Vintage TV: Raven

almost 3 years ago

Here we are again digging into my childhood memories and pulling out a nugget of TV goodness that was cut short all too soon. I keep hoping @gooddream will make his way to one of these posts because I think we probably used to watch a lot of the same stuff when we were younger.

As I mentioned Raven was another fantastic show that only lasted about two seasons. I would have been a sophomore in high school when this show debuted in 1992 and I remember watching it with my dad. I am actually surprised to see that it aired on CBS, I would have guessed it was one of those low budget FOX shows back then.

Anyway, the basic premise was this:

This guy Raven's parents were killed by a ninja (?) group called the Black Dragon Clan when he was 12 years old. To get revenge, he joined the Black Dragon and trained under them learning their ways. If I remember correctly, upon his graduation from the Black Dragons, he killed their master and several others before escaping.

He joined the special forces to go into hiding after his love was killed and their baby was placed in hiding without his knowledge. So he spends the next several years being the top assassin for the US military. Eventually, he learns about his kid and he leaves to try and find him.

That is basically where the series picks up. You only see that other stuff through flashbacks if I remember right.

In "modern day", he is searching for his son so he can protect him from the Black Dragon's who are still around and still looking for revenge.

So that is the gist of it. Sounds pretty cool right?

On top of that in Hawaii where he thinks his son is somewhere, he teams up with his old military buddy who is now a private investigator and the actor who played that buddy was none other than Lee Majors. Talk about some Hollywood royalty there...

My guess is they had to cast someone big name because the main actor who played Raven was pretty much unknown to me. Unless you were into soap operas I guess. It looks like he had a pretty decent career acting on those up until about 2013.

Oh yeah, since they needed to expand the plot beyond just some guy looking for his kid his buddy is a private investigator and each week he has to use his skills to help him solve a case or get someone out of trouble. Typical recycled plot line, but it was entertaining none the less.

Do you remember this show? Did you watch it or did you skip it? Not sure? Maybe this will jog your memory:

Wikipedia Link

IMDB Link