The Greatest American Hero

I make a point of checking my Hulu queue at least once a month for things that are expiring soon.  I didn't notice anything urgent in March and so was quite surprised two weeks ago to realize The Greatest American Hero was set to expire on the last day of this month.  So I've spent my free time over the past two weeks making it through the series.

The show is about a Ralph, a teacher of troubled students who is given a supersuit by an alien. The alien tells him he needs to work with FBI agent Bill Maxwell to do good.  They then lose the instruction book and spend the entire series trying to figure out what powers Ralph has.  This is a general reconstruction since the pilot episode is not available for streaming on Hulu or Amazon which sucks since unless I buy the DVDs I may never know why Bill eats dog biscuits.

It's a Stephen J. Cannell so you know what kind of show you're going to get.  Dude did make some good action shows that also had heart.  The secret of this show is not that Ralph is a superhero, it is that he is a great guy who happens to have super powers.  He's out of the suit more than he's in it.  The first season's pretty realistic with more outlandish plots coming into play later.  Apparently the network insisted the show be a bit more action oriented which meant Cold War plots since it was the early 1980's.  The show is good enough to rise above the silly plots.  It holds up quite well apart from the really bad special effects (although that is part of it's charm).  There's also the fun of Ralph having a kid in the first season who quickly disappears with no explanation.

This is a case where whoever cast the show really deserves an award.  William Katt is Ralph and manages to be sincere and earnest without becoming preachy.  He was really cute, too (I like the skinny, muscular type with good hair).  He and his love interest, a surprisingly good Connie Sellecca, have a lot of chemistry.  her character is a lawyer who holds her own in insisting she be part of the crime fighting team.  The real star is Robert Culp as Bill Maxwell.  He's bombastic and bossy and almost but not quite over the top.  Everyone involved looks like they were having a heck of a good time making the show.  Simply put, it's a really fun show.  It also has one of the best theme songs ever.