Then Came Bronson

[FJRMGM]

get your recorders ready - this classic is on Speed TV "Lost Drive In" this Friday evening.

I used to watch the series back before I could ride and long for the day that I too, could go "Riding down that long lonesome highway".

Man, did that show get me primed to be a motorcycle rider.

But, I never wanted to do it on a Harley.

 

[rdfrantz]

Thanks for the heads up. That's really valuable.

I really lost track of that show, its effect on me personally. That got submerged. But, yeah, a lot of my life was warped in directions we can see there.

Kinda like the cowboy movies, from the 30's to the 50's us 60-somethings grew up watching on TV, Moral Plays played a great part in our development. Values and contanly reaching for Freedom.

I aint' embarrassed about it anymore, either.

Best wishes.

 

[exskibum]

I was already riding, and I remember that show as one I really wanted to like -- it was centered on a riding lifestyle, the freedom of a nomad, and I kept being drawn to it hoping it'd do something for me. Sadly, it didn't and I was only an occasional watcher.

I think what turned me off the most was that it seemed like every episode I watched, he'd ride in on that Sportster and later on end up doing some stunt like jumping a car or some other dirt trick. I was disgusted that it was so obvious that the stunt rider was on a dirt bike for the stunt, but the story line had him riding that Harley. First time I ever noticed that sort of thing, but I've also seen it too often since. Kinda insulting, I thought -- like the show was for non-bikers who couldn't tell the difference between the bikes and wouldn't question the virtual impossibility of the stunts they chose to do on a Sportster.

But then, the current genre has some real Oscar quality stuff, too -- anyone seen any of "Torque"? :stink:

 

[Bounce]

So whadaya think about the John Woo treatment of Mission Impossible (2?) where their tires keep changing back and forth between street tires and knobbies and their wire work has TC doing one handed, 360 degree stoppies while accurately shooting a pistol?

 

[dcarver]

Absolutely loved that show - warts, pimples and all. :clap:

 

[snowmonkey]

Did Bronson show up right after Easyrider or was he further into the 70s?

 

[exskibum]

Did Bronson show up right after Easyrider or was he further into the 70s?

Saw somewhere that Bronson was on TV in '69 - '70, though I'm pretty sure it was in reruns after that.

Graduated High School in '69, and some of the memory links in my brain are breaking down, but it was either that summer or summer or 1970. More I think about it, I must've seen Easy Rider in the summer of 1970, and I'm pretty sure I saw it as soon as it was released.

 

[panthercity]

Then Came Bronson and Easy Rider came out at about the same time.

The Pilot for Then Came Bronson was produced by MGM in `68 so I don't think it was a copycat deal.

Interesting info on Then Came Bronson HERE

 

[painman]

While watching the movie on Friday, I noticed something I thought was pretty cool. I noticed some background while Bronson and his girl friend was riding and they had just come over a bridge that is very near where I live. The bridge is located in a town just north east of Rio Vista, CA. in a town called Walnut Grove. And in another scene Bronson was talking to his girl friend in a little town just down the road from there called Locke. An old Chinese goldrush town on the leave of the Sacramento river. They crashed the bike in a night scene just up the road from there. Never noticed this and probably saw the pilot movie several times but a long time ago. Just my $.02 worth. By the way, if any of you are in this area of Walnut Grove, this is some great riding. Its highway 160 which runs from the Antioch bridge all the way up and beyond Sacramento with tons of other roads that run around through the delta area. Painman. <>< B)

 

[kaitsdad]

This is a cool website -

The link is for Then Came Bronson - but it has a page for every TV show produced - starting in the 40's.

Then Came Bronson

Talk about your flashbacks !!

 

[madmike2]

Painman, ssshhhhhh! Let's not be giving away the location of my therapy roads.

 

[JimLor]

I sat and watched that show on Friday night and gotta say it was one of the worst things I've ever watched! I remember watching it when it was originally on and liking it, but holy crap, what a lousy show! Just my opinion...

 

[Califcruiser]

My wife and I sat and watched it. We were cracking up, especially during the hill-climb scene where he actually wins it. Only in Hollywood!!! Not quite what I remember as a kid but a classic for sure.

 

[twowheelnut]

She never did 'give it up', did she? Man, did he waste his time...

 

[Califcruiser]

Nope! She never did give it up. Even after he gave her a piece of beef jerkey and the last piece of bread!

 

[twowheelnut]

Bitch!

 

[FJRMGM]

I believe that is as close as Bonnie Bedilla ever came to doing a nude scene..

Too bad..

Now, I am going to teach my FJR how to jump off a dock into the river.

 

[Yambone]

FJRMGM, Panthercity and Kaitsdad, thanks for the flashbacks & links, very cool. Fun to piece together some of my misspent youth. Looks like the original pilot movie will air Jan 13 at 1200 Eastern time. Maybe this is a repeat of what you guys were talking about above.

Worth it to watch Martin Sheen jump off the Golden Gate bridge?? Bronson website previously mentioned

Have to admit 'Bronson' had an effect on me. The intro with the 'suit' in the station wagon and the imagery during 'long, lonesome hiway' theme song is what stuck for me. I had a couple of long trips on small motos under my belt when the series aired.

I do remember wishing the series was longer on 'motorcycle travel' and shorter on traveling relationship scenarios. The writers seemed to run out of ideas in that first and only year.

Still, that intro is all you really need to know. In life, you supply the story... and the ending.

( i.e cute girl DOES give it up) :bigeyes: :agent:

 

[FJRSTAR]

I believe that is as close as Bonnie Bedelia ever came to doing a nude scene..
Too bad..

Interesting facts...

Bonnie Bedelia Culkin

Aunt of Macaulay Culkin..... https://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000889/bio

The movie version was released to foreign audiences as a theatrical feature film. The feature version was not shown to U.S. audiences for two reasons, and they were both on Bonnie Bedelia's bare chest.