Purely Joyful Movie!

Instant Favorite.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

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!!

Other than the red suite and the curly blonde hair, all I remember was that he couldn't land to save his life and every time was a wipe out. The girls at school used to call me "Ralph" due to my curly hair thus you see the popularity of the show with 5th graders.I was 10 years old when this came out and watched every episode yet I can't remember the plot of a single one. I believe it was on during the Friday night line-up, somewhere around Fantasy Island and Loveboat.The theme song was a huge hit. To this day, it comes to me now and again for now apparent reason.This was a great 80's show and a lot of fun. Defintitely one of the top memorable shows (conceptually anyway) of the 80's.

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.

If you aren't familiar with "The Greatest American Hero" you owe it to yourself to get the DVDs... you won't be disappointed. I used to watch the show as a kid and I loved it... they used to play it on Saturday mornings after the cartoons had ended and I never missed an episode. Flash forward twenty years and I'm amazed at not only how well the show has held up but at all I missed the first time around.Ordinary schoolteacher Ralph Hinkley is given a supersuit by space aliens... when wearing the suit he has all the powers of a superhero. The trouble is he lost the suit's instruction book in episode one and has to figure out how it works as he goes along. He's partnered with crusty, by-the-book FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp) and gets lots of help from his gorgeous girlfriend Pam (Connie Selleca). If you think this is a broad, goofy comedy or kid's show you couldn't be farther off... if you think it's kitschy nostalgia you'd be wrong as well. The Greatest American Hero is nothing short of one of the greatest TV shows of all time.The concept of the everyman becoming superman allowed the show's creators and writers to examine different aspects of human nature... there's so much going on in every episode that getting the bad guy is almost secondary. In one of the best episodes "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys," Ralph is forced to examine what it means to be a hero while Bill wrestles with having to arrest his OWN hero, a veteran police officer who has turned to a life of crime. The show was unbelievably human, and the three leads are a perfect triangle... Robert Culp grounds the show by not pulling any punches as the skeptical, impatient fed; his disbelief at the premise only serves to make the premise more real.William Katt as Ralph is excellent, completely believable as a man trying to balance his roles as boyfriend, father, teacher and superhero. Connie Selleca is not just beautiful... she's a confident, funny actor, putting more into Pam than was on the page. This show is also wonderful as a time-capsule piece, a reminder of when TV could appeal to everyone and still be intelligent, dramatic, and FUN. (Today so many dramas open every episode with a corpse it's all but become the rule.) "GAH" is also one of the BIGGEST TV shows ever made... by that I mean its visual look and style of direction is grand, cinematic. If you get the DVD's you'll see that every episode is a mini-movie. You'll also see that it's one of the best transfers EVER done. The show, twenty years later, is more bright, clean and vivid than anything on TV today. And you also get the memorable theme song, which still gives old-time fans like myself instant nostalgia whenever we hear it.In conclusion I highly recommend "The Greatest American Hero" to everyone... you will love it, your kids will love it, and it will stimulate your imagination, make you laugh and make you think. What more could you ask for?GRADE: A+