The Greatest American Hero Review

MPAA Rating: NR
Released: 1981

The Greatest American Hero was an early 80's gem that starred William Katt as an unassuming special-ed teacher that was granted a red suit by peaceful aliens. The good? This suit imbues the wearer with superhero abilities such as flight and invisibility. The bad? The teacher quite literally lost the instruction manual, so he must learn about and master his new abilities in the midst of fighting crime.

Unfortunately The Greatest American Hero never really received the respect it deserved, largely due to ABC's poor promotion of this action/comedy series. Find out how ABC dropped the ball in our Feature Attraction.

If you're going to run around with the monkeys you gotta
remember to bring the cages. It saves trouble up front. – William Maxwell

Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) is a soft-spoken teacher that has volunteered to take over a special education class in a tough L.A. high school, but when he butts heads with the thuggish students he discovers he just might be in over his head. Despite their unruly ways, Hinkley decides to take the students on a field trip.

During the field trip the school bus breaks down, so Hinkley sets out to find some aid. He is almost killed when FBI agent William Maxwell (Robert Culp) careens towards him in a car on a dark, desert road. Their heated introduction is cut short by the appearance of an alien spaceship, at which time one of the aliens hands Hinkley a red superhero uniform and an instruction manual.

On his way back to his students and ultimately his home, Hinkley loses the instruction manual. This poses a problem, because Maxwell imbeds himself rather forcefully into Hinkley's life; he wants the teacher to use the suit's abilities to solve a murder and conspiracy developed by a dangerous gang. Along with Hinkley's girlfriend, Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca), the teacher and FBI agent dish out justice to various law-breakers.

The pilot episode for The Greatest American Hero was a fantastic foundation for this action series – it introduced us to the characters and Hinkley's plight with just the right combination of action and humor. Which leads us to the series greatest enemy: misperception.

ABC promoted the series as pure slapstick, taking scenes such as Hinkley flying into walls out of context and creating the illusion that this was almost a kids' series. It wasn't. Although there was definitely some silliness in each episode of The Greatest American Hero, for the most part the actors played it straight. The series was designed for adults to enjoy – it was most certainly not a campy kids' show (though children would easily enjoy it too) filled with inane silliness and scenarios.

The three main stars were perfectly cast. William Katt has an affable charm that makes him wonderful as the unlikely hero, while Connie Sellecca provides the human, logical element into the mix. But perhaps the most fun of all was Robert Culp's character – Culp breathed some serious life into his neurotic, power-hungry FBI agent portrayal. It also didn't hurt that Maxwell was given some great one-liners, such as: "If you're looking for trouble, you've just come across the west coast distributor."

The Greatest American Hero suffered from poor promotions, a lawsuit (DC Comics lost a lawsuit alleging that the series was too identical to Superman – it wasn't even close), and even an attempted presidential assassination (John Hinckley's last name was virtually identical to the series protagonist's!). All these hurdles doomed the series to a somewhat short-lived three series and 44 episodes, yet despite the fact The Greatest American Hero never received the recognition it deserved in the 80's it has since developed a sizeable group of fans (as evidenced by the DVD releases).

If you're looking for a fun action series to kick back and relax to, give The Greatest American Hero a shot. Chances are you won't regret it.

Movie rating: 8 stars

If you enjoyed The Greatest American Hero you may also find the following films to be of interest:

Enjoy the Greatest American Hero experience in the comfort of your own home with these products!

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Other Resources:

Greatest American Hero IMDb Page

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