News The Greatest American Hero Reboot Lands at ABC

Native American or Asian Indian?

Maxwell's job, which federal branch he or she works for, defines what this show will be about. Consider the different if Maxwell works for ATF, INS, DoHS, USPO or still maybe the FBI.

 

That wasn't about "this day and age," it was about Powerless just not being very well-written. And that isn't even a good analogy, because that was an office sitcom set in the DC Universe, while TGAH was more of an action drama with comedic elements.

Although it sounds like the remake may be going for more of an outright comedy approach, and that does concern me. It sounds like they're making the new lead someone who doesn't just have trouble controlling the supersuit but is a screwup in everyday life as well. I'm not sure that's a good idea. What was cool about the original dynamic was that Bill was the screwup, the washed-up, cynical agent, but at the same time he was the one who seized on the potential of the supersuit to do good and urged Ralph to become a hero, thereby becoming a better man himself in the process.

 

I had the same question, but considering that calling Native Americans "Indians" is kinda politically incorrect these days, I'd have to assume they mean the Asian kind.

 

The character's name is Meera. That's a common South Asian name, meaning "prosperous" in Hindi. Besides, nobody would say "Indian-American" to mean Native American; they'd say "American Indian" at most. Indian-American means an American whose ancestors were from India.

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest were his two original stories. So don't say never!

 

Believe it or not...George is not home....where can I be?

 

This is a really good observation. The story was that Ralph was an excellent teacher who was assigned to some troubled students and was really making a difference in their lives. With the suit he was more of a fish out of water being thrown into a foreign element. But his personal skills and intelligence were still at play.

 

Oh I'm sure they'll keep it, but it'll be another horrible remix like in every other remake we've seen.

I am feeling cautiously optimistic about the show itself though. I just hope they keep it closer to the spirit of the original with its comedy that arose more from the craziness of the situation and the actor's great chemistry, versus being some wacky superhero spoof with lots of sitcommy jokes.

And of course I hope they don't try to modernize the suit too much like they do with every other superhero suit these days, but remember that it's still supposed to be something kinda cheesy and embarrassing to wear in public, as it was for Ralph (even though of course it was a costume we all wanted to have as kids anyway).

 

I think it was actually a pretty good-looking supersuit for the time. The red tunic and black cape with red trim looked pretty snazzy, and the "alien" symbol on the chest and belt buckle was a nice, distinctive design. The embarrassment came from the cultural attitude toward superheroes, not anything to do with the quality of the costume. (The costume designer was Jean-Pierre Dorleac, who also designed the costumes for the original Battlestar Galactica.)

What always got me about the costume was the conceit that whenever Ralph used his powers while in street clothes, he had to pull out the cuff of the suit sleeve or open his shirt to expose its collar. There was never anything in dialogue about him needing to expose the suit to the light or air to activate it; it was just a contrived move for the camera, a visual reminder that he had the suit on under his clothes. But we knew he usually wore the suit under his clothes, so that cue wasn't really necessary, and it was very artificial since he had no in-story need to do it. So it always annoyed me.

 

If they want the story to be taken even semi seriously, I think would need to update the suit. The design for the suit was pretty much just how they did supersuits at the time, so IMO they should do the same for the new one, and design a suit that can stand right up there with Arrowverse and MCU TV costumes. Now if this is an outright pure comedy/superhero parody, then they could probably get away with the original design.

 

The design of Ralph's suit made sense for the same reason that skintight superhero costumes have always made sense -- because it was meant to be worn under clothing and thus had to be skintight. The modern convention of bulky body-armor supersuits is really quite preposterous if they're supposed to be worn under clothing. Making something more elaborate and textured isn't automatically better.

So think less the Flash or Green Arrow and more Supergirl or Spider-Man. The style of the MCU Spidey costume might be a good way to go -- something that's thin and skintight but has advanced microcircuitry built into it, in keeping with the premise that it's a piece of advanced alien technology.

Still, I think the basic design is perfectly fine. It's just a matter of refining the materials and details a bit. Look at Supergirl's TV costume as designed by Colleen Atwood -- it's reasonably simple and functional, more like a tennis dress with a cape than some overthought piece of body armor, but it's elegantly tailored and its materials look sophisticated and durable. It's not very different from the costume Helen Slater wore in 1984, just with differences in detail and materials: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f0/25/61/f025610e5178cb100920c140a9a9fdcf.jpg So that's the kind of updating I'd prefer -- keep it simple, keep it faithful. Refine the details and the materials but trust the simplicity of the design.

 

Yeah I don't expect they would keep it as just simple, thin spandex like the original. I just don't want them going crazy with the textures and thick layers like we see with, say, the Arrow or Daredevil suits. Something like the Supergirl suit would be fine though as you say.

And the original suit may have looked cool on screen, but it was also easy to understand why Ralph would have felt embarrassed to wear it (much like the actor himself often did), since the show still took place in a pretty normal, everyday world that didn't have people walking around in skin-tight superhero suits.

 

But people wore similar kinds of skintight fabrics for sports or jogging or cycling or swimming or whatnot. It wasn't about the physical structure of the costume, it was about the era's low opinion of superhero fiction. That's why the same approach wouldn't work today, when superheroes are a hugely lucrative and respectable genre.

From what the press release said about the new lead Meera, it sounds to me like they're relying less on embarrassment for humor and more on the character being a screwup to begin with.

 

Oh yeah

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_American_Hero

 

Hannah Simone to Star in ABC's 'Greatest American Hero' Remake

 

From the description of the part and her role on New Girl it sounds like a solid choice.

 

I'm not liking their description. They keep referring to it as a comedy, and only a half-hour long at that. The original was an hour-long drama (with occasional comedic elements).

 

I really like Simone on New Girl, so I'm pretty happy with the choice.