Early Feb., IIRC. There'd be more details backthread.
MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
"Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"--
Picking up where "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" left off, Banner is still in Nevada, heading to Carson City, when he's picked up by a woman named Joanie. Noting its not her habit to pick up hitchhikers, she still agrees to give David a ride. When Joanie asks if he would like to earn ten dollars, David holds a suspicious stare at her (probably assuming she means sex), but she explains why she's offering the money. The plot centers on Joanie stealing the truck she & her father owned (from main villains Ted & Mike), only instead of gasoline, its now carrying--as David identifies--"very expensive computer components" (NOTE: in 1978, most large computer components were expensive, at a time when such parts were barely being added to commercial & industrial interests on a large scale).
Eventually, Joanie is overtaken by Ted & Mike, while David's on-the-road life skills now includes hot-wiring a car. In truth, that is a useful thing to know.
As Joanie is held hostage, Banner's frustration with a difficult operator triggers the first Hulk-out of the episode; the Hulk breaks up the planned "accident" (murder) of Joanie. She takes off in the car David hot wired (conveniently, he must have left the motor running, since there was no key), in hot pursuit by part stock footage!
Funny moment: David mutters that he needs to buy shirts that stretch (goes over Joanie's head). This is the first time he acknowledges the problem of walking around in tattered clothes post Hulk-out.
As established in "747," Banner can maintain some control over vehicles while turning into the Hulk.
We see the Hulk use his strength to push over a telephone pole and use it to bat the truck, then push the red car into the truck, leading to its destruction--and the means Joanie needed to collect on the truck's insurance policy.
McGee is mentioned--he's in the area, following up on the latest Hulk sighting, but not making a physical appearance.
The overall plot of "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break" was certainly lighter in tone, not carrying the darker edge of the previous week's mob drama. In fact, the episode ends with ends with Joanie expressing her interest in Banner (offering part of a reward he cannot accept), and the two walking off together, instead of the usual shot of a lone David walking off accompanied by the "Lonely Man" theme.
Actress Jennifer Darling (Joanie) was fairly visible to 1970s TV fantasy audiences, thanks to her recurring role as Peggy Callahan--Oscar Goldman's secretary on both The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman for several episodes, and obviously getting the TIH part thanks to working with Kenneth Johnson.
One series short of Robert Alda's guest starring on all three CBS prime time superhero series, Jennifer Darling also appeared in "Death in Disguise," the February 10, 1978 episode of Wonder Woman.
This was actor Frank Christi's (Ted with the mustache) second part opposite Bill Bixby, after appearing in "Nightmare of Steel," an episode of Bixby's The Magician in 1973.
Christi was a well known character actor, appearing in everything from Baretta, Wonderbug, Cannon, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, and his other super-hero connection--"The Curse of Tut" / "The Pharaoh's in a Rut," the first appearance of the obese "boy" king on Batman.
Often playing criminals or generally immoral characters, reportedly, he carried that behavior to his personal life, which caught up with him in 1982, when he was shot to death by three men--retaliation for Christi's adulterous actions with another man's wife.
As in "747," this episode uses footage from another Universal production to save on costly location / stunts. This time, the footage was from the 1971 TV movie Duel, written by Richard Matheson (based on his own short story), and directed by Steven Spielberg. When Spielberg learned that footage of the truck chase was used in TIH, he was furious, but was powerless to do anything about it, since his Universal contract (at the time Duel was produced) did not contain a clause preventing the studio from using footage in whatever way desired without the director's permission (like most film studio contracts had been written for decades).The studio--in common practice--retained the hero red car and the truck from Duel.
I always found Spielberg's position making him to be one of the biggest hypocrites in movie history, since he had absolutely no respect for intellectual property when (for just one career example) blatantly stealing some camera shots, set design and costuming from the Charlton Heston adventure film Secret of the Incas (Paramount, 1954) for Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paramount, 1981), which he admitted screening while in production on Raiders. I did not buy the latter day, revisionist notion that Spielberg (and George Lucas, for that matter) sticky-fingering old serials, dramas, fantasies, etc. is just an "homage" to the work, rather than being (in some cases) gross appropriation. Additionally, I reject the idea that mentioning ripped work as an "influence" does not remove the kind of acts committed by the same guy who threw a fit about Duel.
Picking up where "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" left off, Banner is still in Nevada, heading to Carson City, when he's picked up by a woman named Joanie. Noting its not her habit to pick up hitchhikers, she still agrees to give David a ride. When Joanie asks if he would like to earn ten dollars, David holds a suspicious stare at her (probably assuming she means sex), but she explains why she's offering the money. The plot centers on Joanie stealing the truck she & her father owned (from main villains Ted & Mike), only instead of gasoline, its now carrying--as David identifies--"very expensive computer components" (NOTE: in 1978, most large computer components were expensive, at a time when such parts were barely being added to commercial & industrial interests on a large scale).
Eventually, Joanie is overtaken by Ted & Mike, while David's on-the-road life skills now includes hot-wiring a car. In truth, that is a useful thing to know.
As Joanie is held hostage, Banner's frustration with a difficult operator triggers the first Hulk-out of the episode; the Hulk breaks up the planned "accident" (murder) of Joanie. She takes off in the car David hot wired (conveniently, he must have left the motor running, since there was no key), in hot pursuit by part stock footage!
Funny moment: David mutters that he needs to buy shirts that stretch (goes over Joanie's head). This is the first time he acknowledges the problem of walking around in tattered clothes post Hulk-out.
As established in "747," Banner can maintain some control over vehicles while turning into the Hulk.
We see the Hulk use his strength to push over a telephone pole and use it to bat the truck, then push the red car into the truck, leading to its destruction--and the means Joanie needed to collect on the truck's insurance policy.
McGee is mentioned--he's in the area, following up on the latest Hulk sighting, but not making a physical appearance.
The overall plot of "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break" was certainly lighter in tone, not carrying the darker edge of the previous week's mob drama. In fact, the episode ends with ends with Joanie expressing her interest in Banner (offering part of a reward he cannot accept), and the two walking off together, instead of the usual shot of a lone David walking off accompanied by the "Lonely Man" theme.
Actress Jennifer Darling (Joanie) was fairly visible to 1970s TV fantasy audiences, thanks to her recurring role as Peggy Callahan--Oscar Goldman's secretary on both The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman for several episodes, and obviously getting the TIH part thanks to working with Kenneth Johnson.
One series short of Robert Alda's guest starring on all three CBS prime time superhero series, Jennifer Darling also appeared in "Death in Disguise," the February 10, 1978 episode of Wonder Woman.
This was actor Frank Christi's (Ted with the mustache) second part opposite Bill Bixby, after appearing in "Nightmare of Steel," an episode of Bixby's The Magician in 1973.
Christi was a well known character actor, appearing in everything from Baretta, Wonderbug, Cannon, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, and his other super-hero connection--"The Curse of Tut" / "The Pharaoh's in a Rut," the first appearance of the obese "boy" king on Batman.
Often playing criminals or generally immoral characters, reportedly, he carried that behavior to his personal life, which caught up with him in 1982, when he was shot to death by three men--retaliation for Christi's adulterous actions with another man's wife.
As in "747," this episode uses footage from another Universal production to save on costly location / stunts. This time, the footage was from the 1971 TV movie Duel, written by Richard Matheson (based on his own short story), and directed by Steven Spielberg. When Spielberg learned that footage of the truck chase was used in TIH, he was furious, but was powerless to do anything about it, since his Universal contract (at the time Duel was produced) did not contain a clause preventing the studio from using footage in whatever way desired without the director's permission (like most film studio contracts had been written for decades).The studio--in common practice--retained the hero red car and the truck from Duel.
I always found Spielberg's position making him to be one of the biggest hypocrites in movie history, since he had absolutely no respect for intellectual property when (for just one career example) blatantly stealing some camera shots, set design and costuming from the Charlton Heston adventure film Secret of the Incas (Paramount, 1954) for Raiders of the Lost Ark (Paramount, 1981), which he admitted screening while in production on Raiders. I did not buy the latter day, revisionist notion that Spielberg (and George Lucas, for that matter) sticky-fingering old serials, dramas, fantasies, etc. is just an "homage" to the work, rather than being (in some cases) gross appropriation. Additionally, I reject the idea that mentioning ripped work as an "influence" does not remove the kind of acts committed by the same guy who threw a fit about Duel.
The Incredible Hulk
"Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"
Originally aired Apr. 28, 1978
This seems to be another episode without a specific alias for David, unless I missed it. And for the record, it falls squarely in the "Just schlepping around" category. But it does have the novelty of a "Lonely Man" intro!
It's a pretty lighthearted episode that gives Bixby some opportunities to display his comedic chops, but--no doubt owing to the movie footage around which the plot is based--the story is a meandering mess, with lots of filler moments and plot contrivances to basically keep the characters switching vehicles and chasing each other up and down the same stretch of highway without really accomplishing anything. To say nothing of little details like the background sometimes not moving when the truck is supposed to be in motion.
At -23:18, this episode is the source of the infamous payphone change (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)--"I don't have twenty-five cents!!!" Once everyone gets back in their vehicles, the Hulk is strangely sidelined in his own show.
Meanwhile, at -7:43:
Adding to the casting info, the actor who played Mike seemed very familiar to me, though I couldn't place him...I just figured I'd seen him in another TV role or two. Scouring Grand L. Bush's IMDb credits, I came upon an entry that I instantly recognized him from--He was one of the DEA agents in License to Kill, the one who told Bond not to get involved at the hospital, IIRC.
"Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"
Originally aired Apr. 28, 1978
This seems to be another episode without a specific alias for David, unless I missed it. And for the record, it falls squarely in the "Just schlepping around" category. But it does have the novelty of a "Lonely Man" intro!
Yes...nice location continuity for once, and in airdate order!
It's a pretty lighthearted episode that gives Bixby some opportunities to display his comedic chops, but--no doubt owing to the movie footage around which the plot is based--the story is a meandering mess, with lots of filler moments and plot contrivances to basically keep the characters switching vehicles and chasing each other up and down the same stretch of highway without really accomplishing anything. To say nothing of little details like the background sometimes not moving when the truck is supposed to be in motion.
I wonder how small that payload of smuggled components would be today....
At -23:18, this episode is the source of the infamous payphone change (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)--"I don't have twenty-five cents!!!" Once everyone gets back in their vehicles, the Hulk is strangely sidelined in his own show.
A very memorable bit...I vaguely remembered that one over the years without remembering any other specifics of the episode that it came from.
Meanwhile, at -7:43:
Yes, he can land passenger jets and engage in car chases...he even seems to put the car in park before he smashes out, as it doesn't start rolling...!
Ah...hadn't caught that detail about her now being able to collect insurance on the truck. And I believe that David's duffel bag went down in that flaming wreck, though at least the coda explains how David gets new gear in this case.
Adding to the casting info, the actor who played Mike seemed very familiar to me, though I couldn't place him...I just figured I'd seen him in another TV role or two. Scouring Grand L. Bush's IMDb credits, I came upon an entry that I instantly recognized him from--He was one of the DEA agents in License to Kill, the one who told Bond not to get involved at the hospital, IIRC.
"Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"
Well, I'd remembered that this was built around footage from Spielberg's Duel (his first movie-length work as a professional director), but I'd forgotten that it was much lighter in tone than that tense thriller. Although in my youth, I saw this episode (probably several times) before I ever saw Duel. (I think at some point I saw the movie and thought "Hey, this is familiar." Although I may have read about the connection before I saw the movie, I'm not sure.) And it's been ages since I've seen Duel, but it was pretty easy to tell where Kenneth Gilbert left off and Spielberg came in, with the latter's work being much more visually dynamic. I'm amused by the convolutions they went through to keep the passengers in the red car hunched down or the like so that they'd sort of match the movie footage of the car with a lone driver. It was a very imperfect match, though, since there were shots where the passenger seat was clearly empty while Mike was searching the glove compartment for bullets. And the exterior shots didn't match too well when Joanie was driving.
This is the middle of a 5-episode run where every other episode is built around stock footage. Two weeks ago we had "747," and two weeks hence we have "Earthquakes Happen," built around footage from the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake. How tight must the first-season budget have been that they had to do this three times?
Still, this is a pretty fun episode, with comic highlights including a phone-rage Hulk-out and "I really have to buy shirts that stretch." (Why didn't he ever act on that?) But it works mainly due to the chemistry between Bixby and Jennifer Darling (who, in addition to being Oscar's secretary on the bionic shows, would go on to be the voice of Irma in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and Scarlet Witch in the '90s Iron Man cartoon). I know Kenneth Johnson had worked with her before, but I wonder if the diminutive Ms. Darling was cast based on the foreknowledge that Lou Ferrigno would have to run with her under his arm. Even as small as she was, I could tell it wasn't exactly effortless for him. (I'm reminded of Sir John Gielgud's advice on how to play King Lear: "Get yourself a small Cordelia.")
Times have changed -- I realize this episode was made both before nationwide 911 service and before seatbelt laws.
Did Mike die at the end? He was just lying there motionless and Ted couldn't seem to wake him up, and the next scene didn't give us any followup on their status. If so, that would mean the Hulk was directly responsible for someone's death, however unintentionally. One could argue that he must've just fallen wrong when he leapt from the truck, but he only did that because the Hulk caused it to crash. It was an odd directorial choice to imply that.
That's a ridiculous comparison. Painting your own imitation of the Mona Lisa is not the same thing as stealing the actual Mona Lisa. It may be unoriginal, but you're entitled to possess it because it's the product of your own effort. Professionals don't just care about abstract ideas but about the actual labor they perform and their right to credit and compensation for that labor. Spielberg and his Raiders crew may have emulated an earlier work, but they created a new version of it through their own labor, so it's very different from just cutting pre-existing footage into a film. (Not that Hulk actually stole anything, since Universal had the contractual right to reuse the Duel footage -- but Spielberg evidently found the terms of the contract to be larcenous.)
Nope -- he didn't even introduce himself as David until nearly halfway through, and no last name ever came up. Then again, we never got last names for any of the other characters either.
It bugs me that in the close-up of the components in the tanker, they were packed way too high to reconcile with the wider shot of the fake cap that went into the hatch. That thing was at least a foot deep, but there was barely an inch of space between the hatch and the boxes in the close-up.
Well, I'd remembered that this was built around footage from Spielberg's Duel (his first movie-length work as a professional director), but I'd forgotten that it was much lighter in tone than that tense thriller. Although in my youth, I saw this episode (probably several times) before I ever saw Duel. (I think at some point I saw the movie and thought "Hey, this is familiar." Although I may have read about the connection before I saw the movie, I'm not sure.) And it's been ages since I've seen Duel, but it was pretty easy to tell where Kenneth Gilbert left off and Spielberg came in, with the latter's work being much more visually dynamic. I'm amused by the convolutions they went through to keep the passengers in the red car hunched down or the like so that they'd sort of match the movie footage of the car with a lone driver. It was a very imperfect match, though, since there were shots where the passenger seat was clearly empty while Mike was searching the glove compartment for bullets. And the exterior shots didn't match too well when Joanie was driving.
This is the middle of a 5-episode run where every other episode is built around stock footage. Two weeks ago we had "747," and two weeks hence we have "Earthquakes Happen," built around footage from the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake. How tight must the first-season budget have been that they had to do this three times?
Still, this is a pretty fun episode, with comic highlights including a phone-rage Hulk-out and "I really have to buy shirts that stretch." (Why didn't he ever act on that?) But it works mainly due to the chemistry between Bixby and Jennifer Darling (who, in addition to being Oscar's secretary on the bionic shows, would go on to be the voice of Irma in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and Scarlet Witch in the '90s Iron Man cartoon). I know Kenneth Johnson had worked with her before, but I wonder if the diminutive Ms. Darling was cast based on the foreknowledge that Lou Ferrigno would have to run with her under his arm. Even as small as she was, I could tell it wasn't exactly effortless for him. (I'm reminded of Sir John Gielgud's advice on how to play King Lear: "Get yourself a small Cordelia.")
Times have changed -- I realize this episode was made both before nationwide 911 service and before seatbelt laws.
Did Mike die at the end? He was just lying there motionless and Ted couldn't seem to wake him up, and the next scene didn't give us any followup on their status. If so, that would mean the Hulk was directly responsible for someone's death, however unintentionally. One could argue that he must've just fallen wrong when he leapt from the truck, but he only did that because the Hulk caused it to crash. It was an odd directorial choice to imply that.
TREK_GOD_1 said:
That's a ridiculous comparison. Painting your own imitation of the Mona Lisa is not the same thing as stealing the actual Mona Lisa. It may be unoriginal, but you're entitled to possess it because it's the product of your own effort. Professionals don't just care about abstract ideas but about the actual labor they perform and their right to credit and compensation for that labor. Spielberg and his Raiders crew may have emulated an earlier work, but they created a new version of it through their own labor, so it's very different from just cutting pre-existing footage into a film. (Not that Hulk actually stole anything, since Universal had the contractual right to reuse the Duel footage -- but Spielberg evidently found the terms of the contract to be larcenous.)
Nope -- he didn't even introduce himself as David until nearly halfway through, and no last name ever came up. Then again, we never got last names for any of the other characters either.
It bugs me that in the close-up of the components in the tanker, they were packed way too high to reconcile with the wider shot of the fake cap that went into the hatch. That thing was at least a foot deep, but there was barely an inch of space between the hatch and the boxes in the close-up.
Film was and remains a business first, hence the clear business decision to not allow the work they owned to be controlled / manipulated by what were hired hands. Spielberg's ego took a back seat to the contract he obviously did not read or understand at the time, otherwise, there would be no false notion of it being "larcenous," because it would be clear he had no ownership of / control over the work that Universal--at any time--could use for any purpose beyond its original form.
Regarding your defense of Spielberg in the Raiders matter, this is about absent ethical behavior, and how that influences actions.
So let's get this straight--he can comeback years later to find the terms of an accepted contract "larcenous" (which he did not sign under protest), yet he built much of his formative career off of shameless stealing from the works of others (like Secret of the Incas), without feeling an ounce of compunction. Its just making "a new version." Er...no.
"Own labor" does not remove the fact that original work (the guilty did not own) was appropriated for their own use (and profit). The motives are not dissimilar to infamous cases in popular music--the most recent example being Led Zeppelin's Plant and Page now having to defend themselves in court over allegations of stealing much of "Stairway to Heaven" from the Spirit song, "Taurus." Plant and Page will likely argue that they too, "created a new version of it through their own labor," (which would require they finally admit to the clear as day lift), but it would be surprising if their arguments held up in court at all.
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I'm of the impression that it wouldn't have been a matter of tight budget so much as realistic TV budget...they had a catalog of major films from which they could draw footage that they never could have afforded to shoot on a TV budget, so they built episodes around that footage...an innovative way of giving the new show more bang for its buck.
That would work as an explanation if it were a common practice, but it wasn't really done that often. This show never did it after the first season, and not many other shows have done it. The main other example I can think of is season 1 of MacGyver, which did it at least twice -- "Thief of Budapest" was built around car-chase footage from the original The Italian Job, and "Trumbo's World" was built around The Naked Jungle. Also, The Time Tunnel routinely built its episodes around stock footage from historical movies or shows. (Plus there's the extreme case of the entire Power Rangers franchise and its various '90s imitators, where the entire series is built around stock action footage from Japanese shows. And there were some '50s B-movies built around recycled monster footage from other films, like Valley of the Dragons and Varan the Unconquerable. Then there's the '80s Space Mutiny, built around stock ship footage from Battlestar Galactica, including upside-down shots of Galactica itself.)
Episodes built around stock footage usually take the form of clip shows, reusing stuff from earlier episodes. And clip shows are generally done as a response to budget pressures -- a way to save money in order to cancel out budget overages elsewhere. Since these three stock-based Hulk episodes were all in the back half of the season, it suggests that the show may have run over budget in the first half and needed to balance that out. Maybe they learned from experience and were able to allocate and spend money more effectively in later seasons, so they didn't have to do this again. (I don't know what the deal was with MacGyver's first season, but it evidently had pretty turbulent beginnings, given that both the writer and the director took their names off the pilot.)
Perhaps...whatever the motivation for doing these, the use of stock movie footage was certainly better executed in "747"...most of the story was new material that took place inside the plane, and the exterior shots of the plane didn't drive the story as much. A "David has to land a plane" episode was probably going to play out pretty much the same regardless of whether or not they had that footage to use. In "Trucker", OTOH, what passes for the story jumps through hoops to set up very specific footage.
What exactly did Spielperg use from this other movie? Did he use footage from it or something? I always knew it was an homage to old movies, but I never heard of him stealing from them directly.
He didn't use actual footage, which is why TREK_GOD_1's comparison is invalid. But he did borrow a lot of its structure, tropes, and imagery -- including Indy's costume and look, which are very much like Charlton Heston's in Secret of the Incas. Here's a comparison: http://www.theraider.net/information/influences/secret_of_incas.php
I couldn't stop laughing. I've been there, trust me.
"This was actor Frank Christi's (Ted with the mustache) second part opposite Bill Bixby,"
I thought it was Dennis Farina at first. Just enough like Dennis Weaver. His friend would duck down--so as to use footage of Weaver alone in the car. Bixby drove for a bit--also wearing a shirt similar to Weaver. It was stitched together rather well I must say.
Like you I also saw Duel after this. Man, how music and casting can change a tone.
As far as his pants, he just pops the button off Tom Jones style
Fitting, because that's what truckers do. I've had to work around these guys--and some of them are all but nude in these trucks--not something you want to see. They are above the traffic and see four wheeler drivers do worse, I'm sure.
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A thought occurs to me, above and beyond the "shirts that stretch" issue: If David retains enough self-awareness and motor control in the early stages of metamorphosis to continue safely operating a jet or an automobile, then couldn't he also retain enough presence of mind to remove his shirt once he senses the change is underway? Granted, he might still often lose the shirt in a situation where he had to run off afterward or where his immediate environs were about to be crushed/burned/etc., but at least on occasion he'd be able to recover the shirt afterward.
If he were out in the open--I can see that. When driving, or grabbing his knee if hit there say--he probably isn't worried about his wardrobe. I've had to change a tire myself while taking my lady friend and her family out. She fussed about the sweat and the dirt on the pants. "Gee I wonder how that happened?"
I guess I should have known to change the tire in the nude--as the ancient Greeks did...
I guess I should have known to change the tire in the nude--as the ancient Greeks did...
Costumes, scene set ups, and more to the point where no ethical filmmaker would dare claim originality after such obvious, gross appropriation. He did not help his case when he screened the Heston film while in production on Raiders. That is not "making it his own," an homage, or the ethically bankrupt notion that it was creating something new from his own labor, as if that removes the fact that so much of the structure and/or look of the work would not exist if not for the aforementioned gross appropriation.
His whining about Duel footage in The Incredible Hulk makes Spielberg appear to be a hypocrite--in addition to the fact he had no legal grounds to complain, as if he was entitled to control any part of the TV movie.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. My point is, we've seen evidence that there's a grace period during which he knows that the change has started and can't be avoided, but is still capable of conscious thought and action. So you'd think that after he'd gone through enough ruined shirts and shoes and blown a fair portion of his meager budget on replacing them, he'd try to get into the habit of taking off his shirt and shoes once he started to transform.
But then, David never was very good at adjusting to his condition. He's not the most foresightful person, as evidenced by the incredible recklessness that led him to expose himself to gamma radiation in the first place. And he does have quite a tendency to lose his temper even though he has very, very good reason to learn anger management. (Not that I can't sympathize. I've always had trouble controlling my own temper. As a child, I rather identified with David Banner. Although my rages have always been more verbal than physical, aside from the occasional kicking of furniture or throwing of pillows.)
And of course, the show needed him not to learn to cope with his changes in any way, even sartorially. The clothes-tearing shots were the only way they were technologically capable at the time of conveying that David's body was getting larger. Morphing effects were still a decade or so in the future.
By the way, that bit I said about how "the change has started and can't be avoided" got me thinking. Could the change be avoided? We saw in "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" that the Hulk was starting to change back when he got shot in the shoulder and got angry again, cancelling out the transformation. So could the reverse also happen? Did we ever see a case where David's eyes turned white and he started to change, but someone then managed to calm him down or sedate him and abort the transformation?
In the late 70s, there were a number of actors who resembled others--especially if cast in the same kind of bad guy roles that were Christi bread and butter.
That was easy to accomplish, especially when Universal likely had multiple (and common) costumes in the wardrobe department used in Duel, so matching TIH actors to Weaver (or anyone else) was not a hard task, just as Universal still owned the truck and red (Weaver) car from the TV movie, which was the finishing touch.
Hmm... couldn't they have simply done a slow zoom on some exposed skin (maybe with appropriate rippling muscles) and gradually added a green effect?
^Zooming in on a body part wouldn't make it look like it was growing, just getting closer.
I still don't see the issue here. Spielberg and Lucas were always very open about the fact that it was an homage to old serials. There's a big difference between borrowing some elements from an old movie, and using footage from a director's movie without their permission. Sure he signed the contract and gave up his rights, but I still can see why he'd be pissed.
JD, it is about ethics--the original point. Raiders is not the same film at all without the blatant swiping from the Heston film. Calling it "homage" is avoiding the truth of the matter. Spielberg had no business screaming about TIH--a Universal production using footage it owned outright--as if "his" intellectual property had been taken (he owned nothing, and had no say in the matter), when his formative career was based on exactly that--taking the intellectual property of others, injecting it into his work, and basking in the accolades as if he's some wholly original creator. Hypocrisy and ethical bankruptcy.
