X-Mas gift: Six Million Dollar Man DVDs

[Kit Sullivan]

At least Gil Gerard could smile convincingly, and show a little emotion from time to time.

On Starsky & Hutch:

Personally, I like the first season best, for several reasons. The music was much more dramatic. Lalo Schifrin did the pounding opening theme, which was really just edited from the dramatic conclusion piece he did for the big action-packed ending scenes of the pilot movie.

Schifrin, of course...is famous for his music for "Bullitt", as well as the opening theme to "Mission: Impossible".

The scripts for season one of S&H are also darker and more action-driven, yet the actors are allowed and do a great job of "filling in the edges" with excellent character-building stuff and lots of little "business" going on.

Strangely enough, every single script ( except for one!) from the first season is an old, recycled script written for some other TV show or movie. Somehow, they all hang together.

Season two was thier most popular season and is when they really hit thier stride.

First off, the most-often-remembered, funky disco-inspired opening theme music "Gotcha!" by Tom Scott debuted for season two. Most like this the best...I like Schifrin's better.

Unlike most TV shows, Starsky & Hutch used a different opening theme for each of its four seasons.

Mark Snow of "X-Files" fame did the funky season thred theme...I hated it. Season four was just a wierd and darker rehash of seadon's two theme.

The characters and stories in season two were excellent, but it was clear the writers were introducing the "cutesy" fan-favorite personality quirks into the characters.

Season three was terrible. Glaser sure didn't want to be there...it was obvious. Boring "personal" stories started to take the place of simple action-oriented police procedural stuff. Lots of bad dialogue, not much action. Only a few decent episodes from season three.

And season four was a train-wreck: to give the actors more time off, scripts were written that featured only one character, so they did not share as many scenes with each other. And the writers started making the characters have conflict with each other in a bid to add some drama to an "action show" that no longer had any action. Blech!

It seems that "grows a moustache" should have been the original version of the phrase "jump the shark". Hutch's horrific moustache in season 4 was a clear downfall.

As much as I was dissapointed that it was cancelled back in '79, I am now glad it was. Season 5 probably would have been too depressing to stomach.

But, still and all...like any fan of a classic show, you tend to ignore the clunkers and remember the good ones!

"Space:1999"s fore-runner, "UFO" is also a favorite of mine. Badly dated to the late 60s, but a much better show than "1999" by a country mile.

Great-looking girls in tin-foil bikinis with purple wigs working the pole on the moonbase strip club were...ok, sorry: SHADO "operatives" working thier jobs on "moonbase". ( but they were really just strippers, you know!)

Kick-Ass funky/ Jazzy opening theme, too

 

[cudak888]

Sometimes being too 'of the moment' with music can make it date really fast. You can almost pinpoint the year it was done just by hearing the music.

True. That does bring something to mind though: Picking the wrong clothes to represent an era in a production can ruin an experience more than a period soundtrack can date it. Godfather III (yes, a film, not TV, I know it) sticks out in my mind for this. The blatant 1990's fashions and preppy dialogue in (supposedly) 1979 ruin the film worse than the script.

On the other hand, sometimes being a staple for your era is a good thing:

[video=youtube]


-Kurt

 

[Austin Vert]

Hey Guys,

we got all those shows out here in Oz. Yes, it's so true that these shows had a much greater impact on younger, more innocent, impressionable minds. As a kid, i started watching TV from 1960, and really dug shows like the original Astro boy, Johnny Quest, The Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, The Avengers, The Champions, The Munsters, The Adams Family, The Banana Splits, and the list goes on and on.

When Six Million Dollar Man and then, The Bionic Woman were released here, Aussies thought that both shows were very cheesy, but were popular nevertheless.

What did you guys in America think of the Nash Bridges series when it came out? You gotta' luv that yellow Cuda.

Greg.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Nash Bridges was OK, but was clearly geared for a more..."mature" female audience. At times it seemed like it should have been on "Lifetime" network!

Most CBS dramas from back then were aimed at the same demographic.

The car was...of course...awesome! The perfect choice for an iconic TV car. And the stunt driving ( what little of it there was) was generally pretty good too. Showy and flashy with lots of Hollywood-style "fishtails" ( "drifting" to the kids...) and burnouts.

To me, there was only one BIG problem with the car scenes: the engine FX sound track.

They used a great source for the engine noises, but the sounds always sounded like they were at lower RPM...never really sounded like he was "getting on it". Just sounded too "tamed".

I know it sounds ridiculous, but this makes a big difference in the perception of the car's performance.

Watch any early episode of Starsky & Hutch and you will hear the high-winding sound of an obvious 4-speed car at valve-floating RPM levels well before the Torino has actually even left the parking lot!

Very unrealistic, sure...but it sure amps up the excitement a bunch.Nash Bridges missed it on that particular point with me.

A little trivia, for those who care about such things:

Most of the engine sound effects used for early episodes for Starsky's Torino came from an older ( 1st-gen) Ford Bronco with a wildly built 289 small block. It was a Baja desert-runner owned by Parnelli Jones. I think that Broncois a show car somewhere now.

 

[Mister 4x4]

OK, so Adam-12 and TJ Hooker were mentioned as decent cop shows, as well as comments about the "disco-esque" theme music for the various shows from the time.

But nobody's mentioned my favorite cop show with the disco motif hard-wired into every aspect: CHiPs

Man, I love that show... and if I'm flippin' through one of the "TVLand" kind of channels and see an episode playing, I will stop everything and watch it - I don't care it there's only 5 or 6 minutes left to go.

Disco aside, it was well done, not too incredibly cheesy (although, I think it was winding down when Ponch had a "close encounter" during one episode in the last season), and never failed to deliver during the crash and chase scenes. Watching that show as I was growing up, I seriously considered wanting to become a motorcycle cop (I even remember a few of my buddies riding our bikes in formation and 'patrolling' the neighborhood - LMAO)... but fortunately, that never happened (after talking to several I know - you REALLY have to want to do that, after all).

 

[jpaz]

I recently watched a few episodes of the Six Million Dollar Man & I found out the same thing. It Suck's! I thought I loved it, must have got into the liquor cabinet or something....

 

[hyena429]

How about Simon and Simon or Riptide!! hehe

Rockford files has some good old driving parts..James was a heck of a driver

Caught a little Starsky & Hutch other day...I do have to say it needed better theme music i think . lol

 

[luxstang]

Ah, the memories!

To comment on a few things that have been posted above:

I loved (and still do) Nash Bridges. That show was solely responsible for the look my car has. When I first zapped into an episode I actually thought he was driving a 123 vert until I saw a shot of the complete car. For about 20 minutes I kept thinking "that must be the same car as mine".

When it came to redoing mine, it was a no brainer to have it painted yellow especially as it already had a white interior.

BTW, I´ve had people go nuts on a few occasions because they were mistaking my car for a "Nash Bridges car" and had their pictures taken with it.

Someone mentioned "Miami VIce".... Well, that has not aged well. It worked back then because it was totally hip and in fashion but what used to be cool back in the days makes it look very cheesy today, believe me. I saw an episode last year and it almost made me cringe. Jan Hammer´s music is still kinda cool though.

There is a German TV station that reruns all that stuff in the afternoon.

The current afternoon program is:

Matlock (I´m still not old enough for that. Very cheesy) followed by

Kojak (still extremely cool to watch) then

Walker, Texas Ranger (which really sucks, but, hey, would you tell Chuck Norris he sucks?!?)

After that it´s Renegade ( I still look better with long hair than Lorenzo Lamas.

It still makes for a fun nostalgic afternoon when the weather is bad and you got nothing to do.

They used to show The Streets of San Francisco which was also cool to watch and of course the classic, always brilliant and most accurate documentary on the life of a married man: Married with Children.

Some shows simply age better than others, I guess.

 

[1972MustangSVH]

Watching shows that you loved as a child should be banned. It can be just too much. I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from a teeter-totter at the drive-in movie then didn't see it again until I had kids of my own. I'm still damaged after discovering Willy Wonka is Gene Wilder. LOL

 

[cudak888]

OK, so Adam-12 and TJ Hooker were mentioned as decent cop shows, as well as comments about the "disco-esque" theme music for the various shows from the time.

But nobody's mentioned my favorite cop show with the disco motif hard-wired into every aspect: CHiPs

Man, I love that show... and if I'm flippin' through one of the "TVLand" kind of channels and see an episode playing, I will stop everything and watch it - I don't care it there's only 5 or 6 minutes left to go.

Disco aside, it was well done, not too incredibly cheesy (although, I think it was winding down when Ponch had a "close encounter" during one episode in the last season), and never failed to deliver during the crash and chase scenes. Watching that show as I was growing up, I seriously considered wanting to become a motorcycle cop (I even remember a few of my buddies riding our bikes in formation and 'patrolling' the neighborhood - LMAO)... but fortunately, that never happened (after talking to several I know - you REALLY have to want to do that, after all).

Adam-12 is a real cop show. T.J. is fluff - but entertaining fluff, as is CHiPs. Estrada's corniness is just endearing enough (even though he was a complete arse backstage) to make the whole show entertaining through the good parts and bad.

Which was that bad CHiPs episode? Close encounter? Something like that episode of the Dukes with the alien?

Someone mentioned "Miami VIce".... Well, that has not aged well. It worked back then because it was totally hip and in fashion but what used to be cool back in the days makes it look very cheesy today, believe me. I saw an episode last year and it almost made me cringe. Jan Hammer´s music is still kinda cool though.

Vice's worst problem was its blatant desire to be cool. Every scene of the show seems to be a badass-stare-down contest with someone or something.

-Kurt

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I liked "Simon and Simon" the first couple years. Never cared for "Riptide" or "Kojack". Absolutely HATED "CHiPs"!

"Knight Rider" stayed pretty true to its original concept until the last season with the stupid "Super Pursuit" mode...and who decided Michael Knight needed a punkass street-thug on a lame dirt bike as a partner? Weren't KITT ( I just like that name for some reason...) and Michael the unbeatable duo? Why did they need urban-dude on scooter?

I also have a fondness for the generally pretty-bad rip-offs of better shows:

Street Hawk ( KR on a bike)

Highwayman ( KR in a truck/ helicopter)

Thunder in Paradise ( KR in a boat...with Hulk Hogan!)

My wife cannot seem to understand why. I have to havd a 70" TV, Blueray player and rockin' home theater sound just to watch old, faded and blurry mono-soundtrack DVDs of old TV shows!

That's OK..."Modern Family", "Justified", "Longmire"( Katee Sackoff...yowza!) and "The League" all look good on that TV...