The Top Motorcycle Moments in Television… According to PJ and Dave
PJ’s Top 5 TV motorcycle moments/shows
- CHiPs - Ponch and John could do no wrong in a young teenagers’ eyes. They also got to ride after work at these places called MX Tracks in California. In Iowa, I had yet to actually see one in person.
- Happy Days - The Fonz jumped the proverbial shark in the most over-hyped "to be continued" episode up the that point, only outdone years later by the "Who Shot J.R." episode of the Dallas TV series. "Jumping the shark" became an undesirable moniker for any person/place/thing that had passed its zenith, and that moniker was coined because of this episode. Fonz made at least 1 other jump on his Triumph. That bike seemed to be interspersed in episodes, along with a Harley Sportser that he was well known for.
- Batman (the original TV series) - The Boy Wonder, Robin, rode what I thought was the coolest motorcycle of all time. It turned out to be a mocked-up garden variety Honda, but I was young and it seemed sooo cool. Then there was the BatCycle! Batgirl also had a motorcycle, which I thought was really cool.
- Riptide- The series had a Pink Helicopter as the real star, but one of the main characters rode a vintage BMW a few times, and those were my passion as I grew up on (and in the sidecar) of a vintage BMW with my parents at the controls.
- The Fall Guy - it was one of Lee Majors many series of the early 80's. He routinely had motorcycles on and in the show, along with being a stuntman (which was the second best job I could imagine having - after being a professional motorcycle racer)!
Dave's top five TV motorcycle moments:
- Wide World of Sports - Carlsbad 500cc USGP on WWOS because we had NO motorcycle racing on TV when I was a kid, and we waited every summer to catch the coverage of this event, bad as it was. But we saw the legends like Marty Moates, Danny Chandler, David Bailey, Broc Glover, and Ricky Johnson take on the Euro's and beat them. When Marty won in 1980 on a privateer Yamaha, that was the biggest moment in sports for me at the time, and that started the domination of the US riders in the sport
- CHIPS - got to tune in weekly and see two cool cops on Kawasaki Police cruisers bust the bad guys, it was pretty sweet. Ponch and Jon were cowboy cops
- Then Came Bronson - this show was kind of like Kung Fu but with two wheels, and just getting the vibe of life on the open road on a bike...and a Sportster no less...
- Crusty Dirt Demons - I admit that this one drew me in, reality TV where pledges got to join the Crusty group by performing various tasks and freestyle moves to "earn" their way into the gang. It was awful, but at least there were bikes involved
- Happy Days- Fonzie jumping the shark was the worst of TV fakery ever, Fonzie "jumped" a Triumph over the shark tank and TV was never the same again...
