Ralph Super-héros

The Greatest American Hero was one of the best concepts for a TV show that I have ever seen, and certainly the most unique take on the superhero genre. The show had charm, lighthearted fun, and was full of 80's magic. I can still remember watching this show back in the early 80's and when Ralph first tried to fly that red suit. He couldn't get it, and some little kid that saw him struggling gave him some advice. Now see, that's the kind of magic that TV shows in the 80's had. TV wasn't afraid of putting out a hero that got advice on how to fly from a goofy little kid. Ralph Hinkley (played by William Katt) was just a regular guy, a young high school teacher that wanted to make a difference. Then one night he is approached by aliens out in the desert, teamed up with a gung-ho FBI agent, and given a spectacular red suit styled in the classic superhero design of cape and longjohns.

Unfortunately poor Ralph promptly loses the instruction book to the suit, and must learn the suit powers through trial and error. Connie Sellecca played Hinkley's girlfriend Pam, I seem to recall later in the show they were married. I also remember that Ralph got another instruction book, only to lose it again. And if I remember correctly, this show was only on for a brief 2 years and had 3 seasons. I don't know why the network prematurely cancelled this series, the show sadly never got to live up to it's full potential. I think it only clocked in around 44 or 45 episodes because the network pulled the plug on it so soon. The low episode number is probably why we don't get the luxury of seeing TGAH on Sci-Fi channel, WGN, TBS, or TV Land. Even with only 2 years of episodes, this series is still fondly remembered by many as a part of 80's magic.

I remember The Greatest American Hero, I adored this hilarious series about ordinary guy Ralph Hinkley getting a magical supersuit from aliens (little green-guys) back in the 80's. Conceived by the legendary TV giant Stephen J. Cannell, this is the kind of show that when you think back on it gives you all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings inside. It just makes you feel good and reminds you how wildly imaginative and cool television was in the 80's. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in remembering this show that was cut down way too early. 2 years on the air just wasn't enough. The Greatest American Hero was made in the early 80's, when the trials and tribulations of the 1970's were still somewhat fresh on peoples minds. After the Vietnam War, high gas prices, Nixon-Watergate, and two more lousy presidents, the very idea that a man in underwear and flaky cape could run around saving the world like Superman or Batman was seen as a complete joke. This was an original and great idea to explore. One word to describe the way the series approached this idea would be "smart", like Star Trek this show seemed to have a definitive intelligent and creative force behind it. It was more of a human drama/comedy then a straight up conventional superhero show. What would happen to a regular person if they were given a magical superhero outfit? What would happen if they lost the instruction manual and didn't know how to use the goofy looking costume? The way people treated Ralph (they thought he was a nut) when they saw him in his super suit is probably the way people would react in real life if they came across a man dressed as a superhero. This series never seemed to get its just dues back in the early 80's, OK so The Greatest American Hero wasn't Mozart or The Great Gatsby. It was middle brow entertainment like many other crime and adventure shows, but it was very well made middle brow entertainment. It was smart and the witty dialogue in this show rivals any of the "more adult" TV shows from it's time. I do remember getting grief from my older siblings and cousins who never got the joke of The Greatest American Hero for liking it, they would purposefully sing the theme song 'Believe it or Not' off key to annoy me, "Look at what's happened to me...". I so wanted to hit my older sister when she did that. Ralph wasn't a wimp he was an ordinary man put into extraordinary situations, so he reacted like a regular guy would. Hence his screaming like a banshee would he couldn't control the suit in mid air. Others here have pointed out the many problems The Greatest American Hero had to put up with during it's brief 2 years on the air, one I would like to mention was it was constantly yanked around on its schedule. It may be cliché to repeatedly call ABC or any other network 'villains' when talking about how they shafted a particular TV series, but in this case it really is true. In the beginning the series was perfectly aired on Wednesday nights, but then for whatever reason the network moved it to Thursday nights, and then finally it was shifted to the death slot of Friday nights were it was beat up in the ratings by the real kids shows like The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider. The Greatest American Hero was written with children in mind but was not soley targeted at kids. Without a teenage to adult audience to sustain it, the series died a quiet death at the hands of ABC. I hope that one day we see a return of The Greatest American Hero.

The most prominent clue is that Bill Maxwell is playing a turn on his "I Spy" Kelly Robinson fifteen years down a dead-end road, where his Cold War battles have apparently led him to be mired in eroded ruts.

The very opening sequence implies the murder of his long-time black partner.

In fact, the entire series -- from the pilot movie -- onward is a witty investigation of the uses and abuses of power, from the roles and capabilities of women (contrast/compare Connie Sellaca's attorney with Rhonda's confused teenager struggling for esteem) to the limits of American adventurism against the continuing threats of the Cold war. Here is a man of conscience chosen by Higher Powers to right wrong who struggles to be a decent father, lover, friend, and inspire kids by his "ordinary" example.

My favorite episode is "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", where Emmy-winning writer Robert Culp reveals in the Season 2 finale the depths and intelligence of the Bill Maxwell character.

Cannell wrote the pilot in an atmosphere of the Iran US Embassy hostage situation and a cultural dearth of idealism. Many viewers saw the red suit comedy and missed the morally ambiguous complexity lying beneath.

This show did a great deal of changing over it's three year run. Starting as a spring replacement show, it starred relative newcomer William Katt as the tragically named Ralph Hinckley (I'll get to the tragedy in a minute), a high school teacher with lots of troubled kids in his class. Hinckley is in the middle of a custody suit with his exwife, and is falling in love with his lawyer, Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca).

Things are looking OK for Hinckley until one night, in the California desert, he encounters aliens who give him a suit that endows upon him superpowers when he wears it. Then he loses the instruction manual. Nothing can throw a monkey wrench into your divorce/custody/employment plans like running around in what looks like red footie pajamas with a cape claiming you are saving the day. Ralph is instructed by the aliens to work with FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Kulp), and this part is easy because Maxwell is there when the aliens give them the suit in the person of his recently deceased partner, who is going with the aliens but gives Bill the "live long and prosper" hand movement through the car glass window a full year before "The Wrath of Khan". Hmmmmmmm.

Thus Bill and Ralph form this sort of good cop/bad cop duo, except Ralph is no cop. Bill is the formal law and order type. Ralph is the give peace a chance type. For all of his super powers, Ralph didn't seem to notice that his son, who brought him and Pam together in the first place, disappears after four episodes, never to be mentioned again. Maybe this invisibility was inherited from the ex-wife, because we never see or hear about her again either.

The tragic naming of our protagonist that I mentioned? Well 12 days after this show debuted President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley. In a typical case of overreacting, the show had Ralph renamed "Hanley" or "Mr. H" for the rest of the first season, as though just being named Hinckley somehow made you an untouchable. Then, he magically went back to Ralph "Hinckley" at the beginning of the second season.

As for the "bad kids" in Ralph's class, among them there was Michael Pare in his first role, and apparently a role that got him noticed because he was making movies at a pretty frenetic pace for the rest of the 1980's, though he stuck with the show for the rest of its run. There was also Faye Grant as Rhonda, who is supposed to be a troublemaking rather loose girl. Hey, it was 35 years ago and double standards still applied.

The first season was a delight, as was part of the second season, but then the network suits wanted to advertise it more as children's fare over producer Steven J. Cannell's objections, and it never could escape that pigeon-holing. Overall though, I remember it fondly.

I really wish this show was done today, because I just watched it on DVD, and found it incredibly entertaining, and very funny. The story begins with Ralph Hinkley(William Katt) a high school teacher, is lured out in the dessert, comes across FBI Agent Bill Maxwell(Robert Culp) and they are approached by a UFO, and is told they must work together as a team, they give Ralph a suit that has magical powers whenever he wears it. The funny part comes when Ralph loses the instruction book on how to use the suit, he keeps getting in trouble, because he does not use the power too well. But he seems to make the best out of the bad situation. I enjoyed the show, I still wish it was made today.