The Greatest American Hero
| The Greatest American Hero | |
|---|---|
| File:The Greatest American Hero (TV series logo).png | |
| Genre | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
| Created by | Stephen J. Cannell |
| Starring | William Katt Robert Culp Connie Sellecca Michael Paré Faye Grant |
| Theme music composer | Mike Post Stephen Geyer |
| Opening theme | "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)" Performed by Joey Scarbury |
| Composer(s) | Mike Post |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 45 (5 unaired) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Stephen J. Cannell |
| Producer(s) | Juanita Bartlett Frank Lupo Christopher Nelson Jo Swerling Jr. |
| Production location(s) | Santa Clarita, California Sun Valley, Los Angeles, California Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California |
| Running time | 60 minutes (with commercials) |
| Production company(s) | Stephen J. Cannell Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | March 18, 1981 – February 3, 1983 |
| External links | |
| [{{#property:P856}} Website] | |
The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama superhero television series that aired on ABC.[1] Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour pilot movie on March 18, 1981, and ran until February 2, 1983.[1] The series features William Katt as teacher Ralph Hinkley, Robert Culp as FBI agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson.[1] The lead character's surname was changed from "Hinkley" to "Hanley" for the latter part of the first season, immediately after President Ronald Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981. The character's name was reverted to "Hinkley" after a few months had passed.
The series chronicles Ralph's adventures after a group of aliens gives him a red and black suit that grants him superhuman abilities. Unfortunately for Ralph, who hates wearing the suit, he immediately loses its instruction booklet, and thus has to learn how to use its powers by trial and error, often with comical results.
Contents
Premise
Ralph Hinkley (Katt) is a Los Angeles teacher of remedial education high school students. During a school field trip, Ralph encounters extraterrestrials who give him a suit which endows him with superhuman abilities. During the encounter, he is also instructed by the aliens to thereafter collaborate with FBI Special Agent Bill Maxwell (Culp). Their instructions are to use the suit as a means to fight crime and injustice in the world.
Subsequently, attorney Pam Davidson (Sellecca), who handled Ralph's divorce, also encounters the aliens. Through some coercion, she eventually agrees, on occasion, to join Ralph and Bill during missions.
Also seen regularly were Rhonda Blake (Faye Grant), Tony Villicana (Michael Paré), and Cyler Johnson (Jesse D. Goins), three of Ralph's students; and Bill's FBI supervisor Les Carlisle (William Bogert).
Suit and hero persona
Ralph's uniform grants him the powers of flight, super strength, invulnerability, invisibility, precognition, telekinesis, X-ray vision, super speed, pyrokinesis, shrinking, psychometry ("holographic vision"), and even the ability to detect the supernatural. As Ralph lost the suit's instruction manual, his discovery of these different powers often come as a surprise even to himself. Notably, while the suit enables Ralph to fly, it does not endow him with any particular skill at landing, so he frequently crashes in an undignified (though uninjured) heap. In the episode "Fire Man" he displays resistance to fire/heat and uses "super exhalation" (the ability to blow out a flamethrower, or any other large source of fire); he also uses this ability in the episode "There's Just No Accounting ...", to extinguish a Molotov cocktail. Ralph also shows signs of being able to control minds after he is exposed to high doses of plutonium radiation. In the season two final episode, "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", Ralph is shown to control a dog via a hologram. This may have been an improvisational power of the suit, but is not tried again in later episodes. In "The Shock Will Kill You", he (or the suit) becomes strongly magnetized.
In the season two episode "Don't Mess Around with Jim", Ralph and Maxwell learn they are not the first duo who received such a uniform. Jim "J.J." Beck had received the suit, and Marshall Dunn was his partner, much like Ralph and Maxwell operated. But Jim was overwhelmed with the power of the suit, and he used it selfishly and for ill-gotten gains, until the aliens discovered this and took the suit away. It is unknown whether or not there were others before Jim who were visited by the aliens. In "Divorce Venusian Style", the pair meet one of the aliens, whose world was apparently destroyed (which hints as to why the aliens want to protect humanity) and calls Earth one of the few remaining "garden planets". Ralph is given another instruction book during this encounter—supposedly the aliens' last copy, but he loses it as well. When he shrinks to a fraction of normal size, he places it on a large boulder which is actually a grain of sand given his reduced size, and forgets to pick it back up before returning to normal size.
In the episode "Vanity, Says the Preacher", it is also revealed there are several humans in seeming "suspended animation" aboard the aliens' ship (Bill speculates that they are possible replacements for them).
Hinkley's hero persona never receives an actual "superhero name" either, although Joey Scarbury sings the Elton John song "Rocket Man" in the pilot. In the pilot episode, Ralph sarcastically refers to himself as "Captain Crash" in reference to his terrible flying ability; and later "Captain Gonzo" in the episode "The Shock Could Kill You".
Like his character, William Katt found the suit very uncomfortable and hated wearing it. Producers made various modifications to the suit to help him, and accommodated him by scheduling filming so he would not have to wear it all day during a shoot.[2]
Symbol
On the Season 1 DVD, Stephen J. Cannell notes that the symbol design on the front of the suit is actually based on a pair of scissors that he had on his desk during the design of the uniform. He said that the costume designer asked him what he wanted the suit's chest emblem to look like. He said he had not really thought about it. The designer then picked the scissors up off the desk, held them upside down, and said "That's your emblem". Cannell was fine with that decision.
The symbol on Ralph's uniform resembles the Chinese character for "center" 中. As the symbol is red in color with white background, Hong Kong television station TVB titled the Cantonese-dubbed version of the show Fēi Tīn Hùhng Jūng Hahp (飛天紅中俠), meaning "Flying Red Center Hero", in reference to the red center mahjong tile. An alternate translation of "jūng" in Cantonese is "justice", which gave the other meaning for the title of the show "Flying Red Justice Hero". This alternate translation of the show title allude to the mandate by the alien grantor to use the suit as a means to fight crime and injustice in the world.
The symbol's bilateral symmetry seemingly avoided the "backward S" problem encountered on the Adventures of Superman. For the low-budget 1950s series, editors would on occasion "flop" stock footage of George Reeves in flight, causing the "S" shield to appear reversed. However, in many Greatest American Hero composite flying sequences, Ralph wore a watch and the timepiece alternates from one wrist to the other, especially during extended flying sequences.
Cast and characters
- William Katt as Ralph Hinkley/Ralph Hanley
- Robert Culp as Bill Maxwell
- Connie Sellecca as Pam Davidson
- Faye Grant as Rhonda Blake
- Michael Paré as Tony Villicana
- Jesse D. Goins as Cyler Johnson
- Don Cervantes as Paco Rodriguez
- William Bogert as Les Carlisle
Ralph's surname
The main character's name was originally Ralph Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr., on March 30, 1981, the character's last name was hurriedly changed to "Hanley" in two episodes. In "Here's Looking at You, Kid", aired within days of the incident, this was accomplished by overdubbing a student's use of "Mister Hinkley" to "Mister H," and later by dropping out the audio and dubbing jet engine roars over June Lockhart's two mentions of Ralph's surname in an airport scene. Two weeks later in "Reseda Rose," the name "Hinkley" was overdubbed "Hanley" whenever the character's last name was spoken aloud, which happened frequently in the episode. This was the only episode in which the name "Hanley" was spoken aloud; for the rest of the abbreviated first season (which only lasted 9 episodes), the character was generally referred to as either "Ralph" or "Mister H". The only other instance of the use of the name Hanley was in episode 9, "The Best Desk Scenario," in which Ralph is given a promotion and his own office space, and we see the name "Ralph Hanley" on the door plaque. By the season 2 premiere "The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fast Ball" (the very next episode in viewing order), the show's producers returned the character's surname to the original Hinkley.
Episodes
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The American sci-fi-comedy television series The Greatest American Hero aired from March 18, 1981 to February 3, 1983, and starred William Katt, Robert Culp, and Connie Sellecca. It consists of 44 episodes in three seasons.
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 9 | March 18, 1981 | May 13, 1981 | |
| 2 | 22 | November 4, 1981 | April 28, 1982 | |
| 3 | 13 | October 29, 1982 | February 3, 1983 | |
Episodes
Season 1 (1981)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Greatest American Hero: Part 1" | Rod Holcomb | Stephen J. Cannell | March 18, 1981 |
|
Series pilot: School teacher Ralph Hinkley meets FBI Special Agent William "Bill" Maxwell on a field trip to the desert, where extraterrestrials team them up for a mission: Ralph is given a functional super suit with amazing powers, and an instruction book for its use...which he quickly loses. Their first assignment is to prevent an assassination attempt on the President. To be continued... Note: The pilot was originally shown as a two-hour movie. |
|||||
| 2 | 2 | "The Greatest American Hero: Part 2" | Rod Holcomb | Stephen J. Cannell | March 18, 1981 |
|
After stumbling upon several of the suit's powers (flight, holographic vision and super speed), Ralph Bill and Pam team up to thwart a Presidential assassination plot. Note: In a strange coincidence, John Hinckley Jr. attempted an assassination on U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981 – twelve days after the show's premiere. This event would cause Ralph's last name to be temporarily changed to "Hanley". (The original name, "Hinkley", would be restored by the beginning of season 2.) |
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| 3 | 3 | "The Hit Car" | Rod Holcomb | Stephen J. Cannell | March 25, 1981 |
| Ralph's class prepares to perform Shakespeare, while he works with Bill to dodge professional killers and transport a beautiful and flirtatious FBI informant to testify against her drug-dealing mobster boyfriend. | |||||
| 4 | 4 | "Here's Looking at You, Kid" | Robert C. Thompson | Juanita Bartlett | April 1, 1981 |
| Someone has stolen a secret gunsight. Bill again hopes to use the super suit to help solve the case. This time, however, Ralph has his own problems: he stumbles onto his power of invisibility, and is having difficulty getting control of it. To add to his worries, he is also scheduled to meet Pam's parents (June Lockhart, Bob Hastings) for the first time. | |||||
| 5 | 5 | "Saturday on Sunset Boulevard" | Rod Holcomb | Stephen J. Cannell | April 8, 1981 |
| Bill flunks an FBI polygraph test, and may be drummed out of the Bureau, on the basis of one question: "Has anything strange happened to you in the last six months?" Unable to tell the truth about the suit, Bill reluctantly recruits Ralph's students to help him track down a Russian defector, and trade him for a pardon. | |||||
| 6 | 6 | "Reseda Rose" | Gabrielle Beaumont | Juanita Bartlett | April 15, 1981 |
| Ralph and Bill try to unravel a case involving secret military plans, a Russian submarine, and the kidnapping of Rhonda's mother. | |||||
| 7 | 7 | "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" | Arnold Laven | Stephen J. Cannell | April 29, 1981 |
| Ralph is despondent after nearly wrecking a tour bus, and is seriously considering giving up the suit...until he gets a pep talk from his childhood hero The Lone Ranger (John Hart). | |||||
| 8 | 8 | "Fire Man" | Gabrielle Beaumont | Lee Sheldon | May 6, 1981 |
| Tony is hired to repossess cars, and unknowingly takes a car filled with arson equipment. When he is wrongly accused of setting fires, Ralph must find the real arsonist. | |||||
| 9 | 9 | "The Best Desk Scenario" | Robert C. Thompson | Juanita Bartlett | May 13, 1981 |
| Pam and Ralph get promotions, and Bill begins to worry about his mistakes and mortality. Pam's new boss is mixed up with the mob, and they must rescue her and Bill's career. | |||||
Season 2 (1981–82)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1 | "The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fast Ball" | Georg Stanford Brown | Stephen J. Cannell | November 4, 1981 |
| Crooks needing cash to swing an arms deal bet heavily on a baseball game, and beat up the star of the team they bet against. Ralph joins the underdogs to make sure they win and the gamblers lose their money. | |||||
| 11 | 2 | "Operation Spoilsport" | Rod Holcomb | Frank Lupo | November 11, 1981 |
| The aliens return and tell Ralph and Bill that World War III is imminent: a fail-safe system, which will launch an attack on the other side if the country's been decimated, has been activated. They have to stop it, but unfortunately they discover someone on their side is behind the whole thing. | |||||
| 12 | 3 | "Don't Mess Around with Jim" | Robert C. Thompson | Stephen J. Cannell | November 18, 1981 |
| Ralph and Bill are kidnapped by a tycoon who fakes his own death...and seems to know more about the suit than they do. He then blackmails them into retrieving his will and prevent it from being misused by the president of his company. | |||||
| 13 | 4 | "Hog Wild" | Ivan Dixon | Stephen J. Cannell | November 25, 1981 |
| When a motorcycle gang learns about Ralph and the suit, they grab Bill and force Ralph to help them get back at the Sheriff who humiliated them. | |||||
| 14 | 5 | "Classical Gas" | Bruce Kessler | Frank Lupo | December 2, 1981 |
| Ralph and Pam help his students rehearse their rock band for a show, not realizing the promoter plans to release nerve gas into the audience. | |||||
| 15 | 6 | "The Beast in the Black" | Arnold Laven | Juanita Bartlett | December 9, 1981 |
| Ralph finds a window into the Fourth Dimension while scouting an old house. Bill gets possessed by a woman's spirit, and Ralph must return her through that window...but therein waits a vicious beast, against which the suit is powerless. | |||||
| 16 | 7 | "The Lost Diablo" | Lawrence Doheny | Juanita Bartlett | December 16, 1981 |
| Bill learns of a lost gold mine and tricks Ralph and the kids into helping him search for it; they are met with resistance from the local thieves. | |||||
| 17 | 8 | "Plague" | Arnold Laven | Rudolph Borchert | January 6, 1982 |
| Ralph and Bill have to save mankind from a deadly plague virus that a fanatical right-wing military group hopes to unleash on an unsuspecting world. | |||||
| 18 | 9 | "Train of Thought" | Lawrence Doheny | Frank Lupo | January 13, 1982 |
| Ralph is injured after a head-on collision with a train and suffers a selective amnesia: he remembers everything BUT Bill, the suit...and a terrorist plot to release atomic waste into a small town. | |||||
| 19 | 10 | "Now You See It" | Robert C. Thompson | Patrick Hasburgh | January 20, 1982 |
| Ralph is able to see two hours into the future, at which time Pam's plane will crash. | |||||
| 20 | 11 | "The Hand-Painted Thai" | Bruce Kessler | Stephen J. Cannell, Patrick Hasburgh, Frank Lupo |
January 27, 1982 |
| Years ago, prisoners of war were brainwashed to respond to a code phrase. Now, someone is using them to commit acts of sabotage. Bill and Ralph investigate, but Bill inadvertently falls under a hypnotic trance, leaving the heroics up to Ralph. | |||||
| 21 | 12 | "Just Another Three Ring Circus" | Chuck Bowman | Stephen J. Cannell | February 3, 1982 |
| Ralph takes a job at the circus as a human cannonball while trying to help Bill bust a crime ring that involves a phony dating service. | |||||
| 22 | 13 | "The Shock Will Kill You" | Rod Holcomb | Stephen J. Cannell, Patrick Hasburgh, Frank Lupo |
February 10, 1982 |
| While rescuing a stricken space shuttle Ralph becomes hyper-magnetized, resulting his being attracted to all things metal. Meanwhile, a strange creature aboard the shuttle heads towards Los Angeles, electrocuting all who get in its way. | |||||
| 23 | 14 | "A Chicken in Every Plot" | Rod Holcomb | Danny Lee Cole, J. Duncan Ray |
February 17, 1982 |
| Ralph, Pam and the kids fly to a Caribbean island to visit a friend of Bill's. When they arrive they find Bill's friend murdered and the island racked by a voodoo-driven revolt against the government. | |||||
| 24 | 15 | "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" | Sidney Hayers | Frank Lupo | February 24, 1982 |
| Ralph and Bill hunt for the sea creature "Carrie" in the Bermuda Triangle, thinking that the monster may be responsible for all of the boats that disappear there. Instead, they undercover a stolen boat ring. | |||||
| 25 | 16 | "It's All Downhill from Here" | Sidney Hayers | Patrick Hasburgh | March 3, 1982 |
| While on a ski trip, Ralph witnesses the murder of an American Olympic team member, who had actually been receiving top-secret military information from a Russian defector. He must then protect him and his girlfriend from a KGB hit squad. | |||||
| 26 | 17 | "Dreams" | Bruce Kessler | Stephen J. Cannell | March 17, 1982 |
| An act of kindness backfires badly when Ralph uses the suit to help a co-worker with a personal project. This leads his other co-workers to take daring chances for their own shots at success. Soon, he must hustle to prevent them from ruining their lives, but also to save Bill from a vengeful, recently paroled killer. | |||||
| 27 | 18 | "There's Just No Accounting..." | Ivan Dixon | Frank Lupo | March 24, 1982 |
| Bill convinces the parents of a kidnap victim to pay the ransom, certain that Ralph can recover it when he saves their little girl. Alas, when he does so, Ralph finds himself being audited by an overzealous IRS agent who is convinced that he took the ransom money. Meanwhile, Ralph and Bill keep getting shot at by a mysterious adversary with no connection to the kidnapping. | |||||
| 28 | 19 | "Good Samaritan" | Bruce Kessler | Rudolph Borchert | March 31, 1982 |
| Ralph, tired of simply pursuing criminals, decides that he wants to help people. He starts by helping a man who is being forced out of his home. | |||||
| 29 | 20 | "Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory" | Arnold Laven | Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo |
April 7, 1982 |
| A man who plays a superhero for a hamburger chain discovers that the stores are a front for drug dealers; he calls on Ralph for help. | |||||
| 30 | 21 | "Who's Woo in America" | Bob Bender | Patrick Hasburgh | April 14, 1982 |
| Ralph's mother comes for a visit, and announces that she is engaged to be married to Philip Kabala, a much younger man. Kabala has a shady background, though, and a bunch of thugs mistake Ralph for the fiance. | |||||
| 31 | 22 | "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell" | Robert Culp | Robert Culp | April 28, 1982 |
| Ralph breaks into the FBI archives and helps Bill solve a number of cold cases. As a result, Bill becomes a hero and a target for a beautiful KGB assassin. This was the first of the two episodes that Robert Culp wrote and directed. | |||||
Season 3 (1982–83)
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 1 | "Divorce Venusian Style" | Ivan Dixon | Patrick Hasburgh | October 29, 1982 |
| After a loud argument with Bill, Ralph quits the hero business and leaves Bill with his super-suit and is immediately shot. To save his life, the Green Guys are forced to reveal themselves, bring Bill and Ralph aboard and give them a new Instruction Book, as well as the purpose for having chosen them. | |||||
| 33 | 2 | "The Price Is Right" | Ivan Dixon | Stephen J. Cannell | November 5, 1982 |
| While attending a high-school reunion, Ralph discovers that the wife of a famous pro football player is being held hostage to ensure her husband will throw the big game. | |||||
| 34 | 3 | "This Is the One the Suit Was Meant For" | Ivan Dixon | Babs Greyhosky | November 12, 1982 |
| Pam is ready to break up with Ralph because he always puts the suit first. Bill gives them tickets to a tropical island to keep them together. Once there, they discover Bill's true plan: to use the suit to find a missing experimental aircraft. | |||||
| 35 | 4 | "The Resurrection of Carlini" | Arnold Laven | Frank Lupo | November 19, 1982 |
| A magician who was killed performing his greatest trick seemingly returns from the grave to murder his three rivals. Ralph must use his suit to out-trick the would-be killer. | |||||
| 36 | 5 | "The Newlywed Game" | Chuck Bowman | Babs Greyhosky | January 6, 1983 |
| On the way to Ralph's bachelor party, he and Bill are kidnapped and Ralph is persuaded to fly a mission for the president. | |||||
| 37 | 6 | "Heaven Is in Your Genes" | Christian I. Nyby II | Patrick Hasburgh | January 13, 1983 |
| Ralph must rescue Bill from kidnapping by a crazed scientist who wants to experiment on him to find out what makes him such a successful agent. | |||||
| 38 | 7 | "Live at Eleven" | Arnold Laven | Babs Greyhosky | January 20, 1983 |
| While foiling a plutonium robbery, Ralph gets exposed to radiation and discovers a new ability: he can mentally influence people. He and Bill must discover who is behind the robbery attempt, and find the connection to a TV news anchor who plans to run for president. | |||||
| 39 | 8 | "Space Ranger" | Ivan Dixon | Rudolph Borchert | January 27, 1983 |
| Ralph finds that his newest student is wanted by the CIA and KGB after tapping into a Soviet satellite. | |||||
| 40 | 9 | "Thirty Seconds Over Little Tokyo" | Arnold Laven | Danny Lee Cole, J. Duncan Ray |
February 3, 1983 |
| Ralph and Bill find themselves trying to protect a Japanese inventor after a terrorist tries to kidnap him and steal his invention: a powerful laser weapon. | |||||
| 41 | 10 | "Wizards and Warlocks" | Bruce Kessler | Shel Willens | Unaired |
| Bill is called upon to find a missing Middle Eastern prince, but it turns out that the prince is playing Wizards & Warlocks, a game in which someone gives him a task to do. Ralph and Bill try to unravel the mystery of the game and find the prince before the potential kidnappers do. | |||||
| 42 | 11 | "It's Only Rock and Roll" | Christian I. Nyby II | Babs Greyhosky | Unaired |
| After receiving a bomb threat, Bill is put in charge of protecting Dak Hampton, the lead singer of a rock and roll group. | |||||
| 43 | 12 | "Desperado" | Christopher Nelson | Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo |
Unaired |
| Ralph and Pam come across some horse rustlers who steal a herd of wild mustangs, but Ralph stops them from capturing the prize stallion, Desperado. | |||||
| 44 | 13 | "Vanity, Says the Preacher" | Robert Culp | Robert Culp | Unaired |
| Bill accepts an invitation to be honored as Man of the Year by a Latin American country where, years before, he was instrumental in helping them establish a democratic government. This time, however, Ralph suspects treachery, and refuses to intervene. The Green Guys return, and warn Bill that Ralph was right. This was the second of the two episodes that Robert Culp wrote and directed. | |||||
Home releases
At present, the following DVD sets of this series have been released.[3]
| DVD set | Episodes | Company | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Greatest American Hero: Season 1 | 9 | Starz/Anchor Bay | 2005.02.15 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: Season 2 | 22 | Starz/Anchor Bay | 2005.04.05 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: Season 3 | 13 | Starz/Anchor Bay | 2005.08.02 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: Deluxe Collector's Tin | 44 | Starz/Anchor Bay | 2006.10.03 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series | 44 | Mill Creek Entertainment | 2010.05.18 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: Season 1 | 9 | Mill Creek Entertainment | 2010.05.18 | |
| The Greatest American Hero: Season 2 | 22 | Mill Creek Entertainment | 2010.10.12 | |
References
- The Greatest American Hero at epguides.com
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The Greatest American Hero at IMDb
- The Greatest American Hero at TV.comLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Greatest American Hero at TVShowsOnDVD.com
Production
On the series' season 1 DVD set Stephen J. Cannell explained that he had planned The Greatest American Hero as a series emphasizing real-life problems, whereas when a change of management occurred in ABC, they requested more heroic, save-the-day-type episodes. As agreed originally between Cannell and then ABC executives Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, the powers would be in the suit, not the man (though the suit would only work for him) and Ralph would try to solve ordinary-type problems, such as trying to stop corruption in Major League Baseball ("The Two Hundred Miles-Per-Hour Fastball") or an assassination attempt ("The Best Desk Scenario"). The series initially emphasized what Cannell referred to as "character comedy" based on human flaws such as envy (in the aforementioned "The Best Desk Scenario") or hypochondria ("Plague"). The series differed from previous superhero shows because of the emphasis on (especially Ralph) "rising above" superhero antics and instead exploring what it was like to live in that environment.
Cannell was trying to avoid save-the-day-type episodes, as per the original Adventures of Superman television series, but according to Cannell on the DVD set, when Carsey and Werner left ABC (soon after the show was purchased by the network) the new network executives wanted the show to be more like a children's show than an adults' show. So they pushed for the types of shows that Cannell did not want, shows that involved Ralph trying to stop some sort of calamity from happening, including nuclear war ("Operation Spoilsport") and even a Loch Ness Monster-type of creature ("The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea"). For the season two finale, a serious and appropriate for the time (considering the Cold War) episode was produced; "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", written and directed by Robert Culp. The episode's story concerns a KGB mole-agent (played by guest star Dixie Carter) placed into the FBI with the sole purpose of discovering the methods used by agent Bill Maxwell in catching spies and other assorted villains. Cannell gave Culp free rein to produce the episode.
This was also the first of Cannell's series to feature the "Stephen J. Cannell Productions" logo. The production company's first series Tenspeed and Brown Shoe did not feature the logo.
Theme song
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The theme song (and variants of it) have been used frequently outside of 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 well known during the show's run. "Believe it or Not" debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 2. It also peaked at the No. 1 position on the Record World chart.
Superman and Green Lantern connections
The powers of the red suit were somewhat general, but still were similar enough to the abilities of Superman that Warner Bros., the owners of DC Comics, filed a lawsuit against ABC. Warner Bros. Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. was ultimately dismissed.[1] However, the series has more inspiration owed to another DC property, Green Lantern, in that it shares the basic concept of an ordinary human being given a powerful weapon granting extraordinary abilities by extraterrestrials, including the later appearance in the series of an alien who is loosely reminiscent of the Green Lantern Corps' administrators, the Guardians of the Universe.[2] It also shares the same concept of another DC property, Starman, in that it shares the basic concept of an ordinary human being is given a red costume, and given a powerful weapon granting extraordinary abilities by extraterrestrials. The series is also very similar to Nova from Marvel Comics, in that it shares the basic concept of an ordinary person attending school being given a powerful weapon granting extraordinary abilities by extraterrestrials, including the later appearance in the series of an alien who is loosely reminiscent of the Nova Corps' administrators, the Xandarians. The concept was also very similar to Frog-Man, a former supervillain, and now one of Spider-Man's allies, as well as the superhero by the name of Ant-Man, Scott Lang (all three of them, also created by Marvel Comics), to which a non-superpowered person attending school is given a red costume that grants them extraordinary abilities and superpowers to fight off crime and bring evil to justice.
In the pilot episode, while Ralph ponders whether to accept the suit, he observes his son watching the Super Friends cartoon. Batman is heard to say, "We need one more Super Friend who can fly!" In a later scene, having yet to convince Pam he really is a superhero, Ralph jokes, "Look at it this way. You're one step ahead of Lois Lane: she never found out who Clark Kent really was." In "Saturday on Sunset Boulevard", Ralph needs to change his clothing quickly. Seeing a telephone booth, he grumbles, "No! Never!", but ends up using it. Later, while Ralph struggles to get changed in the back of Bill's car, Bill notes "We need to get you a bigger phone booth."
Home media
Anchor Bay Entertainment company released the complete series in DVD format in Region 1 for the first time during 2005. Additionally, on October 3, 2006, they released a special 13-disc boxed set that includes all 43 episodes of the series as well as other bonus material. However, both the individual DVD sets and the complete boxed set are missing original performances by Mike Post and Joey Scarbury whenever the song concerned originated by another artist.
On October 14, 2009, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment company had acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell series, including The Greatest American Hero.[3] They subsequently re-released the first season as well as a complete series box set on May 18, 2010.[4] Season 2 was re-released on October 12, 2010.[5]
On November 10, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment released The Greatest American Heroine TV movie on DVD.[6]
On September 26, 2017, Cinedigm re-released The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[7]
Shout! Factory acquired the distribution rights to The Greatest American Hero and The Greatest American Heroine along with several other Stephen J. Cannell series on March 11, 2020.[8]
On June 30, 2022, Visual Entertainment released The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Collection on DVD in Region 1.[9]
| Title | Ep. # | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 9 | February 15, 2005 May 18, 2010 (re-release) |
| Season 2 | 22 | April 5, 2005 October 12, 2010 (re-release) |
| Season 3 | 13 | August 2, 2005 |
| Complete Series | 43 | October 3, 2006 September 26, 2017 (re-release) June 30, 2022 (re-release) |
| The Greatest American Heroine | 1 | November 10, 2011 |
Revivals
The Greatest American Heroine
During 1986, the original principal cast reunited for a pilot movie for a new NBC series to be named The Greatest American Heroine,[10] which did not result in a new series, and the pilot was never broadcast by NBC. Ultimately, the pilot was re-edited as an episode of the original series (complete with original opening credits and theme), and added to syndication sets of the original series aired on several local television stations in the late 1980s, for which it is the final episode. Immediately after the beginning credits, the episode's title card is superimposed over a nighttime view of the Los Angeles skyline, reading "The Greatest American Hero" before appending the letters "i n e" individually to the sound of the NBC chimes. The chimes were a nod to NBC and its president, Brandon Tartikoff, who had expressed interest in reviving the series.[11]
The pilot movie reveals that, several years after the final episode, Ralph's secret identity was finally revealed to the public, resulting in his becoming a celebrity. This angers the aliens who gave him the suit, and they charge him with finding a new hero to wear the costume and use its powers for fighting evil. Once the transfer is made, they explain, all memory of Ralph's exploits will be purged from the world's memory and remembered only by Ralph, Pam, and Bill.
Bill begins their search by researching people with desired hero qualities, but Ralph finds a young woman named Holly Hathaway (Mary Ellen Stuart), an elementary school teacher who spends her off-hours time looking for lost kittens, raising environmental awareness, and serving as a foster mother. Bill, Pam, and Ralph meet in the desert, where Ralph tells Bill about Holly. He reacts visibly to his new partner being a "skirt" before Holly arrives, flying in wearing a new version of the suit made for her, and she pledges to help Bill. The original trio say their final farewells, and even the stoic Maxwell reveals his true emotions as he says goodbye to Ralph and calling Pam a trouper—"...one of the best!" Holly reacts emotionally to the fond farewells, but breaks the sombre mood as she accidentally pulls the door off of Bill's sedan.
The rest of the episode deals with Holly learning how to use the suit with Bill Maxwell's guidance, and the pair trying to develop a working relationship. It ends with Bill overhearing a conversation between Holly and her foster daughter in which Holly refers to Bill as a good person. Bill is then shown speaking into a recorder he uses as his "diary" to suggest that maybe Holly is the right person to wear the suit after all.
Remake
On August 29, 2014, Deadline Hollywood published an article reporting that the Fox Network had ordered a pilot for a new version of the show.[12] The pilot was to be produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, both of whom wrote and directed The Lego Movie.
Deadline reported on September 8, 2017, that Rachna Fruchbom and Nahnatchka Khan would produce a female-led remake for 20th Century Fox TV and ABC Studios. The suit was to be donned by Meera, an Indian-American woman.[13] Actress Hannah Simone was cast as the lead for the reboot.[14]
On February 12, 2018, Simone was announced as the lead in ABC's reboot;[15] however, ABC declined to pick up the series.[16]
Comics
During July 2008, it was announced that Katt was writing a comic book series based on the television series for his publishing company, Catastrophic Comics, in conjunction with Arcana Studios. The three-issue mini-series debuted later that year, featuring an updated retelling of the original pilot episode set in the present. Katt also contributes to the show's Facebook page.[17]
See also
- Reluctant hero – a heroic archetype found in fiction, typically portrayed as an everyman forced to rise to heroism, or as a person with unwanted special abilities
References
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- ↑ Spiegel, Danny. "Hero Worship" TV Guide; June 21, 2010; Page 77
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