Automan

Real Name: Automan

Identity/Class: Computer generated solid light hologram

Occupation: Crime fighter

Affiliations: Walter Nebicher (creator), Cursor (partner), Roxanne Caldwell, Captain E.G. Boyd (indirectly - Walter's boss), Lieutenant Jack Curtis (indirectly - detective that Walter helps)

Enemies: Ronald Tilson

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Otto Mann, Auto, Auto the Hot Electrician

Base of Operations: Los Angeles

First Appearance: Automan #1 "Automan" (ABC Network, 15th December 1983)

Powers/Abilities: Being composed of solid light, he is almost impossible to injure. He needs to draw on a lot of power to create his hologram form, so Automan generally can only appear at night, when fewer people are using the available electricity. Being a computer construct, he can duplicate any skills he witnesses perfectly and instantly, turn insubstantial to walk through objects, engulf Walter's entire body to hide and protect him, interface directly with computers, and even fire bolts of energy (although that drains him badly). If he runs out of power, he simply vanishes until the computer can recreate him.

Cursor can generate all manner of vehicles, which can move without bothering with minor things like inertia (in particular, this allows him to drive a vehicle which can turn corners instantly as if it was in a video game, or even change direction and turn 180 degrees in the blink of an eye).

History: When junior police officer Walter Nebicher was assigned to a desk job instead of fighting crime on the streets like he wanted, he decided to use his genius for computers to make a difference another way. Walter designed what he hoped would be the ultimate in crime-fighting programs, which created a hologram to take on the criminals face to face. Designed to be an amalgam of all the most handsome men on the planet, the hologram, dubbed Automan because he was the "world's first automatic man", was good looking, strong...and full of himself. Together with Walter and his companion Cursor, a flying "bit" of light, Automan patrols the city battling lawbreakers in vehicles constructed from solid light.

Comments: Created by Glen Larson. Automan was played by Chuck Wagner.

The show ran only thirteen episodes before it was cancelled:

1. Automan
2. Staying Alive While Running a High Flashdance Fever
3. The Great Pretender
4. Ships in the Night
5. Unreasonable Facsimile
6. Flashes and Ashes
7. The Biggest Game in Town
8. Renegade Run
9. Murder MTV
10. Murder, Take One
11. Zippers
12. Death By Design
13. Club Ten

Thanks to Cathy W. who informed me that "when wearing street clothes, Automan went by the name Otto Mann."

Despite its short run, Automan had a novelization of the pilot episode, an action figure, and a comic strip in the U.K.'s BEEB magazine.

CLARIFICATIONS: None.

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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