SF Obscure: Night Man

What do you get when you cross light jazz, Taylor Dayne, and questionable costume choices? And then you throw in special guest appearances by Jerry Springer and Donald Trump? Why you get Night Man, a show that surprisingly stayed on air for two seasons.

Night Man(1997-1999) is the story of Johnny Domino, a professional saxophonist, who is struck by lightning and earns a telepathic ability to see evil. It’s loosely based on an original comic. He also teams up with some scientists on the run who provide him with a special suit that allows him to deflect bullets and fly. It actually took a few episodes to figure out exactly what the suit does vs. Johnny Domino’s own ability- and I have the sneaking suspicion it was not entirely developed well by the writers.

Anyhow, most of the Night Man episodes are standard fare-evil bankers, evil corporations, evil scientists etc. It is an action adventure series, though a few episodes are definitely played for humor. And other episodes come across as humorous just because they are kind of silly. Johnny Domino’s father, Frank Domino,  is an ex-cop featured in Season 1 who is probably the best character if only because he does have personality. Whereas the show tries to have a common crime fighting them at the beginning, it starts to unravel a bit as the show goes on. We get a hodgepodge of alien invaders. alien villains, aliens, cursed Chinese ghost soldiers, witchcraft, evil sorceresses, and even a crossover episode with Manimal.

Matt McColm plays Johnny Domino, and he is a professional stuntman who had appeared in quite a few SF films and movies including The Matrix trilogy and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  He had a best friend named Raleigh Jordan, whose character is so replaceable they changed the actor between seasons 1 and 2. The owner of the club where Johnny performs is played by Felecia M. Bell, best known as Jennifer Sisko from Deep Space Nine. Actually, the fun of the show is watching all the guest spots by actors you see around here and there. (Tucker Smallwood, Daniel Dae Kim).

It’s…budget tv. There was a time when the only qualification for a show was to fill up the allotted minutes and get a few sponsors.