DVD Review: The Greatest American Hero
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::Movie review
One thing I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be much of a learning curve to the superhero business. Characters routinely receive astonishing powers through some sort of radiation bombardment, special mutation, or some kind of gift from advanced races, and then they just start being heroes, with full mastery of their powers.
Conversely, anyone who has been around kids up to the range of about 8 or 9 knows that it takes them about that long to really get the hang of just walking around without tripping over everything. And then it's not long before they go through puberty and have to relearn it all over again. Even as adults, how often do we find ourselves walking down the street and suddenly tripping over imaginary cracks.
You'd think that learning to fly would be a bit of a chore.
This very issue was tackled by the 1981 television series, The Greatest American Hero. The premise of the show is that a wise alien race has decided that humanity needs saving. Their method of salvation is to pick a worthy human and grant him super powers through the use of a special suit. The human they choose is school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt).
The aliens also decide that Ralph can't save the world alone. He'll need a partner to help guide him to problems that need solving. Their choice is a nearly washed-out FBI agent named Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp).
With the team in place, all that's left is to save the world. There's only one problem: Shortly after receiving the suit, Ralph loses the instruction booklet it came with and now has no idea how it works. The costume gives him amazing powers, such as super speed and strength, and even the ability to fly, but all of these are powers that he can barely control. When Ralph flies, it's much in the same way that a 4-year old runs -- full out and with reckless abandon.
Ralph never so much lands as finds his flights abruptly halted by the ground. It's a good thing the suit makes him indestructible.
Hot on the heals of the serious Superman: The Movie, The Greatest American Hero seemed brilliantly fresh and funny and a perfect twist on the superhero genre. (As an aside, Warner was none too happy with The Greatest American Hero and tried to sue the television studio for infringing on the Superman franchise. They apparently forgot that Superman doesn't hold the rights to spandex-clad heroes.)
However, for as great as the show was, it wasn't without some flaws. For instance, the series always seemed to want to tell stories more epic than what an hour-long time slot would allow for. An example of this can be found in the pilot episode. Just prior to receiving the suit, Ralph is on a field trip with a group of his students. Out of the blue, he begins a discussion with one of the students about her feelings for him and how it's wrong because he's a teacher and she's a student. All fine and good, except that the editing of the episode suggests that he only just met these students. It's as if a lot more build-up had been written into the story and then trimmed out so we could get to the action faster.
These sorts of "flaws" are common in the series, but not big distractions. They simply require the audience to fill in quite a few blanks. Luckily, it generally works out and many of the abbreviated subplots are not too difficult to follow.
One of the things I remember from watching the Greatest American Hero as a kid was wishing for more superhero action in the show. Obviously, budget constraints severely limited what could be done (and many effects shots are reused throughout the series). Now, I appreciate the limitations, because it forced the writers to rely more on the characterizations of Ralph, Bill and Ralph's fiancée, Pam (Connie Sellecca). They all three really shine as diverse and interesting personalities.
In fact, it's the writing that is the true star of this series. Every show will be plagued with the occasional stinker episode, and Greatest American Hero is no different, but even then there are elements of charm. It's no real mystery why this quirky little show was a hit. I think that maybe the real head-scratcher here is, given Hollywood's current propensity for strip-mining old television shows, this one has not yet been picked up.
::Video
The biggest thing to keep in mind concerning the video in this set is that this series was made in the early 1980's -- and it looks it. On the positive side, as was normal back then, it was actually filmed rather than shot on tape, meaning that the overall picture contains much more detail than it would otherwise. If you take into consideration that film technology, especially for television, simply wasn't as sophisticated as it is today, then this set actually looks pretty good.
Colors are overall very sharp and crisp and while the contrast isn't the best I've seen, it isn't terrible, either. The picture does look a bit grainy, but that is almost certainly film grain rather than digital noise. I noticed very few instances of artifacting and only minimal edge enhancement.
::Audio
The audio here is very basic, but then that's exactly how it was for the original series. Nothing short of a complete studio remix would make it any better than it is, and it would probably be complete overkill. Television shows back the were all recorded and broadcast in mono, so there are no directional effects to speak of. While nothing to get excited about, the audio in this set is good for what it is.
::Special Features
There are not a lot of extra features in this set, but what is included is pretty good.
The bulk of the extras takes the form of over an hour's worth of brand new interviews with series creator Stephen J. Cannell, and actors William Katt, Robert Culp, Connie Sellecca, and Michael Pare. Unlike many of these types of features, there is some really good in-depth meat to be had here. It's quickly very obvious that everyone involved in show cared deeply for it.
Of note are William Katt's comments about his constant love-hate relationship with the suit. He describes how completely ridiculous he felt wearing it, which was exactly the point. A comment is even made that the costume designers went out of their way to make it as outlandish as possible.
I also enjoyed Robert Culp's musings on his character, Bill Maxwell. He reveals elements of character back-story that were never really revealed in the show, but now give the character even more depth and even add understanding to some of his quirks.
Finally, there is a moment in the Michael Pare and Connie Sellecca interview where the two are remembering all of the great times they had and the great writing of the show. There is a moment of near melancholy over the subject of the show's end and Pare wonders aloud why it didn't last a lot longer.
The only other real extra here is the very last Greatest American Hero episode ever made. It was a pilot episode for a spin-off series called The Greatest American Heroine. The premise of creating a female superhero for prime time television was a great one. Unfortunately, the execution here just didn't work. Ralph, Pam and Bill had chemistry that was golden and it was undeniably apparent from the first moments of this pilot that it would never be able to duplicate that magic.
::Bottom Line
It's funny the things one remembers about childhood. As I was watching these episodes for the first time since I was a kid, I began to get a craving for Jack-In-The-Box. You see, that was the ritual for Greatest American Hero night -- drive-thru Jack-In-The-Box and then race home for the show. Watching this DVD set kind of made me feel like a kid again, except that this time around I was able to fully appreciate the sophistication of the humor. I could take or leave most TV series released to DVD, but The Greatest American Hero is one I'm really glad to have.
Buy The Greatest American Hero at DVDEmpire.com
| Movie |  |
4.5 / 5 |
| Video | |
3 / 5 |
| Audio | |
2 / 5 |
| Extras | |
3 / 5 |
| Family Friendly | |
3 / 5 |
| For a show that was definitely marketed to kids as much as to adults, I was actually rather shocked by the amount of violence in The Greatest American Hero. This is by no means a gory show, or something that is too intense for the youngsters, but rather a product of an age that wasn't as shy about inserting some gritty realism into a family show. | ||
| Overall | |
4 / 5 |
- Robert Wurth, ©2005
::Technical Specs
Studio:
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release:
N/A
Disc Format:
3 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format:
Full Frame
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Region Encoding:
1 (North America)
Sound Format:
Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time:
417 minutes
Director:
Various
Stars:
William Katt, Connie Sellecca, Robert Culp, Michael Pare, Faye Grant
MPAA Rating:
N/A
Disc Supplements:
- New interviews with series creator Stephan J. Cannell and stars
- Pilot episode for The Greatest American Heroine
