I've been wanting to pick ...

Question: I've been wanting to pick your brain. I remember a TV show from the '70s with a character named Bennu. I remember that he had a necklace and it had special powers (I think it was able to see the future). My husband thinks I'm nuts and people keep telling me I must be thinking of Shazam!, but I know it's not that. Also, this guy had bleached-blond hair with high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes. Am I crazy, or was there such a show? Please help! Thanks so much.

Answer: If you're going to talk about him, you must use his full name, which is Bennu of the Golden Light. On ABC's short-lived The Phoenix (Bennu was another name for a phoenix in Egyptian mythology), which started as a 1981 TV-movie before a March-September 1982 series run, Bennu (Judson Scott) was an alien who came to earth 1500 years before the show took place. A messenger from a dying planet, he was found in a tomb in Peru and woken up by present-day, fumble-fingered archaeologists who destroyed his mission instructions while freeing him.

Bennu, who looked more like a surfer or World's Greatest Athlete-type than an extraterrestrial, then ran around looking for a female member of his race who was entombed somewhere in North America. She was the only other one who might know what he was supposed to do while hanging out on Earth. (After all, isn't it always the women who have to set us guys straight?). While figuring all that out, Bennu spent a lot of time helping those who needed it (his mental abilities and solar-powered amulet were helpful there) and tried to keep one step ahead of the unpleasant Preminger (Richard Lynch), a government agent trying to catch him for the feds because, well... that's what government agents seem to do in these situations.

Scott, by the way, earned a paycheck in 1985 as another alien in NBC's V.

Now quit picking my brain or it'll never heal.