continued....

Time to board up the Batcave

Batgirl didn’t really have time to get used to her powerful, electric-starting motorcycle with the cancellation of the series by 1968, but the batcycles wouldn’t have much time to cool down before another motorcycle took front and center stage on television.

In 1969 television’s big brother, the film studio’s, had plans to take the public’s perception of motorcycles in a totally different direction. Although Easyrider is well known for being first to show the biker as an insightful, pondering soul traveling the country for answers, a TV show with the same message (if not in a little more palatable form for the mass audiences) actually wrapped up production months before Peter Fonda appeared on screen to take his famous ‘Captain America’ moniker.

But in the public’s eyes ‘Then came Bronson’ starring Michael Parks appeared on NBC as an apparent Easyrider clone. Fulfilling a promise made to his best friend, Parks as a former newspaper reporter buys his buddies Harley-Davidson Sportster and roams America in search of some inner peace.
The writers of the show manage to capture a common occurrence, even while riding today, with the opening lines of the pilot episode.

(Opening scene: busy city street...a harried businessman at a stoplight turns to his left, where a young man is revving his motorcycle, and asks...)
"Taking a trip?
"What's that?"
"Taking a trip."
"Yeah."
"Where to?"
"Oh, I don't know...wherever I end up, I guess."
"Pal, I wish I was you."
"Really?...well...hang in there."

Unfortunately, Michael Parks only had one season to find that inner peace before the show came to the end of it's journey. Interestingly enough Speed TV showed the pilot episode after the 2006 Superbowl game.

For the next few years aside from a 1914 model motorcycle being used as a comedic prop in a short lived series called ‘Nicholas’ starring James Garner and a character on the Sandy Duncan show having the job of a motorcycle cop, the television landscape was barren of bikers.

That is, until America saw ‘Happy Days’ again in 1974.

Heeeyyyyyy!

The next time a motorcycle would play a prominent role on TV, cool would take on a whole new level, even redefining the definition. Nostalgia for the simpler times of the rock and roll era became big business in the mid-1970s and leading the wave was Happy Days, a sitcom version of teenage life in the mid-1950s. It started modestly and built in popularity rising to the number one program in all of American television by the 1976-77 season.

Although originally written as a minor character, The Fonz became so popular Henry Winkler was eventually featured in the ending credits second only to Ron Howard. With the Fonz formerly belonging to a motorcycle gang (the Falcons) and his leather jacket as much his a signature as the various phrases and the all-powerful thumb, bikers were given a cleaner, softer image.

Serious riders may not have questioned his coolness, but certainly wondered about his attention to detail. In the very early episodes he rode custom Harley-Davidson models, later the bike became a Triumph changing again to a BSA. Overall, the Fonz rode a variety of motorcycles including Harley Panhead, Harley Knucklehead, Harley Sportster, Triumph 500 CC Twin, Trophy 650 CC and a BSA.

Motorcycles and the people who loved to ride them were given further credibility when a show that featured the bikes as nearly as much as the leading characters appeared in 1977. CHiPs starred Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada as two California Highway Patrol Officers riding around Los Angeles on their Kawasaki’s solving crimes and possibly witnessing the most highway accidents in the history of automobile travel. From the high energy introduction to the various fly-by camera shots of the two riders cruising the California highways the show was loved by all ages.

At about the same time, ABC and the creators of Full House used the publics newer, more sanitized biker stereotype to give John Stamos’ character of a rock musician an edge of hipness. Along with his manicured hair and designer leather jackets, the motorcycle was occasionally mentioned and rarely seen.