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Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the 90s?

Aragorn

Aragorn

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The "Action Pack" theme song

Universal made a lot of syndicated TV movies and TV shows in the 90s under the "Action Pack" label. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (which started as TV movies first) and Xena: Warrior Princess were their big shows.

But there was also:
Vanishing Son
Knight Rider 2010
Midnight Run (followups to the De Niro movie)
Bandit (followups to the Smokey and the Bandit series)
TekWar (based on the Shatner books)

And at the end of the "Action Pack" run there was:
Jack of All Trades
Cleopatra 2525
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

That theme song brings back memories.

I saw the five Hercules movies and was actually pretty happy to see all four TekWar movies since I was a fan of the Shatner novels (yeah, I later found out he didn't write them). I eventually saw the four Vanishing Son movies as well and thought the first three were pretty good. Didn't like the fourth one since it was just a clip show made up of the first three. I never saw Knight Rider 2010 or the Bandit movies. I did manage to catch a bit of one of the Midnight Run movies though and liked what I saw. Chris McDonald was pretty good. I wouldn't mind catching those three movies at some point.

Hercules, TekWar and Vanishing Son were the only ones to make it to series and I continued to watch when they did.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Was the show "TimeTrax" (sp?) a part of that? I remember watching that and it was halfway decent.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Just finished watching Jack of All Trades on Hulu. Was amusing to note that it was executive produced by the writers of the newest Trek movie.

Fun show with a great theme song.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

ToddKent said:
Was the show "TimeTrax" (sp?) a part of that? I remember watching that and it was halfway decent.
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That was part of the PTEN lineup which included other shows like Babylon 5, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Pointman.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

ToddKent said:
Was the show "TimeTrax" (sp?) a part of that? I remember watching that and it was halfway decent.
Click to expand...
TimeTrax was part of Warner Bros' PTEN-Prime Time Entertainment Network package, which was paired with Kung Fu The Legend Continues, before Babylon 5 was introduced.
It's terribly dated now, though I do remember enjoying it back then, in spite of the wacky time travel premise.
http://video.aol.com/video-search/query/Time Trax
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I'm probably one of the few people who liked Knight Rider 2010. It created an interesting Mad Max-style world and had a nice sense of atmosphere. It was well-directed, and more interesting and imaginative than anything else to bear the Knight Rider name. Plus it had the gorgeous Hudson Leick, who would later be Callisto on Xena (though she was billed as Heidi Leick, and for years I wondered if Hudson and Heidi were twin sisters).

My main problem with it was the title. It aired in 1994, but the backstory would've required the world as we knew it to collapse significantly more than 16 years before the movie. They should've gone with 2020 or 2030. Also, it had nothing to do with Knight Rider aside from the broad concept of a supercar with a computer intelligence, and even that was executed very differently (with the intelligence being the downloaded mind of the hero's dead lover). I used to think it must've been an original, unconnected project that Universal slapped the KR label on for brand recognition, so I was surprised to learn that it was developed with that title from the get-go.

Hercules: A mixed bag. The third and fourth were probably the best. I think the series was better overall, though the movies had their strengths, notably the presence of Tawny Kitaen. The fifth was ridiculous, though -- a movie done as a clip show? How embarrassing.

TekWar: Better than the USA series that followed. The series progressively wrote out or killed off almost all the characters from the books other than the lead.

I never got into any of the others, though I saw a bit of Vanishing Son. That one was okay. I always thought it was a little unfair that they cancelled the series version of it after one season so they could make Xena instead. I understand that they didn't have room to add a third hour to the syndication package, but it still doesn't seem right to cancel a show for reasons that have nothing to do with its own performance.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I remember the line-up. Used to watch "Hercules" all the time. Followed it to the series' end.

TekWar I didn't enjoy. "Knight Rider 2010" was bad, and had nothing to do with Knight Rider. Shoudl have been sued for the name use.

I actually got a VHS tape somewhere with hte Action Pack opening theme and visuals.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Remember one called "The Highway Man", kind of a semi-fall of civilization, cities and towns intact, but the country side was a 'mad max' world. Special truckers keep thing moving between the cities, hero was a undercover cop. It started to work as a show at first, but fell apart after some six or seven weeks. Had a episode with a real buffed up Chad Everett.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

^ I remember that show. It was on, I think, NBC and it co-starred Jacko -- the Energizer commercial guy.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I remember a few of those shows. hercules, xena, cleopatra 2525, tekwar and jack of all trades are the ones I remember the most.

That being said, Jack of All Trades was the only one I really liked lol
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

After Jack of All Trades was canceled, Bruce Campbell told his fans that maybe one day he'll land on a show that lasts more that one season. Almost took him a decade for that to come true.

TRIVIA: Jack of All Trades and Cleopatra 2525 were half-hour shows. Then Jack was canceled and Cleopatra was turned into a one-hour show.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Tharpdevenport said:
"Knight Rider 2010" was bad, and had nothing to do with Knight Rider.
Click to expand...

Which was exactly why I liked it.

Shoudl have been sued for the name use.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have been, since it was made by Universal, the same studio that owned the name. In fact, it was originally conceived as a more direct sequel to Knight Rider, but was retooled into something more independent.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I remember "Hercules" and "Xena" starting there. Also the new "Smokey and the Bandit" series.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I remember being really excited about Knight Rider 2010 and then majorly disappointed when it was nothing like either the original show or Knight Rider 2000 (which I liked).

The TekWar movies were good, I thought. I really enjoyed "Jack of All Trades".
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Corran Horn said:
I remember being really excited about Knight Rider 2010 and then majorly disappointed when it was nothing like either the original show or Knight Rider 2000 (which I liked).
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Ditto. I even clipped out from a TV Guide issue a conceptual design of the car that was first proposed for Knight Rider 2010--it was a lot less "Mad Max" and more "Blade Runner," although a few of the original high-tech design elements made it into the final movie.

I loved "Action Pack" and aside from KR2010, there really wasn't anything there I didn't like.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

The last movie produced for the Action Pack was Captain Zoom and Nichelle Nichols was among the cast of that movie.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

I will go to my grave insisting that "Cleopatra 2525" was unjustly cut down in its prime.
 
Re: Who remembers Universal's "Action Pack" line of TV shows from the

Indeed. Cleopatra 2525 didn't really come into its own until its second season, when it expanded to hourlong format. In the first season, it was little more than gratuitous party scenes alternating with fight scenes. In the second season, they actually had room to develop the world and the characters and make it a genuinely engaging show. And then it was cut short so abruptly, after only something like 8 episodes, that the only way they could give it a finale was to make a clip show with little or no new footage of the main cast and a rushed, forced ending.
 
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