Day 24: Guilty pleasures - or old TV shows I still love even though they're a little bit terrible

aardvarkinmud And lastly (cause I'm just brainstorming lol), what are your guilty pleasures? Particularly any tv shows?

I don't really do guilty pleasures, I just do pleasures, but let me tell you about cheesy 70s and 80s TV shows.

Now everyone has to admit that mostly, a lot of the TV shows when those of us who were born in the early 70s were kids were not exactly deep. You think Teen Wolf has continuity problems and doesn't quite make sense - oh boy, that program has nothing on some of the 80s TV shows. That, however, does not stop me really enjoying several of them.

The first thing that is abundantly clear is that they're not usually great for feminism. Some of them had a go, but they mostly weren't very good at it. As long as you accept this before you watch them you shouldn't froth too much in rage.

Manimal

I remember watching this a a child and I loved it then. It's about Dr Johnathan Chase, his friend Ty and Detective Brooke MacKenzie and their adventures. What makes it not a simple cop show is that Chase can turn into various animals which help in their crime solving.

It only has 8 episodes and the pilot is awful (we almost never reached ep 2 when we re-watched), but some of the other episodes are highly entertaining. These days the effects look terrible, but I remember being astounded as a kid and totally engrossed. We have this one on DVD and have enjoyed re-watching it.

Street Hawk

"Street Hawk: Intro" (Watch on YouTube)

This is another one I loved during the 80s. It has its terribly cheesy moments, but I adored it. When I was young I never realised it only had 13 eps and I wish it had had more. I liked it better than Knight Rider.

It's about Jesse Mach, an ex-motorcycle cop injured in the line of duty which messed up his knee so he couldn't ride any more. The FBI come to him with an offer, they will fix his knee if he will agree to test out the new Street Hawk program; a very advanced and secret motor bike to be used in law enforcement. To prove the program he pretends to be a vigilante.

The only man who knows the truth is Norman Tuttle the man in charge of Street Hawk and the computers that power it. He does his very best to keep Jesse out of trouble, but of course this is 80s TV so he usually fails.

I haven't seen it in a long time, but it still holds a place in my heart. One day I will buy the boxset from Amazon.

The Invisible Man

Now I don't think I was old enough to see this when it first came out - 75 to 76, but I must have seen it in re-runs in the 80s. This one actually isn't as horrible for female characters as the other two.

David MaCallum plays Dr Daniel Westin who, with the help of his wife, Dr Kate Westin, develops an invisibility procedure which they test on bunnies. However, when the program is under threat and  it seems to have worked Daniel tests it on himself. Unfortunately it becomes permanent.

He and Kate agree to become the Klae resource, a team able to solve problems others can't. The most important point being complete secrecy. The pilot is kind of dark with them military being bad guys, but the rest of the show is much more light hearted. Daniel and Kate continue to look for a cure for Daniel, but that's only the background of a superpowered adventure show.

We have this one on Blu-ray and watched it all in about a week.

There are many more shows I could mention, but I don't want to write too much. So do you have any guilty pleasures when it comes to TV shows?