Knight Rider is an American action crime drama television series created and produced by Glen A. Larson. The series was originally broadcast on NBC from September 26, 1982, to April 4, 1986. The show stars David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a sleek and modern crime fighter assisted by KITT, an advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car. This was the last series Larson devised at Universal Television before he moved to 20th Century Fox Television.
Louis Burton Lindley Jr., better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was an American actor and rodeo performer. Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens took up acting, and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. For much of his career, Pickens played cowboy roles. He played comic roles in Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, 1941, and his villainous turn in One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando.
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, Galactica 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games. A reimagined version aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in 2003, followed by a 2004 television series, which aired until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.
Magnum, P.I. is an American crime drama television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from December 11, 1980, to May 1, 1988, during its first-run broadcast on the American television network CBS. Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top 20 U.S. television programs in the Nielsen ratings during the first five years of its original run, finishing as high as number three for the 1982–83 season. The series entered syndication in 1986 under the title Magnum in order to differentiate reruns from new episodes still airing under the original title on CBS.
Glen Albert Larson was an American television producer, writer, and composer. He created many series, including Alias Smith and Jones, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, Quincy, M.E., The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, B. J. and the Bear, The Fall Guy, Magnum, P.I., and Knight Rider. Active on television until the early 2010s, he was also a member of the folk revival/satire group The Four Preps.
Adventures of Superman is an American superhero television series based on comic book characters and concepts that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created in 1938. The show was the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California on RKO-Pathé stages and the RKO Forty Acres back lot. Cereal manufacturer Kellogg's sponsored the show. The first and last airdates of the show, which was produced for first-run syndication rather than for a network, are disputed, but they are generally accepted as September 19, 1952, and April 28, 1958. The show's first two seasons were filmed in black-and-white; seasons three to six were filmed in color.
Victor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor. He came to prominence as one of the leads of the ABC drama series Combat! (1962–1967), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Series. Active on screen for over three decades, his film roles include Blackboard Jungle (1955), King Creole (1958), God's Little Acre (1958), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), and The Bad News Bears (1976). Morrow continued acting up to his death during filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when he and two child actors were killed in a helicopter crash on set.
Manimal is an American superhero television series created by Glen A. Larson and Donald R. Boyle, it ran on NBC from September 30 to December 17, 1983. The show centers on the character Jonathan Chase, a shape-shifting man who can turn himself into any animal he chooses. He uses this ability to help the police solve crimes.
Gregory Ralph Evigan is an American film, stage, and television actor. He began his career in theater, appearing in the Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar, followed by a stage production of the musical Grease, in which he portrayed the lead, Danny Zuko. Evigan made his feature film debut in Scorchy (1976), then was cast as the lead in the comedy series B. J. and the Bear, in which he starred between 1979 and 1981.
Laurette Spang-McCook, credited as Laurette Spang, is an American television actress. She is best known for playing the character Cassiopeia on the original Battlestar Galactica (1978).
Switch is an American action-adventure detective series starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975, and August 27, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights.
Claude Aubrey Akins was an American character actor. He played Sonny Pruit in Movin' On, a 1974–1976 American drama series about a trucking team, Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series, and a variety of other film and television roles.
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo is an American action comedy television series that ran on NBC from September 18, 1979, to May 5, 1981. For its second season the show was renamed Lobo. The program aired Tuesday nights, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. The lead character, Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo, played by Claude Akins, was a spin-off character from B. J. and the Bear, which also aired on NBC from 1979–1981.
Movin' On is an American drama television series. It ran for two seasons from 1974 to 1976 on the NBC network.
Pamela Susan Shoop is an American character actress in films and on television. She often appeared on television series created by Glen A. Larson. She is known for her role in Halloween II (1981) as Nurse Karen Bailey.
The Highwayman is an American action-adventure-themed television series starring Sam J. Jones, set in "the near future." It was created by Glen A. Larson and Douglas Heyes. The pilot aired in September 1987 and was followed by a short-lived series of nine episodes, with significant changes to the cast and format, that ran from March until May 1988.
Mills Watson is an American actor who is probably best known for his comedic portrayal of the law enforcement character Deputy Perkins, first on B. J. and the Bear and later as a series star on The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo. He played Uncle Buster in the sitcom Harper Valley P.T.A..
The portrayal of the trucking industry in United States popular culture spans the depictions of trucks and truck drivers, as images of the masculine side of trucking are a common theme. The portrayal of drivers ranges from the heroes of the 1950s, living a life of freedom on the open road, to the depiction of troubled serial killers of the 1990s. Songs and movies about truck drivers were first popular in the 1940s, and mythologized their wandering lifestyle in the 1960s. Truck drivers were glorified as modern day cowboys, outlaws, and rebels during the peak of trucker culture in the 1970s.
American Trucker was a television show on the Speed cable channel. Hosted by Robb Mariani, the pilot episode featured Robb helping another mechanic restore a 1980 Kenworth K-100 Aerodyne trucks used in the TV show B. J. and the Bear, along with a short piece about the world's largest truck stop, the Iowa 80.
Outback Truckers is an Australian factual television series which looks at the Australian road-transport industry. It focuses on selected drivers and interesting personalities and shows the problems tackled by some sectors. The show is filmed mostly across Australia, but also takes detour in New Zealand and Weno, Micronesia. It originally screened on the Seven Network in 2012 and currently airs on 7mate. It has aired around the world on networks such as Quest TV (UK) and Discovery Europe. It was announced in 2023 that Outback Truckers would return for Season 10 after a hiatus, but as of 2024, there has been no official release dates for Seasons 9 and 10.
