MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

I wish MeTV would get The Greatest American Hero. I think it's on some streaming service I can get, but oddly, it lacks the pilot episode.

Wow, Robert Culp must've had a hell of an agent. Not only his own "Starring" credit to equal Katt's, not only an "as Bill Maxwell" credit for extra prestige, but he even rates a cartouche like the kind the Egyptians reserved for the names of royalty.

 

Damn, I had forgotten that he was so young when he died.

Ah, great stuff. Vintage Rock'n'Roll (although he was marketed as New Wave-ish in those days). Tom Petty really produced some classic material.

Eh, I'm not a big fan of 80s Hall & Oates.

I was never a big fan of Greatest American Hero, either. The song is okay. Robert Culp was great.

Not their best effort, but, yes, I like it.

 

The glory days were just a distant image in the rear view mirror at this point.

One of their last handful of hits before burning out in a shocking, overnight manner.

Some TV themes were completely unsuited for airplay.

I'll take that before the track that's usually skipped over on "TV Theme" collections any day.

 

Really? I love his stuff well into the 90s. What do you consider his glory days?

Yeah, I love the Wilburys, too.

I hate that show so much.

 

The Incredible Hulk--
"Danny"

A young man named Ben races through the woods, pursued by Hugh & Red, two armed men in a truck (accusing him of the theft of a truck & farm equipment). Ben loses the men by heading to the highway, but the men guess he's headed there, and follow, running up on hitchhiking David Bentzen. The men question David (if he's seen Ben), but speed off, hostile toward Banner for not coughing up answers. David--who spotted Ben hiding in the bushes--assures the man of his safety. David helps the injured Ben back to a camper site, shared with his older brother Nat, Rachel and her baby, Danny. Nat writes off Ben's trouble as being the reaction of locals to "free men". Ben is certain David does not "know anything", but Nat is not sure, so under the pretense of hospitality, he offers Banner a place to stay overnight.

At the local stream, David meets Rachel and her child. Rachel is quick to grumble about Nat's control over their lives--a position he also held with Tim, her late husband. In private, Nat proposes to Rachel--pointing out that she once said she needed time to think about it, but she turns him--and his promise of buying some farm property after "one more job"--down, as its the same kind of unstable life/plans her late husband once made. Insulted, Nat slaps Rachel, accusing her of looking at every other man who crosses their paths, and blaming the child for "getting in the way" of their relationship. Nat stares at the child and moves toward him in a threatening manner, only for Rachel to order him out of her tent, leaving the boiling Nat to vent his rejection at David.

The next day, Nat tries to play nice with David, expressing no hard feelings, but giving every impression that his relationship with Rachel is close to exploding. David leaves, ignoring his instinct to press the matter. Sometime later, Nat & Ben discover Rachel and Danny have abandoned the camp; Nat instantly accuses David of running off with her, grabs his rifle and coerces Ben to join him--all to prevent Rachel from telling the police about something...

Making his way back to the highway, David spots Rachel and Danny, and offers to help them reach her aunt's home one town over. Meanwhile, Nat is convinced Rachel is--

Nat: "...headed for the machinery."
Ben: "Why? Why would they go there?"
Nat: "You should know the answer to that. you stole that truck, didn't you?"
Ben: "I told you Nat--I never would've took it if I'd known about the serial numbers.You never told me!"
Nat: "I'm not gonna waste my time arguing with you.It's just another case of you messing up.Now they know the stuff's there, and we gotta beat them to it."

Rachel and David rest for awhile, exchanging personal stories, with the woman admitting she did not want a child, but her son is the best thing that's ever happened to her. Its not long before Nat and Ben catch up to the trio. Nat accuses Rachel of revealing the location of stolen, valuable--and untraceable--farm equipment. During the confusion, Nat pushes Rachel--holding Danny--to the ground; David tries to wrest the rifle from Nat, but is knocked down a small hill--and into a barbed wire fence. Between struggling (the wire cutting into his body) and Nat attempting to leave Danny behind, he Hulks out, quickly retrieves Danny (noticeably calm in the Hulk's arms), then pushes a windmill tower over in the direction of the gun-brandishing Nat. The destructive distraction buys the Hulk enough time to escape with the baby--leaving a hysterical Rachel in the distance.

The Hulk comes to rest outside of a farm. The creature calms down, finding the baby fascinating., which eases the Hulk back to Banner.

With David "gone", Nat angrily orders Ben and Rachel back to the camp, in anticipation of selling the the stolen equipment. On that note, Hugh & "Red"--the two men who pursued Ben discuss the truck & equipment theft and its terrible impact on their farms, with one arguing against hunting anyone with a rifle...

Elsewhere, David dons a scarecrow's clothing, finds the stolen truck* and heads into town. He does not get far before the two farmers nearly run Banner off of the road. Despite the now hot-headed David arguing for the safety of the baby, and his innocence regarding the theft, the farmers force him to drive back to the location of the stolen property. Once there, they are held at gunpoint by Nat, who orders Ben to return Danny back to Rachel. While the overjoyed Rachel is reunited with her child, Nat's true nature emerges, as he uses one of the stolen earth movers to dig a large grave for his enemies.
At gunpoint, he orders David, Hugh and Red into the pit, until he's attacked by Ben, causing a wild shot to hit David's arm--while the fight all three would-be victims into the pit.

Nat attempts to bury the men when he startled by the bodies of the farmers soaring out of the pit--followed by the Hulk. The creature glares at Nat, who tries to run the Hulk over, but ends up falling into the pit as the Hulk flips the earth mover. Taking one last look at Danny, the Hulk leaves Rachel & Ben wondering what happens next.

Some time passes and a travel-ready David is visiting Danny & Rachel on her aunt's farm. Nat and Ben are serving time in jail, but due to the circumstances of the heist, Ben will be released in the near future, with Rachel's aunt offering a roof over his head. Rachel asks David to stay, but that's not an option--even at a fairly remote, tranquil setting like the farm.

NOTES:

This is not a cure-related episode.

Jack McGee does not appear in this episode.

When Rachel asks if David has a wife, he replies, "she passed away", but we don't know if he's referring to Laura or Carolyn.

Although young Danny will never remember it, he's joined the short list of people to witness David's transformation from the Hulk. .

The truck stealing scene suggests David has learned how to hotwire a vehicle, since no character said the keys were left in the truck.

Any episode named for (and the main motivations of the star & main guest) a child would be predictably light with the B story (the stolen farm equipment), so it was acceptable not to have so much development for some of the supporting players. Not the finest of TIH stories. More of a mid-range episode.

GUEST CAST:

Robin Dearden (Rachel) returns to TIH, following her season three role in "Brain Child" (as Joleen Collins). Dearden's fantasy credits are rather slim, beginning as a regular on Magic Mongo, one of the segments of The Krofft Supershow (ABC, 1976-78), and a guest appearance on another Krofft series, Bigfoot and Wildboy ("Meteor Menace" - ABC, 1979). Other fantasy roles include--

• Earthlings (Warner Brothers Television, 1984)
• Fantasy Hospital (Dumper Entertainment, 2016)

Don Stroud (Nat)--usually cast in western, counter-culture or biographical productions (e.g. Bloody Mama, & The Buddy Holly Story), Stroud managed to dip his toes in fantasy waters along the way--

• The Deadly Dream (Universal, 1971)
• Nightmare Step (aired as part of The ABC Mystery Movie, 1973)
• The House by the Lake (Canadian Film Development Corporation, 1976)
• Supertrain (NBC, 1979) - "Express to Terror"
• The Amityville Horror (AIP, 1979)
• The Powers of Matthew Star (NBC, 1982) - "Mother"
• Hyper Space (Consortium Entertainment Group, 1989)
• License to Kill (MGM/UA, 1989) - Yes, this is the second (and final) of Timothy Dalton's James Bond films
• Quantum Leap (NBC, 1991) - "Paly Ball - April 6, 1961"
• Super Force (Syndicated, 1991) - "Carcinoma Angels"

...and a trilogy putting the Star Wars OT to shame...or maybe not...

• The Roller Blade Seven (York Pictures, 1991)
• Return of the Roller Blade Seven (York Pictures, 1992)
• Legend of the Roller Blade Seven (York Pictures, 1992)

...moving on...

• Frogtown II (York Pictures, 1992)
• Cyber Seeker (Pebble Productions, 1993)
• Carnosaur 2 (Concorde-New Horizons, 1995)
• The Alien Within (Concorde-New Horizons, 1995)
• The Haunted Sea (Concorde-New Horizons, 1997)

Bruce Wright (Ben) previously guest starred in TIH episodes "A Solitary Place" &"Sideshow"--

• Battlestar Galactica (Universal, 1978) - pilot movie
• Battlestar Galactica (ABC, 1978-1979) - 5 episodes as various characters
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (NBC, 1980) - "Happy Birthday, Buck"
• Galactica: 1980 (ABC, 1980) - "Galactica Discovers the Earth: Part II"
• Brave New World (Universal, 1980)
• Fire in the Sky (Paramount, 1993)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Syndicated, 1996) - "Crossfire"
• The X-Files (FOX, 2001) - "Empedocles"
• Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN, 2003) - "The Expanse"

 

For years I thought the words were "The Way is the Heart is Part".

 

Hulk: “Danny”: I have no memory of ever seeing this episode. I wonder, did I somehow manage to miss it all these years, or is it just that forgettable? I do remember the musical theme used for the action portions, the one that opens the episode, but it’s probably used in other episodes, so I could know it from them. It does seem more like a theme for baddies in an urban setting than for this backwoods story. (Baby Danny’s theme, by the way, is a variant on the Banner family theme from “Homecoming.”)

Anyway, I can’t think of a lot to say about it. Except to note that it’s the first of two episodes written by Diane Frolov, who would go on to be a writer on V: The Final Battle (sequel to the Kenneth Johnson miniseries) and a writer-producer on Johnson’s Alien Nation, partnered in the latter case with Hulk writer-producer Andrew Schneider. And to mention that it’s another case of a Hulk-out without a white-eyes shot or music.

Sometimes I wish David hadn’t evolved into such a quiet, reserved character at this point. When he recovered and found a baby in his lap, I kind of wanted to hear him say something like, “Oh, Hulk, what have you done this time?”

 

Sounds like words of wisdom you'd get from one of those bearded guys at the top of a mountain.

Opening themes a minute long, next-episode previews a minute long-- those were the days.

 

And now Hall has a cooking show. No idea what happened to Oates.

 

Yeah, TGAH was a superhero show from an era when superheroes were seen as something embarrassing, and it really kinda dates the show. These days, superheroes are cool. And if Ralph were caught in public in his suit, he'd more likely be seen as a cosplayer than a lunatic.

 

It was on Palladia, which I couldn't get because it was high-def only. I used to see it at my Brother's house sometimes. I'm not sure what it's broadcast status is at the moment, but it looks like you can stream episodes from his website. Every episode features a musical guest who jams with Daryl and then they chow down. Go figure.

 

Land of the Giants: “A Small War”: The premise for this one seems kind of silly -- the Little People are attacked by a boy playing with radio-controlled toy soldiers and vehicles that just happen to be exactly 1/12 scale (i.e. Earthling-sized), and he assumes the LP are just really sophisticated toys belonging to a rival kid. He has to be pretty dumb to be unaware of the LP’s existence after they’ve been all over the news for two years. Still, it is fairly effective to see the crew under attack by an intractable foe determined to kill them and immune to reason and negotiation, and it’s pretty much nonstop action and fighting for their lives. There’s even a pretty dark moment where Mark is willing to kill the boy in order to stop his attacks. Eventually, though, the kid comes to his senses and helps protect the LP when his father (Charles Drake) realizes what they are and tries to capture them for the reward.

For once, the first-season “alien” naming conventions are back in use. The boy is Alek, but his unseen rival is Valko, and the father’s name (in the credits only) is Erdap -- padre spelled backward, a return to the pun-naming convention we saw in season 1’s “Shell Game.”

 

It was their last gasp where listenable music was concerned. Crap like "Family Man" may have charted, but its far from quality work, or anything approaching their best.