Ted's Television Tales #91
Jun. 22nd, 2006 04:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loosechanjI just finished watching The Greatest American Hero. It was a tv show about a guy who gets a comic book style "super-suit" and an FBI agent for a partner. They go around fighting crime and enemies of the good ol' U.S. of A. of course.
While it suffered from being made in the Fecal era of television, it was still fun. It was an excellent premise which had the misfortune of having to conform to a landscape of feel-good socially responsible television. The show really deserved better, and if anything else were to get a Battlestar Galatica style "re-imagination" it should be this show.
Funny little "did you notice": You know how, back then, it was taboo to show any sort of brand name on things? Well, at one point in (I think) the pilot episode, the girlfriend Pam is snacking out of...a box of milkbone dog biscuits with the label obscured! But that's not the weird part. The weird part is that it happened again somewhere in the second season. And then it started happening quite a bit towards the end of the show. Someone would be snacking out of a box of dog biscuits. There was even a bit of dialog punning on it.
More:
Hinkley had a son. It was strongly implied in the pilot that he knew Pam because she was his attorney in the custody battle. But outside the pilot, I think we saw "Kevin" once or at most twice. And he's never referred to otherwise, AT ALL. I just find that exceedingly odd. Guess he lost the custody fight.
During the first two seasons, I wondered why the hell he bothered to take off his street clothes, since the suit seemed to work even if he had them on. They addressed this in a half assed fashion in the third season, by implying the suit actually didn't work, or worked in a diminished capacity, if no part of it was exposed to air/sunlight.
The suit was supposed to be a secret, and they even told captured crooks not to tell anyone for fear of being called nut cases. And yet...Hinkley flies all over, sometimes at street level, in broad daylight. However only once does anyone get film of him, and then only a nosy reporter out in the middle of nowhere! The flying shots were a joke in the first two seasons, almost entirely lame stock too. They got decent for the time in the third, and sometimes even looked right in context!
Hinkley was a special ed teacher, mostly gang types. They figured somewhat prominently in the first season or so, but were almost entirely forgotten about in the third.
I'd love to see this show done right.
While it suffered from being made in the Fecal era of television, it was still fun. It was an excellent premise which had the misfortune of having to conform to a landscape of feel-good socially responsible television. The show really deserved better, and if anything else were to get a Battlestar Galatica style "re-imagination" it should be this show.
Funny little "did you notice": You know how, back then, it was taboo to show any sort of brand name on things? Well, at one point in (I think) the pilot episode, the girlfriend Pam is snacking out of...a box of milkbone dog biscuits with the label obscured! But that's not the weird part. The weird part is that it happened again somewhere in the second season. And then it started happening quite a bit towards the end of the show. Someone would be snacking out of a box of dog biscuits. There was even a bit of dialog punning on it.
More:
Hinkley had a son. It was strongly implied in the pilot that he knew Pam because she was his attorney in the custody battle. But outside the pilot, I think we saw "Kevin" once or at most twice. And he's never referred to otherwise, AT ALL. I just find that exceedingly odd. Guess he lost the custody fight.
During the first two seasons, I wondered why the hell he bothered to take off his street clothes, since the suit seemed to work even if he had them on. They addressed this in a half assed fashion in the third season, by implying the suit actually didn't work, or worked in a diminished capacity, if no part of it was exposed to air/sunlight.
The suit was supposed to be a secret, and they even told captured crooks not to tell anyone for fear of being called nut cases. And yet...Hinkley flies all over, sometimes at street level, in broad daylight. However only once does anyone get film of him, and then only a nosy reporter out in the middle of nowhere! The flying shots were a joke in the first two seasons, almost entirely lame stock too. They got decent for the time in the third, and sometimes even looked right in context!
Hinkley was a special ed teacher, mostly gang types. They figured somewhat prominently in the first season or so, but were almost entirely forgotten about in the third.
I'd love to see this show done right.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 11:51 am (UTC)look at what's happenin' to me...I can't believe it myself
Date: 2006-06-22 05:32 pm (UTC)Re: look at what's happenin' to me...I can't believe it myself
Date: 2006-06-22 06:32 pm (UTC)Re: look at what's happenin' to me...I can't believe it myself
Date: 2006-06-22 08:12 pm (UTC)Believe it or not,
George isn't at home,
If I was home, I'd pick up the phone
Where can I be?
Believe it or not, I'm not home.
Re: look at what's happenin' to me...I can't believe it myself
Date: 2006-06-22 08:41 pm (UTC)I loved that show.
Date: 2006-06-24 03:08 am (UTC)