# Automan (1983)

> A Los Angeles cop teams up with a computer-generated hero who lives inside a digital world to fight crime in this short-lived 1980s ABC series.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/11893

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, action, drama
- Created by: Glen A. Larson
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Desi Arnaz Jr., Chuck Wagner, Heather McNair, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Robert Lansing, Tom Everett, Branscombe Richmond, Hari Rhodes
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084978/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: earnest, campy, optimistic, breezy, retro

## What critics say

Reception is mixed, with audiences rating the single season moderately well while the show is remembered mainly as an early, quirky experiment in computer-generated superhero action.

## Synopsis

Automan (1983-1984) is an American science fiction superhero series created by Glen A. Larson for ABC. Desi Arnaz Jr. plays police officer Walter Nebicher, who is paired with Automan (Chuck Wagner), a crime-fighting program born inside a computer world. Heather McNair plays Roxanne Caldwell, while Gerald S. O'Loughlin and Robert Lansing appear as police superiors pressing the case work. The engine of the show is a human cop and a digital hero using the logic of a computer system to track down criminals and bring order to the streets of a modern city. Each episode is a self-contained case where the rules of the digital realm meet the stakes of the physical one. Running for a single season of thirteen episodes, the series was a brief, earnest network experiment rather than a long serialized saga. Its tone is bright, optimistic and steeped in early 1980s technology enthusiasm, with a campy adventure energy. Fans of Knight Rider, Tron and early Glen A. Larson action series will find resonance in its blend of crime procedure, futuristic gadgetry and buddy chemistry set in contemporary Los Angeles.

## Shows like Automan

- [Misfits of Science (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/9421)
- [Matt Houston (1982)](https://ember.film/tv/9627)
- [Knight Rider (1982)](https://ember.film/tv/2264)
- [Alien Nation (1989)](https://ember.film/tv/5102)
- [Street Hawk (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/3157)
- [Riptide (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/4162)
- [Hardcastle and McCormick (1983)](https://ember.film/tv/1192)
- [The Greatest American Hero (1981)](https://ember.film/tv/1801)
- [Knight Rider (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/14598)
- [The Highwayman (1987)](https://ember.film/tv/3615)

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