Aaaarghhh...who I am kidding? I’m
dancing around the room in my Greatest American Hero pyjamas
as we speak. My wife, next to be, has been forced into playing
Bill Maxwell. This show is great fun. It’s still –
but
hell, William Katt’s hair is scary! – As big as a
hoot now,
as it was back in the day. And yes, I remember the day too. I dashed
home to watch the pilot on TV. Wow. Granted,
the show –
which we all know starred Katt as a high school teacher who stumbles
upon a magic superhero suit and is forced to become a hero, a hero
without an instructional manual for the suit, mind you – has
dated a bit. The special effects are terribly, ah, terrible.
We’re talking the worst blue screen work since Superman
III. But, yes, back in the day – it was the shit.
The shit. They were top-grade special effects. Aside from Superman,
such effects hadn’t been done before on film.
Considering, American Hero
was a TV series - that was an even bigger feat. In addition, and
it’s the same with all the shows from the time period, the
dialogue is perceptibly a lot slower – just a sign of our
times,
I guess? – And wonkier than we’re used to. So
why is
it still so darn fun? The synopsis, the characters, the theme
song…all of those, combined. No wonder they’re -
thankfully, series creator Steven J.Cannell is involved - now making a
movie out of this thing. It’s a killer idea. A
spoof on Superman
that always put costume and clowning-around before crusade and caper,
it was light and fluffy fun that entertained thoroughly – and
without a lot of effort. Even better though… the cast. Aside
from Katt as our lead, and Connie Selleca as his girlfriend, we had the
wonderful Robert Culp (I Spy) as the amusing
grumble-bum Bill
Maxwell, the stern FBI agent that’s suckered into this
Greatest
American Adventure, and even a young Michael Pare (Eddie and
the Cruisers) as a Vinnie Barbarino-esque student of
Katt’s. Oh, and the theme song? Believe It Or Not
by Joey Scarbury, what a ripper. Easily one of the best TV show themes
ever. I’m betting its chart success did wonders for the show
– drawing folks to it that wouldn’t have
necessarily
watched it. The DVD, which includes all the episodes
from the
first season of the show, has a ‘reasonably’ good
audio and
video transfer, but not surprisingly, the quality does lie somewhere
between grimy and grainy, for the most part.
On the
whole, this is a good set – fans should fly, not walk, to get
it. EXTRASExtras-wise, there are
some goodies. Best of all, the unaired pilot
for the spin-off The Greatest American Heroine.
Filmed several years
after the original series, it reunited the original cast (well, Katt
and Selleca were only going to appear in the pilot – with his
character
passing on the baton, or in this case suit, to a younger female) but
didn’t, excuse the pun, take off. I’m not surprised
– it just doesn’t
seem to possess the magic of its predecessor, and they really needed to
recast the lead female role. The ‘Heroine’ was darn
irksome. In
addition, there’s a whole heap of interviews with each of the
cast and
crew members of the series. Really good stuff here. Everyone is very
frank and honest about his or her time on the show, and Pare has some
especially amusing anecdotes to tell in his interview. Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 70% 
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