Knight Rider is just obvious. I “graduated” to this from The Dukes of Hazzard. I, like Stephen, found myself horrified when I watched re-runs of this on TV Land a few years ago. I think what really got me was the Sledgehammer of Morality [tm] with which they were bashing me about the head. As a kid, me and a friend actually used to play a game out on the playground where I would be K.I.T.T., and he would “drive” me by my shoulders. Actually, his name was Steven. I wonder if he remembers that. Oh… obligatory comment: Mmm. Bonnie.

I LOVED Airwolf. For some reason, as a child I was always fascinated by the elaborate power-up rituals often shown in shows like this when starting the “super-machine” (see also Voltron). I distinctly remember that there was some sequence of buttons that they always showed Stringfellow Hawke using when they started Airwolf. Trivia: Airwolf was a dressed-up Bell 222. Apparently, only 99 of that helicopter were ever built (5 were prototypes).

Street Hawk I also remember well and loved. This is another show that figured into my pretend play as a child. My childhood best friend and I used to play a game based on this show while we were riding the bus to and from school. Now that I know more about motorcycles, it’s interesting for me to learn that the bike in the show was based on a 500cc Honda off-road bike. It surprises me it wasn’t a sport bike, but then again, I’m not sure that sport bikes had really caught on back then.

Blue Thunder I also remember. I saw the movie and the TV series. This one wasn’t as cool as Airwolf. Helicopter was based on a French model called the “Gazelle”.

Automan: A computer-generated crime fighter who could gain physical form by using lots of electricity. Thus, he could only appear at night (when power usage was low). His sidekick, Cursor, was basically able to “draw” any device he needed. Most often it was a car.

Something I find interesting but not all that surprising: at least some of these shows involved geeks hiding in the wings with varying levels of control over the “super-devices”. Automan and Street Hawk are the most obvious examples, but Knight Rider as well (did I mention Bonnie? *grin*)

Then there were all the cartoons that I group loosely into this genre: Voltron, Transformers, Go Bots, The Mighty Orbots, and the classic and prototype: Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, which I grew up knowing as “Battle of the Planets” (re-cast and watered down again as “G-Force” years later). I’d actually love to see all the old _original_ Gatchaman episodes (subtitled). A direct-to-video movie was made in ‘94 that I saw and actually really enjoyed.

No, really, I mean it. Me and four of my friends will saddle up in Voltron and kick your ass!

As for you other two, ha! you are both wrong. I, too, remember both Street Hawk and Airwolf. For those of you who don’t, Wikipedia is your friend.

Sadly, no one ever seems to know what I am talking about.