Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) is a novice teacher (and father to a young boy) in Arizona. His high school students are, mostly, uninterested in learning and give him a hard time. To try to break through and change their attitudes, Mr. Hinkley tells them they are going to take a field trip to the desert. Somehow, they end up broken down on the highway coming back to their building and dark has set in. Telling his students he will return as soon as he can fetch gasoline, Mr. Hinkley sets out and meets another driver who just happens to work for the FBI (Robert Culp). As they go back to the bus, aliens land near them and explain that they are giving Mr. Hinkley a space suit that will give him special powers. Wow, oh what a night! Soon after, Ralph puts on the suit and learns how to fly and also gains the ability to see through walls and doors. Ralph's lawyer friend Pam (Connie Selleca) knows something is up but is not certain what it is. But, as Ralph starts to rescue folks trapped in bad situations, will he confide in those closest to him? This television series from the early eighties has a slow start but then picks up energy as it goes along. Yes, the concepts are good and Katt, Selleca, and Culp make a great trio. Also, some of the student actors, like Michael Pare, went on to bigger fame as well. But, examining the show through modern eyes, the effects are probably not that great and the dated look of the shoot has no razzle-dazzle. Therefore, if you were once a fan of the series, by all means, try to find this DVD of the best of beginning episodes. New viewers may be underwhelmed, however.

Wished that the show would had lasted long. But due to different days and time slots, ABC seemed to had want to cancel the show. And the suits as ABC did not seem to like a show like this and did it's best to cancel a great show that, is now a cult classic despite lasting two years.William Katt is mild-mannered teacher Bill Hinkley. The late great, Robert Culp is FBI agent-partner, Bill Maxwell, and Connie Selleca now known, as Mrs John Tesh, played Katt's girlfriend later lawyer wife, Pam.These three would be a team that reluctantly, if effectively became a crime fighting team to be reckon with. From UFOs to government conspiracies. It had everything from comedy, action, romance, and a little drama thrown in.If ABC would not had killed the show, which I think it did by moving to different time slots and days, it would had lasted at least five years. But really a cult classic I remember as a child of the 1980s. You don't ever get shows that you think are silly but still, fun to watch. Bring this show back!

LAMPOONING a successful story, picture or genre of Film has been a time proved tradition in Hollywood. We can see even in the earliest days parody being reflected in the work of names such as Will Rogers (UNCENSORED MOVIES-Douglas Fairbanks as ROBIN HOOD and others), Stan Laurel (MUD & SAND Valentino's BLOOD & SAND-bullfighting), Ben Turpin SMALL TOWN IDOL (The Western) and Buster Keaton (THE FROZEN NORTH-Western-but William S. Hart in particular). The practice of spoofing serious movie types and their stars has made much of the stuff that was the one and two-reel comedies from such names as SENNETT-KEYSTONE, ROACH and EDUCATIONAL/Christie.THE emergence of the Super Hero as the important cultural contribution from the emerging and growing Comic Book publishing business was met with an almost instantaneous induction into the world of the Parody with the coming of Paul Terry's MIGHTY MOUSE Cartoons starting in the World War II period, 1943 to be exact.* OF course the trend continued thru to the Television Age with characters such as UNDERDOG and COURAGEOUS CAT; but hit the primetime TV when the world was given the BATMAN Television Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox/ABC, 1966-68); which is arguably a parody in itself.BUT in the ensuing season, both CBS and NBC came up with their own Super Hero send-ups in MR. TERRIFIC (Universal/CBS, 1967) and CAPTAIN NICE (NBC Television/Paramount Studios, 1967). The two had many more similarities than differences. They were easily confused with each other; being much like the earlier situation involving THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS, only more so. Needless to say, neither one made it into a second season.TIME, it is said, heals not only all wounds, but also any and all bad ideas for TV series; so long about a decade and a half later we tuned into THE GREATEST American HERO (Stephen J. Cannell Productions/ABC Television Network, 1981-83). This time the parody would succeed, lasting into three distinct and different seasons.WHILE it was definitely a member of the Parody genre, it came from a different Branch of the Family Tree than did previous entries. GREATEST HERO started out with what could be perceived as a straight drama-action story; that being the reception of a Super Power laden costume-suit from Alien Beings while being alone in the dessert. What a great thing! Who wouldn't want such a thing to happen to them! BUT now hold on now, Schultz! With such powers and marvelous threads to go along, there would certainly be some special problems inherent. For example, how to control the suit's flying power? How to measure one's take-offs and landings? What to do about your proclivity toward motion sickness? ALL of these, along with some other common human deficiencies, are what puts the humor in what would easily a straight Drama. The story lines and characters may be slightly more exaggerated at various junctures, but by and large, they are played straight.THE Series co-stars William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, the somewhat unwilling recipient of the Super Suit and Robert Culp as the most straight-laced F.B.I. Agent Bill Maxwell. The two worked well, playing off of each other's character idiosyncrasies like a well honed team.THE combination of on-screen talent and the mixture of genres worked out very well for the series, which sailed through 3 seasons. The ability to follow the story on two levels; about in the same manner had the BATMAN Series in late '60s wound up being an advantage to building-up its loyal followers.NOTE: * In one of those stranger than fiction occurrences, when the first Terrytoon cartoon about a super-powered rodent came out it was titled: SUPER MOUSE RIDES AGAIN with the title character being called "Super", not "Mighty". However, a Comic Book entitled SUPER MOUSE hit the news stands at about the same time as the cartoons release. The whole thing was no one's fault; so no hurt, no foul. Producer Paul Terry unilaterally rechristened his little cheeser the more familiar, Mighty Mouse.POODLE SCHNITZ!!

I wont beat a dead horse here and explain the premise of the show so if you want to know what the Greatest American Hero was all about, read any of the other posts to get a good idea of what went on. What I will tell you is that most television shows these days just don't add up to the originality of this show. I am really surprised with all the superhero movies that have been released in the last 5 years that a movie was not made based on this TV show. I would stand in line to see it. Any TV show currently running just cant stand up to the story. I remember as a kid literally being restless to see this show each week and I'm pretty sure if this show was on now, I would be just as restless to see it each week. Why isn't this show being remade? There is a lot of talent out there and I'm sure they could find some actors and actresses that would be suitable. ABC made a terrible mistake canceling this series and that is very obvious since GAH fans are still around even though it only aired 3 seasons (44 episodes I believe). I'd be willing to bet that the 6 million dollar man, the incredible hulk, and the A-Team fans don't add up to the fan base that GAH has.Any movie studio out there would be nuts to put off remaking this any longer. With Stephen Cannell still being around, it would be a perfect time to do it. So, where is the remake? The GAH fans are asking.