Bearcats! Something different

[FifteensAway]

Anyone remember the old Bearcats! TV show.  Seems to me it supplies quite a few scenario ideas for WWI era what-if games set in the American desert southwest or even northern Mexico.  Almost a little bit Pulplish even if you want to lean that way - but really more historical to me.  Zimmerman telegraph intervention anyone?

[Inkpaduta]

I loved that show. Wish I could find it somewhere to watch again.
You are right there would be some great stuff from the show.

[Iceaxe]

I'm sure it's on YouTube, full episodes. One of those things I 'must get round to one day'.

Why wouldn't you rob a bank with a tank, anyway?

[Plynkes]

I loved that programme when I was tiny. Not saying it was any good, I must have been about five at the time, and probably not the most discerning of TV critics. Who knows how it would shape up if viewed now. I was mad on it, though.  Used to play "Bearcats" all the time outside, sitting in my dad's jeep with my brother, pretending it was a Stutz Bearcat (yeah, we had a 1940s Willys MB to play on, and insisted on imagining it into something else).


Amazon UK has a US import DVD for twenty quid. Region 1, unfortunately, so you'd need the right machine or know-how to get around that (or at least, I would, being a local with Region 2 equipment). But it shows at least that it is out there.



Personally, I would say this goes in (late) Old West, like Mexican Revolution stuff, but I really am quibbling here. 

[FifteensAway]

As to where this belongs, I debated with myself where to put it, also considering Pulp, but settled on here because of the World War I associations.

And, no, it wasn't top flight television - it was cancelled before ending its first season - but it was a kick for me as an early adolescent.  Plus I'd bet every episode suggests a game scenario.  Plus there is the 'movie' length pilot - which is also available on DVD.  And, good or bad, it was fun.

[Westfalia Chris]

You guys really are the best and the worst... 

I never heard of this show before this thread, and never knew I needed THIS for my Pulp Mexican Revolution project that I had started this January.

As coincidence has it (*cough cough* the plastic hills flanking Lead Mountain), I had a 1/56 Stutz Bearcat kit lying around since 2012. A Glencoe re-issue of a 1950s ITC kit - bought the box for the Model T then. Don't look too closely at the wheels, they're only loosely put on for the moment. Maybe it's of interest for others, although the kit might be hard to come by these days. Size seems to be spot on, though, and being 1950s tech, it is surprisingly robust.

[FifteensAway]

Well, since I started the thread, do I get to be the best?!  And who gets to be the worst!? 

Love the model, I have some Glencoe locomotives to add variety to my 15 mm railroads.  I think I will have to resort to a matchbox search to see if I can find a Stutz Bearcat.

[Westfalia Chris]

So, thanks again for a fun diversion! I didn't add the windscreen and dashboard-mounted searchlight yet, since they're only going to break on a game piece. Maybe later.

I actually watched the pilot and the first episode. Lots of potential in the premise, but the execution left a lot to be desired, IMHO. I guess you had to have been there in the day.

Still, there's nothing to stop us integrating the concept into games.

[Plynkes]

Nice one, Chris.

For a moment there it was the early 70s and I was a grubby five-year-old once more. 

[FifteensAway]

Agree, nicely done on the finished car (well, almost).

Yeah, can't go to the show expecting high standards - I'm sure part of why the series got cancelled before the end of its first season.  (As opposed to today where we have the sad reality that after one episode shows brag about an "all new episode" for the second one.  Part of why I pay so little attention to scripted dramas anymore, they have so little chance of making it to several episodes let alone several seasons.  And I pay zero attention to so called 'reality television' - I call that stuff shitvision.  Part of why I say the best network on TV is OFF!)

There is no rule that our sources of inspiration for game scenarios be high quality - just fun! 

[vodkafan]

I am pretty certain there is a Models Of Yesteryear version of this, I have one from an Ebay job lot but it's pretty beaten up. 

[carlos marighela]

They have been re-released recently. They were selling them in packs of four, with other vehicles in a variety of scales, at one of my local model shops a couple of months ago or whenever it was pre-pandemic. I must admit I’m losing track of time.

[Helen]

Yes the old series was a hoot back then. Bought a copy some years ago and was tossed out last year in a clean-out of things non-essential to requirement.

Nice work Chris on the car.