When we like it, we always seem to want more? There was even a hit disco song in the seventies simply title MORE More more. And obviously that is how we like it. this is a world very few, if any, actually saw coming. Go back to those tv actors of the 60’s who made deals for the first year or two of reruns only to discover we will watch a show endlessly if we are given the opportunity to, I am looking at your office fans!! However not everything holds up as we move away from it. do not get me wrong I am not one of those who believes that there is nothing good made before 2000, and I am not interested in that argument here. things change. If you look at the history of television, you will see some shows and wonder how something like this got made. I mean a man’s dead mother possessing his car. How does My Mother the Car ever even get made? But there it is in all its glory with thirty episode and Jerry Van Dike, a great comedic actor and brother of Dick Van Dike. if you fast forward to the eighties, we get Knight Rider and KITT. Not his mother but an intelligent car on its own. This gets me to thinking. We have had some shows that perhaps could do with an update, I think the kids use the term Reboot. So today I am going to talk about five shows from my youth that I think could in fact be rebooted and hits for today.
Quick Question, does the private eye show ever go out of favor? The private eye show is a staple for television. This is different from the cop show but not by much. I used to love The Rockford Files when I was younger. James Garner played the title Private eye with a heart. He was always solving cases for people who may or may not have been able to manage his fee. now you Know James Garner from Space Cowboys, the Great Escape, and Promise, one of my favorites. I saw it in high school psychology class. It stars James Woods as the younger brother who suffers from schizophrenia. Wonderful performances all around. A decent amount of action, good stories and cases which did not have the forced twist. I watched a few of these online and I have discovered a few things. First of all, television, and movies really, used to do more showing than telling. They were not afraid of taking a moment and letting the music take the front seat while we saw the crime happening. I think if you had some of this, not too much as it would slow the flow a little, along with some modern action and stunts you really could create a show that would be a hit. I mean who would not tune in to see a reboot of this classic. The important part here is going to be the lead actor. For me there is only one man who could play Jim Rockford in this modern era on television and that is the one and only Bruce Campbell. He has that rugged look to him. Plus, we have seen him in Burn Notice so we know he can do the running and gunning thing. Also, his delivery would fit with the dry sense of humor you had on that show. This is one of those shows that needs to be the light action. I do not mean this in tone but in setting. So many of these crime shows are set in dreary and dirty cities, New York, Chicago, or even Detroit, but Rockford Files screams for the light and sunny. It was originally set in California; this could work again but what if we found another coastal area. I know Florida comes to mind really fast but perhaps we could find another location, or even create a fictional location that can have what we are looking for. You know a mix of Florida, California, and, as long as I am dreaming, Hawaii. You could literally film anywhere for those places. I think a reboot of this should be happening immediately, get me Bruckheimer on the phone and schedule a lunch.
This is a wonderful show from the eighties. The Fall Guy was a weekly action drama, I love action dramas, in which our lead, Colt Seavers, works as a stunt man and a bounty hunter. I have to admit I was a little let down when I first saw this show. My only experience with the word bounty hunter, to this point, was only in Star Wars Empire Strikes Back, so a little disappointed at the lack of Boba Fett in the series. In case ten-year-old me has stumbled into a time machine and for some reason is listening to this podcast instead of compiling a list of winning stocks, our lead is tracking down bail jumpers, and solving the cases along the way. Seems like most shows of this nature were doing this. Each week Colt would have to find his target, who was usually wrongly accused, and clear their name. he would do this with a stunt from a movie he had once worked on, usually the film he was working at the start of the show. And really that is the entire show. What more could you ask for. You had high action stunts, from current movies, you also got at least one car chase and crash, as well as a bar fight, usually a plate glass window would get broken.
Colt Seavers was played by Lee Majors, the six-million-dollar man, what a deal I wonder what that would cost today? As well as Ash v. The Evil Dead, if you like the movies you will love this show. Very dark and over the top bloody, to almost humorous amounts of blood. Lee Majors also did several episodes of a show called Tour of Duty. Short lived, about three seasons, focusing on a single unit through the Viet Nam War. Another great show. In The Fall Guy, Lee Majors plays our bounty hunter, and if I remember correctly, he rarely, if ever, used a gun. Seems like at the time there was this push against violence on television, and the response was either to remove the gun or show no one was seriously injured, but more on that when we talk about the A-Team. Colt was the leader of our group. He ran the stunt crew who were working on movies every week, and of course these same characters were helping with our case. Seems like we usually would start off with a stunt of some kind on the set. Then he would receive a job form the bail bonds person, played by Markie Post.
Markie Post came in I think during the second season, and she was the person who post the bail for these people and the send colt out to bring them to court. Markie Post was on Night Court, transformer Prime and Chicago PD. She really only had a few scenes in the episode. She would be in the first few minutes presenting the case or sometimes at the end closing the case.
Colt also had his team. Howie Munsen was his nephew, I think, anyway, Howie Munsen is played by Douglas Barr who you would know from Designing Women and The Wizard. If I am remembering correctly the Wizard was a toy designer who also solved crimes. Don’t think I watched it; it may have been a little young for me at the time. Howie was the college boy. He had a degree in business or some such and was needled a little bit for having gone to college. Can I just say America has always had this sort of love hate relationship with education? I mean on the one hand we are told, at least those of us in Gen X, that you had to go to college. It was the only path to financial security and family stability. Then all of our television shows and movies downplay educated people for not having real world experience. Never quite sat right with me. Howie is our college boy and of course he is also our comic relief character. Yes, he wants to be a stunt man bounty hunter like Colt, but he just does not have the experience and therefore tends to come up a little short. As I am sure a young colt Seavers would if we saw the early years.
Also in our merry band is Jody Banks played by the wonderful Heather Thomas. Most of us know here as that chick from the poster. Not that one that is Heather Locklear. I mean the other poster. You also know her from the movie Zapped, episodes of BJ and the Bear, Love Boat and such. Yes, she was the hot chick, but she was also trying to break into this male dominated world of stunts, and bounty hunting. Primarily she was used when we needed someone knowledgeable about stunt work or we needed the sexy distraction. I mean it was the early eighties and Jiggle tv was a thing. This was another thing I had issue with as a kid. Everyone seemed to be okay with nudity or sexual situations in movies and television. No big deal but violence? We will have none of that. Always made me wonder as a kid a little bit.
So that would be our team. Colt, Howie and Jody are who we focus on from week to week. For a reboot I would see no need to change that at all. The format here is excellent. Start with a medium stunt from a movie, currently in production or recently released. Throw in bar fight, a car chase, and a closing stunt that definitely should be reminiscent of a major movie. We get the right guy and solve the case. All done. Why even reboot it? well this is needed for a reboot because it would put a little more action on television. It could be contained stories instead of the ongoing plot over a season. With it being a throwback, I am confident that many Gen X’ers will love this. Not to mention our stunts now would definitely be bigger than they were. I think it would be a major hit if redone for today’s audiences. If you want to catch old episodes of The Fall Guy, you are going to have to purchase them over at Vudu.
This show I absolutely loved. I am talking about the A-Team. This was such a great show. You have a wrongfully accused tried and convicted special forces unit from Viet Nam, and now they spend their time helping the average citizen. I am not sure how or where or even why these problems existed. I mean seriously as I have aged this has been a thought that creeps in on me at night. I love the show it was great. Every week we have a new problem to solve, but these problems were so outdated. We had corrupt sheriffs running small towns like it was Robin Hood. Or some company town, are those even a thing, where workers are being horrible exploited, as if they have no recourse in the court system at all. So where do they turn? They turn to the A-team of course, but how? I mean they are on the run from the federal government. Its not like they take over an office complex or something. How do people find the A-Team? they do and like I said every week our guys were able to solve the problem, and not kill anyone. This was another issue I had. I had a lot of issues as a kid. Mostly stemming from being a little smarter and taking time to ponder things. Stick with me here. Early eighties and everybody were up in arms about all the violence on TV. Now the violence seemed to stay on TV. Most of what we were watching in those days were these cop shows or private eye shows. Yes, the death and consequence of violence was removed but the acts of violence, fist fights, car crashes, and shootings, all stayed. I loved this about the A-Team. This crack special forces team would literally fire thousands of rounds of ammo in a small area, warehouse, street corner, whatever, setting off explosions and let’s not forget this week makeshift tank created from an old car and scrap, and no one would die. There would be this great explosion sending a car flipping end over end and the two guys would climb out of the car and dust themselves off as if nothing had really happened. I mean I need ten minutes to reset after a roller coaster and you are telling me the mine manager can do a triple car flip through an explosion and just jump out like “wow that was close”. Like I said that always bothered me. Any way who is on our team?
First up we have Hannibal Smith played by George Peppard who you know from Battle Beyond the Stars, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Banacheck. On the show Smith is our leader, he led this team in Nam and is still leading the team. He is also, apparently, the best actor in the whole world. Seems like every episode opens with some one looking for the A-Team and meeting with some old man, or the Asian guy, or whatever else makeup hey could throw on Peppard and let him do his thing. Don’t get me wrong, these were probably some of the best little character pieces on all of television, but again I always thought “if he is that good why not just change the name and do the acting full time?”. But I digress. Hannibal is our military leader and always has the plan, as crazy as it always seems somehow it manages to come together in the end, which is what we were always waiting for.
Mr. T plays B.A. Baracus our heavy weapon and armor specialist. This man could, and did every episode, create a tank from any old vehicle and the spare parts that were just laying around. The other fun part here is that B.A. is afraid to fly, and we fly somewhere almost every episode it would seem. Always an elaborate ruse to knock out B.A. and get him on the plain. You would almost think he would get wise to it, and he seems to but then they switch it up and drug him yet again. It was the eighties, what would life have been like with out a little drugged kidnapping with friends. Mr. T. burst on to the scene in Rocky III as Clubber Lang, I loved not liking him on that. He was also on Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs as well. Also, you can see him in not another teen movie as well. I once saw him, at least I think it was him, in some bodyguard/ bouncer competition. Early eighties late seventies maybe. Late night tv was not much of a thing but I caught, one late night, this competition show. Really only remember the scene of him running into a room jumping over a bar or something. This was like an offshoot of the strongest man competitions. You know the ones where they would lift girls in bikinis instead of weights. Yeah, late night tv pre-cable was pretty wild.
Howling Mad Murdock was the character I liked the best as a kid. He was the pilot, and he was crazy. Now I don’t mean he was over the top, or a bit much to take. I mean he was certifiable crazy. Every episode they would have to break him out of some mental hospital. Hannibal or Face would show up at the hospital in some costume and some paperwork and off Murdock would go and the staff would be okay with it. again, if the military was looking for these guys why not just sit at the hospital and track them from there? Again, I am off point. Murdock would always have some form of delusion that would, and this is going to be surprising, play right into whatever the situation was where we were helping people. I remember he did this one episode where he had a mannequin he used for fishing. See when fishing all you need is someone who is catching less fish than you, I swear it made sense when I was ten, but later we used the mannequin as a distraction. Or the episode where he was being crazy in a prison, yes, the broke into a prison, and the only thing that would calm Murdoch was if they gave him a trash bag. He collected “enough” and was able to help construct personal hot hair balloons for the prison escape. I don’t remember how they got BA out since this was flying but I am sure it made about as much since as making hot air balloons from trash bags and hair dryers. You have seen Dwight Schultz, who plays Murdock, through Star Trek Next Gen and Voyager as Reginald Barclay. I love that character. He can also be seen on Ben Ten, Marvels Avengers Assemble, and lots of other voice work as well.
Probably my favorite character was Face. He was this sort of Con Man smooth talker of the group. He would be the one to acquire the items we may need as well as any intelligence we needed to gather. Always interested in the girl, usually there was a damsel in distress, but would do the right thing above all else, I mean the right thing from out teams’ perspective if I may Obi-Wan that for a second. Dirk Benedict played Face. Now I loved this character and not just because it was the return of Starbuck to television, I did love Battlestar Galactica when I was younger. You can also find Dirk Benedict on a few episodes of Charlies Angels, the Love Boat, and Amazing Stories. I loved amazing Stories. It was like twilight zone light for the eighties. Great show. This was our team. They for a while had a reporter who helped out and eventually, they went private in the later seasons, I think I was out by then. But the show was as simple as all that. Person needs help our group helps and narrowly evades the government at the end of the episode and gets away. I think this makes more sense now than in the eighties. We have the internet now and contacting a group of fugitives to help you with your problems seems like it would be easier today. My real concern here is would people believe these issues? I mean we would have to update them, but are there still these towns run by extremists or companies that or really as evil as they were on the A-Team? Yes, I would love this as a weekly action drama. With every show having this major through story or focusing on a single big bad for a season this show would work. Having a little more depth to the governments hunt of our team may give this a little more life than before. Yes, we would have to update from the Viet Nam war to maybe the War on terror. This would give most of our guys the military training they would need. I would like to add the Hacker to the group, and if I am being honest, the hacker needs to be the crazy one with the issues. Beyond that I think this is perfect for a reboot.
What was it about the early eighties It seemed like everywhere you looked there were ninjas, or was it just me and a steady diet of Cannon Films projects? I mean seriously there were ninja movies everywhere, and I love action, I enjoy martial arts, especially with a little mysticism thrown in. This is what ninjas were to me. This was Kung Fu with magical elements. Then I learned a little more and turns out that much of the ninja weaponry and tactics were used simply to keep hidden. Very fascinating to me. There was a Friday night show called The Master that was about ninjas, well one ninja one ninja in training. Once again, we have a variation on the private eye show. I think there were so many of these private eye shows because the formula is easy. This time we have a ninja and his apprentice out in the world righting the wrongs and trying to survive and set things right. This is the whole story of The Ninja, as I remember it because you can not find this anywhere. I mean there are a couple of episodes on YouTube but nothing more than that. I find it curious that with all the streaming services out there why do each of them not have a section devoted to shows that were cancelled in three seasons or less. I know they have upscale for streaming but seriously these shows are what they are. Do the minimum to get them online and I guarantee people will watch these older shows. So many forgotten gems out there.
Our lead ninja is played by Lee Van Cleef, who you know from the good the bad and the ugly, for a few dollars more, and Escape from New York, as well as a bunch of other movies as well. Van Cleef plays John Pete McAllister a WWII vet who stayed behind and became a Ninja Master before returning to the United States to find his daughter that he only recently found out he had. His leaving has caused an issue amongst the other Ninjas. A former student Okasa tries to assassinate the Master who barely escapes. The master arrives in the town where he believes his daughter is and meets up with Max, his new apprentice and side kick.
Max is Played by Timothy Van Patten who you know more from his work behind the camera than in front of the camera. He has directed episodes of Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, the wire, and sex in the city. Max is the young head strong side kick who usually gets us into trouble. Yes, he is usually in the right, but the execution usually leads to one of the many fight scenes we have. If I remember most of those scenes usually would end with Max being thrown through a window. Max was not only learning the ways of the Ninja but was also aiding in the search for the master’s daughter.
The Master is being hunted by his former student Okasa. Okasa was played by Sho Kosugi who you know from Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and Ninja III Domination. Basically, if there was a ninja to be played this was the guy. He was also in the Scorpion King back 2002 as well as Ninja Assassin in 2009. He was tracking our heroes through out the run of the series.
This was cancelled after one season, and not even a full season. This was a mid-season replacement with thirteen episodes, so not shocking you can not find it anywhere but YouTube. The market was full of these kinds of shows plus the violence was a little more up close and personal so no shock this was not picked up for the following season.
I think that today we could get this to be a little bit bigger and better. With most seasons clocking in an eight to ten episodes I think this would be perfect for this show. Each season we focus on one small town trying to find the master’s daughter, or other family member, before moving to the next clue. More of a tracking than a search. We follow the clues to the next town. I honestly think upping the fighting and stunts and deepening the story really could make this work.
I loved BJ and the Bear when I was younger. Those of you who have been paying close attention to the show will know I wanted to be a space cowboy, I mean who didn’t in my age group. Well, the cool kids wanted to be Han solo when we played Star Wars. We knew he was the real hero. And of course, what was Han Solo if not a space cowboy. BJ and the Bear would be that space cowboy show. The show itself is very much like the others on this list. We got a single guy hauling goods from town to town and along the way he runs into issues with local officials and companies alike. He aids the down trotted and brings order to the world. Then he simply moves on down the road. I mean that is the entire show. Very star trek in that he travels from place to place being of service where he can be. Plus, it has that light rock almost country music soundtrack from the mid-seventies. Think Elton John’s Country Comfort. I hear that song and I can see the scene of the bikini clad young lady flagging down our hero for one of the episodes, or maybe its just me creating the scene who knows. You really can not find BJ and the Bear anywhere legitimately online. I think maybe YouTube has a few episodes, but the quality is not that good, but it if you got the itch this will scratch it.
Our Star of the Show our very own B.J. McKay, played by Greg Evigan. You will know him from My Two Dads, which could get an update as well already working on volume two for this one as well, he was also in several Tek War movies, as well as the Tek War series and a stint on Melrose Place. I also think that was him singing the theme song. Be careful it is one that always get stuck in my head for days, along with the theme to the fall guy. So, know I have had both of these rattling around my head while working on this episode. He was this sort of scruffy, kindhearted, rogue that would always do the right thing. Of course, with it being the late seventies early eighties our hero was a Nam vet and a chopper pilot. He was always projected as honest and good. His side kick was a chimp named Bear, after Alabama football coach Bear Bryant. As a kid I loved that the monkey was named bear, I did not get that Bear Bryant was a coach or anything at the time. Really BJ and the Bear were our only two main characters. There were others that came in and out. The only one of those of note, from my memory, was Sherriff Lobo.
Sheriff Lobo was played by Claude Akins and when you look him up you will see he was everywhere in the late seventies. Yes, he had the spin off of Sherriff Lobo, which I did not understand as Lobo was one of the early, if not the first, corrupt sheriffs that BJ had to deal with, but I am sure they made a change or two to put him on the air as well. What else do you know Claude Akins from, well, he was he did episodes of just about everything. Murder she wrote, Police Story, The Master, Love boat, and Hotel to mention just a few. When you see him, you will know him.
Now if we reboot what do we need. I mean things change over time. First of all, we need a strong actor who can carry this show. For my money one actor comes to mind on this. I am looking at you Tod Stashwick. This is a part he was meant to play. I think he has the chops to pull this character off plus he has the look of a man who lives by his own code. The only other change I would possibly make but then it becomes an entirely new show inspired by the original would be to set it in space. Think about it for just a second. Yes, traveling across the country in a big rig helping out people with their troubles could be a good show, hell a great show. Want to elevate to the next level? Want to dig in deep with the issues we face as a nation today? Then it has to be space. Still a cargo pilot. Delivering goods all of the sector and yes solving those problems when they arise and let’s face it that will most definitely happen on a weekly basis. You ask how does he get that cool music from the later half of the twentieth century then? Simple a data download from a satellite. Okay I might be going off the rails a little bit here, but I think this could definitely work and work well, even without the space update.
There are five shows that I think should be rebooted. You got one? feel free to drop it on social media for us to discuss. If you want to find me on twitter I am @thatandadollar also over at Instagram with A_GUY_NAMED_CHUCK. There is also a Facebook group that and a dollar podcast. Also feel free to use the #thatandadollarpodcast as well on all social platforms. If you want to support this one-man obsession, feel free to leave me a tip at buymeacoffee.com/thatandadollar. I am a guy named chuck and as always that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.
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