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Trying to find this again has been bugging me for years. Here's what I remember:

  • probably a TV series, but could also be a movie/mini-series
  • should have been around in the 80's (saw it around 1978-1985)
  • about an experimental/military group that can "upload" short-term memories using Alpha(?) waves. (no, it's not the Matrix)
  • these memories last exactly a specific time (60 minutes?), then he forgets everything again
  • they use this technology to feed their guy/agent with vital knowledge about missions (to help others?)
  • one example would be how to fly a helicopter (yes, I'm certain it's not the Matrix :-P

Any ideas? Thanks!

EDIT: Note: It's quite likely the country of origin is non-US/non-English, which might explain why it's difficult to find more info on this (in Germany, all movies and series are dubbed, so it's impossible to tell)

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    It could also have been that the guy was brain damaged because of an accident, and he had lost his complete memory, and these short-time boosts were the only way he could function again. After the 60 minutes he would once again lose his complete memory. Not sure which variant it was.
    – Wolfram
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 19:53
  • Johnny Mnemonic?
    – Jack B Nimble
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 21:43
  • No, much older. Thanks, though.
    – Wolfram
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 22:13
  • Joe 90 seems pretty unlikely, as I'm sure you would have remembered it as a puppet show and with a young boy protagonist, but I guess it's still vaguely related...
    – Dovetailed
    Commented Jun 22, 2012 at 14:43
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    I remember seeing this. The guy was in an accident or something and had amnesia, creating a blank slate for them to imprint memories on. I think memories would last 24 hours or so. What he learned normally he'd remember, what he learned by imprint would fade - and not slowly, but all at once. I'm pretty sure there was a sequence where he had to drive a race car and they had to imprint the memories by remote or something and later he was racing to escape and had to get clear before his race car driving memories went away. It was a pilot that never made it to series.
    – Tango
    Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 14:08

2 Answers 2

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This has been bugging me for a while because I remember this show vividly AND I finally found it: The Ultimate Impostor

bonus: it stars Erin Gray!

He's a spy who had his memory erased by the Russians and now they can program him with knowledge but it only lasts 72 hours.

@user13649: The Oscar Goldman reference above was a show called The Delphi Bureau - about a guy with a photographic memory.

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And here is the race car scene.

You have no idea how long I have wanted to know the answer to this.

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