Never Give a Trucker an Even Break

This is the infamous Incredible Hulk episode written to incorporate footage of Steven Spielberg's Duel. Some sources say Steven stumbled across it while flipping channels and was astonished to see the Hulk driving the monster truck of his 1971 hit TV movie. However, the Hulk never drives the rig in this episode. Spiel must have been thinking about another episode from the first series, '747', which saw the Hulkster trying to land the plane from "Airport 1975". Quite a few episode from the first season made similar use of stock footage from Universal movies; including one that featured several clips from "Earthquake". Although Spielberg made sure none of his movies could ever be used as stock footage again from then on, Universal still managed to recycle the skateboard chase from Spielberg production "Back to the Future" in a mid eighties episode of "The Fall Guy" (with Lee Majors jumping over Biff's car instead of Michael J. Fox).

Written by Incredible Hulk developer Kenneth Johnson, who wrote some of the most dramatic episodes in the series, 'Never give a trucker an even break' instead plays out like a comedy. The plot is pretty ludicrous to begin with. David Banner is picked up on his way from Las Vegas (where the previous episode was set, compliments on the continuity) by Joanie (petite Jennifer Darling, the secretary to the Six Million Dollar man, the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman). She uses him as a patsy to get her stolen rig back from a gang of thieves who plan to use it to smuggle 'very expensive computer components'. These crooks also went to the trouble to dirty up her nice big truck, which sort of explains what a nice girl like her is doing with a big old disgusting rig like that.

As soon as the chase is on, composer Joe Harnell kicks in with some "Bonnie and Clyde" banjo music (as opposed to the Hitchcockian score written by Billy Goldenberg for Duel). The main bad guys, Ted & Mike (Frank Christi and Grand Bush) are the kind of comical blunderers usually confined to Disney movies. As a running gag, Bush (Slowpoke from Stir Crazy) keeps whining about his car being hit several times over. At one point, Bill Bixby even makes a joke about having to buy stretch-shirts. Best of all, the episode features one of the funniest Hulk-out's ever, when David runs out of money in a telephone booth ands shouts: I don't have 25 cents!

Of course, knowledge of Duel makes watching this episode even more amusing. First of all, we get to see inside the monster truck as Joanie and David use it to chase Ted and Mike in their red Plymouth. Notice that Ted is wearing the same blue shirt, sunglasses and mustache as Dennis Weaver did as 'David Mann' in Duel. However, since Weaver was the only Mann driving in the original, Kenneth Johnson had to come up with ways to make sure the passenger seat appeared empty in all wide angles (i.e. stock-shots). Therefore, Mike repeatedly ducks out of sight looking for bullets in the glove compartment and on the backseat. Later on, David and Joannie take turns driving the Plymouth (both of them wearing blue shirts as well) and tiny Joannie keeps slipping down her chair and out of sight during the most exciting scenes (shame on her for not wearing her seat belt).

One also wonders how much time and money was saved on this episode when whole scenes consists of two people in a mock up car with back projection out the windows, reacting to footage from a 1971 movie. They used so many shots from Duel in here (much more than the footage of Aiport 1975 and Earthquake in the other two episodes), that you might even spot Steven Spielberg reflected in the Plymouth's rear view mirror. Of course they did bring back the monster truck and the red Plymouth for some new footage, most noticeably a new stunt involving the Hulk throwing a telephone poll against the monster rig.

In later seasons of The Incredible Hulk, there were no more episodes specifically written around clips from the Universal backlog. However they did fall back on stock shots of forest fires in at least four episodes and had numerous flashbacks to older episodes, especially the pilot movie and 'The Incredible Hulk: Married'. They still did it in more original ways than the king of clip shows, "Family Ties", though.

9 out of 10

I did like this episode even as it was a simple rip-off of the notorious cult flick Duel (1971). After leaving Las Vegas David is picked up by a woman Joanie who asks him a favour to give a letter to a man. Seeing no danger in it he does deliver the letter but once opened it is written that the man is going to be killed. The reason is simple, he stoled a truck from Joanie. Once she's in the truck she wants to overrun the thieves but things don't go as planned. And from their on we got a duel between the truck and the car full of thieves.

It do alternate between the drivers of the truck and the car but it do works out fine and is again an episode full of suspense. The hulk do appear a few times and is doing what he must do. It's funny that it reminded me of Duel because they even used stock footage from that flick. But still, a must see for hulk fans.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Having left Las Vegas, David Banner hitches a ride with a young woman named Joanie (Jennifer Darling) who uses him as a diversion to steal her truck back from a gang of thieves by asking him to deliver a card to some guy ( she claims is her boyfriend) but the card is a death threat to the man and his fellow crooks.

Banner gets caught up in a highway duel between the giant rig and its pursuers, as he and Joanie alternate between driving the truck and the thieves' Plymouth.

There's plenty of burning rubber against asphalt, dust and lengthy highways traversed in this fun episode, which is much lighter in tone than usual. The plot is well crafted, has plenty action, tense moments and humour - of course, the footage is taken from Duel but it's done well. Loved the hulk out scene when David goes green during his argument with an operator. Sort of relatable as folks probably get angry with customer service over the phone.

B Actors, as usual, as guest stars, rarely is good, and this one shows it.

Idiotic dialogue, between the two villians, who are chasing Banner and the girl.

Very weak story.

David Banner(Bill Bixby) is hitchhiking out of Las Vegas when he is picked up by a woman named Joanie(played by Jennifer Darling) who uses him as a diversion to steal her truck back from them, as they are a bumbling gang of big rig thieves out to use them for their own nefarious scheme, and now chase both of them to get her big rig back. Infamous episode for using footage of "Duel" to save on costs, that displeased director Steven Spielberg. Also uses much humor that proved unpopular with some fans, but I found this a most amusing episode, with both the pay phone and self-aware "I really need shirts that stretch!" scenes being highlights.