History YMMV / TheGreatestAmericanHero

** The second half of the pilot involved Ralph Hinkley attempting to thwart the assassination of the President. The pilot aired on March 18, 1981; almost exactly two weeks before John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Creator/RonaldReagan that forced (among other things) the temporary name change to "Hanley".

* HarsherInHindsight: The near crash of the space shuttle Columbia, until Ralph catches it and brings it down intact.
** Also, the 2nd half of the pilot involved Ralph Hinkley attempting to thwart the assassination of the President. The pilot aired on March 18, 1981; almost exactly two weeks before [[GunmanWithThreeNames John Warnick Hinckley]]'s assassination attempt on [[Creator/{{RonaldReagan}} President Reagan]] that forced (among other things) the temporary name change to "Hanley".
* LifeImitatesArt: In "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" Ralph repeatedly states "I grew up on this guy!" regarding Franchise/TheLoneRanger. Now a lot of people who grew up in the early 80s say the same thing about Ralph and GAH.
* NightmareFuel: The show was generally pretty light and fluffy, but occasionally..

* SpecialEffectFailure: Averted in the minds of some viewers who feel the television budget obvious green screen and reuse of scenes have the side effect of nicely parodying the Superman Movie's 'You will believe a man can fly" effects.

*** With the set up before the appearence (Maxwell poopooing the idea of the monster and Pam convincing Ralph to give up the search as they both go below decks), it would have been much more effective to pull back to the monster's P.O.V., hear the sound of water parting, and watch Maxwell's reaction.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Ralph losing the second instruction booklet. There could have been a ton of scenarios involving Ralph learning the full capabilities of the suit, while still maintaining the mishaps that made the show more than a conventional action adventure show (when Ralph begins to read the second book, he displays the ability to shrink and becomes smaller than an ant, but can't figure out how to return to normal size), but he loses it by the end of the episode.
** Debatable; letting Ralph kept the instruction manual meant that he'd no longer have a reason to be incompetent at super-heroics, and thus risk turning him into a BoringInvincibleHero.
*** On the other hand, it could have opened up new scenarios where HilarityEnsues because what Ralph tries to do [[GoneHorriblyRight goes horribly right]].
* WeirdAlEffect: Parodies of the theme song, basic plot, and the goofy looking Hinkley are well known among people who were born years after the show ended and have no idea what is even being parodied.
** Most notably, there's George's infamous FunnyAnsweringMachine from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''.

** The theme song is also used as the intro theme in most episodes of WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob.
** One year ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' was Ralph for Halloween
--> '''Homestar''': Baweeve it or not I'm walkin' awound, never thought I could Twick or Twe...ee...eat!
** It was also used in [[{{Ukinojoe}} Dog of Wisdom]], being sung by the two dogs in the video.
** In ''Film/{{Kickassia}}'', it forms the tune on Sean's answering machine ("''Believe it or not, Sean isn't at home...''"), which may have been a parody of both the original theme and the ''Seinfeld'' spoof.

** It was also used in [[{{Ukinojoe}} Dog of Wisdom]], being sung by the two dogs in the video.* YouLookFamiliar: The actor who played Pam's Hardware store owner Dad in "Here's Looking at you Kid" shows up as a sports announcer in "It's All Downhill From Here" and "The Price Is Right".

** Most notably, there's George's infamous FunnyAnsweringMachine from ''{{Seinfeld}}''.
*** And its use at Jackson's inauguration in ''GilmoreGirls''.

** It was also used in [[{{Ukinojoe}} Dog of Wisdom]], being sung by the two dogs in the video.

** One year ''HomestarRunner'' was Ralph for Halloween

* LifeImitatesArt: In "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" Ralph repeatedly states "I grew up on this guy!" regarding the Lone Ranger. Now a lot of people who grew up in the early 80s say the same thing about Ralph and GAH.

* LifeImitatesArt: In "My Heroes Have Always Been Coyboys" Ralph repeatedly states "I grew up on this guy!" regarding the Lone Ranger. Now a lot of people who grew up in the early 80s say the same thing about Ralph and GAH.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The sea monster at the end of "The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea" is a laughably bad hand puppet that thankfully only appears for a few seconds.
** With the set up before the appearence (Maxwell poopooing the idea of the monster and Pam convincing Ralph to give up the search as they both go below decks), it would have been much more effective to pull back to the monster's P.O.V., hear the sound of water parting, and watch Maxwell's reaction.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: In one episode, Ralph faced off against a genetic mutant played by Andre the Giant.

** It's also used as the intro theme in most episodes of WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob.

** Most notably, there's George's infamous FunnyAnsweringMachine from ''{{Seinfeld}}''.

* ShortLivedBigImpact

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Ralph losing the second instruction booklet. There could have been a ton of scenarios involving Ralph learning the full capabilities of the suit, while still maintaining the mishaps that made the show more than a conventional action adventure show (When Ralph begins to read the second book, He displays the ability to shrink and becomes smaller than an ant, but can't figure out how to return to normal size), but he loses it by the end of the episode.

** ...You're welcome.

** Debatable; letting Ralph kept the instruction manual meant that he'd no longer have a reason to be incompetent at super-heroics, and thus risk turning him into a BoringInvincibleHero.

* EarWorm: ''"Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free. Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not it's just me."'' ...You're welcome.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Ralph losing the second instruction booklet. There could have been a ton of scenarios involving Ralph learning the full capabilities of the suit, while still maintaining the mishaps that made the show more than a conventional action adventure show (When Ralph begins to read the second book, He displays the ability to shrink and becomes smaller then an ant, but can't figure out how to return to normal size), but he loses it by the end of the episode.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Ralph losing the second instruction booklet. There could have been a ton of scenarios involving Ralph learning the full capabilities of the suit, while still maintaining the mishaps that made the show more than a conventional action adventure show (When Ralph begins to read the second book, He displays the ability to shrink and becomes smaller then an ant, but can't figure out how to return to normal size), but he loses it by the end of the episode.