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| Danger Theatre | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Created by | Penelope Spheeris |
| Presented by | Robert Vaughn |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 7 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Universal Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Fox |
| Original release | July 11 – August 22, 1993 |
Danger Theatre is an American half-hour comedy anthology series for television, produced by Universal Studios and originally aired on the American Fox network in 1993.
With two exceptions, each half-hour-long show consisted of two comedy segments, each a spoof of a familiar action/anthology format. The style of the comedy was somewhat similar to that of films like Airplane! and TV shows like Police Squad!
Robert Vaughn was the host for each episode, introducing to camera each fifteen-minute segment with mock earnestness. The jokes ranged from humorous or preposterous dialogue to visual gags and slapstick designed to poke fun at the serious dramatic formats being lampooned.
Danger Theatre ran for seven episodes before cancellation, but was syndicated beyond the United States, airing in the United Kingdom on the BBC in 1994.
One segment in each episode centered on a motorbike-riding, leather-clad hero called only “The Searcher", played by Diedrich Bader. A spoof of both the stereotypical motorbiking renegade from movies and the “one man on a mission” format of series such as Knight Rider, Renegade, and many others, this segment is perhaps the most commonly remembered element of the series.
The Searcher would always appear coming over the horizon on his motorcycle, with a dramatic backing chorus, narrating :
Someone needs help, so they called me. That’s what I do. I help people in trouble... They call me: The Searcher”.
A recurring visual gag would have the Searcher conclude a scene with a quizzical stare directly at camera, utter a thoughtful, sound, and then suddenly be squashed by a vehicle or falling object.
The popularity of this segment led to two of Danger Theatre's seven episodes ("Go Ahead, Fry Me" and "An Old Friend For Dinner") being given over in their entirety to a 30-minute adventure for the Searcher.
In four episodes of Danger Theatre, the other segment of the show was called "Tropical Punch", a send-up of Hawaii Five-O, with Adam West playing the bumbling Detective Morgan, a police detective with no clue as to what is really going on. Morgan only solves crimes because his partner McCormick, played by Billy Morrisette, does in fact know what is going on and saves him from failure constantly.
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