From:	Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU>
Subject:	Re: New TV Series: RoboCop
Date:	Sat, 26 Mar 1994 21:48:33 CST

From: "Robert A. Hayden"
<hayden%KRYPTON.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU@***.spcs.umn.edu>
>For those fo you that don't know, there is a new RoboCop Television
>series on now. It is syndicated so you will have to shop around for it.

>I have it a very strong thumbs up. It is as whimsical as RoboCop I (the
>1st movie) and presents a nice cyberpunkish setting.

Ack! Ick! I saw the premeire last week and it turned my stomach to see how
thoroughly they emasculated the title character. In the entire hour, I
believe that Robo fired a grand total of four single shots from what was
orginally a high-ROF automatic weapon. Two shots were fired at little
demo charges to "open" doors - after having the explsive charge levels
carefully set to be just enough to open the door in question (oh, excuse me,
one of them was used to open a door, the other was to deal with an emplaced
heavy weapon (throwing the operator through the air, but not injuring him)),
one was used to shoot a gas tank so that the concussion would knock over
someone who was shooting at Robo (without using any cover, might I add), and
one was used to separate a cycle/sidecar combination that was charging him.
Then, at the end of the show, The Bad Guy's got Robo's partner and is using
her body as a shield and Robo's _ready_to_drop_his_gun_ to save her! Does
anyone else remember what he did in a basically identical situation in the
first movie? (Hint: That's one criminal who won't be having any children.)

They may call the show RoboCop, but it's really just some goody two-shoes
who looks like him.

>In addition to officer Alex Murphy and his partner, we have the ever
>ominous OCP (Omni Consumer Products). Also, we have a secretary that was
>murdered to attempt to link her brain with a computer and was
>successful. So now we have an AI that floats around too.

This was, admittedly, a decent idea. Too bad the rest of the show was so
revolting.

I suppose I should add that the atmosphere of the RoboCop series didn't
strike me as being at all cyberpunk, but that may just be because I've been
watching Max Headroom lately... (I got cable last month, and I've come to
the realization that Max Headroom and Battlestar Galactica aren't nearly as
cheesy as I'd been expecting... I watched both when they were running
originally, but everything else I was watching back then was pretty bad...)

esper@***.umn.edu