The Greatest American Hero

The Greatest American Hero ('The Great American Hero') is an American television series created by Stephen J. Cannell. In Spain he became known as The Great American Hero, in Colombia as The American Superhero and in Mexico as a Super Hero by accident.

It was broadcast from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. It consists of 44 chapters spread over three seasons and a pilot episode of another new series in 1986. The first made up of 8; the second by 22; and the third had 13 episodes.

Protagonists

William Katt stars in the series in the role of Professor Ralph Hinkley. Robert Culp plays federal agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca de Pam Davidson, who in the final episodes becomes Mrs. Hinkley. Michael Paré, Faye Grant, Jesse D. Goins, and Don Cervantes also play the role of students. Brandon Williams plays Kevin Hinkley, Ralph's son from a previous marriage.

Argument

The series is a dramatic comedy. Ralph Hinkley is a teacher of "students with behavior problems". One day he decides to go on a bus tour to the desert with them. Along the way, he stumbles upon an FBI agent in a bar, with whom he has to mediate in a discussion between himself and a student of his. Then, at nightfall, already in the middle of the desert, the bus breaks down and he has to leave the students alone and go get help. Then he bumps into Bill Maxwell's car, and they are both surprised by a spaceship that offers them, through a black man (Maxwell's partner who was killed and picked up by aliens), a suit with special powers, which You must use Ralph Hinkley to solve the world's problems, to prevent him from falling into the wrong hands only works with him.

Ralph decides that the suit should be turned over to the authorities, but the FBI agent convinces him to wear it against crime, and specifically in the cases assigned to him.

The story gets complicated when he loses the instruction manual in the desert when he returns and he has to learn how to handle the suit through success and error, which causes more than a laugh in the spectator and more than a smack and a mess to the protagonist.

The basic powers that the suit shows during the series (which Ralph manages to discover) are the following: fly, resistance to shots and blows, super strength, invisibility, precognition, telekinesis, vision of things happening in remote places, super speed and psychometry . In one episode the suit is altered by high exposure to plutonium, developing the power to dominate minds. And in another chapter it becomes magnetic due to an alteration due to high electrical exposure.

Pam Davidson is the girlfriend who accompanies him in almost all his adventures. From the middle of the third season he becomes his wife. In many episodes they are accompanied by his students, who are unaware of the costume's existence, but help him solve some of his problems.

The central theme of the series' soundtrack is called Believe It or Not, it was composed by Mike Post (music) and Stephen Geyer (lyrics) and sung by Joey Scarbury. It was a success in his day, and he was number one in the US for a time. This catchy tune has been used multiple times in current series and movies.

The series was interrupted due to constant demands from the editors of Superman, DC Comics, who alleged plagiarism regarding his character. The producers, faced with this problem, decided to cut the broadcast despite the success that the series was obtaining. Another great dilemma was that the last name used by the protagonist in the series "Hinkley", was the same as the person who attempted against the President of the United States at the time Ronald Reagan, was called John Hinckley, therefore in the first season they were forced to change it to "Hanley".

The Sequel: The Failed Pilot

In 1986 Stephen J. Cannell proposed to resume the series, they agreed, but William Katt refused to re-play the character. This time, a girl was thought of as a heroine. In the pilot episode of this new season (the only one that was ever made) you could count on the leading team of the previous ones, to say goodbye to the character of Ralph and his wife, Pam Davidson. The plot of this episode was, that the US government and society in general discover Ralph's costume and abilities, making him a famous person who begins to attend a nightly television program assiduously. This causes concern in aliens, who ask him to stop wearing the suit and pass it on to someone else, so that society will forget about him. They propose to keep Bill Maxwell to be that person's partner. Ralph decides to hand him over to a girl whom he sees with appropriate values ​​and principles to wear, which leads to Bill's anger, although he ends up accepting. This episode was considered a failure by the producers and was never broadcast. It appeared for sale in the US, when the series was released on DVD, as extra content.

The great American hero was back in the news in the fall of 2008 due to the appearance of a series of comics consisting of six issues edited by Arcana Studios together with Catastrophic Comics, a company belonging to actor William Katt. These comics are scripted by Katt himself alongside Christopher Folino and Sean O'Reilly, and drawn by Clint Hilinski.

In addition, a series of animated shorts was being prepared. In 2008, the intention to shoot a film about the character was reported with the participation of the actors and characters from the classic series. In principle, this feature film was to begin filming in July of that year, with its director Stephen Herek ("The man of the house", "Rock star", "Seven days and a life", "101 Dalmatians, more alive than never ”) and its producer Stephen J. Cannell, the creator of the television series. However, Olsen says that the film's budget was very high and finally the financing required to get it ahead could not be found (at the time it was said that Disney was going to participate in this project, but it is assumed that its leaders chose to abandon it)