It solely ran for 2 and a half seasons from 1981 to 1983, however The Biggest American Hero—starring William Katt as an unassuming trainer who receives a super-powered go well with from aliens, then promptly loses the directions—has left an indelible mark on popular culture. You in all probability have already got the theme tune caught in your head (“Consider it or not, I’m strolling on air…”) after simply studying the headline on this publish.
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Why has The Biggest American Hero, which co-starred Robert Culp as reluctant hero Ralph’s FBI liason, Invoice, and Connie Sellecca as Ralph’s girlfriend and lawyer, Pam—turn out to be such an everlasting favourite? The Biggest American Hero Companion, a just-released e book by Patrick Jankiewicz, digs into the ABC sci-fi comedy with nice enthusiasm, profiling the artistic crew concerned, exploring particular person episodes in addition to the present’s broader influence, and surfacing random trivia which will shock even longstanding followers of the sequence. It includes a foreword by sequence star Katt; io9 will get a shout-out due to our 2018 roundup of the present’s “most ridiculous” episodes— which we wrote once we discovered the reboot starring Hannah Simone wasn’t getting picked up—so it’s no secret we’re followers of Ralph’s misadventures. We hopped on video chat with Jankiewicz to be taught extra.
“[Creator Stephen J.] Cannell had some enormous hits [like The Rockford Files, The A-Team, and 21 Jump Street], however that is [now] the most well-liked of all his exhibits,” the writer mentioned. “Even he couldn’t determine it out—that is the best-selling on DVD and Blu-ray. It’s important to hit 5 seasons to enter syndication, and this present didn’t even come shut. It’s his solely full-on style present, the one sci-fi superhero sort present he ever did, and he wasn’t used to all of the clichés. The community requested him to do a superhero present, and as soon as he did it, he made it [in his own style], like his different exhibits. It’s a present about private duty, which I believe may be very humorous.”
Jankiewicz, who has additionally revealed “companion” books on The Unimaginable Hulk and Buck Rogers within the twenty fifth Century, discovered his subsequent topic by chance, although it’s clearly in his wheelhouse. “It was when covid hit. It was a Saturday morning, I used to be ingesting espresso with my brother, flipping via the channels, and we got here throughout an episode of the sequence,” Jankiewicz recalled. “It was from the primary season, an incredible episode referred to as ‘The Greatest Desk State of affairs,’ which was based mostly on an actual assassin of an actual reporter, and it was actually well-written. Cannell’s exhibits are very, very massive on character. [With The Greatest American Hero], they had been making an attempt to do The Rockford Information with a superhero. It’s a Marvel Comics model of Rockford Information. The hero is good-hearted, however no one actually is aware of it; all people misjudges him. Rockford is a personality—you want him, you want his life, you discover him fascinating. And it simply so occurs he’s a detective. It’s the identical factor right here: Ralph simply occurs to be a superhero. However you just like the character, you want his pals, and also you just like the scenario. I had forgotten what an enthralling, humorous present it was!”
The Biggest American Hero – Season 1, Episode 1 – Full Episode
It’s exhausting to select a favourite episode amongst The Biggest American Hero’s 45 complete, however Jankiewicz thinks one particularly stands out. “I really like the pilot. I believe the pilot is admittedly, actually good; you spend about half-hour attending to know Ralph as a personality earlier than the aliens and all the pieces else occurs. The present may be very personality-driven, and because you just like the characters, you care about what occurs to them,” Jankiewicz mentioned. Nonetheless, he additionally admitted to liking the goofier, extra supernatural path the sequence took in its later episodes. “I really like when the present embraces the style; one week he’s preventing a biker gang, one other week is ninjas, a ghost, aliens. I believe that’s the perfect half, the place you don’t know who you’re going to run into week in, week out.”
As Jankiewicz factors out, Ralph was an distinctive character on TV—and throughout the panorama of superhero-centric leisure—again in 1981. “One of many fascinating concepts within the present is he’s relentlessly dumped on. Even with the go well with on, folks don’t admire him. Folks look down on him. The entire present is type of fanfare for the frequent man. He’s received this go well with and it doesn’t enhance his life one bit. It makes it worse! It’s very charming, however there’s a cynical edge to the present,” the writer mentioned. “It broke the foundations within the superhero style earlier than there have been even guidelines set. It’s important to keep in mind when the present got here on, there have been no reside motion superheroes occurring. The Unimaginable Hulk was on its method out. Buck Rogers was about to be canceled. Superheroes had gone to the flicks. The 12 months the present debuted was once we received the primary Indiana Jones, and [in 1982 we got] the second Christopher Reeve Superman. So there have been no actual superhero guidelines. In the event you have a look at the Greg Berlanti exhibits—Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash—it’s all concerning the crew surrounding the hero. That [was never part of the] style till it was established by Stephen J. Cannell. Pam and Invoice are his crew. They know all the pieces Ralph is aware of. That was an enormous distinction from each superhero that got here earlier than.”
As followers will recall, a reboot—which might’ve changed the Ralph character with a tequila-loving Indian American lady named Meera—very almost made it to the airwaves just a few years in the past, however wasn’t picked up by ABC. “I shall be trustworthy. I attempted and tried to get a glance, they usually wouldn’t even cough up a script for it. William Katt hasn’t even seen it,” Jankiewicz mentioned. However he hasn’t given up hope that The Biggest American Hero will fly once more sometime. “I’ve a sense that Cannell’s daughter Tawnia [McKiernan, a veteran TV producer and director] goes to make it right into a film. It’ll be enormous, particularly with the Marvel components, the place persons are prepared for snarky, humorous… the entire present is about there are not any idealists anymore. Ralph is the one idealist on the present. Invoice and Pam are cynical and I imply, they’ll assist him, however they assume it’s tilting at windmills. The entire present is an idealist surrounded by pessimists they usually’re attempting to avoid wasting the world. I believe there’s room for that. When [Phil] Lord and [Chris] Miller couldn’t get it going, two of probably the most artistic—you noticed what they did with Soar Road. The studio ought to have gotten down on their knees and begged them to do that. They need to have simply given these guys carte blanche, however they didn’t. By the point they needed to get the property again to them, they’d simply gained the Oscar for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse … The horrible factor is, they received Cannell. In the event you have a look at [the Jump Street movies], they have a good time all of the cheesiness of a Cannell present, then they embrace it and play it up and it’s simply, this ought to be the best [decision].”
Picture: BearManor Media
You can’t finish any dialogue of The Biggest American Hero with out speaking about possibly its biggest and most relentless superpower: its theme tune, which as soon as heard will linger in your mind for an unsettling period of time. “My sister referred to as me after I was writing the e book—she was enhancing it for me—and she or he goes, ‘Dammit, I can’t get that tune out of my head.’ After which she mentioned she and her household had been watching Free Man with Ryan Reynolds [which used the Greatest American Hero song], and she or he couldn’t cease buzzing the theme tune for the remainder of the week,” Jankiewicz laughed. “However to me, that theme tune has stored the present alive. That tune won’t ever, ever go away. It’s been used as a cultural touchstone by different style exhibits, not simply Seinfeld. The theme tune was within the high 10 longer than the Mates theme, which ran for 10 years. I imply, it blows my thoughts—it was battling ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ for the primary tune of the 12 months!”
The Biggest American Hero is broadly obtainable on streaming (together with Peacock, Prime Video’s Freevee, and YouTube); you’ll be able to decide up a replica of The Biggest American Hero Companion right here.
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