I was 19 when TCB first aired . By 1973 I was riding a Bronson style Sportster. TCB was in occasional re-runs by then. Never could see them enough. TCB never gets the proper credit for what it did for Harley Davidson and motorcycle riding in general. Bronson-Hang in there !

--Keoaloha

TCB is what got me interested in bikes. In 1959 I was 14. I'm now nearly 59 and I've been riding ever since 1960. That was a great show. I'd like to buy a DVD of the whole production run. I've always liked Michael Parks too - except for his parts with that silly man Chuck Norris. It's funny - today the Harley Sportster is thought of as a "girl's bike. "

--Fred

This show really hit home with me. Three years prior I had purchased a small (250cc) Yamaha and decided to tour the country. In 1966 I spent most of the summer traveling through New England and the Martime Provinces. The following summer I was ready for the big one. I drove the Trans-Canada to Vancouver Island. Ironically I picked up a female hitchhiker in British Columbia and gave her a 300 mile ride to Vancouver. I spent a week camping on Vancouver Island. While I was waiting to catch the ferry back to the states I was sitting on my bike reading a book when a man approached me and asked where I was heading. We talked for a while and he mentioned that he and his wife would like to take a bike trip, but they now had three young girls and that ruled out the trip. He gave me his address and about a week later I looked them up. They were nice enough to put a complete stranger up for two days. Imagine that happening now!

Later on I left San Diego and rode to El Paso to visit an uncle. From there I rode to Detroit looking for a family to stay with. A missionary (originally from NJ) saw my plates on Vancouver Island and gave me their name and address as a potential stop off. I did not realize that they lived in a suburb of Detroit until a black cop pulled me over and suggested that I was in the wrong section of town. I had noticed many burned out buildings and it did not occur to me that I was in the riot section. This was the summer of 1967. He took me into a two story house that had been converted to a recording studio. He told me that they would let me contact the family I was looking for. The name of the small (at that time) company was "Mowtown Records"!

When "Then Came Bronson" aired two years later it was de ja vu all over again. I could never forget the show, the stories, or the music.

--tsw_9

"Then Came Bronson" really made an impression on me as a kid/teenager. We all wanted that sense of freedom, to roam, to get away, to leave home and stick it out on our own. Seeing him on that Harley, just gave you that inner feeling of looking for adventure and call of the wild, just being out there on the road, exploring, meeting new people, totally alive. You're the reason I still ride today. My Harley, brings it all together, life, peace, freedom.

--Doodler

I really liked the show and like the letter from Rocky, I bought a Honda 90 in 1966 and a BSA Spitfire MKIII (a real piece of junk) in 1975. The show meant a little freedom from my teenage world. The show still means freedom. I do remember the opening scene but that is about it. Everytime I ride my Harley I have flashbacks to the show. As shown in the "The Wild One", "The Wild Angels", and "Then Came Bronson", the fun in life is not where you end up but the ride to get there! The only thing about the show that bothered me was when he would start out on the Harley, jump over something on a dirt bike, and land with the Harley.

--Gunnut

Then Came Bronson was not just the property of Harley riders, but all bikers. The pilot was the best, but I never saw a bad or even average weekly show. T. C. B. and e-z rider got me into riding when I was 13 and I still ride one of my Indian motorcycle's to this day. I hope some tv head will someday use that brain in his head and put it back on tv. God there is so much junk on the tube now!

--INDIAN DAVE

Wow! I thought I was the only TCB fan in the world. Boy was I wrong! Like a lot of others on this site, I watched the show religiously. In 1969 I was 15 and totally enthralled with motorcycles. My first "job" was at 13 years old when I worked in a motorcycle dealership owned by a friends Dad. We assembled new Yamaha bikes after school, washed them, detailed them and we were allowed to ride them from the back lot to the showroom for our pay. We also got to drink all the free soda pop we could hold. I had it all planned out that when I turned 16 I could get my own bike. TCB reinforced those ambitions. I wanted to be Bronson! Well my Mom, college, job, wife and kids had different plans for me and I didn't get a bike until I was 49. I'm now 52 and have owned four bikes, so far, and ride constantly. Everytime I hear that big old Road King Classic start up with a rumble I remember Bronson's sporty rolling down the highway. Sometimes, when riding along a long scenic stretch of highway, it's almost like I am in one of his episodes, except I'm not as good looking as Michael Parks, the corduroy pants wouldn't block the wind to good, I couldn't keep the stocking cap on my head while rolling down the road plus most states now require a helmet which takes away from the Michael Parks experience.

The freedom, portrayed in the series, is still the #1 reason bikers give when asked why they ride. It's an amazing feeling to be cruising down a stretch of highway with the wind blowing by where your hair used to be.

It seems to me that Harley-Davidson should buy the rights to the pilot and series and release them. Harley releases Motorcycle music discs each year. They should release a motorcycle video series. From reading all the reports on the board it looks like Harley has sold a bunch of motorcycles to the people who enjoyed this show when it originally aired. I'm one of those.

--TulsaRider

I started riding when I was 11 in the fall of 66. Dad had bought me a M50 Harley and I rode it around the farm and gravel roads till I was 18 and had the money to buy an old 1950 FL. When Then Came Bronson aired I don't think I missed a single show. I like many others wore a watch man's sock hat and idiolised Jim Bronson's and his freedom. I have taken many a solo ride for weeks at a time. Its a freedom that can't be expressed in words. Then Came Bronson is kind of chezzie to some people today in compairson to tv shows today but most of the stuff on tv today is not worth watching. But in the days when all motorcycle riders were feared because of bad publicity, Bronson showed the side of the good biker.

Ride Free Ride safe

--50Pan