Nostalgia Bubble! Street Hawk

The 1980s were a golden period of TV intro sequences; whilst today's hits are content to give you a sharp jab of logo ident, all those years ago audiences would be treated to a full minute of hyper-cut series highlights set to a grandstanding theme. Themes eh? What ever happened to themes? You can't hum Lost's wheezing yawn. It doesn't get so stuck in your head that it replaces every single other element associated with the series. Swill, christened in 60 seconds of blood-pumping awesome. Mainstream 1980s evening actioners are all dreadful. Staid lifeless action propped up with mannered ego acting. If you saw the A-Team right now, you'd probably break down and cry. But the theme! Absolutely incredible. Part exposition, part manifesto, all excellent. Right now, I guarantee you're picturing that jeep cartwheeling forwards in your minds eye. How could you not be? Looked like it hurt didn't it?



Forget all that, the very best opening sequence was undoubtedly Street Hawk. Disregarding everything in the proper show - a boring tale of some rubbish cop, and his nerdo G-man mate - instead focus on the opening gambit as text: you've got a slow ponderous robot suiting up in jet black blank-man leathers, pacing around an enormous vacant machine hub. You've got the techno-bike, lifeless until the robot-man sits on it - they seem to be two halves of one symbiotic shitkicker whole. This sequence scored by the bikes' low mechanical growls as interpreted by Tangerine Dream's German electronica.

As a child I was probably dimly aware that it wasn't two robots; one shaped like a man, the other a bike, in Street Hawk. People were definitely in the show. There was a human character associated with riding Street Hawk. As soon as he suited up though, he was a robot. No question. Being generous with my fledgling self, I could point out there's no chance the lead actor could be performing the daredevil stunts, hence the disconnect. It's an 'other' does the riding, some faceless stunt worker.

Nah. It was a robot.

Two robots, working in high speed unison, jumping out of abandoned fairgrounds, racing around like liquid data in a child's brain.