"But I was gonna make espresso!"
MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
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"A Death in the Family": A couple of decades back, I really liked Laurie Prange in this and "Prometheus," both stories in which she played disabled, vulnerable young women who bonded with David and shared an ordeal with him. I thought she was very sweet and lovable and had a good rapport with Bill Bixby. I can still see a lot of that in her now, but in comparison to how female roles have evolved over the past few decades, Prange's Julie comes off as kind of whiny and pathetic for much of this 2-parter. She's at her best when she gets to be more confident, like in the snakebite sequence.
It's nice that this pilot movie had the room to let a couple of guest characters get to know David as both himself and the Hulk. It was pretty unusual in the series as a whole that the guests got to connect with him on such a close level and really react to his situation.
The villains weren't so well-drawn, though. "Come into my office, Margaret, and we'll have a nice round of self-incriminating exposition wherein we go over our entire evil scheme. Lucky for us that nobody's hiding in our closet to hear exactly what evidence he'd need to convict us."
I was surprised that Everett turned out to be in California (per the sign outside the sheriff's office). I was assuming it was in the deep South. Where do they have swamps in California? (Although the exterior street they used for the establishing shot was the same location used for Ojai, CA in the bionic shows.)
The illustration of the Hulk in the wanted poster changes between the long shot and the close-up. And the text on the poster is nothing to do with the Hulk, but about a shooting. I wonder who did the artwork on the poster. It didn't look like a familiar comic-book artist's style; it may just have been someone in the show's art department.
Where does a scruffy vagabond like Michael get all these extra pairs of shoes?
Ahh, the bear fight. You think the Hulk's makeup rubbing off on the bear's muzzle is funny? Just wait a few more seconds for the giant teddy bear!
Yeah... It's a little inefficient. I understand why they streamlined it.
And then there's the shot where the Hulk smashes the helicopter's tail rotor and then you hear the voiceover saying "He broke the tail rotor!" over a shot of the chopper spinning around with a totally intact tail rotor. Understandable, of course, but still a bit clumsy.
Not to mention that the Hulk tries to get Denny out once he realizes he's hurt. Although I'm not sure why he then runs away when he hears voices. What's the Hulk got to be afraid of?
Also, it's a little odd that he stays Hulked out for hours until he encounters Michael, then gets upset again when he tries the whiskey and spits it into the fire, but then immediately starts to change back moments after his anger was renewed.
It's nice that this pilot movie had the room to let a couple of guest characters get to know David as both himself and the Hulk. It was pretty unusual in the series as a whole that the guests got to connect with him on such a close level and really react to his situation.
The villains weren't so well-drawn, though. "Come into my office, Margaret, and we'll have a nice round of self-incriminating exposition wherein we go over our entire evil scheme. Lucky for us that nobody's hiding in our closet to hear exactly what evidence he'd need to convict us."
I was surprised that Everett turned out to be in California (per the sign outside the sheriff's office). I was assuming it was in the deep South. Where do they have swamps in California? (Although the exterior street they used for the establishing shot was the same location used for Ojai, CA in the bionic shows.)
The illustration of the Hulk in the wanted poster changes between the long shot and the close-up. And the text on the poster is nothing to do with the Hulk, but about a shooting. I wonder who did the artwork on the poster. It didn't look like a familiar comic-book artist's style; it may just have been someone in the show's art department.
Where does a scruffy vagabond like Michael get all these extra pairs of shoes?
Ahh, the bear fight. You think the Hulk's makeup rubbing off on the bear's muzzle is funny? Just wait a few more seconds for the giant teddy bear!
Yeah... It's a little inefficient. I understand why they streamlined it.
And then there's the shot where the Hulk smashes the helicopter's tail rotor and then you hear the voiceover saying "He broke the tail rotor!" over a shot of the chopper spinning around with a totally intact tail rotor. Understandable, of course, but still a bit clumsy.
Not to mention that the Hulk tries to get Denny out once he realizes he's hurt. Although I'm not sure why he then runs away when he hears voices. What's the Hulk got to be afraid of?
Also, it's a little odd that he stays Hulked out for hours until he encounters Michael, then gets upset again when he tries the whiskey and spits it into the fire, but then immediately starts to change back moments after his anger was renewed.
The Incredible Hulk
"Death in the Family: Part 2"
Originally aired Nov. 27, 1977
Oddly enough, this time we get the regular opening credits, rather than the special opening used in the first part...and it's an anachronistic version from later seasons...the opening for regular Season 1 episodes features distinctly different Hulk growls.
Perhaps the subject of yet another list to keep--People who find out David's the Hulk and live to not tell about it:
Note the independent use of the description "Hulk" by one of the hands...though maybe he reads the National Register....
It's very convenient how that bottle of medicine/poison survived multiple Hulk-outs in David's pocket. It was a bit more credible when Bruce in the comics used to keep traveler's checks pinned inside his pants.
In general, this one feels a bit more pilotish than the next episode with its bits of extra exposition...Banner explaining his condition to Julie and Michael, and McGee having a believing audience in the sheriff (who seems to serve no other purpose in the story than to give Jack somebody to hang with).
Ah, beat me to it. Yeah, I found myself generally annoyed rather than sympathetic.
And I had to laugh at how much the thrown bear looks like a stuffed animal...and of course the bear is perfectly OK after getting tossed such a dramatic distance!
Fortunately, Michael's a seasoned outdoorsman and/or has seen Dr. No.
To make up for only one transformation in the first hour, there's an unusually close set of transformations in the second half.
There's more of those vintage disembodied voiceover moments during action sequences when the hands are being pulled out of the quicksand and the helicopter is going down.
The obligatorily close call went on unrealistically long at the hospital, with David lingering to blab while in full view of the approaching McGee.
Not only is David's attempt at a cure left ambiguous as I'd noted in a previous post, but they also give McGee some potential closure should the series not continue, with Julie telling him that the creature is dead.
"Death in the Family: Part 2"
Originally aired Nov. 27, 1977
Oddly enough, this time we get the regular opening credits, rather than the special opening used in the first part...and it's an anachronistic version from later seasons...the opening for regular Season 1 episodes features distinctly different Hulk growls.
Perhaps the subject of yet another list to keep--People who find out David's the Hulk and live to not tell about it:
Julie Griffith and Michael ("Death in the Family")
Note the independent use of the description "Hulk" by one of the hands...though maybe he reads the National Register....
It's very convenient how that bottle of medicine/poison survived multiple Hulk-outs in David's pocket. It was a bit more credible when Bruce in the comics used to keep traveler's checks pinned inside his pants.
In general, this one feels a bit more pilotish than the next episode with its bits of extra exposition...Banner explaining his condition to Julie and Michael, and McGee having a believing audience in the sheriff (who seems to serve no other purpose in the story than to give Jack somebody to hang with).
Ah, beat me to it. Yeah, I found myself generally annoyed rather than sympathetic.
I didn't notice that...I'll have to take another look. But I did spot some questionable transformation continuity when David's wrestling the bear...in a couple shots the stuntman is clearly green, though David's transformation hasn't triggered yet in the closeups.
And I had to laugh at how much the thrown bear looks like a stuffed animal...and of course the bear is perfectly OK after getting tossed such a dramatic distance!
Fortunately, Michael's a seasoned outdoorsman and/or has seen Dr. No.
To make up for only one transformation in the first hour, there's an unusually close set of transformations in the second half.
There's more of those vintage disembodied voiceover moments during action sequences when the hands are being pulled out of the quicksand and the helicopter is going down.
The obligatorily close call went on unrealistically long at the hospital, with David lingering to blab while in full view of the approaching McGee.
Not only is David's attempt at a cure left ambiguous as I'd noted in a previous post, but they also give McGee some potential closure should the series not continue, with Julie telling him that the creature is dead.
Didn't realize that it was the same actress in both episodes. And maybe that's why the thought passed through my head of associating Julie with blindness...her character was blind in "Prometheus," wasn't she?
I don't know offhand, but considering they were presumably shooting in California, they must have them somewhere. It's a big state.
Sort of reminds me of the early stories in the Tales to Astonish run that I'd mentioned earlier, when they'd settled on the transformations being triggered by anger, but not on what changed him back...getting too worked up and other things that generally caused a chemical reaction in his body tended to do it. Here, it could have been the booze.
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I meant to comment on that myself. But then, David's pants are always remarkably stretchy for denim...
As I recall, yes.
I thought of that, but he spat it out.
The Hulk really can't hold his liquor. IIRC, he gets high in the next episode....
And in answer to another question, first Google result:
http://california.hometownlocator.com/features/physical,class,swamp.cfm
And in answer to another question, first Google result:
http://california.hometownlocator.com/features/physical,class,swamp.cfm
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For some reason the title sequence is one use in later seasons, not the one originally created for the 2nd movie. It must be the result of the syndication cut.
That's a long list. Without looking up anything, I recall many who know, and lived to not tell the tale:
- Laurie Prange's other Hulk character--the blind Katie Maxwell from the "Prometheus" 2-parter.
- "Homecoming" -- David's father (John Marley) & sister Helen Banner (Diana Muldaur) learn not only that David is alive, but the Hulk.
- Li Sung (Mako) in "Another Path" and a sequel episode "The Disciple".
- "Interview with the Hulk" -- a reporter (Hill Street Blues' Michael Conrad) one-ups McGee by uncovering the fact that Banner is alive, but with a wealth of information on the origin and journey of Banner, never reveals the story.
- "The First" part 1 & 2 -- the isolated Elizabeth Collins (oh, yes, that was her name) knows Banner's secret, and remains silent.
- I'm not sure, but I believe in "Broken Image" - Gangster and Banner lookalike Mike Cassidy knows Banner is alive and the Hulk. Wait a second--after being arrested, he blabbed to the disbelieving police, so that does not fit your list requirement.
I can tell you from personal experience, physician-only medicine bottles from that era were usually made of thick glass, so that sort of gives the death drug a little protection.
I've always had a problem with the way McGee and his paper's reputation convinced people that the Hulk was fiction---particularly after the pilot firmly established that the police actually issued an arrest warrant for murder. No police agency was in the practice of doing that for the truly wild BS space aliens / Bigfoot / Yeti / animal people and zombies that littered 1970s tabloids.
Well, if you're referring to using a reed to breathe while submerged, that's an ancient invention.
In his defense, David was already in a conversation with Julie and Michael, and chronologically speaking, we have to assume this is the first time Banner has been forced to duck and dodge McGee, as this episode takes place not long after the pilot. In episodes to come, Banner would beat a path out of a room/town/city, as he had more experience, and came to consider McGee a persistent threat.
I thought that line in the script serves that purpose, too. Smart bit of closure that is not watered down by the events of the regular series.
Even at this early stage, the transformation is triggered not only by anger, but (as the main title V.O. informs us, "outrage"), and extreme frustration--as in his dreams about lost loved ones.
All said, Kenneth Johnson created solid, engaging TV movies that left no question why it went to series. Much like his Six Million Dollar Man TV movies flowed into a weekly series.
Huh? Johnson had nothing to do with the original 6M$M movies. The first was produced and directed by Richard Irving and adapted from Martin Caidin's novel by Terrence McDonnell (story) and Howard Rodman (teleplay, as Henri Simoun). The other two pilot movies were written and produced by Glen A. Larson and directed by Russ Mayberry. Harve Bennett produced the weekly series, and he brought in Kenneth Johnson as a writer beginning with the second-season 2-parter "The Bionic Woman," which he allowed Johnson to effectively produce as a way of grooming him to take over as producer in season 3. Johnson then produced season 3 of 6M$M and all of The Bionic Woman.
Could you be referring to Johnson's trio of 2-part episodes launching Jaime Sommers's story? Those would be "The Bionic Woman" and "The Return of the Bionic Woman" in 6M$M and "Welcome Home, Jaime" in TBW, all of which were written by Johnson and effectively or actually produced by him, so there's a pretty good flow of continuity from one to the other, getting the spinoff up to a smooth start. But those were all 2-parters, not TV movies.
By contrast, the Irving and Larson 6M$M movies didn't flow smoothly into the weekly series at all. They were very different in tone and approach. The original movie was closer to the book (up to a point), with Steve Austin as a civilian astronaut trapped into working as a government agent in exchange for his bionics, with Darren McGavin's Oliver Spencer replacing the book's Oscar Goldman. The Larson movies came closer (Steve a colonel, Richard Anderson debuting as Oscar), but Oscar was still a more hostile figure and Steve was still a very reluctant agent, and the tone and style was more James Bond-like with lots of spy action and really badly written sexual innuendo (like "Sorry I violated your porthole"). Not to mention a really bad theme song ("He's the ma-a-a-a-n"). They really didn't settle on a consistent direction for the show until Harve Bennett took over.
That's the assumption that I was going on. I recall seeing this episode rerun in two-part format while the series was in its original run, so they probably just slapped the then-current version of the opening credits on it.
Good memory! We'll see if anyone else joins that list.
- I'm not sure, but I believe in "Broken Image" - Gangster and Banner lookalike Mike Cassidy knows Banner is alive and the Hulk. Wait a second--after being arrested, he blabbed to the disbelieving police, so that does not fit your list requirement.
Yeah, that always bugged me a bit, too. Did the authorities believe that there was a Hulk or not? Going by the series format, one would have to guess not, for the most part. Maybe whichever jurisdiction put out that arrest warrant was happy to forget about the monster thing when he didn't turn up again in their neck of the woods (fishing for a satisfying in-setting explanation).
The scene was just set up so clumsily...David could have made an effort to turn his back to McGee or something if he had to stand there and (as I realize now) deliver more exposition for the audience. As originally aired, this very much was "Pilot, Part 2". They'd be much more clever about Banner's quick reactions to McGee's presence in the regular series episodes, once the situation was taken as understood by the audience.
We weren't questioning what was triggering his transformations into the Hulk, but what triggered his transformation back to David in this instance. To fish for an in-setting explanation again, I'd say that his system was still sorting out his new condition. The Hulk had been bottled up for a while and stayed out longer than usual, perhaps to the limit of the TV character's ability to maintain his Hulk form. Ultimately, it didn't matter that he got more upset just before he turned back...one could say that in this situation, the Hulk was a cranky kid who was past his bedtime and conked out quickly. This would jibe with his relatively brief Hulk-outs in the standard episodes, and with how being the Hulk seemed to take something out of David after his original transformation in the first pilot.
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The ratings for The Six Million Dollar Man, Wine, Women and War and The Solid Gold Kidnapping were solid, which ABC wanted to push to a series. That is not a rocky path toward becoming a series. Further, ABC did the same thing after the record breaking ratings of The Night Stalker, and its sequel, The Night Strangler, which transitioned to the weekly Kolchak: the Night Stalker. The interest demanded the move. They've greenlit series from only one telefilm (and not as successful ratings-wise), such as The Immortal (1970), or The Young Country, which turned into the short-lived series Alias Smith and Jones.
I wasn't talking about ratings, I was talking about concept and approach and changing creators.
Well, the first regular series episode--"Final Round"--with Martin (The Karate Kid's John Kreese) Kove is next weekend. We will see if Kove's character gets a clue between getting his head knocked around.
If I recall, random police agencies around the country had knowledge about the warrant for the Hulk, so that means it has to be beyond the "hoax" level used to criticize McGee and the National Register all series long.
I still think its so early in Banner's life as Hulk/fugitive, that he should not be as hypersensitive in his reaction about this early McGee near-miss.
We weren't questioning what was triggering his transformations into the Hulk, but what triggered his transformation back to David in this instance. To fish for an in-setting explanation again, I'd say that his system was still sorting out his new condition. [/quote]
I'd say seeing Julie safe was the direct trigger to return to his David half. Another interesting development in the series is Banner's memory; in the pilots, he cannot remember his acts as the Hulk, but in the regular series, the Hulk would (on occasion) act as if he's operating with Banner's memory to a degree, since he's able to focus on, even sympathize with (or by contrast feel anger toward) anyone Banner was dealing with.
We were talking about the campfire scene (aired last week)...how he remains the Hulk well into the night but then runs into the woods and turns back to Banner after his bad reaction to the whiskey.
I want to add that there's a nice bit of acting by Ferrigno at the end of this episode, when Julie shoos him away at the ranger station. The Hulk gets his own little "Lonely Man" moment.
I want to add that there's a nice bit of acting by Ferrigno at the end of this episode, when Julie shoos him away at the ranger station. The Hulk gets his own little "Lonely Man" moment.
Convenience. Hulk "science" was a mix of some steady triggers for turning into and returning from Hulk state, but as you know, if the story demands something else...
Ferrigno never received enough credit for his ability to express the same emotions as his other half. At the time, some TV critics--apparently alien to the reality of fantasy being capable of strong performances--would write Lou off as being nothing except "muscle with a growl" (never mind Ferrigno did not provide the voice of the Hulk), or just focusing on Bixby.
That's right--that's right.
He's a hoarder.. His other residence is the next nearest mansion--filled with shoes.
For the same reason the woman was no longer able to lift a car--adrenaline wears off when you cool off.
This isn't the Hulk from the comics of course--that wouldn't die after falling out of an airplane say (TV movie).
Yes, he still impossibly puts on mass--but one way I like to look at the series is that Banner's transformation is rather akin to someone on PCP. One could say (were it not about the remarks of him being green) that maybe this raging form is what he looks like to us by-standers who are not used to someone so out-of control. He should have died due to rad poisoning--but we will forgive that of course.
"Prometheus" makes it explicit that his mass/weight does increase considerably when he transforms. The mass increase is actually measured by scientific instruments during a metamorphosis.
To be honest, i've heard some comic fans complain about that regarding the Hulk, Thing and the various giant heroes, but at the end of the day, if some cannot accept that, then they should not accept Asgardian demigods, Kryptonians, powers granted by radioactive spiders, anything on the Doctor Strange side of life, etc.
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe once tried to explain that by saying that mass was shunted back and forth from another dimension-- one that was apparently reserved for size-changing Marvel characters and had all kinds of specialized cells in stock and instantly available. I didn't really care for that explanation. Best to just say it's a normal attribute of physics in the Marvel Universe.
How about:
The mass exists as gamma radiation in Banner's body and that small part of what he has absorbed changes to mass during transformation (and vice versa).
Same for Thing, Ben Grimm, and cosmic radiation (although the Thing I remember from my comics days couldn't transform back and forth; has that changed?)
I watched the Batman episode this week, and I had forgotten just how much more serious these early ones were compared to later parts of the series.
The second half of the Hulk episode was pretty good.
I was surprised he actually spent a fair amount of time as the Hulk in this one.
The fake bear at the end of the fight cracked me up.
The girl was kind of annoying, but not unbearably so.
So is McGee in every episode? I was expecting him to just be recurring character who popped up during the big event episodes.
The second half of the Hulk episode was pretty good.
I was surprised he actually spent a fair amount of time as the Hulk in this one.
The fake bear at the end of the fight cracked me up.
The girl was kind of annoying, but not unbearably so.
So is McGee in every episode? I was expecting him to just be recurring character who popped up during the big event episodes.
He's a main-title regular, but he isn't in every single episode. According to IMDb, he's in somewhat more than half the episodes, 47 out of 82 (counting the pilot movies as one each). And he was only in the first of the three revival movies, so that's 48 out of 85 in all. Sometimes, though, he just shows up for a scene or two at the end.
There's one episode, "Proof Positive," where McGee is the central focus of the story and Bill Bixby doesn't appear at all except in stock footage. Bixby was unavailable due to divorce proceedings, so they did a semi-clip-show episode centering on McGee and the National Register and showing the chase from his side.
