Well, I remember that excellent US TV drama serial of the late
Super70s called "A Man Called Sloane". At that time I was only about 8 years old
but I reckon I was still a good judge of what was good TV, and in my opinion,
this show was compulsive viewing! I am very surprised that repeats of this show
have not been shown on British TV considering the number of channels we now have
available. In terms of watchability, A Man Called Sloane was as entertaining as,
say, Columbo or The A Team, and it was one of those spy/adventure shows that
appealed to the whole family. Having said that, I actually remember very little
about any particular episode because I was so young at the time. However, I do
remember that each episode had a certain formula that intrigued you and made you
want to continue watching.
From what I can remember, at the start of a
typical episode, this gut called Thomas Sloane would walk up to an ATM machine
outside a bank in a busy American high street. He would then press a few buttons
and he'd be asked to identify himself. So, he'd speak his name "Thomas R Sloane"
into the ATM machine. The machine would verify his voice pattern and he'd then
be given access into a secret part of the building where some secret government
crime-fighting organisation were operating from. During the late Super70s, this
sort of thing seemed very cool and futuristic. Sloane would go into the secret
area of the building and be given instructions about some "assignment" that he
had to undertake. As I say, I can't remember all the details of the plot for any
particular episode, but Sloane seemed to be a sort of James Bond character who
would be instructed to do whatever it takes to bring some bad guys to justice.
To help him in this endeavour, Sloane was given a helper in the form of a beefy
bald-headed black guy (called Torque) Torque had a detachable hand that was a
sort of metal device that could be used as a tool for various tasks.
I
would love to be able to watch one of those shows again but I guess they would
be pretty hard to get hold of now. At that time, hardly anyone in the UK had a
video recorder. If anyone does have a copy though, I would love to hear from
you. My nickname is Coldfire and my email address is: mikew080@hotmail.com
--Coldfire
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