The current writers' strike is reminding me of one of the greatest disappointments of my middle school years, the 1988 cancellation of Probe, a series starring Parker Stevenson as brilliant but quirky scientist Austin James, who, along with his everywoman assistant Mickey Castle, would investigate mysteries both scientific and mathematical. Isaac Asimov was one of the writers, and it combined science fiction and humor in the same way as one of my current favorite series, the new Doctor Who. I've been watching a few clips on YouTube, and it's just as good as I remember it.

If you want to check it out give Now You See It a try. Intelligent elevators that Austin designed are implicated in a series of deaths. Did Austin make an unprecedented error in programming, or does it have something to do with the cutthroat businessman who is suddenly in a position to buy up the companies at a discount?

How can you not love a series where one of the bad guys gets to deliver a line like this? "I'm similar to the wild wolf, James. And like that predator I also mark my territory."