1.) Knight Rider (1982-86) with David Hasselhoff and a talking 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, it doesn't get any better @ being bad than that,
( and by "bad" I mean friggin awful ). Possibly tolerable by certain pubescent individuals. nuff said...
2.) Bosom Buddies (1980-82 ) A takeoff of the movie "Some Like It Hot". The show stars Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari as a men dressed up as a women so they could stay in a ladies only apartment building( more like a really bad Monty Python sketch that never ends ). Who would have thought that the man,
( Hanks ) would become the acclaimed actor and director that he now is, after that little bit of tripe...Mr. Hanks has done more than his fair share of brilliant work to be forgiven for this P.O.S...We forgive you Tom...
3.) CHiPs ( 1977-83 ) starred Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox as a pair of California motorcycle police officers. The hour long show was kept fairly light with elements of comedy throughout the action and very little violence, (both a plus in my opinion) also the Kawasaki KZ-1000 bikes helped out. Whats not to like about a 1000cc motorcycle? But for me personally, you can definitely have too much Estrada (almost none, is still too much).
The duo were no Martin Milner and Kent McCord of "Adam 12" fame...( one of my personal favorites). Where the heck is Broderick Crawford and his "55 Buick Special" when we need him?
4.) The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85)
The "Good", Catherine Bach as "Daisy Dukes", a Waylon Jennings theme song and a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner...
The "Bad", just about everything else...
The "Ugly",... Sorrell Booke as "Boss Hogg"...
( Booke was fluent in 5 languages, had degrees from both Yale and Columbia Universities and served as a counterintelligence officer during the Korean War...)
5.) The A Team ( 1983-86 ) Ex special forces commandos led by George ( Hannibal ) Peppard, and featuring the indomitable ( or abominable is more like it, sucka ) "Mr. T" ( B.A. ) on the run from the law for a crime they didn't commit. Soldiers for hire, always on the side of "do goodness", with over the top cartoon like violence where hardly anybody ever gets hurt, yippee! A hugely popular show internationally, and has achieved "cult" status in Europe... Who would have thunk it?... ( I liked Peppard in the tv series Banacek 1972-74 )6.) Fantasy Island ( 1978-84 ) Starring Ricardo Montalban and Herve'
( de plane, de plane ) Villechaize... I like ole Ricardo but I think he should have stuck to selling Chrysler Cordoba's with the fictional "Corinthian" leather... My Dad had one,
( a 1976 or 77, with the round headlights ) tan with the landau roof and leather interior, 400 cid. V-8...nice car.... Perhaps if Montalban had reprised his "Khan" role from the Star Trek series for this show, it might have made the situation on the island considerably more interesting... 
7.) The Six Million Dollar Man ( 1974-78 ) Lee Majors stars as Col. Steve Austin, "a man barely alive", an astronaut injured in a test flight crash, who has certain injured body parts replaced by superpowerful "bionic" ones. In the opening sequences of the series, they show real footage of a pre space shuttle lifting body crash and some full speed shots of Steve running at like 60 mph!I mean totally cool right? Now cut to the show, and as soon as he breaks into a run...
"slow motion"...Slow...Freakin... Motion...what the?... Craaaap, I'm done...game over. ( link ) Six Million Dollar Man.
8.) Gilligans Island ( 1964-67 ) A talented cast, every conceivable plot for people stranded on a tropical island (fit for 1960's tv) is played to the most ridiculous extreme. But as smart as the "Professor" is, and capable as the rest of the group are, they just can't seem to get their miserable dumb asses off that stupid island... dammit... I mean come on already, they managed to build almost everything, including a pedal powered car out of bamboo or coconuts...everything but a stinkin boat...
9.) Get Smart ( 1965-70 ) A wonderfully ridiculous satire of the secret agent genre, with Don Adams and Barbara Feldon as "CONTROL" agents 86 and 99 respectively, and the brilliant character actor Edward Platt as the Chief, fighting the evil forces of "KAOS" ( a Delaware corporation for tax purposes ). From Smarts shoe phone, to one of my favorite recurring bits, "The Cone of Silence" ( which never, ever worked correctly ). Utter absurdity @ it's finest. Loved the 1965 Sunbeam Tiger in the opening credits, but I don't ever remember him driving it in the show....
10.) Mr. Ed ( 1961-66 ) A tv show about a talking Palomino horse who only speaks to his bumbling architect owner Wilbur Post, ( can you imagine the network execs faces when they were hit with that one ). I seem to remember the Posts owning a Studebaker and the neighbors owned an Avanti at one point during the series. I'm sure Studebaker must have been a major sponsor to have their vehicles featured so prominently, ( this could be the reason for my own early fascination with Stude's ). My own first experience with a horse (that I can recall) was with a Palomino that looked exactly like Mr. Ed. Now I remember being old enough @ the time to realize that he couldn't talk like the horse on tv (of course, of course), but I didn't think he would lean over the fence and try to bite me, scared the crap out of me... Screw horses man, I never met one that didn't try to kill me...
No comments:
Post a Comment