Curto circuito

This show is kind of a rare treasure, because it got canceled after the first season, when two of the crew-members tragically died. Though it was not long on air, I was lucky enough to watch it, even it was late on TV. Because of that, back in the days not many of my classmates have seen it. So it was kind of a secret show besides the more popular ones like The incredible Hulk, Knight Rider or The A-Team, what made it even more special for me.

It had a variety of different characters, most of them not so grounded in society, but each with special or supernatural skills, who must learn to work as a team to overcome their flaws and fulfill their adventurous missions.

Dr. Billy Hayes was considered as the comic relief and the leader of the team. He always reminded me of what Steve Guttenberg did in Police Academy. Dr. El Lincoln, a kind and reserved character with the appearance of a basketball-player was able to shrink to the size of an action figure. Great stuff! My favorite character of the show was Johnny B, because as a kid, what could be cooler than a freaky guy with sunglasses an a leather-jacket shooting thunderbolts out of his hands? Yeah, not so much! And as mentioned before, last but not least, the sweet but moody Gloria who has to learn to control her telekinetic powers and her temper.

The show had it all: mad comedy, cheesy action and as expected - some absurd sciency stuff. The concept is easy, but it's fun, many of the minor characters are also recognizable and it has one of the greatest intro song that'll be stuck in my head for ever.

I watched it decades later, and I would still consider me a fan, even it makes me a bit sad about how the show suddenly ended and the story never got continued.

If you are also a fan of the best decade so far, watch it and love it!

Dr. Billy Hayes and Dr. El Lincoln are scientists working for Humanidyne and the military. They get fired after an incident with an iceman. Lincoln is a 7 foot tall black man who can't play a lick of basketball. He's been taking a serum to get smaller but he ends up with a shrinking ability. They have kept other mutants secret from the military. Johnny Bukowski is an electrically powered rock-n-roller with water as his greatest enemy. Gloria Dinallo (Courteney Cox) is a telekinetic teen with anger issues. Her sympathetic probation officer Jane Miller gets her out of the mental institution. Together in an ice cream truck, the Misfits of Science saves the world. Billy and El get back their jobs working under Dick Stetmeyer.

Yeah, I remember watching this show back in the day. It came and went after a few months. I remember the tall black guy who could shrink and the cute angst-ridden girl played by Courteney Cox not long after her Dancing in the Dark breakthrough. The writing is strictly 80's with a manufactured adventure every week. The show needs a consistent villain to give it a serial aspect. It struggles to come up with stories that could incorporate the group's abilities. More than anything, it needs a structure to generate the adventure for the show rather than this random generator from nothing. It has a light comedic feel although the funniest thing may be the naked giant black dude almost every week and the wacky one-liner experiments. It's not really that funny. This is not the best show but it has some passable fun and that unforgettable cute girl who danced with Bruce Springsteen.

I was really into the show when it first aired. I remember being quite disappointed when the show got cancelled and was hoping for an eventual revival. But then one year later Dean Paul Martin met an untimely end in a plane accident, and then Kevin Peter Hall later died due to his medical condition. So much for that idea.

A couple of years ago I saw some episodes on TV Land. They hadn't aged quite as well but I still quite enjoyed them. I don't know if I could really recommend the show to someone coming in cold and who didn't have any childhood affection for the series, but it still has its moments.

I hated it when Misfits of Science ended. However, I did hear that it was because Dean Paul Martin died in an airplane accident. (He was, IIRC, a member of the Air National Guard.) It wasn't just cancelled.

(And I agree. I also had a crush on Courtney Cox.) :-)

It was an enjoyable series while it lasted. Though some powers seem more potent than others (the electricity guy), each episode seeks to explore more of all the other powers, and when used in combination, boy, it's fantastic. Talk about wishing you had some of those powers and then imagining what you can do with them.