Then Came Bronson

Thirty three years after seeing the episode with the troubled young man on the white Electra-Glide I rode my new white big twin home. Sad my Dad didn't live to see it. My Dad and I never saw eye to eye, but for that one hour a week this show was on we were side by side, living out the same dream. This series has touched a lot of lives and inspired countless others. Jim Bronson was a real man who cared about others and went about making things right where he could. The co-star was a mildly customized Sportster. A great list of guest stars and beautiful scenery complimented a show that some couldn't understand. It left us all too soon. There are countless baby-boomer-bikers that would buy the DVD's at any price. Quality TV from our youth.

BRONSON reran on TV for awhile in the 1970s and then simply disappeared, It would be great to catch up with the show someday on A&E or Bravo or TV Land. A young Michael Parks, who was already an established TV and movie actor, played a James Dean-ish character in a knit cap who traveled the U.S. on his hog, learning little life lessons through the people he met each week. Old formula (think ROUTE 66 and THE FUGITIVE) with a bit of a twist, and a very appealing lead in Parks. GREEN LANTERN and GREEN ARROW were to follow BRONSON's lead with a memorable story arc in the 1970s that had them riding hogs and traveling the nation. Parks also got to sing on the show, and wasn't half bad. Parks has aged badly over the years, but his lined face and booze-and-butts voice has played to his credit, particularly in stone cold killer roles in THE CHINA LAKE MURDERS and on WALKER Texas RANGER.

This is the introduction to the character of Jim Bronson, the soft spoken motorcyclist that went on the road looking for some insight into his life after the suicide of a friend. (Zen and the art of motorcycling??) It was later made into a TV series.

Bronson in his trademark knit watchcap aboard his red Sportster with bedroll attached, is still an icon for the free-spirited motorcycle lifestyle. It has been many years (at least 20) since I have seen this movie, but I can remember faithfully watching anytime it was played. In the TV series Parks often performed music that would be used to accompany the storyline, but I don't recall if he performed any songs in the movie.

In 1969 my mother got tickets for five kids to go to the Preview House movie theater on Sunset Blvd at Stanley Ave to see the movie, "Then Came Bronson". We had never been to the Preview House so we were amazed to see the gadget you held in your hand while the movie played. It weighed about half a pound and had a black plastic dial in the middle that you could move from Boring to Super Exciting and whatever other stupid phrases they used in between. If you thought the movie was doing well you jammed it up and if you thought it was bad you cranked it down...simple. We really liked the movie although at the tender age of 10 I was jolted by the suicide scene where Martin Sheen takes the big leap off of the Golden Gate Bridge. When it became a TV show a number of months later we felt like we had been part of it all. The TV show version aired at a strange time in the Los Angeles market...I remember it being on Sundays around 5 PM which we could never figure out. I totally agree with the earlier review (I Know mine is not a review...just a memory). "Then Came Bronson" had a reality aspect to it but with better production values than the other two reality shows of the time (ie Dragnet and Adam-12).

Whenever I have described my personal feelings about life to my friends, I have used the 'opening' bit described here (...Man, I wish I was you." "Yeah? Well, hang in there.") I am not anyone big or famous, but I have traveled a lot and loved my life. I have never jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, or jumped off of a cliff to avoid a perfectly good trail to the bottom, or strapped barrel staves to my feet to go flying down a mountain to certain doom, but have done what I want and have enjoyed every minute. I don't want to die saying, "Man, I wish I was you." None of us should ever be afraid to do what we want. If you are happy screaming down a mountainside looking to kiss a tree, you are doing what you like. I think that this movie sends that message. If it is time for a change, see it and accept it. If life is rough today, it will be better tomorrow. You just need to 'go forward into that good night.' I thought this was a great movie for the ideals it presented (except for Jim's Sportster starting 'first time, every time.')