The Greatest American Hero
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| The Greatest American Hero | |
|---|---|
 Cover for the second season DVD of Greatest American Hero |
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| Genre | superhero drama-comedy television series |
| Creator(s) | Stephen J. Cannell |
| Starring | William Katt as Ralph Hinkley Robert Culp as Bill Maxwell Connie Sellecca as Pam Davidson Michael Paré as Tony Villacona Faye Grant as Rhonda Harris |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 44 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | March 18, 1981 – February 3, 1983 |
The Greatest American Hero is an American television series which aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. It premiered as a two hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981. It starred William Katt as teacher Ralph Hinkley, Robert Culp as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson.
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[edit] Premise
The series was a superhero drama-comedy. Ralph Hinkley was a schoolteacher for 'special students', and was determined to get through to them. Coming back from a field trip late one night, the school bus broke down, forcing Ralph to walk back through the desert to get help. He encountered a swerving car driven by Special FBI Agent Bill Maxwell (Culp). Maxwell - slightly drunk and despondent after the death of his FBI partner - claimed that his car also was acting up. The car started up and they drove on until they are stopped and locked into the car as bright lights above them shine down and almost blind them.
They were surprised to find that the lights are coming from an alien spacecraft. The aliens tell Ralph and Bill (by way of the car radio) that they are to work together to save the world and Ralph will be given the power to change it. They are given a black case. Later Ralph opened it up to reveal that they have given him a special bright red suit which endows him with superhuman abilities. Maxwell runs off from fear but later contacts Hinkley and hilarity ensues.
The novelty of the show was based on Hinkley's inability to properly learn to use the suit, and even learn of its various capabilities, other than by trial and error, because he lost the instruction manual in the desert. A revolving gag involved Ralph clumsily trying to strip off his outer clothes to reveal the suit before his enemies can get away.
In practice, Hinkley's superhero was more akin to a Buster Keaton-style clown. For example, sequences where he flies through the air under his own power usually showed him flailing his arms and legs, instead of adopting the Superman-like "arms extended, legs together" pose. In fact, his first flight resulted in a terrifying experience of him hurtling out of control until he rammed head first into a building wall. The basic powers outside of flying included super strength, resistance to injury, invisibility, precognition, telekinesis, super speed, X-ray vision, and psychometry. He also showed signs of being able to control minds when he was exposed to high doses of plutonium radiation.
Maxwell partnered up with Hinkley on most adventures to help the schoolteacher use the suit (which he called the "red jammies") to fight crime.
Pam Davidson was an attorney who often joined Ralph and Bill on adventures. She was a corporate attorney who later became Ralph's wife.
Also co-starring on the show were Michael Paré and Faye Grant as two of Ralph's students.
The series was created by producer Stephen J. Cannell and the show is typical of his style of character-driven quirky drama where the plot is secondary to the relationships between the characters.
The theme song (and variants of the theme) are used frequently throughout the show. "Believe It or Not" was composed by Mike Post (music) and Stephen Geyer (lyrics) and sung by Joey Scarbury. The theme song became a popular hit during the show's run (more information below).
In 1986, the original cast reunited for a pilot film for a new NBC series that was to have been called The Greatest American Heroine. The pilot reveals that several years after the final episode, Hinkley's secret identity was finally revealed to the public. This upsets the aliens who gave him the suit, and they charge Hinkley with finding a new hero to wear the costume and use its powers for fighting evil. Hinkley finds a young woman (Mary Ellen Stuart) who spends her time looking for lost kittens and teaching young children, and most of the episode deals with her learning how to use the suit under Bill Maxwell's guidance.
The Greatest American Heroine did not result in a new series, and the pilot was never broadcast by NBC. Ultimately, the pilot was reedited as an episode of the original series (complete with original opening credits and theme), and added to syndication packages of the original series, where it airs as the final episode.
In 2004, it was announced that a motion picture based upon the television series was in the planning stages.
[edit] Episodes
- Main article: List of Greatest American Hero episodes
[edit] DVD Releases
Anchor Bay Entertainment has released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. In addition, on October 3, 2006, they released a special 13-disc boxset that contains all 43 episodes of the series as well as other bonus collectors items.
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Season 1 | 9 | February 15, 2005 |
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Season 2 | 22 | April 5, 2005 |
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Season 3 | 13 | August 2, 2005 | |
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Complete Series | 43 | October 3, 2006 |
[edit] Typical plot lines
There were two typical plots of Greatest American Hero. Stephen J. Cannell explained the differences on the Greatest American Hero season 1 DVD set. As originally agreed to between Cannell and then ABC executives Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, the powers would be in the suit, not the guy. Also, Ralph would try to solve ordinary-type issues, such as trying to stop a fix in Major League Baseball ("The Two Hundred Miles-Per-Hour Fastball") or an assassination attempt {"The Best Desk Scenario"). The show would center around what Cannell referred to as "character comedy" based on human flaws such as envy (in the aforementioned "The Best Desk Scenario") or hypochondria ("Plague"). What Cannell was trying to avoid were "save the world" type episodes, a la the original Adventures of Superman tv series.
The problem, according to Cannell on the DVD set, was that Carsey and Werner left ABC shortly after the show was sold. The network then wanted the show to be more like a kids show than an adults show. So they pushed the exact types of shows that Cannell did not want. This brought the second type of plot. This type of plot usually involved Ralph trying to save some sort of calamity from happening, including nuclear war ("Operation Spoilsport") and even a Lochness Monster type of creature ("The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea").
[edit] Trivia
- The hero persona never receives a "superhero name," either, although Scarbury sings the Elton John song "Rocket Man" in the pilot.
- The episode "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" was shot in St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands.
- The powers of the red suit were somewhat broad, but still were 'similar' enough to the abilities of Superman that Warner Bros., the owners of DC Comics, filed a lawsuit against ABC which was, ultimately, dismissed[1] as the premise's core concept of a human receiving an alien costume/weapon to fight evil was closer to that of the Silver Age Green Lantern.
- The main character's name was originally Ralph Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30th, 1981 (only 12 days after the pilot episode aired), the character's last name was amended to "Hanley" for the Season 1 episode "Reseda Rose". For the rest of the 1st season, he was either "Ralph" or "Mister H". During the episode aired the night of the assasination attempt, the sound of a jet airplane was used to dub over the last name being spoken, and in subsequent episodes there was overdubbing of his students calling him "Mr. H" instead of "Mr. Hinkley." At the start of the 2nd season the name had changed back to Hinkley.
- The television show is often noted for its popular theme song "Believe it or Not", sung by Joey Scarbury and written by Stephen Geyer and Mike Post. "Believe it or Not" became a #1 hit for Scarbury on the popular music charts on July 18, 1981. It is also one of the most popular of all TV theme songs.
- The show's theme song was featured prominently in an episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza used it as his answering machine message, with his own lyrics sung over the music.
- The symbol on Hinkley's uniform resembles the Chinese character "centre" [中]. As the symbol is red in colour, Hong Kong television station TVB called the Cantonese-dubbed version of the show "Sky Flying Red Centre Hero" [飛天紅中俠].
- On the DVD of Season 1, Stephen J. Cannell notes that the symbol was actually based on a pair of scissors that he had on his desk during the design of the uniform.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
Greatest American Hero season 1 DVD set. 2005.
[edit] External links
- The Greatest American Hero at the Internet Movie Database
- The Greatest American Hero at TV.com
- TheGreatestAmericanHero Yahoo Group
8TV "TheGreatestAmericanHero", ara 8TV ( TV in Catalunya ( Spain ) - GrupoGodó
