Hey, anybody remember the early 80s TV show, "Whiz Kids"? It featured a group of kids, skilled in electronics, computers and sleuthing, solving a variety of crimes in their city. Pretty awful stuff, but it wasn't any worse than some of the other crap on TV at the time, and at least it had some interesting shots of computers (albeit often being used in unrealistic ways... just like computers on today's shows).
I was reminded of it when I came across Episode 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9MQOz291N8) on YouTube. The premise revealed in the first few minutes was so ridiculous I was laughing out loud.
The kids have somehow made a random new friend through their computer system, and he's invited them to help him test a new game he's developing. In the game you try to maneuver your character to a special room while dodging bad guys. It must be pretty tough, because the kids are having a devil of a time beating it.
The camera cuts to let you see the game's programmer on the other side of the connection. It pulls back and you see that he's in prison and there's a guard nearby. The guard says it's time for dinner, and the inmate asks if he can work on his program some more after dinner. The kind guard agrees and says that he can't wait to play this great game when it's done.
After dinner, the inmate and the kids connect again, and this time one of the kids finally makes it to the room. The screen switches to text, tells the kid he's trapped, and prompts him to type how he wants to get out. He tries a few things such as opening a window or making a hole in the ceiling, but the program keeps responding that it won't work. Finally the kid has the idea to change the color of his clothes to disguise himself. He types it in, and... the game ends. They lose the connection. Cut to the inmate, turning off his computer and getting up from his chair. For some reason, he's unsupervised now.
He takes a uniform and dips it into a bucket, dying it black. Ah ha! His computer game was just a ruse in order to have these innocent kids brainstorm an escape for him!
Cut to newspaper headline about prisoner walking out of the facility... :skratta:
This show is more entertaining than any comedy I've seen for quite some time... especially since I don't think they meant it to be funny.
I can't see what kind of computer the inmate is using... but that's definately a Commodore 1702 monitor! :D
-Andrew
... on second thought, it could be a 1701. ;-)
Heh, that's cool. In a freakish sort of way.
The third episode, which I've now watched, is a little more plausible. Guy at a chemical company hires one of the kids to do penetration testing on their system, and when the kid gets in he finds something that shouldn't be there: plans for a highly toxic nerve agent designed to poison a water supply! It was actually a pretty good episode overall. Still need to get around to watching the first one. There's definitely a geeky appeal to the series... I wonder if any kids who saw it begged their parents to get them a computer. :D
I know of a few...good friends of mine that aren't ashamed to say it loud and proud ;-). me well i was already into computers from the mid 70s but hey, I was still begging to get computers ;-) lol
According to www.imdb.com, this show aired for 18 episodes. :-)
-Andrew
18 episodes, eh? I wonder what day and time slot it aired in. It seems to be aimed at younger viewers, but at the same time it's clear they put some money into the show, more than I'd expect if it were a kiddie program.
Lol, I actually remember watching those shows as a kid.
They aired the show on Swedish public service television circa mid-eighties. I remember thinking it was pretty good, if only for the fact that it was actually a show with geeks as protagonists :)
Well, the collection is up to 6 complete episodes now. I have to admit I'm eagerly waiting for more. :)