Robert M G Parker

For a certain generation the name Glen A. Larson was part of the fabric of life during the formative years, something there in the background, noticed maybe only subconsciously but on a regular basis. If you’d have asked me until very recently I like to think I’d have been able to tell you he was a TV producer, most notably in the 70s and 80s but I definitely would’t have known the true extent of his reach.
Battlestar Galactica, Magnum PI and Kinght Rider were the three that stood out for me at the time and have stuck with me since. Growing up in the 80s on a sliver of land that jutted out into the Irish sea might sound idyllic when I think about it and I would probably buy a slice of that life if you were selling it to me now, but there wasn’t a lot of colour. The peace and quiet brought with it the risk of boredom and the need for a window on a world that offered more. The news seemed depressing even for someone still only just counting their age on the fingers of two hands; full of miner’s strikes and the cold war. I think I might even have wondered if the two were connected at the time. And yet there were brief interludes every few days, maybe only 44-45 minute respites punctuated by ad breaks that started and finished with a crude looking picture of the show in question.
For these time slots I would be transported from the cold farm house to the beaches of Hawaii, wherever Michael knight and his car ended up this week (he seemed to move around a bit, like a muscle car driving Littlest Hobo) or even deep space.
It’s impossible to work out the true ramifications of all that I saw but I’m fairly certain they are far reaching. I’m pretty sure I can blame my interest in cars on The Hoff’s talking Trans Am and Magnum’s Ferrari 308 (and later 328, see, I’m that much of a reject). I definitely have a moustache inferiority complex, thanks to the fine example sported by Selleck and I remember trying to research as much as I could on the Egyptians as it was suggested their ancestors had something to do with Galactica in the title sequence. I suspect I had a bit too much time on my hands then.
Even recently in my first crime novel, Snow Storm, the main character is seen watching a box set of the original series of Galactica. Like him, I never did feel the need to watch the new series, or those of Knight Rider, though unlike him, I’ve never actually gone back to the box sets, worried perhaps that they’ll lose something in the retelling. But that’s not the point. These shows were very much about escapism for me, and I can say for certain they opened up my imagination. I might not be doing what I am now were it not for Glen Larson and his epic productions and I am very grateful to him for that and all those hours of entertainment.
Later, as a student, I remember watching Quincy at lunch times. Indeed, I think the crime fighting pathologist may have been a student institution twenty years after his first airing, so maybe the reruns or the box set are worth a go.
In the mean time. Here are some title sequences to relive.