MeTV's SuperSci-Fi Saturday Night

It really amazes me how they still came out with new plots, given the constraints of the formula. How is it possible that TPTB didn't suspect that viewers after 5 years perhaps wanted something slightly different..?

 

We're talking '70s and '80s TV. Lots of shows kept up the same unvarying formula for much longer than 5 years. It's what network execs wanted -- standardization, consistency, interchangeability. They wanted episodes they could run in any order, that could be sold in syndication and rerun over and over for years on end, that would offer something consistent and reliable. They wanted series to maintain a uniform status quo so they could keep them running as long as possible. I'm sure lots of producers chafed at it and wished to push for more, but the execs loved their formulas.

Heck, shows today are just as formulaic in a different way -- always have one big bad per season, always bring everything to a climax in the finale, fit nearly every fantasy or SF premise into a crime-procedural format, always have the cases of the week coincidentally resonate with whatever personal drama the leads are going through at the moment, etc. True, the stories and relationships are allowed to progress more than they were back then, but that doesn't mean there aren't still rigid formulas and cliches governing the form. They're just different formulas and cliches.

Really, though, what kind of changes would've been possible for The Incredible Hulk? If David found his cure, or if McGee got his story, the show would be over. Both the protagonists' quests had to remain unresolved. There could be subtle changes in their relationship, like McGee discovering the Hulk was a man and gradually becoming more protective and sympathetic toward him. Maybe they coudl've even had McGee realize "John" was David Banner, but be unable to prove it to his editor. But that wouldn't have altered the basic formula much.

There was a time when the network tried to convince the producers to give David a sidekick, a Rick Jones-like character (though not Rick himself, I think) with whom he would travel the country in an RV (sort of like Filmation's Shazam, I guess). But that was mainly a cost-cutting measure, so they could use the RV as a standing set and do less location filming. I think they also wanted to cut down to one Hulk-out per episode, also for budgetary reasons. That's really the only reason a show back then would go through any major change -- because of a budget cut or a cast change, or because the show was sagging in the ratings and the network or producers wanted to try something different. (For instance, Mission: Impossible switching from an international spy show to a crimefighting show in season 6-7, both because spy stories were less popular by then and because it saved money to set all the stories stateside and not have to fake exotic locations. And reducing the team size by one member due to budget cuts.)

 

I mean I'm not too interested in reviewing them. Unlike the Star Trek (TOS) movies, the Hulk reunion films did not feel like a natural "next chapter" in the series, but more in the vein of the endless reunion TV movies cashing in on nostalgia (Gilligan's Island, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Leave it to Beaver, etc.), instead of having a genuine purpose that honored the creative drive and spirit of the original series.

Compelling, but not enough time to dedicate to a subject that demands more in order for Isaac's motives to be fully understood. Still, the reverse racism to such an extreme degree was rare for North American TV of the period, so one can give this story credit for tackling a bold, grim subject.

Well, Isaac did have clothes for the slaves to wear, so we can assume Banner found that stash. The only thing than cannot be explained away is the travel bag.

^ That might move you a few feet closer to RJDiogenes' usual position...in the airlock...

From my memory, it seems so. TIH had been screwed over in its last season, with first run episodes not airing consistently. Ever the network rally cry for cancellation .Essentially, its the same way CBS mistreated The Amazing Spider-Man.

Eh.

The Motels were certainly of their period, but this track seems like it would have been at home in 1979.

Not enough credit given to a song that influenced so many 12-inch dance and early rap singles in that decade.

Eh.

Classic, teasing track.

 

The man-on-the-run plot can--in theory--go on and on as long as there are new faces and locales to explore. In other words, the earth is the backdrop. Still, I've read one Kenneth Johnson interview where he recalled wanting to eventually have David find a cure, and as a result, end the series. I think Johnson was not like so many modern day writer/producers where they will do anything to milk a show until its dry, even after audience interest fades and/or the original spirit/drive of the show had been lost, ignored or compromised. With David coming across so many near-cures, it seems reasonable to think he would eventually find the one, and again, there's the series conclusion.

The only issue--and one that would invite interesting drama--is how a cured Banner returns to normal life. Even if the Hulk vanished, and most of the population considered him a "Bigfoot" tabloid creation, David Banner was still legally dead, so where would he go with his life?

 

Maybe. But the thing about '70s and '80s TV was that episodes like that were occasional special events amid the majority of self-contained, formula-maintaining episodes. And what happened in the case of TIH, for some reason, is that they held back a bunch of the routine episodes they made for the fourth production block and then burned them off as the "fifth season." Maybe they hoped they'd get to make more new episodes and be able to parcel out these weak ones in between some bigger stories more in the vein of "Prometheus" or "The First," but instead they didn't get any new episodes commissioned and just had to trail off with a whimper. Or maybe they were afraid of being cancelled after season 4 and having episodes left unaired, so they front-loaded that season with the stronger episodes so that only the more expendable ones might be skipped. But then those leftovers got aired anyway as a fifth season.

 

That's nice. I get lonely.

Evolving the Hulk would have been an interesting move. The Hulk was basically a child-- what if he grew up? Began to think, speak, learn? Suppose David found a cure only to discover that his alter ego was a person, and using it would kill him?

Yes, of oxygen.

 

Yes, I know that in my head, but still I think about how incredibly frustrating It had to be for the viewers, especially if they were watching shows that used the Fugitive formula. Heck, probably the only show that followed the formula and had some kind of resolution was the original Fugitive!

At least today viewers can harbor the hope that perhaps their favorite shows will have some kind of closure...

 

I dunno. The comics have tended to portray Banner and the Hulk as separate personalities, but as far as the show was concerned, the Hulk was just David with his intelligence suppressed. The Hulk always acted on whatever David was feeling at the moment of transformation, and seemed to remember things that David knew (like in the episode where David got precognition -- the Hulk knew which machine to smash because David had been told which machine to deactivate). And characters who knew the secret addressed the creature as "David." Even McGee started calling him "John" in both forms once he found out. David tended to think of the creature as a separate being, but as I've said before, I think that was basically the reason he couldn't control it -- because he was afraid to accept that the creature was a part of himself, and as long as he treated it as an external force, he couldn't recognize his own ability to govern it.

Indeed, the comics' Hulk was like that for a while as well. In the first two issues, the Hulk was clearly a distinct and malevolent personality, the Hyde to Banner's Jekyll, but that was quickly ditched, and the Hulk soon ended up as just Banner with his intellect intact but with more anger and less inhibition. But there were a couple of periods where he was trapped in Hulk form permanently, and the longer he stayed in that form, the more his passions and instincts ruled and his intellect faded, reducing him to the "Hulk smash" mode, a dimwitted rage fiend who had trouble remembering that he was actually Bruce Banner. This gradual deterioration happened about twice, and after that they just simplified it to the point where the Hulk was always a monosyllabic brute who considered Banner a separate person. And it was a couple of decades later that writers started treating Banner as an actual multiple-personality case whose disorder manifested physically.

Yeah, I seem to recall that critics and creators often railed against the formulaic demands of network TV. Indeed, I recall that my local newspaper TV critic dismissed The Incredible Hulk as a bad, lowbrow show because it was just another predictable, formulaic action show like all the rest, and in response to reading that, I developed the opinion that shows couldn't help the formulas that the networks imposed on them, and what defined their worth was how much they managed to achieve within the confines of those formulas. TIH was one of the shows that did manage to do more, to tell good, thoughtful character dramas and have something to say.

But again, I feel today's shows are just as constricted by formula. Everything has to be serialized now, everything has to be one big story arc, and sometimes I miss just having self-contained episodes. And I get tired of shows where a new big bad begins to emerge every September and finally gets defeated in late May. That's an enormously artificial and absurdly rigid formula.

There's something to be said for closure, in the case of a premise like TIH where the character is pursuing a quest. But there's also some appeal in being able to believe that your favorite heroes are carrying on with their adventures even after their shows are no longer being made.

 

I stand corrected.

 

Sometimes I read interviews with creators/showrunners of old shows who explains what wonderful ideas they had for a series finale (if only networks let them!).

I believe they they just humor their interviewers, because pre-80s' American tv shows with a "proper" finale can be counted on the fingers of a hand.

 

In dramas, anyway. I think they were somewhat more common in sitcoms, although sometimes they were just clip shows where the characters would sit around and reminisce.

Another '60s show that had a finale was Route 66, which came to a planned ending in 1964, predating The Fugitive's finale by three years.

 

It looks like Kolchak is out of the rotation--replaced by.(pardon me, but I threw up a little in my mouth)...Touched by an Angel

 

Does Kolchak investigate angels?

 

Well, some angels can be pretty deadly...

 

You made me think of this...

 

Now I remember that even when they tried to do something different, well, it didn't work...

 

Eh, forgettable pop.

Not his best.

Okay song but a great video.

New Wave classic. The hair has taken on a life of its own,becoming an 80's signature.

Another classic.