Probe: Isaac Asimov’s 1980s sci‑fi that was ahead of its time

Some television series are inseparable from the decade that produced them; others feel timeless. Probe, a late-1980s sci‑fi procedural, belonged to a third group — a show that seemed to arrive decades early and was canceled after only eight episodes. Created by Michael Wagner and Isaac Asimov, Probe opens with the pilot "Computer Logic: Part 1," which drops viewers straight into its premise: Michelle "Mickey" Castle (Ashley Crow) becomes the secretary to reclusive inventor Austin James (Parker Stevenson).

Mickey discovers James' off‑site lab — nicknamed the "Batcave" — and breaches a limerick‑based security system to find a sensory deprivation chamber and a man who thinks obsessively about puzzles and inventions. Howard Millhouse (Jon Cypher) and the show's eccentric gadgets populate a world where a genius with eidetic memory helps solve baffling crimes.

The series establishes a Sherlock/Watson dynamic, with Mickey's fresh instincts balancing Austin's logic, and Asimov's influence shows through recurrent AI themes.

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