I remember when I was a kid back in the late 70's being really excited about the news that I had just heard; The Incredible Hulk one of my favorite comicbooks from Marvel Comics was coming to network television! It would be a weekly series starting off with a two hour series premier that Friday night! Man I was so excited being a huge comicbook fan and especially a fan of the Hulk series I just couldn't wait!
Back then me and my friends read a lot of comicbooks(well I read them, they just looked at the pictures) and so this was a treat indeed. Earlier in the mid-70's they tried to run Spider Man as a weekly series but didn't quite get it. It ran for maybe one season then it was gone. We pretty much thought it would be the same way for the Hulk but we were glad they were even trying to bring one of our favorite characters to life. Eitherway the night it debuted everyone I knew was at home in front of the t.v. watching it! When we got to school the next day we raved about what we saw and how David Banner turned into the Hulk! It was exciting to us and we talked about it for weeks!
Now the original series starred Bill Bixby as David Banner who I always knew as a comedic type actor from his My Friendly Martian days which was still in syndication during that time. I also saw him in a couple of Elvis movies and he always seemed to be portraying someone you couldn't really take seriously. So this role was a change for him and Lou Ferrigno the World Body Building Champ I believe this was his first television series since around that time he was still competing in his sport. Jack Colvin as Mister McGee the reporter was a new character for he wasn't a character in the comic book series created by Stan Lee of Marvel Comics, and at first I didn't like it. I wanted to see Betty Ross, Rick Jones, and Doc Sampson for at that time I was a stickler for those details. But true to form those people who produced tv shows didn't read comicbooks and thought they could just do whatever they wanted to with a character. Well I guess for the most part they were right for the show ran from 1977-1983 which was a pretty good run even though by that time I had stopped watching it.
Fastforward to now where the Retro Television Network (RTN) has been running re-runs of the series and I find that I appreciate that show more now than when I did as a kid. When I was a kid the only thing I wanted to see is David Banner turn into the Hulk and tear something up or hurt somebody. I didn't pay attention to the real quality work that went into making the show a hit. I mean good story lines, good scripts, excellent acting and scripting, and no over the top campiness like what destroyed the Batman series as well as Spider Man and Captain America (the movie and the series for it). They followed more along the line of what made Wonder Woman a semi-hit (I believe it ran for four seasons) and the time-worn experience of Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin who were long time veterans of stage and screen lended nicely to making an incredible story seem more real. No I didn't pay attention to that then and probably wouldn't now if there weren't so many really BAD television shows on today! It seems like everyone has gone the Jerry Springer route in cheap production values, sleazy show topics, and low overhead with inexperienced or just cheap staff-members to maximize profit and contribute more to the downward spiral of American intellectual progress. I mean there are to many 'reality shows'(which are scripted) populating the television landscape and to many rollover series (like how many Law & Order series are there and CSI too? I've lost count!) and others are just plumb stupid! Like what the hell is 'Lost' supposed to be about? 'Smallville' started off as a good idea, now it's grown so over the top and stupid I just fly by that channel every time it's on. At least let me specify that that's what's going on with network television. The only ones even attempting to create good quality shows are the cable networks and I can name you only a few; Disney, Nickelodean, the Sci-Fi channel, ABCFamily (how come they're not doing this for their 'free' stations), Spike, and TNT. I must admit though most of the time I'm watching the Food Network or RTN because I'm so disgusted with the lack of quality I see in todays shows I simply don't watch them.
Eitherway, it's been a long time since I had watched the Hulk for I blew it off a long time ago as simply a kid's show and I wanted to move on to more adult fare at the time. Now though I'm seeing how wrong I was for even though it's a show about a comicbook character, the scripts were very adult and as real as they could have been considering the theme of the show. It was a well produced show and a well directed owing to the talents of the late Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin who can look down with pride on the work they did. Lou Ferrigno is the only original cast member still living and should be equally proud for he pulled off playing the Hulk with such ease that you half-way expect that there's a Hulk running around the streets somewhere trying to get there in time to save the day. As time goes by I expect even more people will re-discover the Incredible Hulk and be impressed by a show that was executed well. I do believe the series will stand the test of time and be included one day on that short list of classic and beloved television series that will never go away. One thing I still want to know though; in the book he was known as Bruce Banner, why did they change the name to David?
Back then me and my friends read a lot of comicbooks(well I read them, they just looked at the pictures) and so this was a treat indeed. Earlier in the mid-70's they tried to run Spider Man as a weekly series but didn't quite get it. It ran for maybe one season then it was gone. We pretty much thought it would be the same way for the Hulk but we were glad they were even trying to bring one of our favorite characters to life. Eitherway the night it debuted everyone I knew was at home in front of the t.v. watching it! When we got to school the next day we raved about what we saw and how David Banner turned into the Hulk! It was exciting to us and we talked about it for weeks!
Now the original series starred Bill Bixby as David Banner who I always knew as a comedic type actor from his My Friendly Martian days which was still in syndication during that time. I also saw him in a couple of Elvis movies and he always seemed to be portraying someone you couldn't really take seriously. So this role was a change for him and Lou Ferrigno the World Body Building Champ I believe this was his first television series since around that time he was still competing in his sport. Jack Colvin as Mister McGee the reporter was a new character for he wasn't a character in the comic book series created by Stan Lee of Marvel Comics, and at first I didn't like it. I wanted to see Betty Ross, Rick Jones, and Doc Sampson for at that time I was a stickler for those details. But true to form those people who produced tv shows didn't read comicbooks and thought they could just do whatever they wanted to with a character. Well I guess for the most part they were right for the show ran from 1977-1983 which was a pretty good run even though by that time I had stopped watching it.
Fastforward to now where the Retro Television Network (RTN) has been running re-runs of the series and I find that I appreciate that show more now than when I did as a kid. When I was a kid the only thing I wanted to see is David Banner turn into the Hulk and tear something up or hurt somebody. I didn't pay attention to the real quality work that went into making the show a hit. I mean good story lines, good scripts, excellent acting and scripting, and no over the top campiness like what destroyed the Batman series as well as Spider Man and Captain America (the movie and the series for it). They followed more along the line of what made Wonder Woman a semi-hit (I believe it ran for four seasons) and the time-worn experience of Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin who were long time veterans of stage and screen lended nicely to making an incredible story seem more real. No I didn't pay attention to that then and probably wouldn't now if there weren't so many really BAD television shows on today! It seems like everyone has gone the Jerry Springer route in cheap production values, sleazy show topics, and low overhead with inexperienced or just cheap staff-members to maximize profit and contribute more to the downward spiral of American intellectual progress. I mean there are to many 'reality shows'(which are scripted) populating the television landscape and to many rollover series (like how many Law & Order series are there and CSI too? I've lost count!) and others are just plumb stupid! Like what the hell is 'Lost' supposed to be about? 'Smallville' started off as a good idea, now it's grown so over the top and stupid I just fly by that channel every time it's on. At least let me specify that that's what's going on with network television. The only ones even attempting to create good quality shows are the cable networks and I can name you only a few; Disney, Nickelodean, the Sci-Fi channel, ABCFamily (how come they're not doing this for their 'free' stations), Spike, and TNT. I must admit though most of the time I'm watching the Food Network or RTN because I'm so disgusted with the lack of quality I see in todays shows I simply don't watch them.
Eitherway, it's been a long time since I had watched the Hulk for I blew it off a long time ago as simply a kid's show and I wanted to move on to more adult fare at the time. Now though I'm seeing how wrong I was for even though it's a show about a comicbook character, the scripts were very adult and as real as they could have been considering the theme of the show. It was a well produced show and a well directed owing to the talents of the late Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin who can look down with pride on the work they did. Lou Ferrigno is the only original cast member still living and should be equally proud for he pulled off playing the Hulk with such ease that you half-way expect that there's a Hulk running around the streets somewhere trying to get there in time to save the day. As time goes by I expect even more people will re-discover the Incredible Hulk and be impressed by a show that was executed well. I do believe the series will stand the test of time and be included one day on that short list of classic and beloved television series that will never go away. One thing I still want to know though; in the book he was known as Bruce Banner, why did they change the name to David?
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