Automan

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Walter and his creation, "Automan."

Automan was a U.S., science fiction, superhero, television series produced by Glen A. Larson. It aired for only 12 episodes (although 13 were made) on ABC between 1983 and 1984. The series was loosely, and unofficially, based on the ground-breaking 1982 film Tron.

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 List of Automan episodes
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Automan (the "Automatic Man") followed the adventures of a police officer and computer programmer named Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz, Jr.), who had created an artificially intelligent crime fighting program that generated a hologram (Chuck Wagner) able to leave the computer world and enter reality to help solve crimes.

To all the regular characters in the series (except Walter's close associate Roxanne), Automan's identity was "Otto J. Mann", a government agent who helped Walter in his investigations.

Nebicher could merge with Automan to become one being, sharing both consciousness and skills, while retaining Automan's invulnerability to such things as gunshots and explosions. During the "merges" only Automan's form, a human head atop a glowing body made of circuit patterns and flickering light, could be seen.

Automan had a sidekick named Cursor, a free-floating, glowing, shifting polyhedron-shaped, mote of energy which could three-dimensionally "draw" and generate physical objects as they are needed, generally becoming the object in the process. Cursor could not become another object until dissolving the current object (usually a reversal of the "drawing" effect) and reassuming "his" normal form. Exceptions to this included the fabrication of more conventional outer clothing to hide Automan's unusual body appearance, and a variable dark colored vehicle lined in glowing blue piping. Jokingly referred to as the "Auto Mobile" in one of its earliest appearances, the most common forms taken were a car, a plane, and a helicopter, all of which could defy the laws of physics.

Cursor could make the vehicle appear, or by making contact with it, cause it to change from one form into another, such as shifting from a car into a helicopter, and could then detach in order to perform other tasks. Cursor could create vehicles with a more conventional appearance but could not then separate from them as he did the unusual-looking forms without the object dissolving. It is also notable that Cursor was always the first to appear from a computer, after which he immediately "created" Automan's physical body. Automan and Cursor were generally only able to become corporeal at night, since they needed a large amount of power to run.

Automan was the only TV program to feature the use of a Lamborghini Countach as transport; the Auto Mobile's most common form was such a car. When driving, Automan turned his car at 90 degree angles (a result of Nebicher's programming). Automan was unaffected, but his passengers were generally knocked from one side of the car to the other.

The show also starred Heather McNair and Robert Lansing.

[edit] Trivia

Automan was inspired by the film Tron, which had come out a year earlier.
Although similar in appearance, the special effects used to create the Automan look were completely different from the hand-painted effects used by TRON. Automan cinematographer Charles "Chuck" Barbee reports that they actually did is using reflective material and portable projectors, though the end result looks simply like some kind of blue/green screen chromakey overlay.