L.A. Machine

In the future a cop gets a beautiful female robot as his partner. this is an experimental project. Detective Mann knows he is being monitored, so he has to be careful, If she were a real woman and they were not being monitored, he would fall head over heels in love with her. However he fears he would look foolish if he showed his true feelings for her. The audience was not fascinated with this and the show got poor ratings.

Put this sci-fi series in context. This ran in 1992 between Star Trek TNG season 5 and 6. Aired within weeks of Alien 3 release, months prior to Universal Soldier being in cinema. It was thrilling watching this on TV for this then 12 year old. I recently sat down to watch some lo-fi VHS recordings of this series and set my expectations to low. As of now (December 2021) this series has not (to my knowledge) been released for purchase or for streaming. After watching I was surprised at how well it holds up in terms of entertainment. The main trope here: The anti-android cop gets an android partner and over time grows a mutual respect and even affinity. My issues: There is no profound sci-fi here. The CGI is 1992 television level. The fight choreography film strategy seemed to be a shaky cam + 1.25x speed + blur effect. It's only 9 episodes. Hopefully this will eventually be released in a high fidelity format. If you want to watch a very similar series (made 20 years later) check out 'Almost Human' (2013)

Any time I have seen a TV series, especially one like "Mann & Machine," which I found to have some of the best irony subplots of any movie or TV series, I find out what was used as a pilot for that TV series. By viewing the pilot, I find myself even more interested in the series because things are generally revealed about the plot, or the characters or something intrinsic, that makes me want to see how it plays out in the upcoming episodes.

I have been trying to corroborate who the actors were in the pilot, and to find out the name of the pilot, which I think was a made-for-TV movie, but have had no success. I recall Craig Stevens and Gary (of Alien Nation TV series fame) as two of the main actors in the pilot. For me, this pilot allowed me to enjoy the TV series more. Does anyone recall the name of the movie?

Best show of the early 1990s to manage cancel the alarm. Who episode Yancy Butler was cool.

Being of the generation that was too young to have watched the Bionic Woman, I was just getting into SF when Mann & Machine came around.. *Wow* what a great show. Until Mann & Machine, the only android character on TV that I was accustomed to was Data from Star Trek and even then as young teen, I was absolutely fascinated by his journey to and among humanity. Mann and Machine neatly addressed my android fascination by following Eve in her learning of humanity, and to me this was by far the most interesting part of the series. Today's equivalent (albeit in a different setting) might be Kyle XY. I think that the cop show genre worked well, as did added that addicting little "will they or won't they" that seems to be present in so many cop series that have male and female partners.

Since Mann & Machine, technology has made huge advances (check out the Actroid Robot on YouTube), and Sci Fi is becoming more mainstream. I think that this concept still has a lot of potential and hope that someone out there decides to give this idea another go, it could do really well.