Exo-Man

I remember when this aired on TV back in the late 1970's. There must have been something special about this show for me to remember it all this time. As I remember, the pilot movie was the only thing shown on TV and it never went farther than that. The story line was good, a collage professor, crippled by bad guys, develops a device to allow him to walk again and possibly help others. Then he designs this device in to an Exoskeleton suite of armor that encases him and he turns in to a crime fighter. Yes, for the time the special effects were a bit cheesy and could have been done better. But it did give the look that the guy used what was available to him and had a bit of a blue collar feel to it. Not like Iron Man who has a huge corporation with the newest and greatest top secret stuff he could use, that the military can't get it's hands on. I'm sure it could have been developed a bit more had it got to be a TV series. Being a pilot, I think people should cut it a little slack. With a pilot budget you work with what you've got. The Star Trek pilot episode, the cage, wasn't all that good either and was never shown in it's entirety on TV until 1988. It was woven in to one of the series as the menagerie and a lot had changed from the pilot when it became a TV series. I'm sure this would have happened to Exo-Man had it gone in to a series. Also for the time it came out, it was something new from what was on TV. But Fate killed Exo-Man. Exo-Man came out in 1977, the same year Star Wars came out. Star Wars was such a hit and had so much excitement with both children and adults it changed everything. Seeing what was happening the TV networks wanted some of that action too and cash in on that excitement. I'm sure many TV projects got shelved in favor of shows like Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. If Star Wars didn't happen, Exo-Man may have turned out to be a decant TV series. With an ordinary man, crippled by crime, becoming a crime fighting superhero type by building an Exoskeleton suite. Maybe Stan Lee should have come up with this one or help turn it in to a comic book superhero.

It's hard to remember now what an impoverished time the 1970s were for science fiction and superhero television shows. While the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, BIONIC WOMAN, INCREDIBLE HULK, and WONDER WOMAN seem to have done well in our memories, their budgets were limited and the creativity was hampered by the SFX technology of the time.

But that did not stop studios from trying. And occasionally a network would begrudgingly cough up the money for a pilot in the form of a made-for-TV flick.

In this case, the guys behind the two bionic shows on ABC got NBC interested in their pitch for another Martin Caidin concept. Caidin was the leading "tech thriller" writer of the 60s and 70s. His NASA novel MAROONED (actually three novels) was a famous film. His gritty novel CYBORG was softened into the popular SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. NBC probably asked for "something like the $6M Man but different." They got it.

Caidin again looked to cutting edge technology for his gimmick. NASA and the Pentagon had been working on "man-amplifiers", powered frameworks a user could wear and use to possess forklift-like strength. The chemical industry had developed "memory plastic", materials that could be deformed then spring back into shape when an electric current was supplied. So there was the concept-- a man-amplifier suit that used memory plastic joints to make it work.

Of course this is television so they needed a crisis to compel the hero to build the thing in the first place. In this case, the hero was a college professor who witnessed a crime. The local mobsters tried shutting him up by nearly killing him. Now paraplegic, the hero decided to combine his work with memory plastic with research by his colleagues to produce an armored plastic suit that can walk on its own. And of course, this being TV, he used the suit to get revenge on the mobsters. He even picked up the obligatory street-smart young assistant along the way. The idea looked good on paper. The only problem was, the best mid-70s SFX tech could come up with was plastic plate mail the wearer could barely move in.

NBC took a look at the pilot, let it air once, and quietly forgot about it. As did most of the viewers.

Martin Caidin just cashed his check and went on with his life. After all, he still had the royalties from the bionic shows coming in. A few years later, Caidin decided to recycle the basic ideas behind EXOMAN in his early-80s tech thriller MANFAC. Like CYBORG, this is a very serious, very adult novel that still holds up well. MANFAC also enabled Caidin to have his final say on some of the exaggerated powers of THE $6M MAN, especially that "running at 60 mph" trick (the suit's legs literally run out from under the wearer).

I was quite a young child but remember this movie. I recall the handicapped man visiting museums and studying chain mail while designing his special armor. He would climb into a tanning booth-like device that would encase him in the suit. Once in it, he was able to walk and, of course, fight crime. Ah, the 70's! ;)

For years I had assumed it was a short-lived series...I had no idea there was only one movie ever made! Apparently there was a lot of studio wrangling that prevented this pilot concept from taking off. Too bad. It's interesting that this idea has since been used in other film productions.

Search YouTube for "Exoman" and you'll find a five-minute clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0KSqelmgN8

At no time as seventies has so many super-heroes available on countless TV series as The Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Man from Atlantis, The Invisible Man, Wonder Woman" and so for, Exo Man is a hybrid of Iron Man and The Six Million Dollar Man, about a physic brainy Professor Dr. Nicholas Conrad (David Aycroyd) who is developing process of a device that move thru a laser beam a piece of iron, such sudden discovery could change of physic for good.

Sadly in a failed bank robbery he catches one of burglar and he is willing testify at courthouse, unfortunately Dr. Conrad is dealing with powerful mobster Kermit Haas (José Ferrer), no witness is able to appears at courthouse due them send hitman to avoid it at all coast, after a failed attempt to kill him exploding his car which had killed his faithful assistant, a further attempt the killer doesn't get kill him, however upon hitting his backbone, letting Dr. Conrad crippled for good, thus he decides drop out the case.

Aftermaths Dr. Conrad disband all his research crew and secretly he retarget his researches in another purposes in making a Exo-Bionic Armour suit in order to he fits him properly, also he gear up a Van with high advanced computer and a special chamber to change into a Exo Man, which is able to walk, becomes virtually indestructible, previously he'd received an off-the-record agent Arthur Travis (Harry Morgan) delivery some classified photos from criminals connected with his sad fate, including his deadly perpetrator that injured him and the mentor, then Dr. Conrad will acting in the shadows to get his so await revenge.

This Pilot to an upcoming series Exo Man didn't wowed the executives of the studios and has been shelved due so many others most attractive series on developing process, when I'd watched it in 1988 I'd found it weird due some sequences where Exo Man breaks the wall and rip up a steel's door, quite sure an odd offering, as usually done by Hulk on those cardboard wall or something.

When we saw the expensive coast to build the Van with deck's hydraulic system to lift a wheelchair, all those advanced electronic panels inside with a chamber to be overlay his body, also the laboratory and the high designed suit armour, maybe should be better on prospective episodes and somehow it would be trying.

Resume:

First watch: 1978 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.5.

Surprised to find that so many others remember this TV-movie! It's a classic in the sense that it mimics many of the B-grade flicks of the 1950s. I watched this one evening while living and working in Honolulu during the 70s and 80s. What emerged as absolutely hilarious was the scene in which the hero in the suit realizes that he's losing oxygen inside his suit as he presses the status button on his left sleeve. The readout then shows the word: MALFUNTION (the actual spelling). It was certainly the case that perhaps the readout circuitry was also facing oxygen deprivation!! Understandably, though, it was simply never destined to become a weekly series but it was entertaining nonetheless, at least for that era in the 1970s.