Automan combines a police procedural with super-heroic action, with a bit of situational comedy thrown in.  Over-eager police officer Walter Nebicher, played Desi Arnaz Jr., frustrated by his boss not wanting him to go on active duty, creates what he terms a "hologram": an electricity-based construct capable of affecting the real world.  After programming his hologram to act as a super intelligent crime fighter, Walter and Automan, played by Chuck Wagner, embark on a series of rather unorthodox investigations.

There are several unique elements to the show.  Automan had a sidekick called Cursor that acted like a paintbrush and could create almost anything Automan needed, provided there was sufficient electricity to do so.  The most frequently used items were vehicles such as a Lamborghini Countach LP400 ("Autocar") and a Bell Jetranger helicopter ("Autochopper").  Another feature that Automan had was the ability to "wrap" himself around Walter in order to protect him.

Chuck Wagner remarked in a 2012 interview that the show was CGI before there was CGI.  Cursor was hand-animated.  The objects that Cursor created were painted matte black with reflective tape to make them look computer-generated and were "drawn" with wireframe effects.  The Automan costume itself was created by designer Jean-Pierre Dorleac using 3M reflective material that was enhanced in post-production.

At the time, Automan was one of the most expensive series to produce, at over a million dollars per episode.  This plus its failure to garner enough viewers for the the network to justify keeping it, led to its cancellation.  Only twelve of the thirteen episodes were aired, but the final episode was included on the DVD release.