h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right.

Do any of you lot remember this piece of nonsense? I have a vague recollection of it with the following highlights:

"Cursor" some flashy thing that used to bob around annoyingly (clearly used by Microsoft as a template for the office assistant);

His car, which turned corners at 90 degrees;

Lots of blue neon lights; and

A sidekick (male, I think).

Terrible recollection, I know. Too many cans of Special Brew when I was sixteen. Devastating brain cell injury.

Yes. Remember that one. A kind of Tron ripoff.

I also remember my sister pointing out that the actor who played Automan was a shortarse because you could just see that he was wearing high heels when he was on screen, but he didn't seem to be any taller than anyone else.

AutoMan was a hologram, an artificial construct built to include all the good bits from every super-cop in the world, from James Bond on down. He used to go around pretending his name was Otto J. Mann.

AutoMan was built by a bored systems programmer working for the police (NYPD, LAPD, whateverPD), called Walter Nebicher. When he met the thingie, his captain (who always called Walter by the name Nebisher and who was always being corrected) grudgingly agreed to let it and Walter hit the streets and solve crimes.

Cursor was AutoMan's... well, cursor. He used it to draw all sorts of stuff, though his most often used device was The Car, a Lamborghini Countach, I think.

How do I remember all this? Me and my grade school buddies used to play AutoMan during recess. Sad, huh?

Here in Lisbon, AutoMan was on about the same time as BattleStar Gallactica, another way cool show. (Is there an article on this one or any other Space Opera shows?)

Perhaps it should have been called Autoladyman.

I am remarkably impressed and have only now recovered from a brief lapse of Automan related reminiscing. I seem to now also remember a bunch of us running about in the playgroung going "neeeeeeowww, varooooom, weeeoooooow" and truning corners at ninety degrees, as one does.



Does this bear any resemblance to your Automan game? I am intrigued.

Battlestar Gallactica - a classic. Apollo, Starbuck and Chief Adama (spelling?). Top helmet haircuts also.

Cylons. Scary metal buggers. Even now a chill down my back. Didn't they rip off the eye device for Knight Rider?

Not sure it counts as ripping off, since Glen A. Larson was involved with both Knight Rider and Galactica, but point taken. I *also* remember Automan - in the pre-VCR days it was always a toss-up between this and Robin of Sherwood...

Was the side kick not also able to hide inside automan (or vice versa)?
Robin of Sherwood hmmmm vague recollections, also does anyone remember StreetHawk (Ressurected FBI agent with super bike kinda a proto-Robocop)

Yes, I remember Street Hawk. It was one of the big three vehicle related hero shows. Obviously the other two being Knightrider (which on reflection could easily be mistaken as a term for something else) and Airwolf. But on the subject of pre-VCR (god I feel old) I always remember skipping cubs(!!) to watch Manimal. Now there was a show.