Greatest American Hero

Message

Italian Ice · #1 Post by **Italian Ice** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 3:01 am

My other favorite show from that era alongside of MPI. Hope many of you guys enjoyed this one as much as I have. In my opinion, Cannels best production along with Hunter. If this show ran for 8 seasons, it would have had a chance to give shows like MPI and others a very good challenge.

Each episode had some very good plots, a lot of entertainment, many guest stars that you will see on MPI later on.

There's a movie in the works, can't wait for more updates. Just a shame what happened to this show, as I've mentioned already.....

Italian Ice · #2 Post by **Italian Ice** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:16 am

Oh, and might I ad...best theme song ever!

Performed by the same people!

Hard to get that song out of your head isn't it?

N1095A · #3 Post by **N1095A** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 2:53 pm

The whole idea, a guy being presented with a "super suit" that gave him great superpowers, by aliens in the desert, and he looses the instruction manual. Just a brilliant concept.
I liked this show very much, although I wasn't a loyal follower. William Katt was great as Ralph Hinkley, despite the fact that producers thought they should change his name to Hanley after Reagan was shot by another guy named Hinkley (Dumb). Robert Culp was the image I had of an FBI agent for many of my formative years, and Connie Selleca, well, 'nuff said.
Ralph was a normal guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances. That's what made suspension of disbelief, and the character believable. Great show.

Aparrently George Constanza was a fan too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caoYdiq3kak

Italian Ice · #4 Post by **Italian Ice** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:29 pm

Actually, it only went for 3 Seasons, 1 and 3 being shorter ones. I said that IF the show had gone for 8 seasons like MPI did, those two would have gone head to head quite well.

Look out for Mac in the pilot episode!!!

#5 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 7:46 pm

For some reason, I never watched this show very much. I've probably seen two, maybe three episodes. I would love to check this show now if I ever get a chance.

Italian Ice · #6 Post by **Italian Ice** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 3:01 am

See that you do James

One episode that you might enjoy that makes a heavy reference to Nam is Season 2's "A Handed Painted Thai". One of my favorites.

Plus, this show has a lot of humor. But, if you do your research, you'll see that they used this against the show in order to lower its ratings.......

But, I guarantee James, you WILL like this show. It's very underrated, but only because of the unfortunate events that happened to it. But of course, even MPI has it's issues on and off the set...

StarchedUndershirts · Sun Aug 09, 2009 11:42 pm

Italian Ice wrote:Oh, and might I ad...best theme song ever!

Performed by the same people!

Hard to get that song out of your head isn't it?

When I was a kid, my parents gave me a record player with a few 45 records. One of them was the theme song for this show.
I loved it as a kid, but hate it now. And I will never watch it again so I don't get that song stuck in my head.

Italian Ice · #8 Post by **Italian Ice** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:03 am

Ok, it didn't take long, but I did watch all 44 episodes over the past few weeks. Many I saw ages ago, a small few I missed. Here's what I came up with.

This is a good site for a guide on each episode, as well as a rating for each one. There's also trivia and sound quotes. The Pilot is a good start, then you can pretty much watch most of the others in any order as most don't refer much to each other, but some go back to the Pilot a few times.

http://www.bradybunchshrine.com/gaheg1.htm

What I didn't understand about this show compared to Magnum was that there weren't really any deaths. I think I only saw 1, where a guy jumps out the window and kills himself (well he was under a trance), and one other where a guy vaporizes from a particle gun, nothing else. Just like A-Team, where I don't think anybody was killed. All these shows ran around the same period. Not much censorship on MPI, but a lot on A-Team and GAH. Not sure why...

The plots were usually all about "saving the world", only a few focused on "local" crimes. Some episodes did add supernatural and 'out of this world' stuff, such as the "fifth" dimension, a sea monster, and an alien life form that sucks electricity.

There was a lot of humor in the show as well. The relationship between Bill and Ralph is comparable to TM and Higgins at many levels. Pam is the perfect "babe" and love interest here.

If you watch all 44 episodes, you will see a few guest starts that would, or did show up already on MPI

Jeff Mackay
Carolyn Seymour
Mako
Soon Tek Oh
James Shigeta
John Fujioka
Red West
Joe Santos
James Whitmore Jr
Bob Minor

Think that's all of them.

There's a comic convention coming up on Vancouver Island where William Katt and other stars will be, I might try to swing by. Would be great to meet him.

So, I relived a small part of my childhood again, even though this was a very short part of it. Definitely one of the most unrated shows of all time. Well done for it's time too.....

N1095A · #9 Post by **N1095A** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:32 pm

ElmoZiller · #10 Post by **ElmoZiller** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:40 pm

Italian Ice wrote: One episode that you might enjoy that makes a heavy reference to Nam is Season 2's "A Handed Painted Thai". One of my favorites.

Platinum Rosebud. 1600. Sunset 101 12 r 16 clicks.

That was from memory. Did I get it right? Do I win a prize? Probably not, I have a crappy memory.

That was an interesting episode... Brainwashed rogue FBI agents, Bill getting unwittingly hypnotized, gun play, and let's not forget the exciting Shoe-Fu action! I hear Paco has a black lace in Shoe-Fu... or is that Kung Shoe?

ElmoZiller · #11 Post by **ElmoZiller** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:57 pm

I always laugh my ass off at the scenes in Operation Spoilsport after Bill's been pumped full of sodium pentathol. The Hit Car is one of my faves too.

This show provided plenty of entertainment during my childhood and it still does, though some of the episodes I just don't watch anymore (Captain Bellybuster to name one).

Wasn't being put head to head against Knight Rider (in its first season) what killed TGAH in its 3rd season?

Italian Ice · #12 Post by **Italian Ice** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:30 am

Hi Elmo, if you look below, here's a post on IMDB.com which shows what happened to it. It had nothing to do with being up against Knight Rider. Apparently it somehow copied Superman, for one thing, and more. It's explained quite well before. One of the dumbest things mentioned above already is changing the main characters name and then changing it back later. Can you imagine if they change TM's name to say "Derringer" and then back to Magnum later? Anyways, have a read.....

Hope some of the others on here check this show out, a movie is in the works with the original cast, who still keep in touch very well to this day.

The TV gods had it in for this show, 9 September 2004
Author: POKOLAUQ2004 from South Carlonia
The Greatest American Hero was an excellent action-comedy series from the early 1980s that unfortunately seemed to be a victim of bad timing and fate.

I'd say about 70-80% of the story lines were good to excellent, and even the mediocre or few bad episodes were carried by the strength of the charming lead actors. William Katt played a high school teacher named Ralph Hinkley who was given red power suit by peaceful aliens only to be teamed up with a neurotic FBI agent named Bill Maxwell played by Robert Culp. Connie Sellecca offered the human touch as Ralph's girlfriend Pam Davidson. Katt's character lost the instruction book to the power suit in the pilot episode, leading to a very original and hilarious version of the ever familiar superhero story. But right from the start this series was plagued with problems such as a silly lawsuit from DC comics, who asserted that Stephen J. Cannell stole their Superman character. Cannell won the landmark case, but many potential merchandising companies were scared off by DC and Warner Bros. studios who still held a grudge against GAH. Then mere weeks into the show's 1981 debut, President Ronald Reagan was shot by a would be killer named John Hinckley...it just so happened that the main character's name on GAH was Ralph Hinkley. The ABC network even went so far as to dub over "Hinkley" with "Hanley" in a couple of early episodes. Speaking of ABC, they were probably Cannell/GAH's worst enemies. The network gave the show late starts in all 3 seasons, while other shows began their season rightfully in September, GAH would be forced to debut as late as October or November. ABC also consistently pre-empted GAH with other events (like major league baseball) during the 2nd season.

ABC then put GAH in a hole that could never be dug out of, the network drilled into the publics mind that GAH was nothing but a campy children's series that wasn't worth bothering with. The network nearly always promoted the series with shots of series star William Katt being silly and crashing into walls. GAH did have moments of camp and silliness, but it was written on an adult level and played straight so it was by no means an Adam West type camp series. There was more to this series then Ralph simply being an inept Superman. Sometimes ABC wasn't even close in it's promo ads to the plot of an episode, billing it all as Saturday morning kiddie fare. The series never recovered from this type of grossly unfair advertisement. It seemed like a lot of people just never understood the concept behind GAH, and no matter how many times you valiantly explained the premise of this show to people, it simply didn't matter. The damage was done. This was seen as simply an idiot children's series by way too many folks out there. Unfortunately that was the nail in the coffin. No TV show was going to survive being up against such odds. After 3 very short seasons and 44 episodes, The Greatest American Hero was cancelled by ABC in the spring of 1983...only to be replaced with two flimsy sitcoms that received even lower ratings and ultimately bombed. GAH has earned a "cult classic TV" status over the years, which is quite an accomplishment for a show that has barely been rerun in the continental United States since the 80s. Yet GAH could have been even more then that had the playing field been not so ridiculously lopsided against the show. There's a much anticipated DVD release coming around the corner, hopefully it will finally give this series justice and the fair handshake it never got.

Italian Ice · #13 Post by **Italian Ice** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:07 am

Platinum Rosebud, Sunset, 101, 16R, 12 Clicks, 1900

You were pretty close!

Italian Ice · #14 Post by **Italian Ice** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:56 pm

By the way, I didn't memorize that. I had to look it up. Deciphering the meaning of that is what makes this a good episode as well.....

Poor Bill won't ever admit he's under a trance.....lol

Italian Ice · #15 Post by **Italian Ice** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:50 pm

I ordered the suit as a Halloween Costume (very very hard to find one these days), Only 80's Tees carries some from all of my searches. If I can, I'll post a photo sometime on here....Just waiting for it to come, same with Halloween