Automan (1983–1984) User Reviews

I have to admit it. I liked it

[steve-862 · 7/10 · 22 May 2002]

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this but I loved Automan. Like a lot of things from the 80s I think we are amazed with what things appealed to us back then. An episode of Friends summed it up when college aged Ross and Chandler turn up to thanksgiving dressed as if they were from Miami Vice. Yes this series typified 80s style in many ways and because of that has not stood the test of time. I can't see them repeating it in the UK because 14-15 year-olds will think it is stupid.

Anyway the show is about an LA cop(Arnaz jr) who has an expertise in computers. With his computer equipment he creates Automan(Wagner) and the flashing 'cursor' who makes the cars, boats, guitars or whatever Automan needs at the time. The two of them go after the big bad criminals and get them. Only two people know about Automan, his creator and another cop, an attractive female who never quite becomes anyone's love interest. There are lots of good driving scenes, likable characters and fairly good Sci-fi effects but most of all it has charisma. Unfortunately it is also a silly idea that never quite explains itself and is so corny the phrase corny could be replaced by the word Automan.

If you see it for the first time now you will probably be shocked at how bad it was. If you remember it from the first time round you will probably have that old familiar feeling which you might describe as comfortable.

Automan to the rescue.

[Blackace · 6/10 · 3 May 2007]

For some odd reason, I actually liked this show. I was only 16yr when it aired, but I loved the special effects. This show really seems like something Disney would make. It was a little bit of Tron with low-budget comedy crime fighter thrown in. The two things I remember the most is the title song and the auto-car. The song had a catchy tune that I still hum now and then. The car would get created by "Cursor", Automan's sidekick and it was very cool how it was done. Cursor would start drawing the lines of the car and then pick up speed as he drew the rest. It would make some electrical sound while Cursor drew it. Like Automan, the car was a glowing neon light blue. When automan drove it, it steered like the motorcycles in TRON. It would make sharp turns left or right and Desi Jr's character would get slammed against the door window. The show was just fun to watch back then. The main thing that killed it was the writing. The villains weren't anything special and each story really didn't draw you in and make you want to come back. The comedy aspect of the show was decent. It also was expensive to make each episode and because it didn't draw a big audience, they really didn't make much money off of it. I still would love to see this on DVD just for nostalgic purposes.

Cheesy Fun

[stargazer24 · 8/10 · 29 December 2002]

This show is completely corny. Of course, this is a bi-product of its decade and genre, but it still seems cornier than its counterparts. And most of the acting isn't too great, with the exception of Chuck Wagner, whom I thought did a good job as Walter's complete opposite. The girl was pretty much filler. Almost like they thought they needed to have a cute woman in the cop shop to draw in...young boys? Show they were EEO? I don't know, but she seemed a total waste of film.

But darn it if I don't love this show. Cheese makes for a good, silly 45 minutes of entertainment. And even bad sci fi is often good. And Desi Arnaz Jr. made for a good geek. The writers I think went a bit far with that whole stereotype of computer geniuses being totally awkward screw ups in any other arena but IT, but I suppose it did help display the contrast between Walter and Automan, who was what Walter wished he was.

But don't watch this right after Dragnet or Adam-12, as you may think the LAPD suddenly went insane.

Wish I could see it again

[nikteacher · 20 September 2005]

The 1980s were full of optimistic TV action series of a kind we just don't see any more. Not that I'm against the high-quality screen writing of such shows as "24", "Buffy" or "Angel"; it's just that I miss the old popcorn dramas which were nothing if not fun and provided ample light relief from stressful schooldays. Recent releases of "The A Team", "Knight Rider" et al on DVD have brought that old pleasure back, but I'm still eagerly anticipating "Airwolf", "Street Hawk" and "Automan". The latter two lasted only one season, but they were certainly enjoyable to me and my school friends. In those days when an American TV show was cancelled it was of too little consequence to become known in the UK, so we never knew why these fun shows disappeared. "Automan" appealed to me because it seemed to be a reverse of "Tron". The hero was rather straight-laced (even compared to Christopher Reeve's Superman!), but the show had plenty of visual treats and action to satisfy kids like me. It's the humour that I would like to re-evaluate as an adult. I'm almost certain I'd enjoy seeing this again!

Electricman

[safenoe · 7/10 · 11 January 2024]

I remember Automan from the 1980s when sitcoms made anything possible with the wave of optimism following the 1980 election and the release of the hostages. Anyway, in some ways I think Automan was ahead of its time now that we have electric cars and all.

Desi Arnaz Jr, the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz is the lead star, supported by Chuck Wagner as Automan himself.

It's a shame Automan ran for only 13 episodes, so really the network should have given it time to grow rather than running out of gas (or electricity). I sometimes wonder about the production crew who stake their financial planning on TV series that are axed way too soon.

A Neat Show with Dazzling Special Effects

[Gunn · 9/10 · 11 January 2009]

No one should be embarrassed to admit they liked this show. Look at how many people here gave it positive reviews. I can't remember much more than how cool that car was and Automan's suit, how wild it was! I liked the cast a lot. I also remembered that it starred Desi Arnaz Jr. and that I was bummed when it was canceled. They never gave it a chance. It takes a little time to develop a following and this show and "The Flash" would have done well had they not yanked them off the air so soon. I kind of remember that the theme song was very good also, but can't remember much about it. You can vote to see it, and other shows, on DVD at: TVShowsOnDVD.com.

A GREAT SHORT LIVED TV SERIES

[sxymailmn · 10/10 · 4 June 2001]

Hello,

I would like to say i watched each and every episode of Automan and i really loved!! the show till the network decided to remove it for some odd reason, as they did with The Greatest American Hero in which i loved alot too. The show was really cool!! I wish it would come back on TV for all to c again.. It was a different show and it was unique thats what made it special..So many great shows came on and left like it was yesterday.. I specially got a kick out of Cursor whom made the show also and made everthing for Chuck Wagner.. Bottom line is it was a great sci-fi adventure for all to watch at that time and i loved it.. So tks for reading this and whom knows the networks make sequels all the time on different shows maybe they could possibly bring back this great show, they never gave it a chance!!!!

When the Lights Go Out in Georgia

[osloj · 1/10 · 29 August 2001]

I can't believe how dreadful and boring this TV series was, and I am not surprised that ABC canned this show right away.

Each episode wastes time in explaining how Automan was created by some early tech geek played by Arnaz.

Automan is a holographic creation played by a boring Swedish model.

Along in the series, the same bad guys are hounded by the spectacular crime duo.

Everything about this show was just tepid and dull.

I really can't see anyone staying up late at night and becoming excited about this predicable rubbish.

The high reviews were written by people who saw this idiotic show as kids and they are just waxing nostalgic.

Ahead of it's time.

[draka_dracula · 10/10 · 24 January 2007]

Automan was ahead of it's time, at a time when special effects for TV were still in development. If given another season, I'm sure the effects, acting, and format would have been perfected.

Prehaps a return is in order, maybe as an animated cartoon. Some time in Automan's world, maybe? In CGI?

Prehaps anime is the answer. An anime version of Automan would be interesting, to say the least.

The main thing would be keeping with the comedy-adventure-action format that the show was known for.

This show had so many possibilities.

80's cheese

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 18 March 2019]

Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz, Jr.) is not working out as a street level LAPD detective. He is relegated to desk duty in the computer room where he creates an artificially intelligent crime fighting program and a hologram called Automan (Chuck Wagner), the world's first automatic man. The only other person who knows the secret is secretary Roxanne Caldwell. Captain Boyd doesn't trust computers and often dismisses Walter. When Lieutenant Jack Curtis gets kidnapped, Automan goes into action to solve the case. He comes out at night drawing power from the electrical grid when the load is at its lightest. He is invincible and assisted by Cursor, a glowing ball of light that can create a myriad of transports. At full power, he can combine with Walter for protection.

I remember the glowing man. I like the Tron glow and the concept isn't that bad. I don't think I watched much of the show if any. It's bad and I'm sure I knew it was bad even as an impressionable young boy. Chuck Wagner is a stiff leading man which is fine for a stiff leading man role. More is expected from Desi Arnaz, Jr. After all, he is descended from TV comedy royalty. He doesn't have it. He doesn't have the charisma. He isn't leading man material. The role is a nerdy sidekick anyways. At least, he could have worn a pair of glasses. Walter and Automan are set up to be a comedy duo with Automan as a fish out of water and Walter as too awkward to be a cop. It could work but this comes off as nothing more than bad 80's cheese. The writing is random 80's cop show fodder. It's a mid-season replacement show that fails to get picked up.

Some Good Things Come in 13 !

[elshikh4 · 24 January 2009]

OK, at the mid-70s you have to recognize how the American TV shows became more and more interested in the idea of being "super" more than ever. After the phase of the cowboy shows, the espionage ones, then the mysteries' solvers, we came to the point of a man, or a woman, who's part human and part machine, or that person who got superpowers anyway. It's very well known matter in the old comics, but from the 1970s in TV, the revelation, or the revolution, began.

Remember titles like: (The Six Million Dollar Man - 1974), (The Invisible Man - 1975), (The Bionic Woman - 1976), (Gemini Man - 1976) and (Wonder Woman - 1976). At the same time, another kind became in fashion: the Buddy-shows like (Switch - 1975), (Starsky and Hutch - 1975), (CHiPs - 1977), (The Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew Mysteries - 1977). So, why not to gather the 2 successful elements, "The Superhuman" and "The 2 Buddies Team", in one sci-fi / action show.

They already married them in (Future Cop - 1977); a short-lived TV show about a veteran patrol officer who gets an android for a partner. After more prosperous ones, like (The Greatest American Hero - 1981) and (The Powers of Matthew Star - 1982), there was the big hit (Knight Rider - 1982) where an ex-policeman is in the company of a talking supercar to achieve justice. And right in the next year, (Automan) has been born.

It was such a smart and funny idea. Read its tagline: "A computer generated superhero and his human creator fight crime in their city".. this is music to my ear! Imagine a talking computer, in the form of a brawny good man, with a comic human partner, in action all the time; this has endless ironies.

If you watched it as a kid, you'd never forget it. The whole azure image of (Chuck Wagner) as (Automan) is something that sticks in your memory forever. And sure its formula speaks cleverly to the child in you, unlike the most of nowadays' shows I suppose. As an adult, I just hated points like the unneeded striptease of the title character at one episode, which was obviously inserted to have more viewers, however in cheap and embarrassing way!

Ohhh, the 1980s is gone, so most of the childish innocent fun too. You'd think that the makers of these shows were great children themselves. I believe watching CSI today makes you cherish these oldies much, and discover the secret of them being real classics for reasons other than the nostalgic feel.

Unfortunately, (Automan) lasted for only 13 episodes; I won't say that 13 is the most ill-fated number for many canceled shows, but let's say that many good things come in 13 such as: (A Man Called Hawk - 1989), (The Lone Gunmen - 2001), (Pepper Dennis - 2006) and (Automan). My best regards to the nice azure robot, its makers, and their time.

#38. RA and AUTOMAN (1983)

[tobiaswellworth · 10/10 · 5 August 2022]

Maybe this show was too derivative from Tron, and yes maybe the premise could have been better thought out... But this series was a riot, and FUN with capital every letter!

The cast gave it their all, the special effects were awesome for the time and the car... The design, the 90 degree turns! As a kid, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for a second!

Indeed Cancelled Too Soon!

[dweilermg-1 · 10/10 · 18 June 2021]

I enjoyed this potentially great sci-fi series that deserved a better chance by the network perhaps in a better time-slot with a good lead in. Perhaps the 13 episodes can be shown on MeTV's Saturday night sci fi block.

Charming

[Jack_Yan · 13 December 2002]

Yes, this was a little predictable, as one reviewer said, but it had a sense of humour that American shows seldom crack. Strangely, it was from Glen Larson, whose creations have not always stood the test of time. Yet the charm in Automan was so delicious that it was a shame that it only lasted 13 episodes.

Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz) is a computer geek who creates a hologram called Automan (Chuck Wagner) - but the character turns out to have not only Walter's ideas for a crime-fighter, but his own soul. Turns out Automan has lived in a parallel, video-game universe (à la Tron, the big SFX hit of the early 1980s) and counts Pac-man and Donkey Kong ('He's an animal') among his friends.

This improbable storyline, plus Automan's sidekick, Cursor (who has quite the eye [he must have one!] for the ladies) played for good laughs. What we do know is that the characters are not really going to develop much. Walter has a stereotypical loud cop boss with a New York accent (Gerald S. O'Loughlin) who hates him, a beautiful female police detective (Heather McNair) who fancies him, and an immediate superior (Robert Lansing) who feels he's misunderstood yet wants to make him feel valued. And the villains are similarly flat, perhaps with the exception of the suave Patrick Macnee in the première episode.

For a guy who doesn't like sci-fi (and who was in his teens when this aired), it was a fine way to spoof the genre and to poke fun at the primitive nature of video games and early 1980s' computers. Additional ideas were that Walter could feed in data about human life into Automan, so he could dance like John Travolta after receiving a Beta tape with a disco flick - another opportunity for set-ups. A priceless tennis-playing scene sees Cursor replace the real ball, set up for more laughs. Sometimes the oldest gags are the best ones.

Meanwhile, Automan gets stuck on everyday human problems: when asked what his (astrological) sign is, he cannot reply. Walter suggests, 'Tell him you're an Apple II.'

Unlike Galactica 1980, the special effects don't look too primitive, and in its day, were very swish for TV.

Automan did have the storylines of a kids' show, much like the similarly ill-fated Enos, the Dukes of Hazzard spin-off that was its contemporary. However, folks appreciated a bit of a tickle then, seeing a splash of humour in the (by then) tired genre of the one-hour-format cop show. Numerous episodes looked expensive and probably were - so the show always looked the part. Automan is a product of its era and still retains some fascination for me. Sometimes, you just need something that isn't so serious.

One of the T.V. show that redefined superhero in the eye of a child.

[Cyber9989 · 6 July 2002]

In a time when innocents has played a part of my life, Automan has been a great T.V. gem that creator Glen Larson and ABC has top offer. It was the very first live-action super hero show that widen my horizons of imagination. Though it attracts more kids then adults. It is why the show got canceled because of poor ratings and expensive special effects. Automan was very original and it should be granted a second chance then. Thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel, it is great to relive all 13 episodes of this failed series.

Automan ran out of juice rather quickly.

[Aaron1375 · 21 July 2010]

Another case of a show I really enjoyed as a kid being taken off the air rather quickly. Whatever a kid enjoyed to watch back in the 70's and 80's always seemed to get the quick hook back then. This one is brought to us by the same guy who did "Buck Rogers" and the lesser known "Manimal". It also came on about the same time as the latter. The show was about a computer guy who somehow creates this strange computer dude or brings him into this world, can not remember so well now as I have not seen the show in a very long time. What I remember the most about this one though is the cool car which I debated with a kid at school was faster than the car on "Knight Rider". Which how there was any debate for anybody who has seen both shows is beyond me this car went so fast and could do 90 degree turns for crying out loud. I also remember "Automan" losing his power whenever more machines and such were used. The effects were very Tron-like and not bad for a television show made back in the 80's. Why shows such as these got such a quick hook is beyond me, well not really my guess is they just cost to much to produce as opposed to the quirky comedies that usually went on way to long (Happy Days anyone).

Harmless fun.

[Rob_Taylor · 22 December 2002]

This was a well cheesy show, with "Auto" and "Cursor" a blatant plagiarism of "Tron" and "Bit". That said, it was harmless fun, for the most part and enjoyable enough.

Although it didn't last long it seems to be one of the few shows that, although looking wooly and trite now, gained a dedicated following at the time.

Good Show...waiting for DVD

[Bones-12 · 23 January 2005]

This show was pretty good and I remember it as a kid. In regards to the reviewer from Finland...Chuck Wagner is NOT a Swedish Model, but a very WELL versed actor who made a name for himself performing on Broadway in stage plays...most notably Phantom of the Opera.

I would hope and anticipate that someday this will come to DVD, but for now I guess we will have to wait and see. Does anyone have any information as to when this may be released on DVD? I saw a few of the episodes as a kid, and then when the show was cancelled, I missed it in a way, it seemed like something that hadn't been done before, and a little ahead of it's time.

The Best Christmas Present I Ever Got From A TV Network!

[DgrWoman · 2 February 1999]

It has been 15 years and 2 months since ABC-TV gave the viewers of the USA a very special Christmas present! I am talking about Automan and I LOVED that show! Were it not for Automan and The Greatest American Hero, we would NEVER have had "The Ms. Marvel Show!" That is why I decided to write this as my way of saying a long overdue Thank you to them for THE best Christmas present I ever had!

Have I No Shame???

[turtlelady27 · 17 January 2001]

Yes, I loved Automan, too. As I sit and watch my back episodes, I can't help but wonder why...the show was just plain bad. At the time it was good (as good as an 11 year-old can think). I'm now 28 and am glad Chuck has been keeping busy, but the man had no shame. It was an interesting idea, and it also works as a form of punishment for my iguana. She hates this show worse than anything else out there. I get glared at, and her dewlap comes down...trust me. It works. WATCH AUTOMAN AT YOUR OWN RISK...BE SURE YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE TO DO!!!

I liked that show

[theburnward · 12 December 2002]

Though I was young at the time, I seem to remember liking that show alot. It might have something to do with my fascination with anything scifi, but i remember being bummed when it never came on again. If i saw the show now im not sure how I would feel about it though

Wow

[BlackBalloon · 27 August 2001]

This has to be seen to be believed. Chuck Wagner is TALL and much better-looking than 90% of male television OR movie leads. He plays (trumpets, please)AUTOMAAAAAAN!!!- a computer-generated "hologram" (holograms, with enough perfecting, can be made to FEEL real as well, so the prologue says) created by an equally unbelievable inventor/police investigator. In fact, he is SO perfected that he "can dance like John Travolta" (yes, he said that)- something he announces within moments of being created. Auto, or "Mr. Mann" (har har har), as he is referred to by those not in the know, is supposed to help the investigator (Arnaz, Jr.) with his dirty work because for some reason his superior doesn't trust him (maybe because he spends too much time talking to a computer-generated hunk). Instead, Auto usually ends up leading a biker gang in full Marlon Brando leather or pursuing an autograph from a Barbra Streisand type. Hm.

Nice try on the heels of Tron

[dougditto · 4 February 2005]

I remember this weak show. I had high hopes for it, as a closet fan of computers. I remember using an Apple II Plus in 7th grade math class, and we owned an original Macintosh. Computers were a slowly growing trend at the time, and few used them in any frequency. Now we all use them daily. This show ranks up there against the super-motorcycle cop show (the one that flew), "Viper", and Manimal... another in the long line of knight-rider wannabes. There is no spoiler that could be given, even if I wanted to. The show was weak, and deserved the toss into cancellation hell that it got. The slow shot, then sped-up car chase scenes were so obvious, as to be funny. This could have been so much better.