After the DVD release of Manimal, it was inevitable that its fellow short-lived US science fiction series Automan would follow, and here it is - all thirteen episodes across four DVDs.

Automan ran from the end of 1983 through to 1984, with twelve episodes airing before it was cancelled (the final episode wasn’t broadcast). Inspired by visuals of Tron (and with that film’s producer Donald Kushner on board alongside his partner Peter Locke, to assuage accusations of plagiarism), Automan was hyped as a cutting edge science fiction-superhero-adventure show, which was probably a mistake. Because while it is all of those things, the show also had its tongue firmly in cheek, and who knows, if the comedy aspect had been pushed more, it might have found its audience.

The premise of Automan is that police computer expert and frustrated crime fighter Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz Jr) has created a lifelike hologram called Automan (Chuck Wagner), who materialises as a sparkly blue figure – with an unexplained regular human head. He’s joined by a floating sprite called Cursor, who is able to generate physical objects like the Auto Car, The Auto Copter, the Auto Plane and, as the series progressed, various outfits for Automan to wear as a disguise. The pair are joined by Walter’s female colleague and crush Roxanne (Heather McNair), and by Lieutenant Jack Curtis (Robert Lansing) and Captain Boyd ((Gerald S. O’Loughlin), to whom Automan is passed off as federal agent Otto J. Mann.

All this origin is set up in an opening post credit sequence, which seems a bit rushed for the pilot – you normally expect a bit more of a back story to these things – and then becomes a pointless bit of padding at the opening of each episode, meaning that we are three and a half minutes into the show before the story actually starts. Once the weekly adventure finally begins (and these are all stand-alone episodes that you could watch in any order), it usually follows more or less the same path – Walter and Automan investigate some crime or other, often involving ‘the mob’, Automan dons his computer-generated ‘regular’ clothing and then gets carried away in his role, embarrassing Walter before the bad guys are brought to book. When the writers remember, Automan is made vulnerable by his need to draw on electrical power to exist, though as the series progresses, this becomes less and less of an issue.

Most of the humour comes from Automan’s lack of understanding of the real world and his attempts to learn and adapt to it. So we see him eagerly watching movies and getting carried away with the characters he sees, and then behaving in ridiculous ways (dominating the dancefloor, becoming a male stripper, getting obsessed with a soap opera) that draw attention to himself – often from swooning women who make their desires very clear! In fact, for a family show – a 1980s American family show at that – Automan is surprisingly lecherous – Cursor is little more than a sex pest, chasing women and buzzing around their amble cleavage, while the final episode, Club Ten, revels in close-ups of bikini clad boobs and butts.

Not all the humour in Automan is intentional, it must be said. Aside from the woefully dated computer technology (the machine you are reading this on is probably more powerful than the room full of computers Walter uses to whip up Automan) and the explanations of what a hologram is, there are moments that will make you snigger at the out-of-touch nature of the production. Episode two, Staying Alive While Running a High Flashdance Fever, has a white-suited Automan wowing the patrons of a nightclub with his John Travolta moves. This is, remember, 1983, when disco had long stopped being cool. In Murder MTV (and I bet they couldn’t use that title today), Laura Branigan makes a guest appearance as a member of girl group Sweet Kicks, and as you’d expect, the representation of rock ‘n’ roll culture is cringeworthy.

Elsewhere, the show runs through the usual plot devices – biker gangs and corrupt local sheriffs, blackmailers, gangsters and counterfeiters – with some twists. The influence of the Chippendales can be seen in Zippers, where Otto goes undercover as an ‘exotic dancer’, while Death By Design is an amusing spoof of Dirty Harry and The Biggest Game in Town actually has computers at the centre of the story.

Watched back-to-back, Automan isn’t particularly painful. As the series progresses, the characters do develop a certain charm. Wagner seems painfully wooden, but then that is what his character is supposed to be, so he’s probably acting really well, and Arnaz has good comic timing. The supporting cast have little to do - Lansing seems a bit embarrassed by it all, and his character does little more than snoop around, get captured and beaten up, while McNair is mostly reduced to being a bit of fluff and O’Loughlin seems confused by the whole thing. The special effects are, of course, painfully dated, but the look of Automan is weird enough to get past that, and the vehicles are impressive.

If you enjoyed Automan at the time, you might get a nostalgic kick out of this. I can’t see it appealing to anyone who isn’t awash with 1980s nostalgia, but I’ll admit that having seen this series, I would not have objected too much is there was a second season to sit through.

This release comes with a documentary that interviews Wagner and Arnaz (neither of whom you’d recognise), McNair (who seems delightfully batty) and producer Glen A. Larson, and also has a gallery of Automan toys – of which there were a surprisingly large number for such a short-lived show.

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (UK)