How's this for an action / comedy series? A teacher receives a red super suit from a bunch of aliens and is paired up with an FBI agent to help people and solve crimes. The problem is he lost the instruction manual and doesn't know what he's doing or how to make the damn thing work. Well that's "The Greatest American Hero" in a nutshell. And it has a very catchy theme song.
William Katt plays teacher Ralph Hinkley, an unfortunate name as around that time as a similarly named John Hinckley had recently shot President Reagan. So for the rest of the season he was simply known as "Ralph" or "Mr. H" by his students. Accompanying him is tightly wound FBI agent Bill Maxwell and Ralph's girlfriend Pam Davidson.
And since he lost the instructions he had trouble flying, every week when he'd take to the air he'd fly erratically, sometimes hitting things or falling to the ground. Of course this being the 80's and shot on video there was some pretty bad, and obvious, blue screen effects. Ralph never quite looked like he was "there" when flying but that's a limitation of the technology of the time. Other skills that weren't so hard to use were the fact that the suit was bullet proof, although he did have to cover his face with his arms, he was super strong, eventually learned how to turn invisible and once was able to carry an incredibly large electrical charge that would have killed him otherwise.
But not every show is without it's faults. There were gimmicky episodes or ones that honestly didn't make much sense. Like how once they went to Newfoundland in Canada. And yet everybody there spoke with an American accent. If you've heard a Newfoundlander, or Newfie as they're also known, then you know it doesn't sound anything like how they were portrayed, And for some reason Bill's FBI badge worked up there. Had he actually been there he would have been working through the RCMP and they would have been the ones to take point on this. But this isn't about reality even if it can take you out of the show.
Had they continued they would have met up eventually with their Russian counterparts who had the working suit complete with instructions. Again it was the 80's and the Russians were always the go to villains also considering how patriotic and gung ho Bill Maxwell was, it would have made for an interesting fish out of water story. But the show was cancelled possibly due to it being bounced around the dial.
All in all it's an enjoyable little time capsule with some good performances that offset the 80's cheese and bad special effects.
William Katt plays teacher Ralph Hinkley, an unfortunate name as around that time as a similarly named John Hinckley had recently shot President Reagan. So for the rest of the season he was simply known as "Ralph" or "Mr. H" by his students. Accompanying him is tightly wound FBI agent Bill Maxwell and Ralph's girlfriend Pam Davidson.
And since he lost the instructions he had trouble flying, every week when he'd take to the air he'd fly erratically, sometimes hitting things or falling to the ground. Of course this being the 80's and shot on video there was some pretty bad, and obvious, blue screen effects. Ralph never quite looked like he was "there" when flying but that's a limitation of the technology of the time. Other skills that weren't so hard to use were the fact that the suit was bullet proof, although he did have to cover his face with his arms, he was super strong, eventually learned how to turn invisible and once was able to carry an incredibly large electrical charge that would have killed him otherwise.
But not every show is without it's faults. There were gimmicky episodes or ones that honestly didn't make much sense. Like how once they went to Newfoundland in Canada. And yet everybody there spoke with an American accent. If you've heard a Newfoundlander, or Newfie as they're also known, then you know it doesn't sound anything like how they were portrayed, And for some reason Bill's FBI badge worked up there. Had he actually been there he would have been working through the RCMP and they would have been the ones to take point on this. But this isn't about reality even if it can take you out of the show.
Had they continued they would have met up eventually with their Russian counterparts who had the working suit complete with instructions. Again it was the 80's and the Russians were always the go to villains also considering how patriotic and gung ho Bill Maxwell was, it would have made for an interesting fish out of water story. But the show was cancelled possibly due to it being bounced around the dial.
All in all it's an enjoyable little time capsule with some good performances that offset the 80's cheese and bad special effects.