Holmes & Yo-Yo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Holmes & Yo-Yo (alternate spelling, Holmes and Yo-Yo) was an American comedy television series that aired on ABC for 13 episodes during the 1976-1977 season.

Created by Leonard Stern, a former staff writer for Get Smart, the series starred Richard B. Shull as Det. Alexander Holmes, a clumsy down-on-his-luck cop who constantly injures his partners. The department gives him a new partner, Gregory Yoyonivich (John Schuck). Yo-Yo, as he likes to be called, is good natured, if a bit clumsy, and also surprisingly strong. During one of their first calls, Yo-Yo is shot and Holmes discovers that his new partner is an android, a sophisticated new crime-fighting machine designed by the police department as their secret weapon on crime.

Besides super-strength, Yo-Yo's other abilities include speed reading, and the ability to analyze clues at the scene. Yo-Yo had a built-in polaroid camera: each time his nose was pressed, a polaroid photograph of his field of vision would be taken and ejected from his shirt pocket. Yo-Yo's control panel was built into his chest, which could be opened by pulling his tie. The level of Yo-Yo's batteries was critical, because if they ran down his memory and, effectively, his being would be erased. In one episode his batteries come very close to running down completely, and he is charged by being pushed against an electric fence with his arms extended.

The series follows Holmes and Yo-Yo's adventures and misadventures, as Holmes teaches Yo-Yo what it's like to be human, while trying to keep his quirky partner's true nature a secret from criminals and fellow cops, alike.

Co-starring the series were Andrea Howard and Bruce Kirby.

Although the series lasted only 13 episodes, and is generally remembered as a failed "gimmick show" today, the influence of Holmes & Yo-Yo can be felt in other "robot cop" series and films that followed, most notably the RoboCop films and TV series, and the 1993 series, Mann & Machine which used the same premise as Holmes & Yo-Yo, only with a sexy female robot instead of the stout Yoyonovich.

Stern's earlier series, Get Smart featured an android character named Hymie who was, in most respects, a prototype for Yo-Yo.