The Greatest American Hero

By Rick Brady

The Greatest American hero television series was all about a normal human being who becomes super human with super human abilities once he comes into contact with some aliens. This particular series was aired between 1981 and 1983 and was very popular with fans during its entire time on the ABC Network. The Greatest American Hero TV show starred William Katt in the lead role as Ralph Hinkley later known as Hanley, and co-starred Robert Culp as Bill Maxwell the FBI agent, and Connie Sellecca as Pam Davidson the lawyer.



The entire series unravels when a school teacher Mr. Hinkley goes on a study trip and on the way back the bus breaks down. The teacher goes on foot to look for help and half way through is confronted by a car that was totally out of control. Just as the FBI agent driving the car slammed on his brakes, he narrowly missed hitting the teacher. While they were discussing what had happened, they were confronted by two bright purple lights – the origin of which is later found to be from an alien space craft.



While these dynamic duo were locked in the car, they were informed by these alien visitors from outer space that they were to work together if they were to save the world and that Mr. Hinkley would be bestowed upon with supernatural powers that would help them on their quest. The super powers that they were promised came within a black colored suit case. Within the box was a suit that gave Mr. Hinkley the super powers that he was promised. The cool part about the Greatest American hero TV series is that Mr. Hinkley loses the instruction manual to the suit somewhere in the desert and has to learn about the abilities of the suit through trial and error!



The even funnier part is when he actually puts the suit on. It is nothing like superman just stripping off his coat and shirt but Mr. Hinkley makes it look like a really cumbersome work that takes so long that it nearly allows his adversaries to escape! Funnier yet is the time when the lead character actually uses the suit to fly and looks nothing like Superman. Instead, he looks like a baby duck in a red suit trying to fly for the very first time!



The first season of Greatest American hero ended well, but the beginning of the second season revealed the surprising fact that Ralph Hinkley and Bill Maxwell weren’t the first Earthlings who were visited by the aliens and given the gift of a super powered suit. It so happened that the aliens had first approached another similarly unlikely duo to take up the protection of the Earth on their shoulders but when they used their suit for their own selfish purposes, the aliens took back the suit and revoked the super human powers that they had abused.



In one of the later episodes, the aliens stated that their world was once as beautiful as earth. Ever since their planet was destroyed, they had been on a quest to protect other similarly beautiful worlds from destruction.



About the Author: Discover more facts and trivia by visiting Rick's Greatest American Hero Page or talk about the show with others at Rick's Greatest American Hero Forum.



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