Automan The Complete Series   Starring: Desi Arnaz, Jr., Chuck Wagner and Heather McNair Fabulous Films Ltd / Freemantle Media Enterprises RRP: £39.99 FHED2928 Certificate: 12 Available 01 October 2012

Automan is the latest DVD release of a Glen A Larson TV series. For those unfamiliar with the great man’s work, for a while in the late '70s / early '80s, Glen A Larson single-handedly rescued American television from the character heavy drama we are saddled with today. Part of the genius lay in his realisation that good acting and depth of plot only got in the way of Entertainment. Nowhere is this talent more apparent than with the single season of Automan.

After a string of hit shows, and Manimal, Larson set his sights on the most ambitious project of his illustrious career. Automan has been dismissed (by some short sighted critics) as a mere TV spin-off of the movie Tron, but Automan is so, so much more. Upon seeing Tron, Larson was understandably disappointed - here was a film with little understanding of how to "Entertain" an audience. It was almost as if the film makers were crediting the audience with intelligence. With casual ease Glen A Larson was able to apply his canny knack of simplification to this failure of a movie and create his magnum opus, Automan.

Automan tells the story of Walter Nebicher (Desi Arnaz Jr), the Police Department’s resident computer geek who creates the computer program, Automan as a way of combating crime. The program (as with the entire Automan project) is more successful than could’ve been predicted and results in a wholly realistic hologram being created that, given enough power,r takes on physical form. Walter, together with Automan takes to the nighttime city streets and over 13 action packed episodes (this collection includes the unaired season finale) fight all manner of bad guys.

The series' big selling point is the revolutionary special effects. They look fantastic today but back in 1983/4 they must have truly blown audience’s minds. The cutting edge special effects team have created a flawless digital world using analogue effects.
But unfortunately this brilliance came at a cost - over $1million per episode, and even with huge audience figures the costs were just too high and there was sadly no second series. But, what we are left with is the high-water mark of just what can be achieved within the medium of the early evening family entertainment television show. Generations to come will treasure the family heirloom of the Automan box set and rightly so.

If that weren’t enough (and it is), the extras on this lavish DVD set are also incredibly generous and include a 40-minute documentary with interviews from the cast and Glen A Larson himself.

Essential.

10

Richard A Bennett