Manimal

1 9 8 3 (USA)
1 x 70 minute episode
7 x 60 minute episodes

Dr Jonathan Chase was a gentle, mild mannered young professor from New York University. He knew so much about animal behavioural science that the NYPD used him as a consultant. Oh yeh . . . He was also able to transform himself into any animal he chose to and used these powers to catch criminals . . .

The only people who knew Chase's secret were Ty Earle, his hip black assistant (Chase and Earle were both Vietnam vets) and a detective named Brooke McKenzie, who discovered his talents quite by accident at just about the same time that she discovered she was attracted to him.

Produced by NBC, Manimal failed to take off, and lasted a mere eight episodes in the Fall of 1983. The SFX in the scenes where Chase turned into an animal were not at all bad for the time, but they were expensive and so the same footage was used over and over again and the novelty soon wore off.

In spite of its short lifespan, Manimal became something of a cult classic, and is crying out for a modern re-make.