Line #21 Series/NightMan


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightman.png]]
2	->''"I will not place my life in the hands of a ... saxophone player!"''
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4	''Night Man'' the television show is an adaptation of the Malibu Comics' [[ComicBook/TheUltraverse Ultraverse]] character of the same name. A Glen Larson production, the show was developed for syndication and ran from 1997 to 1999.
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6	The original premise is that Johnny Domino, San Francisco's hottest young jazz musician, is struck by {{lightning\|CanDoAnything}} and develops the power to hear the frequency of evil, like a radio. He also cannot sleep anymore. This somehow leads him to become a Batman-like hero, but with homemade gadgets.
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8	The TV version went on a strange path that ends up with him in one-off secret stolen-from-the-government PowerArmor that grants him FlyingBrick abilities, including an invisibility cape, flight, invulnerability to bullets, and the capacity to project a hologram of himself (which in a few episodes performs for him in his club while he's busy elsewhere). This leads Domino (and his friend Raleigh) on a quest to rid San Francisco of crime. Somehow, the definition of crime frequently fluctuates between mundane criminals like bank robbers and [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer drug dealers]] and vampires and [[DiabolusExNihilo extradimensional beasts]].
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10	The show is infamous for moving its production entirely to Canada for the second season, [[RememberTheNewGuy replacing everyone but the main lead with Canadian actors and then carrying on like nothing had happened]].
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12	----
13	!!''Night Man'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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15	* BigBad: Kieran Keyes is the recurring antagonist of Season 2. He's played by Creator/KimCoates!
16	* BlessedWithSuck: Johnny's powers give him the ability to read people's minds, in exchange for insomnia.
17	* BondageIsBad: The fake priest and nun in "Spellbound" wear something that came from a BDSM club. Their secret hideout is a torture chamber that has a swinging pendulum that's activated for no reason.
18	* ClipShow: In the season 1 finale, Johnny, in Heaven, witnesses events from his past in a clip show format.
19	* CoolCar: Johnny's Plymouth Prowler.
20	* {{Crossover}}: With '80s cult-hit (and fellow Glen Larson creation), ''Series/{{Manimal}}''.
21	* DetectEvil: Pretty much what sums up Johnny's power.
22	* DiplomaticImpunity: In a first season episode, a Chinese diplomat is smuggling stolen documents. It's actually subverted because the police try to search him anyway when they catch him but he still gets away because [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nightman had already destroyed the documents]].
23	* DistaffCounterpart: Nightwoman from the episodes "Nightwoman" and "Nightwoman Returns".
24	* FluffyCloudHeaven: In the season 1 finale, Night Man dies and goes to Heaven. He doesn't stay very long.
25	* FullyAbsorbedFinale: One episode had Johnny Domino team up with [[Series/{{Manimal}} Dr. Jonathan Chase]]. In the time between the cancellation of his show and this one, Dr. Chase married his love interest and had a daughter (the woman in distress of this episode).
26	* GoodIsNotNice: Nightman has been shown to kill bad guys without any signs of regret.
27	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Johnny and Raleigh.
28	* KillItWithFire: Night Man disposes of a vampire by setting it on fire.
29	* MadeOfExplodium: Said vampire then leaps out of a window and '''explodes'''.
30	* NewMediaAreEvil: Keyes' [=UltraWeb=] is an obvious stand in for the Internet. You know, until it starts teleporting people to cyberspace and letting monsters become real.
31	* MrFanservice: Handsome, muscular Johnny's trademark outfit while performing sax at his club is a sleeveless black V-neck shirt. Heck, Matt [=McColm=]'s credit in the season 1 opening titles is over a ShirtlessScene, just to leave you in no doubt as to one of the reasons he was cast.
32	* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: When Johnny starts hearing other people's thoughts, this is the explanation offered by the medical consultant on psychic phenomena--who's apparently been spearheading the American side of an ESP race with the Soviet Union.
33	* ProductPlacement: Again, Johnny's Plymouth Prowler, which was featured heavily in the first season.
34	* RememberTheNewGuy:
35	** On some episodes, a character that Johnny seems to know for a long time appears out of nowhere and they act like everything is the same. Though more often than not, expect these characters to have the life expectancy of a RedShirt.
36	** The entirety of Season 2 replaced everyone but Johnny with new characters.
37	* UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco: Where the show supposedly takes place. The writers sometimes forget this, however.
38	* SexySaxMan: Johnny, though he's more beefcake than the usual sultry version of this trope. Hell, it's even ''the freaking theme song!''
39	* SeductiveMummy: An enemy in season one. She actually subverts the trope, because her real form is a hideous corpse that she covers with the illusion of a beautiful woman (it's implied that it wasn't even what she looked like while alive, since she chose it after reading a character's mind to find out what's considered beautiful in the modern world).
40	* ShoutOut: "Lady In Red" features a costume ball. While [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself in his own costume]], Johnny bumps into a guy dressed like ComicBook/SpiderMan.
41	* TakeThat: For a C-list superhero show there's a lot of tangential snark--often via the guest cast, weirdly enough.
42	** When a character who gains the ability to change his appearance is boasting about surpassing all previous contenders:
43	--->'''Bridges:''' You know the performer they dubbed "[[Creator/LonChaney the Man of a Thousand Faces]]"?
44	--->'''Samantha:''' Music/MichaelJackson?
45	** And when Johnny briefly goes to heaven:
46	--->'''Simon:''' ''(consulting Johnny's dossier)'' Musician! We don't get many of those up here.
47	* ThrownOutTheAirlock: The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:BigBad Kieran Keyes]].
48	* UnhandThemVillain: Played very straight in the pilot episode. A member of the group hiding weapons prototypes from corrupt government officials planning to sell them to America's enemies is kidnapped and dangled off the side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
49	-->'''[=McDermott=]:''' ''(after having given up the info they want)'' Will you let me go now?
50	-->'''Krueger:''' Certainly. ''(to henchman)'' Let him go.
51	-->'''[=McDermott=]:''' AAAAAAAUUUGGGGHHH!!!!
52	* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Johnny's father dies]] in the premiere of the second season. Making it [[ItsPersonal a personal vendetta against Keyes]].
53	* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Well let's see, a few people [[SuperpowerLottery struck by lightning]] have gained AstralProjection, PsychicPowers, and MindRape. Where our hero gains the ability to... [[DetectEvil hear evil thoughts]]. Though in certain instances this could become HeartIsAnAwesomePower, as in a fight due to his opponent's actions being created by evil thoughts, it pretty much tells him what his opponent will do next.
54	* WrestlingMonster: The Golden Boy was billed as one and hated it.
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Context Series / NightMan