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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsTV Shows with traveling/roving protagonists
I'm trying to think of some TV shows that revolve around protagonists who travel from town to town, usually to do good works for strangers. The 1960s had Route 66 and The Fugitive, the 1980s had Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Highway to Heaven, and the 1990s had Renegade. The show Supernatural on the CW fits the bill as well. I'm sure there must be some that I'm missing. Anyone know of others?
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)How could you miss that one?
fishwax
(29,149 posts)there are probably at least a few in that vein. Fantasy as well, from '90s syndicated shows like Xena and Hercules. I was mostly thinking of shows set in the present, but I'm happy to have others on the list, so thanks for mentioning it
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,833 posts)Swede
(33,233 posts)They roved from universe to universe.
fishwax
(29,149 posts)the local video store, but I don't think I've ever seen it.
From The Ashes
(2,629 posts)...thought provoking. It got pretty silly toward the end.
ChazII
(6,204 posts)another western.
fishwax
(29,149 posts)I wonder if it's available on DVD -- either way, thanks for the title
Vanje
(9,766 posts)Handsome motorcycle rebel travels from town to town.
fishwax
(29,149 posts)I don't imagine it's easy to find, since it didn't run very long, but I'm especially interested in protagonists who go from town to town by automobile/motorcycle, so that's a fitting title
Iggo
(47,548 posts)murielm99
(30,733 posts)fishwax
(29,149 posts)how much sense of place did that show have? I remember watching it (or, at least, being aware of the character--the original series was before my time) as a kid, but in my memory there isn't much sense of where the LR is any given episode. I don't know if that's a function of my lack of sense of place as a kid or a function of the show itself ...
murielm99
(30,733 posts)The Old West. He went from town to town Out There, in The Olden Days.
That is the sense I had of it as a kid.
I used to spend every summer in Montana. In the fifties and sixties, there were actually a lot of small towns in the rural West that all looked alike. So the Lone Ranger made sense to me. I could understand that he was traveling from one small town to another.
fishwax
(29,149 posts)Where in Montana, if you don't mind saying? I lived in Billings as a toddler (when I first heard of the Lone Ranger) and moved to Wyoming before starting school, so in some ways I know what you mean about the small towns that all looked alike, but in other ways they all have a distinct character to me. But the Lone Ranger always made sense because at the age of 4 or 5 I just took it on faith that there were hundreds upon hundreds of backwater burgs just like mine
murielm99
(30,733 posts)We mostly stayed around that area. I had some family in Laurel, for awhile, too, so we went there.
My aunt and her husband lived in two or three different residences before they bought property, so we were not always in the same place. We shopped in Bozeman, so I remember it well, too.
I loved going to Yellowstone, and to the Custer battlefield. I loved the whole experience of going out there. I grew up in Illinois, and still live there. When I came home every summer just before school started, it was hard to get used to the humidity. And I missed seeing the mountains.
Mopar151
(9,979 posts)Reality-show version of the Man in the White Hat - saving homeowners from unscrupulous/incompetent contractors, bad home inspectors, and the like. His crew & subcontractors ride into town and blow apart money pit, screwed up houses and "make it right".
fishwax
(29,149 posts)opens up a whole new set of possibilities
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)Aristus
(66,316 posts)Bill Bixby was an appealing actor. And that mournful piano theme at the end always signalled his need to move on to another town; forever without a home...
fishwax
(29,149 posts)at the time it didn't register to me that he was a drifter. (I was just a toddler at the time and didn't really have a sense of place.) Great addition to my list
dimbear
(6,271 posts)Did anybody mention Quantum Leap?
fishwax
(29,149 posts)And, unfortunately, don't remember very well. I remember liking it a lot, but probably because my dad and brother liked it as much as for any other reason.
Good call on Quantum Leap
Behind the Aegis
(53,949 posts)"Wonder Woman" (especially season #2), "Xena," and I can't believe no one has said this... STAR TREK (all of them)!
ETA: The new cartoon, "Young Justice" also has everyone travel.
fishwax
(29,149 posts)I'm surprised I didn't think of the X-Files.
mucifer
(23,525 posts)Lots of those doctor guys running around in space and time. I'm surprised that every week they weren't bumping into each other.
Kaleva
(36,294 posts)Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is still alive. 93 years old! He turned 40 just a few days before I was born.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)frogmarch
(12,153 posts)I never missed an episode. Loved that show.
It bugged me, though, in the episode in which Richard Kimble was supposedly in Pierre, South Dakota, a local man he spoke to there pronounced it "PeeAIR" instead of correctly: "Peer."
Rob H.
(5,351 posts)Four seasons and two made-for-TV movies.
I forgot about that show. Oh, man. What a laugher! I watched it, though.
WhoIsNumberNone
(7,875 posts)WhoIsNumberNone
(7,875 posts)Battlestar Galactica (70s)
Bombero1956
(3,539 posts)Wagon Train, Rawhide, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Bronco and Cheyenne
NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)The BAU is always jetting off to somewhere to catch a bad guy, who is usually seconds away from killing his next victim.
white_wolf
(6,238 posts)It's about a burnt spy who sets up shop in Miami and uses his skills to become sort of a Macgyver type figure helping out people with various problems, usually dealing with criminals. He also tries to solve the mystery of who burned him. He doesn't leave Miami very often, but you might like it.
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,833 posts)cyberswede
(26,117 posts)Different locations...and different eras, too.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Swede
(33,233 posts)Doc_Technical
(3,526 posts)Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Dogtown
(4,668 posts)the genre is called "picaresque".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel
"Don Quixote" is a primal literary example of the type, albeit more of a comic example.
These characters are frequently "anti-heroes", in that they often trick or confound society (usually a corrupt society) whilst good-deeding.
My favorite is a Japanese franchise, "Zatoichi".