The Greatest American Hero was my favorite show growing up. It is one of the few shows I can still watch as an adult. I think the show holds up quite nicely, except for the special effects. That said, this episode and the Beast In Black actually scared the hell out of me when they first aired. I was 7 years old and can remember watching it with my mother. She would let me stay up until 9 o'clock on Wednesday just so I wouldn't miss Hero. We were the first family to have a VCR on my block. We got it around Christmas time 1979/1980. I remember, like it was yesterday, taping the pilot in '81. I can also remember watching the episodes Fire Man, The Best Desk Scenario, 200 mile Fastball, Hog Wild, Operation: Spoiledsport, The Beast in Black, The Lost Diablo, The Price is Right and Heaven is in Your Genes. I have no idea why these episodes are the only ones I can actually remember sitting on the couch next to my mother watching because I know I saw them all. That said... The real reason for Hero's demise wasn't just ABC trying to make it a kid's show, it was ABC moving it from Wednesday before The Fall Guy to Friday opposite The Dukes of Hazard and Dallas. Also, it was during the second season (while making the episode Capt. Bellybuster and the Speed Factory), creator Stephen J. Cannell lost his 15 year old son in a tragic accident on the beach. I think, after that, it was understandably harder for Cannell to fight with ABC over the integrity of the show.
If you think about it... This is what the suit is for.. Not just for the solar stuff.. But from Nuclear stuff too.. Is is as serious as it can get..... I could not imaging how freaked Ralph must have been to have to try and prevent WWIII.. At one point he says he wants to take his kid and fly away... That hurt me as he was not sure about what to do... That is something most super hero shows never touch on....
I've heard that there was a lot of meddling with executives and thats why they went a little bit away from there focuse on character (the strongest aspect of the show) to make it a lmittle ore standard action adventure and seeing how they promo this episode it makes a lot more sense. I really apreciate this archive channel
You are 100% correct. Of course we will never know what would have happened if the stories had stayed more character driven, but I would like to think it would have helped the series in the long run. I love Operation: Spoilsport, but that's not how the series was sold to the network. Thanks very much for watching!
@@tgaharchives1981 Yeah, to me Operation: Spoilsport is an example of an episode where they left the characters/Ralph's personal life, and a hero saves the world plot was actually very entertaining. The ending with Ralph shoving the warhead back into the ground until it exploded, and all those dudes just standing in a bunker watching a nuclear explosion was dumb, but otherwise a great episode. This episode preceded the Matthew Broderick movie Wargames by a couple years if I'm not mistaken.
Easily my fave episode of the series, such a shame all the official releases have music replacement, including the pivitol "Eve of Destruction" that the whole episode is built around :(
The official Japanese DVD release and Blu-ray release have all the original music. Blu-rays are upscales not true scanned from the original negative HD quality. Both are OOP.
The Greatest American Hero was my favorite show growing up. It is one of the few shows I can still watch as an adult. I think the show holds up quite nicely, except for the special effects. That said, this episode and the Beast In Black actually scared the hell out of me when they first aired. I was 7 years old and can remember watching it with my mother. She would let me stay up until 9 o'clock on Wednesday just so I wouldn't miss Hero.
We were the first family to have a VCR on my block. We got it around Christmas time 1979/1980. I remember, like it was yesterday, taping the pilot in '81. I can also remember watching the episodes Fire Man, The Best Desk Scenario, 200 mile Fastball, Hog Wild, Operation: Spoiledsport, The Beast in Black, The Lost Diablo, The Price is Right and Heaven is in Your Genes. I have no idea why these episodes are the only ones I can actually remember sitting on the couch next to my mother watching because I know I saw them all. That said...
The real reason for Hero's demise wasn't just ABC trying to make it a kid's show, it was ABC moving it from Wednesday before The Fall Guy to Friday opposite The Dukes of Hazard and Dallas. Also, it was during the second season (while making the episode Capt. Bellybuster and the Speed Factory), creator Stephen J. Cannell lost his 15 year old son in a tragic accident on the beach. I think, after that, it was understandably harder for Cannell to fight with ABC over the integrity of the show.
If you think about it... This is what the suit is for.. Not just for the solar stuff.. But from Nuclear stuff too.. Is is as serious as it can get..... I could not imaging how freaked Ralph must have been to have to try and prevent WWIII.. At one point he says he wants to take his kid and fly away... That hurt me as he was not sure about what to do... That is something most super hero shows never touch on....
I've heard that there was a lot of meddling with executives and thats why they went a little bit away from there focuse on character (the strongest aspect of the show) to make it a lmittle ore standard action adventure and seeing how they promo this episode it makes a lot more sense. I really apreciate this archive channel
You are 100% correct. Of course we will never know what would have happened if the stories had stayed more character driven, but I would like to think it would have helped the series in the long run. I love Operation: Spoilsport, but that's not how the series was sold to the network. Thanks very much for watching!
@@tgaharchives1981 Yeah, to me Operation: Spoilsport is an example of an episode where they left the characters/Ralph's personal life, and a hero saves the world plot was actually very entertaining. The ending with Ralph shoving the warhead back into the ground until it exploded, and all those dudes just standing in a bunker watching a nuclear explosion was dumb, but otherwise a great episode. This episode preceded the Matthew Broderick movie Wargames by a couple years if I'm not mistaken.
Easily my fave episode of the series, such a shame all the official releases have music replacement, including the pivitol "Eve of Destruction" that the whole episode is built around :(
The official Japanese DVD release and Blu-ray release have all the original music. Blu-rays are upscales not true scanned from the original negative HD quality. Both are OOP.
@@tgaharchives1981 did they include the English language soundtrack too?
@@bionicbobt Yes the English soundtrack is intact