Remembering things that half the world forgot is one of my many mutant powers (being able to spot a female nipple in one frame of a movie is another one). Friends contact me at all hours of the night when they get stuck trying to remember something from their child hood, and 90% of the time I have the answer. It’s that fiendish 10% that gets under my skin. Every now and then my brain only shows me a few images of things that I should know instantly. That REEEALLY pisses me off. But I’m a very patient man. I know that if I wait long enough (and drink enough booze) the veil will be lifted and the knowledge will be mine. Today’s “Throwback” took me over 20 damn years, mostly due to a word that will forever haunt me…..PHOTON.
For the past 20+ years, I’d been trying to figure out the name of a show whose premise seemed to elicit raging fits of laughter from those I tried getting answers from. Only two of my closest friends knew what I was talking about and didn’t go Porky Pig on me. Hell, they even had the name! But because I could only remember one bizarre image from the show, I didn’t think we were talking about the same program. The only memory I had was of a Borg-like dude with black hair and red paint on his “armor”:
Now, try to piece together a kids television show with only this picture peeking through a massive black cloud in your head. Can’t be done. It’s because of scenarios like this that I love the internet. On a whim, I typed “80′s lazer tag kids show” in the Google search thing. I literally jumped out of my chair. All of the questions I’d had for the past 20+ years had been answered. PHOTON had come back into my life, and now I bring it back into yours with all the crazy 80′s chroma-key your eyes can handle.
Time for a commercial break:
THE LIGHT SHINES!:
Part of the reason for the show’s cancellation was due to the closings of PHOTON game centers around the country. I think the other was because they were trying to create Power Rangers. But even though PHOTON only lasted a single season, a slew of lazer tag paraphernalia and action figures managed to make there way to local toy stores. If you ask me, they should’ve tried giving this show a re-boot in the late 90′s when indoor lazer tag places began to pop up again. They would’ve made a killing with these toys.
Bhodi Li
Mandarr
Princess Tivia of Nivia
Leon/Sarge
Uncle Pike
Warriarr
Pirarr
I’m a little bummed out that “atomicbunnygirl” only posted the first episode of the show. The only other thing I can remember watching as a kid was an episode all about Mandarr. In said episode, we learn that Mandarr was once a PHOTON warrior named Even who gets brainwashed by the Warlord of Arr. That episode bothered me as a child mostly because I hated watching good-guys turn bad, but also because they showed his transformation. It’s disturbing to see when you’re 6. If anyone knows where to find video of that, I’ll buy you a pass to Luna Park or Brizbyland.
Man, I used to have one of those semi automatic squirt guns! My dad bought uzi’s for all of us kids and himself. They even had a clip you filled with water. Totally rad.
I remember the episode of Evan/Mandarr’s transformation. It WAS chilling and sad at the same time. I’d love to see it somewhere, but I haven’t been able to find it.
Man, this really brings back memories! Thanks for the write-up, too bad there aren’t more videos of the show online. The sad thing is that I had most episodes taped on video2000 (anybody remember that?), but after that VCR died, we discarded all the tapes as well…
Otherwise I’d have been all too happy to digitize the videos myself.