Believe it or not, I'm walkin on air I never thought I could feel so free...
Created by Stephen J Cannell, the show first aired in 1981 on ABC and was both a comedy and a drama. Ralph Hinkley (briefly "Hanley" in the wake of the assassination attempt on then-President Reagan) played by William Katt, is a teacher to a class full of delinquents. He is a good, moral man, and because of this, aliens give him a special "Superman suit" that gives him special powers — but only works for him. Unfortunately, he almost immediately loses the instruction manual and must discover its powers by trial and error. He is paired up with FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp), whose determination to fully exploit Ralph's new abilities keeps them both busy.The suit gives Hinkley the power of strength, flight, invisibility, flames, telekinesis, vision of events without being there, protection from bullets and fire ... in short, whatever powers are required by the plot. But he doesn't know everything it does at first, and only slowly discovers its abilities. Essentially, the entire series runs on How Do I Shot Web?Ralph must balance his new powers and responsibilities with his old ones, which not only include his students, but his girlfriend Pam (Connie Selleca) and his son Kevin. The basic concept of the show, combined with the quality of the performances was a Crowning Moment of Awesome for television in the early 80s, even if it appears cheesy and lame to today's jaded audience.The show has two legacies:1. Its catchy Theme Tune, "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It Or Not)" which made it to Billboard's #2 slot in 1981, and stayed on the charts for two years. It was written (with Stephen Geyer) by Mike Post, who also did the themes for The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Hardcastle and McCormick, and L.A. Law, and turned Joey Scarbury into a One Hit Wonder.2. Though not the first show to come from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, it was the first to end with Cannell's distinctiveVanity Plate.Recently, the show has been adapted into a comic series set in the current day. The characters are basically the same, but some things have been changed; Bill has a smartphone, for example (which he doesn't know how to use) and the FBI knows to some degree about Ralph and his supersuit with Max's hasty story that he's a test pilot of a prototype military weapon.
Arbitrary Skepticism: In "The Shock could Kill You", Bill can't bring himself to believe at first that an extraterrestrial life form could be the problem, even though he has seen firsthand an alien spacecraft that gave Ralph the suit.
Badass Normal: Bill Maxwell, not even multiple broken bones slow him down.
Brother Chuck: Kevin pretty much vanished after appearing in many first season episodes. He does rate a mention in a couple of second season episodes, but is not seen. Rhonda disappears with no explanation in season three.
Cape Snag: Subverted...Ralph's cape is just about the only thing that didn't give him problems when he used the suit.
Cowboy Cop: Bill Maxwell, though he's technically a FBI agent.
Dawson Casting: The high school students. So much so that Michael Pare (Tony) is only 3 years younger than Connie Sellecca (Pam). And Faye Grant (Rhonda) is only 2 years younger than Sellecca.
Deadpan Snarker: All three main characters have their moments.
Deconstructive Parody: Of superhero tropes, in that they don't quite apply in the real world, but that's how the suit works.
Dog Food Diet: Bill's preferred diet is dog food biscuits and hamburgers. He apparently developed a taste for the former after they were all the companions had to eat in "The Hit Car", the second episode of the series.
Early Installment Weirdness: Bill is dead serious and played very straight by Robert Culp in the pilot, as opposed to the more easy-going, boss-ribbing, sometimes oblivious character he would later become. Ralph's hair is also huge in the pilot.
Bill's behavior could be his way of dealing with the fact that his partner was just killed.
Easy Come, Easy Go: In "Divorce Venusian Style" Ralph is given a second instruction book to replace the first one that he lost. By the end of the episode he has lost the second book, leaving him no better off than before.
Edited For DVD: In Operation: Spoilsport The Aliens pressed Ralph foward by continually playing the song "Eve of Distruction". Due to copyright issues the song is replaced in the DVD release.
'80s Hair: Hinkley is a superhero with a freakin' perm.
Embarrassing Cover Up: Ralph comes up with all sorts of zany explanations for why he's wearing the suit when innocent bystanders happen on him, most of them embarrassing enough that people don't ask anything more.
Plus the continued struggles between Cannell, who wanted a light comedy with real world problems as opposed to the network, who wanted Villain of the Week "Superhero" type plots.
Failure Is the Only Option: Ralph never gets a complete handle on the suit, even losing a second instruction manual given to him by the mysterious aliens. Subverted in that he does get noticably better over time at flying and using certain powers like invisibility.
Flying Brick: Just part of the powers he has. Although considering his landings, it's more "brick" than "flying."
Forgotten Phlebotinum: In one episode, Ralph discovers that the suit gives him the power of Telekinesis. He never uses this telekinetic ability again in later episodes.
Gold Fever: Bill is hit especially hard with this in "The Lost Diablo". Even the kids from Ralph's class dump the water from their canteens in order to put more gold ore in them.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Ralph would balk at the slightest suggestion to use the suit for personal gain. Justified in an episode which depicts a former suit-wearer who used the suit to get rich and wound up becoming completely corrupted and losing the suit back to the aliens.
Intimidating Revenue Service: In the episode "There's Just no Accounting...", Ralph, Pam and Bill are all harassed by an IRS agent who audits or threatens to audit them. It's hard to feel sorry for the IRS agent when the villain of the episode horsewhips him for also harassing said villain and his employees.
The Korean War: Bill Maxwell is a veteran of Korea. His old unit captain features in one episode as a cop gone bad.
NBC: When the creators made the pitch film for NBC for the hoped for reboot, the episode title screen said "The Greatest American Hero" with the letters i-n-e added one by one to the sound of the NBC chimes.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Justified in that the suit had a lot of capabilities and Ralph did not know all of them. The show would also subvert this by having Ralph be unable to use his powers in quite the way he intended (e.g. pyrokinesis setting the wrong object on fire). See Failure Is the Only Option above.
New Super Power: In several episodes, he discovers new powers, some of which are never used again, such as mind control (which he developed after being exposed to plutonium) and the ability to shrink himself (his attempt at using the newly-acquired second instruction book).
Promotion to Opening Titles: Michael Paré and Faye Grant, as of season 2. Don Cervantes gets promoted for a single episode only.
Real After All: An episode involving a legendary sea-monster.
Real-Life Relative: In "Who's Woo in America", William Katt's real life mother, Barbara Hale, plays Ralph Hinkley's mother Paula.
Robert Culp's sons appear in "Vanity, Says the Preacher".
Reset Button: You give up the suit, you make everyone forget (except you).
Real Life Designs The Suit: Cannell based the emblem on Ralph's suit on the handles of a pair of left-handed scissors he kept on his desk.
It's also very similar to the Mahjong tile 'Red' or 'Red Dragon'.
Real Life Writes the Plot: William Katt and Connie Selleca were unavailable for a revived NBC series, leading to the retooling as The Greatest American Heroine, a concept the network passed up.
Screwed by the Network: Series creator and executive producer Stephen J. Cannell had envisioned Greatest American Hero as a show focusing on down-to-earth, real life problems, the powers would be in the suit, not the guy (though the suit would only work for him) and Ralph would try to solve ordinary-type issues. The ABC executives whom Cannell had pitched the show to, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, had actually agreed to go along with this. Unfortunately, however, after the show was picked up, Carsey and Werner left ABC to create their own production company, and the new network executives demanded that Cannell incorporate more fantastic plots, which ultimately alienated viewers.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Tony Villicana was a prominent character for the first two season, but only appeared in one third season episode. For the rest of the season, a character named Joey filled his role. Justified since Joey was not a new character but had been a part of Ralph's class since day one.
Telekinesis: In one episode, Ralph discovers that he can move objects with his mind — but only if he clears his mind first. To clear his mind, he tries imagining a great big sheet of plain white paper. He has to concentrate on this image of white paper more dilligently at some times than at others.
Theme Tune Power Up: The instrumental version of the show's theme music often plays when Ralph takes flight or otherwise uses the suit to do something heroic.
Throw It In: The scene of Ralph writing his name on the blackboard with the chalk breaking at the start of the third season's credits was a blooper.
Title Drop: As Ralph is exposed in the "Greatest American Heroine" pilot, the President greets him with "Thank you, Mr. Hinkley, you just proved what we've suspected for a while now...that this country truly has ... The Greatest American Hero".
Uncanceled: Well, almost. About three years after it had been canceled by ABC, NBC expressed interest in reviving the show. A twenty minute presentation film was created which set up the premise for the revamped series - Ralph was found out after the media happened to film one of his rescues. At first reluctant to 'go Hollywood' he quickly became very famous and well known. The aliens return and insist that he has been compromised and demand he give up the suit to someone else to work with Bill Maxwell. To Maxwell's horror, Ralph gives the suit to a woman, making way for the title change "Greatest American Heroine". For a number of reasons NBC passed on it and the footage was edited with other footage to make one final episode for the syndication package and eventual DVDs.
Up, Up and Away!: The first time Ralph tries to fly, a young bystander helpfully explains that he has to take three steps and jump, then adapt this pose. It sort of works.
Wedding Day: Ralph and Pam finally get married in "The Newlywed Game". Naturally, the wedding doesn't exactly go as planned...
Weirdness Censor: Most of the people who see Ralph in the suit think he's nuts (which became a Running Gag), promoting a show, or make up various other rationalizations for his odd form of dress. Some of the bad guys that Ralph fights think he's a gymnast or martial arts expert. Police who arrest said bad guys assume they're delusional or lying when the bad guys start talking about a flying, super-strong, man.
In the current comics, most people assume he's a lucha libre fan, or even an aspiring luchadore. Max's excuse to other cops is that Ralph is the test pilot of a top secret military weapon.
Written By Cast Member/Directed by Cast Member: Robert Culp in both capacities on "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", and "Vanity, Saith the Preacher" (the latter was one of four episodes not shown in the network run, although it and the others did get shown in syndication*
unlike the pilot for some reason
).
Written-In Absence: Connie Selleca is absent from the early episodes of season two, apart from a scene or two where she's on the phone with Ralph. The explanation is that her character is in another city "working on a big case".
Vanity Plate.Recently, the show has been adapted into a comic series set in the current day. The characters are basically the same, but some things have been changed; Bill has a smartphone, for example (which he doesn't know how to use) and the FBI knows to some degree about Ralph and his supersuit with Max's hasty story that he's a test pilot of a prototype military weapon.
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