This train of thought has been lingering for a few days, backed up this weekend when I was flicking through obscure Sky channels and came across something called D-MAX. It seems to show nothing but Airwolf, Hulk and Knight Rider repeats, and after watching for a few hours (it was a slow Saturday…) I began to come around to my friends’ way of thinking. TV in the 80s was, in all honesty, actually pretty rubbish.
Same deal with The Hulk, too, one of the many hobo-based shows from the era (Hulk, Kung-Fu, and, erm, The Littlest Hobo). David Banner takes a dead-end job, witnesses something untoward, hulks out (once at the beginning and once at the end) and that’s it. The reason, I guess, for these formulaic shows was that they cost a lot, and the money-shots, such as they were (showing the Hulk onscreen, explosions in A-Team, slow-mo Bionic Man action, the General Lee jumping over something or Blue Thunder blowing stuff up) were the whole reason for watching. The action was the main focus, and the other 40-odd minutes were just filler; as kids, we fell for it hook, line and sinker every week. We’d wait, Knight Rider car or Steve Austin toy in had, for the good bits – but why did we keep coming back every week?
Well, I can think of a few reasons. One is that there were only five channels to choose from, and it was slim pickings – either an episode of A-Team, Knight Rider, etc, or switching over to The Antiques Roadshow or Songs of Praise. Another is that we didn’t expect much, and were happy to be entertained with anything even slightly action-oriented (remember, this was a time before the Internet, DVD, and computer gaming of any great significances, so we were amused by a lot less back then).
