Thursday, May 19, 2011

The Thing and The Greatest American Hero



The Greatest American Hero was a series I made a point to watch regularly when I was a kid. The action and effects are pretty quaint by today's standards, but back then for live action superheroics, it was just about the only thing going. What it lacked in production values, it made up with enjoyable performances by William Katt and Robert Culp. It poked fun at the idea of a man untrained with the abilities that his super-suit gave him, but I never felt like it was looking down at the genre. I am surprised that this property has not been mined for a feature film treatment, as so many series from the 70's and 80's have, but perhaps that's a good thing. This series was a product of it's time and maybe it is best left there.
at

6 comments:

  1. John R. PlattMay 19, 2011 at 4:02 PM

    Ha! Delightful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cathy and DaveMay 19, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    Dave sez,

    Awww, yeah! Believe it or not I was hooked on that show! Loved Scarbury's theme!

    One of my treasures is the complete series box set, although I could not tell you which version it is - I hear there are two. It was released and then re-issued

    William Katt has his own comic imprint...not sure how it is doing. He did a three-issue adaptation of the pilot...haven't heard or seen of a solicitation for any further issues...

    I understand he was working with Matthew Pare on an original motion comic...

    This was all four or five years ago, now...

    ReplyDelete
  3. MikeMay 19, 2011 at 8:18 PM

    Wow. What a blast from the past.

    You know, for as campy as those shows were you know what is one of the timeless and priceless qualities about them? The theme song.

    The Greatest American Hero, A-Team, Hawaii 5-0, Knight Rider, Magnum fucking PI. All of their theme songs are timeless, you just say the words and I can already hear the theme song of this 20-year-old TV show in my head. I don’t know of any other TV show in the past 10 years that has had a theme song that I would put in that category.

    ReplyDelete
  4. notinthefaceMay 19, 2011 at 11:05 PM

    That "Beast In Black" episode was awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SmearySoapboxPressMay 22, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    This is another fun one - the "Believe it or not!" caption is great!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MikeMay 22, 2011 at 5:31 PM

    Ross,

    I just remembered, I thought you might dig the opening part of this video from the local Super Hero Street Fair from 3 years ago.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDB7hCsh9kc

    Awesome ...

    ReplyDelete