I was just reminiscing the other day about past projects, and how working in TV used to be. Starting in about 1972, prime time television was a fertile ground for trying out new ideas, and there were big budgets for the big ideas and their big special effects.
This continued well into the 80s. Man, 80s TV was awesome. [Bunch of stuff was here about 80s TV shows, but i’ll save you.] Oh and Max Headroom.
But most importantly, there was the A-Team. What was the A-Team? Are you really asking me that?
In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.—John Ashley’s opening narration.
I mean, that’s all that needs to be said, right?
The Solvers
After the A-Team ran from 1983-1987 (I was a huge fan of the A-Team), I had the brilliant idea to combine the best of the A-Team with the best of Knight Rider, and inject my own fresh new ideas. The result was my short-run series, The Solvers, where a team of snarky hipsters travel around the country solving problems with futuristic search technology (Google, just not in name). Their robotic car also turns into a van.
The Solvers originally aired on ABC in the summer of 1988, after failing to gain a mass audience it found a new home in 1990 on CBS. One year later, the show was cancelled after Kurt Koller walked off the set in a fit of rage yelling “It’s a fucking robotic car dickheads! Not a man in a van!”
Although the show only ran for 2 years on 2 different networks it has been critically and publicly acclaimed. There have been 2 serious attempts to bring the show back but negotiations broke down due to artistic differences among the cast.
We had a good run. Hell, Time Express was a cheaper show to shoot, produced by Ivan and Ben after they did Charlie’s Angels, had Vincent Price, and it only lasted 4 episodes.
Additional Information
There’s been recent talk of a reboot of the series. I’ll let you know what happens. Meanwhile, here’s some more information.
| Genre | A-Team clone |
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| Network | Originally aired on ABC. The show was cancelled after a year and picked up by CBS for another year. |
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| Seasons | 2 |
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| Awards | The Solvers has won a Grammy, an Emmy and a Golden Globe award. Nikita Mikros won an Emmy for best supporting actor in his role as Robocar and Van. |
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| Starring | Kurt Koller, Ben Vance, Robert Masters, Rae-el the Demon, and Nikita Mikros as robocar and van. |
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| Directed By | Robert Scheerer |
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| Written By | Kurt Koller |
More Additional Information
- The Solvers on Facebook
- Nik Mikros on Twitter
- Ben Vance is Buffalo Vision
- Rae-el the Demon
- Robert Masters
- Robert Scheerer on Wikipedia
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