The Greatest American hero was a favorite show of mine but I will confess to some frustration with it. Like Lost, it was a show that set up some big mysteries that were never properly addressed by the series' end. Unless I missed an episode, we never did find out the actual full extent of the suit's power, where the spaceship that provided it came from, and who were the aliens behind it all. I hoped we would have a TV movie later on that would answer these questions, but, alas, such a thing never came to pass.
What's hilarious is THIS isn't so far-fetched! The sequel to the Batman film from the '60's was supposed to be Batman versus Godzilla!
ReplyDeleteThe episode in question - Divorce, Venusian Style. **Spoilers**
ReplyDeleteThe aliens reveal their origin. Why they help other planets- theirs was destroyed.
They show the pair the condition of their planet now. They show how many people are being conditioned for helping. They give a new instruction manual for the suit to Ralph. (This prop is reproduced as it was seen on the show in a super special box set of the series. Also included was a copy of the cape.) Testing with the manual, Ralph shrinks down to ant size and loses the new copy.
Ralph could fly around big G, but get tagged by the radioactive stream Godzilla could produce. The suit should be able to protect him here. In a different episode, while wearing the suit, it doesn't protect him from Mexican water or from the effects of drinking. Or from getting knocked out from hitting a wall while flying (in the pilot).
Side note- Mego made figures of the 3 leads and their car. Also, SNL had a sketch with Robert Culp playing his I Spy character meeting Cosby's character and at the end having a "fully dressed" Ralph come in as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember that SNL sketch. Sounds hilarious.
ReplyDeleteSome tv providers have it in their libraries.
ReplyDeleteRobert Culp/The Charlie Daniels Band. S7, Ep18. 24 Apr. 1982
The host for the episode is Robert Culp, and the musical guest is The Charlie Daniels Band. The skits for this episode include Bill Cosby in a new episode of I-Spy.
Given that TGAH was supposed to be a comedy,* I think answering those questions might've gone against the show's general idea: Ralph had this powerful suit with no real idea about how to use it. Sure, in retrospect I can see how having the aliens drag him out into space where he teamed up with suit-users from other planets who hadn't lost their instruction manuals could've been good for some comedy, but I'm pretty sure that would've broken a TV budget in the 70s-80s.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think this show may be about ready for a 20s-styled reboot on TV -- which would also make for plenty of fanfic (and fan film) crossovers with the MCU and the Arrowverse.
Speaking of the MCU and Arrowverse, maybe some future "100-page special" could be a photo cover for a hypothetical live-action adaptation of the JLA/Avengers miniseries.
*Forgot my footnote earlier. The show started as a superhero parody, which was the intent, but over time scaled back to a regular superhero comedy -- the difference being the style of humor. For the extremes of each, compare the animated The Tick with the Ant-Man movies.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ross. :-)
let me begin with "Ross, another great live-action cover. i love it!!!"
ReplyDeleteand proceed to however Hinkley is spelled without a "c" in it....
over a year after the show ended and William Katt was busy working with his real-life mother on a series of Perry Mason movies, one last episode was shot as a backdoor pilot for a revived/rebooted version where the aliens told Ralph to choose a successor to carry on as The Greatest American Heroine. Mary Ellen Stuart played Holly Hathaway in the unsold pilot....
Robert Culp returned as F.B.I. agent Bill Maxwell, but as they say, lightning did not strike twice....
another really fun cover which i which would pay for and read in a New York minute.....
keep them coming, please....
You'd think that with a super-suit, Ralph could have at least gone to look for his cousin and fellow science teacher Roy Hinkley. Poor guy was stuck on an island, after all.
ReplyDelete...and the Greatest American Heroine episode/unsold pilot had as a bonus the last filmed appearance of Clayton "The Lone Ranger" Moore as a guy in a bar arm-wrestling....
ReplyDeleteweird kinda cool trivia....
talk about your greatest American hero.....
...the unknown above is i, jack-el....
ReplyDeleteEver see the comic series Truth, Justin and the American Way? Kind of like TGAH crossed with Bill & Ted.
ReplyDeleteThe Greatest American Hero vs. Japan's Greatest Haruo.
ReplyDeleteMy compliments on your subtle punning skills, Ross. :-)
Maybe you could have "Teacher vs, Edward Teach (Blackbeard)".
ReplyDelete@Anonymous No. 10: A better title would be "Private Tutors of the Caribbean."
ReplyDelete