TV Shows with traveling/roving protagonists

[fishwax]

I'm trying to think of some TV shows that revolve around protagonists who travel from town to town, usually to do good works for strangers. The 1960s had Route 66 and The Fugitive, the 1980s had Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Highway to Heaven, and the 1990s had Renegade. The show Supernatural on the CW fits the bill as well. I'm sure there must be some that I'm missing. Anyone know of others?

[NV Whino]

1. Have Gun Will Travel

How could you miss that one?

[fishwax]

2. lol -- yeah, I wasn't thinking of westerns, but

there are probably at least a few in that vein. Fantasy as well, from '90s syndicated shows like Xena and Hercules. I was mostly thinking of shows set in the present, but I'm happy to have others on the list, so thanks for mentioning it

[Gidney N Cloyd]

37. That's one I'm surprised has never been made into a movie.

[Swede]

3. Sliders

They roved from universe to universe.

[fishwax]

10. is that good? I've seen the DVD at

the local video store, but I don't think I've ever seen it.

[From The Ashes]

17. Sliders was a pretty good show...

...thought provoking. It got pretty silly toward the end.

[ChazII]

4. Guns of Will Sonnet

another western.

[fishwax]

11. don't think I've ever seen that one

I wonder if it's available on DVD -- either way, thanks for the title

[Vanje]

5. Then Came Bronson

Handsome motorcycle rebel travels from town to town.

[fishwax]

12. Cool -- I've heard of that one, but haven't ever seen it

I don't imagine it's easy to find, since it didn't run very long, but I'm especially interested in protagonists who go from town to town by automobile/motorcycle, so that's a fitting title

[Iggo]

29. Coolest show ever.

[murielm99]

6. Who was that masked man? n/t

[fishwax]

13. question

how much sense of place did that show have? I remember watching it (or, at least, being aware of the character--the original series was before my time) as a kid, but in my memory there isn't much sense of where the LR is any given episode. I don't know if that's a function of my lack of sense of place as a kid or a function of the show itself ...

[murielm99]

16. It simply takes place in

The Old West. He went from town to town Out There, in The Olden Days.

That is the sense I had of it as a kid.

I used to spend every summer in Montana. In the fifties and sixties, there were actually a lot of small towns in the rural West that all looked alike. So the Lone Ranger made sense to me. I could understand that he was traveling from one small town to another.

[fishwax]

18. that'a kind of what I thought

Where in Montana, if you don't mind saying? I lived in Billings as a toddler (when I first heard of the Lone Ranger) and moved to Wyoming before starting school, so in some ways I know what you mean about the small towns that all looked alike, but in other ways they all have a distinct character to me. But the Lone Ranger always made sense because at the age of 4 or 5 I just took it on faith that there were hundreds upon hundreds of backwater burgs just like mine

[murielm99]

21. I had family in Belgrade.

We mostly stayed around that area. I had some family in Laurel, for awhile, too, so we went there.

My aunt and her husband lived in two or three different residences before they bought property, so we were not always in the same place. We shopped in Bozeman, so I remember it well, too.

I loved going to Yellowstone, and to the Custer battlefield. I loved the whole experience of going out there. I grew up in Illinois, and still live there. When I came home every summer just before school started, it was hard to get used to the humidity. And I missed seeing the mountains.

[Mopar151]

7. Holmes on Homes

Reality-show version of the Man in the White Hat - saving homeowners from unscrupulous/incompetent contractors, bad home inspectors, and the like. His crew & subcontractors ride into town and blow apart money pit, screwed up houses and "make it right".

[fishwax]

14. I hadn't even thought of reality shows, but that

opens up a whole new set of possibilities

[Kaleva]

23. I wish I had watched that show before remodeling my house.

[Aristus]

8. The Incredible Hulk.

Bill Bixby was an appealing actor. And that mournful piano theme at the end always signalled his need to move on to another town; forever without a home...

[fishwax]

15. that was my favorite show as a young kid

at the time it didn't register to me that he was a drifter. (I was just a toddler at the time and didn't really have a sense of place.) Great addition to my list

[dimbear]

9. Kung Fu. Not Kung Fu Panda. Kung Fu.

Did anybody mention Quantum Leap?

[fishwax]

19. Another show I haven't seen since I was very young

And, unfortunately, don't remember very well. I remember liking it a lot, but probably because my dad and brother liked it as much as for any other reason.

Good call on Quantum Leap

[Behind the Aegis]

20. "The Superfriends", "The Justice League," "The X-Files," "Millennium," "Charlie's Angels,"....

"Wonder Woman" (especially season #2), "Xena," and I can't believe no one has said this... STAR TREK (all of them)!

ETA: The new cartoon, "Young Justice" also has everyone travel.

[fishwax]

33. good list

I'm surprised I didn't think of the X-Files.

[mucifer]

22. Dr. Who

Lots of those doctor guys running around in space and time. I'm surprised that every week they weren't bumping into each other.

[Kaleva]

24. The F.B.I.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is still alive. 93 years old! He turned 40 just a few days before I was born.

[HopeHoops]

25. "Run, Joe, Run!" - 70's show about a german shepherd hero dog being chased by some dick.

[hedgehog]

26. Star Trek

[frogmarch]

27. The Fugitive (1963) - David Janssen

I never missed an episode. Loved that show.

It bugged me, though, in the episode in which Richard Kimble was supposedly in Pierre, South Dakota, a local man he spoke to there pronounced it "PeeAIR" instead of correctly: "Peer."

[Rob H.]

28. The Pretender

Four seasons and two made-for-TV movies.

[Iggo]

30. Frankenboy!

I forgot about that show. Oh, man. What a laugher! I watched it, though.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

31. Kung Fu

[WhoIsNumberNone]

32. Buck Rogers (Season 2)

Battlestar Galactica (70s)

[Bombero1956]

34. old westerns

Wagon Train, Rawhide, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Bronco and Cheyenne

[NoPasaran]

35. Criminal Minds

The BAU is always jetting off to somewhere to catch a bad guy, who is usually seconds away from killing his next victim.

[white_wolf]

36. Burn Notice is kind of like that.

It's about a burnt spy who sets up shop in Miami and uses his skills to become sort of a Macgyver type figure helping out people with various problems, usually dealing with criminals. He also tries to solve the mystery of who burned him. He doesn't leave Miami very often, but you might like it.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

38. "The Immortal"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_%28TV_series%29

[cyberswede]

39. Quantum Leap

Different locations...and different eras, too.

[Major Nikon]

40. An Idiot Abroad

[Swede]

41. Firefly.

[Doc_Technical]

42. The Loner

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058822/

[Arctic Dave]

43. Dora the Explorer

[Dogtown]

44. A hero of that type is known as a "picar"

the genre is called "picaresque".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel

"Don Quixote" is a primal literary example of the type, albeit more of a comic example.

These characters are frequently "anti-heroes", in that they often trick or confound society (usually a corrupt society) whilst good-deeding.

My favorite is a Japanese franchise, "Zatoichi".

[YankeyMCC]

45. The Phoenix

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phoenix_(1982_TV_series)