The Greatest American Hero (1981–1983)

A teacher is asked to be a superhero using a special alien suit with powers he can barely understand or control.

Creator:

Stephen J. Cannell

Stars:

William Katt, Robert Culp, Connie Sellecca

Nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
William Katt	...	Ralph Hinkley (44 episodes, 1981-1986)
Robert Culp	...	Bill Maxwell (44 episodes, 1981-1986)
Connie Sellecca	...	Pam Davidson (41 episodes, 1981-1986)
Don Cervantes	...	Paco Rodriguez (23 episodes, 1981-1983)
Faye Grant	...	Rhonda Blake (22 episodes, 1981-1982)
Michael Paré	...	Tony Villicana (21 episodes, 1981-1983)
Jesse D. Goins	...	Cyler Johnson (19 episodes, 1981-1983)

Storyline

A pair of strangers, liberal high-school teacher Ralph Hinkley and right-wing FBI agent Bill Maxwell, have a close encounter in the Southern California desert one night with "little green men", who give our heroes a red superhero suit. The suit works only for Ralph, and the two, accompanied by Ralph's cute lawyer girlfriend Pam, reluctantly team up to battle criminals. Problems ensue when Ralph loses the suit's instruction book, so he had to master the suit's powers on his own.

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Plot Keywords:

suit | teacher | alien | superhero | california | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Stephen Cannell Productions

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

El gran héroe americano

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Stephen J. Cannell Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min 30 min (43 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Initially Pam was only to be featured in the Pilot, as a recurring gag was to be Ralph having a different girl friend in each episode. 'Connie Selleca' impressed the producers so much with her performance that she was made a regular on the series.

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Quotes

Ralph Hinkley: I mean I could kill the guy that designed this suit. Why couldn't it have... narrow lapels and a cutaway jacket? Why'd it have to be long johns and a cape?

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Crazy Credits

During the opening credits of the pilot "Greatest American Heroine", the three-note NBC theme is heard as the letters "i-n-e" appear one at a time on screen. (An in-joke as NBC was the network the series was being pitched to at the time)

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Slime People (1990)

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Soundtracks

"Believe It or Not"
Written by Mike Post & Stephen Geyer
Performed by Joey Scarbury
(theme song)

User Reviews

Smart and Entertaining...

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.