I started rewatching it last year but stopped before the end of season two. Funny to see big names like Danny "Daniel" Glover show up in small roles at the beginning of their careers.
Believe it or not, I'm walkin' on air I never thought I could feel so free Flyin' away on a wing and a prayer Who could it be? Believe it or not it's just me Sang this course to school for a while.
🎵Believe it or not, George isn't at home. Please leave a message at the beep. I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone. Where could I be? Believe it or not, I'm not home.🎵
The Greatest American Hero was _huge_ to me in my childhood. I was 5-7 when it aired, and I was obsessed with it. So much so that my aunt made a shirt for me with the emblem on the chest. That's right, I had a custom The Greatest American Hero t-shirt when I was a kid, and I wore it _constantly._ I've got all the episodes on DVD (I doubt it'll ever get upgraded for blu-ray.)
I used to love this show as a girl. I remember a period of time pre-internet in the 90s when no one really remembered the show. Now it falls comfortably into the retro/nostalgia category, but for awhile there, it felt like no one remembered the reluctant superhero in red pjs.
Agreed. I really liked this show too. I must have seen reruns, because I was four in 1981. But yeah, it was this thing I just barely remembered and would ask people about, to blank stares. People did not even know that the theme song came from a show. It's weird when you are the only one that knows about a show that was on one of the three networks that existed at the time. Toy Galaxy to the rescue!
@@wanderslostify I was in a store recently and the radio played the bosom buddies theme. (Or at least what I know it as) This song is exactly the same. Most people don't know or care where the song came from but a few people do and that always makes me happy.
No one remembered the show because of the name…. I used to have the hardest time recalling what the show was called and trying to describe it to someone even today wouldn’t strike a cord with most. Honestly the only thing that’s really memorable about the show is the theme song and the lead actor’s striking blond curly hair.
It's weird how they've soaked so deeply into the zeitgeist. I mean you know something's iconic when you've never seen a single episode but you know every word in the theme song.
@@AlthosWTF Heathcliff, heathcliff no one should terrorize the neighborhood. Whoa, oh oh oh oh oh. I think I watched a total of one episode of that show but the basic tune and most of the themes lyrics are still embedded in my brain. Fun (but not all that fun) fact that was the very last show Mel Blanc worked on before his death. As a matter of fact he was working on it up to his death and the entire cast agreed no one could possibly replace him so they simply canceled the show. True story.
ya know, i remember the premise and i remember dancing to the theme song in my jammy's in sheer joy! but i dont remember any specific episode. i wonder if i would if i watched it now.
@@tabbysmithfield3794 you might be surprised the little things that come back. I have that happen all the time when I go back to something I haven't watched since I was a kid.
here in Italy it was HUGE and well loved... it was called "Ralph Super-Maxi Eroe" and was on tv since 1985 untill 2000 like A-team and Ferrigno's Hulk sometimes with a lot of episodes always in repetition but well received by us as public.
That is very interesting. Maybe people here (in the United States) simply did not appreciate its value. I am not sure if I have ever watched an entire episode, though I have always liked the theme song.
I swear I think if it wasn't for the theme song this show would have been long forgotten. It is without a doubt the most iconic part of this show and the part everyone remembers and knows even people who have never seen or heard of the show.
And got vaporized as the priest at Barry and Iris's wedding in the Arrowverse Earth-X Crossover event. "Speak now, or forever hold your peace." - ZAAP. Bet he wished he had the suit on right then, he would have been an asset in the battle.
As a Spanish speaker, this was the first American TV show I watched as a kid. I saw it on syndication in Florida when I was 7 and was hooked on it. I didn't remember the title of the show, but I loved it. It wasn't until 2009 that I rediscovered it on UA-cam. Love the song too.
I still remember the episode scene where he loses the 2nd book of instructions. Learns that he can shrink. Does it. Puts the book down. Then gets scared by an ant and unshrinks leaving the book.
I was always soooo frustrated by that scene. The aliens in a later episode told him there are no more spare instruction books! Sucks for the next person to inherit the suit.
My head canon was always that there's a hypnotic suggestion built into the suit which forces the user to lose the instructions. The aliens want the recipient to grow into the power the suit offers by forcing them to learn how to use it the hard way, and so that they can't simply blame the aliens and absolve themselves of responsibility, the suit will always make the wearer somehow lose the book themselves.
Ralph lost the instructions to the suit *TWICE... That time he learned how to shrink himself then put the 2nd book down "on a boulder" aka a grain of sand then grew back to normal size. RIP. Poor guy couldnt win.
This, A-Team and Knight Rider were my live-action trifecta growing up. Also, almost every time I hear Ryan Reynolds, I picture Robert Culp's character. He'd be great in a reboot, if the production could afford him.
I really like the concept of this show and I get the whole "lost the instructions" angle, but after the 20th time Ralph crash landed into something and gave no indication that he was going to improve simply by doing, the novelty wore off for me. That theme song, though, is absolutely BANGIN'!
There was an episode where the aliens return and give him another instruction book and he almost immediately loses that one too. That was enough for me.
6:47 That's what got me stumped when I was learning Chinese in school because why would Stephen use the Chinese word of "centre" for a logo. Now I know. It's from a pair of scissors lying around. I can't imagine if he used another stationery such as a stapler or paper clip.
This is one of those shows I remembered from my very early childhood. I remember loving it. And then I decided to re-watch the show about a decade ago and was shocked to discover that it was actually a good show that held up nicely. Such great characters.
At the 25th anniversary reunion event Steven J Cannel said that of all of the television shows that he created, GAH was by far the best selling one on DVD. It had to go back into print several times to keep up with the demand. Unfortunately because of licensing issues (or being to cheep to peruse the rights) all of the DVD releases did not contain the Joey Scarbury cover songs that were in the original broadcast episodes and were replaced with new, crappier “sound-alike” songs for the syndicated and DVD releases. Can you tell I know a lot of worthlessness information about this show?
You and me both! One of my all time favorite shows. If you look up GAH on the Internet Archive, though, they have the pilot and about 12 episodes with the original music that were video taped during syndication in the 80s. Someone put them up on UA-cam a few years back, taped off the Action Channel, sadly, I didn't record them before they were taken down.
Scarbury's cover of Eve of Destruction is fantastic. It's a shame that it and others didn't make the DVDs. Still, there's good songwriting in the replacement songs and I like that they made it obvious that the new songs were homage to the originals. It was tastefully done and showed a lot of craft.
@@PaulBell-ko8mu I really wish I could agree with you, but for me the original music was as important to the integrity of the show as Cannell's writing and Culp's acting was.
@@TheNameisPlissken1981Using the original music was not an option. TGAH did a lot better at substitutions than WKRP. Nothing beats the original songs. I hope you didn't take my comment to mean that I prefer what was done afterwards. I don't. I respect the quality of what was done in the circumstances. It's good songwriting and production. If it was awesome, the new songs would have been stand-alone hits. That was never going to happen and the songs were never intended to be classics. Compared to what I hear on TV shows where they create their own music and try to make is sound familial, Post and the rest of TGAH did a fantastic job.
@@PaulBell-ko8mu I understand. I just wish I felt the same way because I struggle to enjoy certain episodes like Operation Spoilsport without the original music. In fact, I wish they just recycled the 6 or 7 original songs Post and Stephen Geyer did for episodes like Plague, Don't Mess With Jim & Capt. Bellybuster and the Speed Factory instead of using the music that they did use.
“Believe it or not I’m walking awound I nevew thought I could Twick or twe-he-heat!” Yes, my introduction to this show was, in fact, a Homestar Runner Halloween episode. (I saw the Seinfeld reference before that, but as a young kid who had never seen the original show, I thought George was just leaving a weird answering machine message.)
In case anyone was wondering, yes that was Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen, yes they were some sort of detectives, and no Goldblum was the one playing 'Brownshoe'. Why do I remember this stuff?
I loved this show! The theme song was the first record I'd ever owned. My aunt and I were driving home when it started playing on the radio. I must have mentioned how much I liked the song and show, because we stopped by a local music shop and she bought the single for me. Goodness knows how many times I played it. :D Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
I watched this show as a kid, I watched it on FX when it aired weekends on the Triple Action TV block with Wonder Woman and Green Hornet in the 1990s, and I still watch it on ME TV today.
Gotta say I loved GAH when I was a kid...he just wasnt like other Super Heroes...it was such a great twist he lost the instruction book and couldnt remember how to fly
"Ralph's uniform grants him the powers of flight, super strength, invulnerability, invisibility, precognition, telekinesis, X-ray vision, super speed, pyrokinesis, shrinking, psychometry ("holographic vision"), and even the ability to detect the supernatural" = Can't find the instructions to the suit
The main reason I thought about The Greatest American Hero was because the kick-off for the Arrowverse's Crisis on Earth-X event had William Katt play the minister at the Flash's wedding, that proceeded to get crashed by another dimension. And you know what, being the first person to die in a big crossover event isn't too shabby.
LOVED THE SHOW! ALSO LOVED THE SONG! I need to add that something happened to me back in 2019 After my first year in new job whose field Id been doing 15+ years. The new GM gave me a wooden plaque saying "Employee of the year". Which In had DIFFICULTY accepting. See I had been abused majority of my life. I then took a photo of the plaque and added song to it as a video. "The initial lyrics of Believe it or Not". I felt unworthy of the plaque. I know how the character Ralph felt at being a superhero. "It should have been somebody else"
I'm sure you were worthy of every square millimeter of that plaque, the work that went into making it, and so much more. Those people that told you different most of your life? They were wrong. Stay safe out there, 'k? 🙏
At the time Robert Culp's portrayal of Bill Maxwell cemented in my young impressionable mind the template of what an FBI agent looked, acted, and sounded like for many years. A testament to Culp's screen presence and acting abilities.
I loved that show as a kid in the 80’s. The theme song was so catchy and Connie such a honey. Funny a super suit from space has a user manual and the symbol on the suit is a Chinese character.
This was my favorite show when I was a little boy. When it would come on I would take this little bit I had and would put it on backwards like a cape. Then my parents wod pick me up and fly me around while the theme song played. We would all sing a long with it and at the end they would sing "believe it or not, it's Larry" (that's my real name) and then they would "crash" me into the sofa because Ralph could never land either. Honestly, it's one of my favorite memories!
I always wanted to watch this as a kid. I didn’t realize it ended when it did, which was right around when I was more conscious of the non-cartoon shows I was watching. Will always like the theme song. Good stuff! I think in 1983 I got really into shows like Hardcastle & McCormack, Airwolf, and Simon & Simon.
As someone who missed a lot of these the first time as I was born in 80 so many of these series are still so iconic all these years later. It feels so different and special compared to stuff now. They really tried to be a fun show with action but not so much violence. Very different then what we have these days for better or worse.
Sometimes I wonder if shows with truly great theme songs make us love them because of the song, but I'd like to believe it's because the songs masterfully capture the spirit of the show. Greatest American Hero, Golden Girls, Family Ties and Growing Pains have theme songs that never get old.
Awesome stuff! I watched this series when it originally debuted and loved it. I still hope Mego will do a new action figure version of Ralph in the suit. I would buy that in a heartbeat! Thanks for the video!👍
after watching the movie I was both happy and perplexed when they announced that it was going to be a series. I knew watching Ralph struggling to fly could only be funny for so long.
My Greatest American Hero moment was being sick as a kid. I was up late and the only thing on TV was a program guide for one channel, the rest were off the air. In the corner of the guide they looped the intro to the Greatest American hero over and over and over. It burned into my mind.. If you are looking a forgotten super hero movie that subverts all of the super hero tropes... The Specials is that film. It got overlooked because Mystery Men failed so hard this movie went direct to DVD. A great comedy well worth the watch if you like the subverted hero trope.
Toy Galaxy just gave me a top ten worthy, weirdest life moment…. I woke from a nap, popped in my earbuds and watched this video. Enjoyed it immensely. I spend a minute or two to continue waking up, and I get up and go out to the living room, where my girlfriend is watching Seinfeld. No sooner than I realize what she’s watching, I hear the song. It was the same moment from this video! My brain immediately had a segmentation fault and core dumped.
*"Prehaps this world overstaturated by superheroes hasn't quite reached the point where it can appreciate a concept that subverts all the cliches of the genre the way the Greatest American Hero did."* Have you seen how some of the heroes act in shows nowadays?
Actually the one that matches the most would be The Tick. Which I think all versions made fun of the tropes of the era it was made (though the first live action was more about the sitcoms like friends).
Legends of Tomorrow has (had) some of that aesthetic - screw-ups that still managed to prevail, but are actual messes in their lives, mixed with tons of comedy.
Nice! I loved The Greatest American Hero, its one of Stephen J. Cannell’s and Frank Lupo’s best created TV series. And the theme song, Believe It Or Not remains a fave. My fave character on the show wasn’t Ralph Hinkley, but Robert Culp’s FBI agent Bill Maxwell, who even got mentioned in Marvel Comics’ The A-Team #1 (“Diamonds Are a Thief’s Best Friend”).
When it came out last year I really wanted to cut together a Falcon & Winter Soldier opening with “Believe It or Not” as the theme song. Also, if you need another 80’s ABC TV show to pair with greatest American Hero, or to save for the premiere of a time travel show (Doctor Who, Loki, etc.) May I suggest Voyagers. Great job as always guys.
This show’s cast is the reason I am always telling people: this show ‘still holds up’!! The 3 amazing leads had perfect chemistry, and I rewatch this show every other Spring. Thanks for featuring it. Don’t miss the Bob Saget episode in S3, called Wizards and Warlocks, since they couldn’t use ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ title. It’s great!
I remember buying the boxed DVD set for this show. It had one of those digital recordings attached to it where you press the button and it plays 10 seconds of the theme song.
Yes, was just singing the theme song last week karaoke in Japan. This classic full of camp series is pure 80s in a bottle. It what I dream of when I try to fly in my dreams.
The charm of the first series was the characters and the actors, regardless of any behind-the-scenes drama. People didn't watch because of the basic premise, that he got a supersuit from aliens, and I think that's why reboots don't work. The humor and actors, particularly Robert Culp, is what made that show work, not the IP.
Nah we saw what they want to do with it same thing that's happening with the MCU and everything else marvel. If it ain't diverse and or woman it ain't getting made.
Some properties are about those who played the characters and not just the idea 💡 of the property. If you took all 3 leads and put them say an episode of Love American Style, Amazing Stories or an After School Special the chemistry would likely still exist. Kindergarten to First Grade favorite 🤩.
Something you might have missed, the guy that played Ralph, William Katt's mother was Barbara Hale. She played Della Street on the long running TV show Perry Mason staring Raymond Burr.
Great video featuring one of my favorite series of all time! I may wear out my DVD set before it’s all through. When I was in junior high school, one of my big thrills was singing lead on “Believe it or Not!” as the 8th grade choir sang backup. Good times! Given the show’s popularity, I have a hard time thinking of it as a “failure,” although, admittedly, I didn’t realize, until I bought my DVD set decades later, just how relatively short this series was. When you’re a kid, three seasons seems like a decade. But it can’t be a failure in my book, just a wonderful memory I will not forget.
I remember the show as a kid and couldn’t get enough of it. There was one episode in particular that really scared me is when Ralph went into the fourth dimension and his suit had no powers and he was being scratched up and attacked by demons. It really scared the sh*t out of me lol
I love this show, even with its multiple, massive faults. Besides all the enjoyment I had of this as a child, I picked up the box set as soon as it came out and showed my kids. The pilot was far cheesier than I recalled, with visible green screen and a "stone" wall that bounced when he hit it. My kids laughed at how bad it was and I did right along with them.
Very popular in Australia too. Loved it. This show is probably responsible for a bunch of red onesie's being sold. Losing the manual to the suit, frustrated the living hell out of me as a child (Kinda still does). Opening bars to the title song are instantly recognisable to any child from the 80's.
I regularly visit buffets in different cities around the states. Before I go to a buffet, I will place 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. After entering the buffet, I sneak the corndogs into some of the fried food section trays. It is such a joy for me to see other customers of the buffet eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
Yes, those silver scars on his body were the stuff of future nightmares. I loved Ralph and his heroics, but that was a scary episode. Although, I'll never forget how hard I laughed when the IRS guy was tied up in that one episode I can't remember the title of and Ralph clapped his hands making the guy jump! He thought the bad guys were beating him again.
@@davidjames468 it was the scary eyes and the lady sitting by the fire that freaked me out. The music was very creepy as well. Haha I don’t remember that episode.
I adored this show. I was 3 in '81, but I still understood what was going on. Watching it in syndication years later, I think the death knell of the series was when Ralph had to fight a sea monster. That's when it lost its "down to Earth" tone.
My parents would give me quarters to pick songs in the jukebox. The patrons must have hated me, because the only song I'd pick was the theme song to the greatest American hero. The good old days :)
I remember reading about a movie adaptation effort in the early 2000s that would feature Owen Wilson as the titular befuddled superhero. I hit Google and couldn't find much in a cursory search - just an article saying that the producers had decided to go with an "unknown" instead of Wilson.
I had the pilot movie on VHS and watched it repeatedly in my lower teens. Favorite episodes were "Beast in Black" and "Spoil Sport" with Sterling Hayden playing another obsessed USAF general.
William Katt did an episode of the Nickelodeon series The Thundermans (sitcom about a superhero family) playing the grandfather, "Sergeant Thunder", but he does say at one point that he was "the greatest American hero". 🤣
I used to doodle the Greatest American Hero in my notebooks in 2nd grade all the time: a stick figure with a triangle for the cape and curly lines for the hair on top. Loved this show!
Found a few episodes a few years ago, I get the show was a comedy but admit it bugged me that an somebody as smart and articulate as Ralph did not think to wear a mask when doing his heroic deeds. I saw an interview with Katt discussing how he and Culp didn't get along at first, so approached him [Culp] one day stating they needed to sort out the tension. I believe they became friends after that.
given the technological advancement we've made since the 80s I think a cowl would need to be added to the costume because where we're going to cost you would have their civilian identity expose right out the gate.
It's really one of those TV shows from the past that needs a movie to go with it. Seriously, Ralph was a reluctant hero, but someone who wanted to do good and help people. It was a show that had character and lovable characters and the fact that Ralph had little to no understanding as to what the suit could do just made things better because it meant it could be unpredictable. Something like this needs to be brought back.
I was hooked on this show as a kid. I still listen to the theme song on occasion and actually met him a few years ago at my local comic shop!
Same here. I even got my high school band director to give me a copy of the 1st Bb Trumpet part of the song. (This was 1989/1990... so... yeah.)
Nice
I started rewatching it last year but stopped before the end of season two. Funny to see big names like Danny "Daniel" Glover show up in small roles at the beginning of their careers.
The episode where they’re in the haunted house and Ralph gets slashed by that old lady ghost scared the shit out of me as a kid 😂😂
Believe it or not, I'm walkin' on air
I never thought I could feel so free
Flyin' away on a wing and a prayer
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me
Sang this course to school for a while.
🎵Believe it or not, George isn't at home.
Please leave a message at the beep.
I must be out, or I'd pick up the phone.
Where could I be?
Believe it or not, I'm not home.🎵
The Greatest American Hero was _huge_ to me in my childhood. I was 5-7 when it aired, and I was obsessed with it. So much so that my aunt made a shirt for me with the emblem on the chest. That's right, I had a custom The Greatest American Hero t-shirt when I was a kid, and I wore it _constantly._ I've got all the episodes on DVD (I doubt it'll ever get upgraded for blu-ray.)
I have the DVD box set too!! It's one of my treasures!!
I used to love this show as a girl. I remember a period of time pre-internet in the 90s when no one really remembered the show. Now it falls comfortably into the retro/nostalgia category, but for awhile there, it felt like no one remembered the reluctant superhero in red pjs.
I never watched it because my boomer parents said it was stupid. Now they watch fox news and ancient aliens.
Agreed. I really liked this show too. I must have seen reruns, because I was four in 1981. But yeah, it was this thing I just barely remembered and would ask people about, to blank stares. People did not even know that the theme song came from a show. It's weird when you are the only one that knows about a show that was on one of the three networks that existed at the time. Toy Galaxy to the rescue!
I grew up watching it, too, and the same thing happened to me. Before the Internet and social media, a cancelled show was really cancelled!
@@wanderslostify
I was in a store recently and the radio played the bosom buddies theme. (Or at least what I know it as)
This song is exactly the same.
Most people don't know or care where the song came from but a few people do and that always makes me happy.
No one remembered the show because of the name…. I used to have the hardest time recalling what the show was called and trying to describe it to someone even today wouldn’t strike a cord with most. Honestly the only thing that’s really memorable about the show is the theme song and the lead actor’s striking blond curly hair.
Greatest American Hero and Ducktales have the 2 most recognisable theme songs that even people who’ve never seen the shows know.
It's weird how they've soaked so deeply into the zeitgeist.
I mean you know something's iconic when you've never seen a single episode but you know every word in the theme song.
Agreed but I have to add the theme song to Heathcliff.
@@AlthosWTF
Heathcliff, heathcliff no one should terrorize the neighborhood. Whoa, oh oh oh oh oh.
I think I watched a total of one episode of that show but the basic tune and most of the themes lyrics are still embedded in my brain. Fun (but not all that fun) fact that was the very last show Mel Blanc worked on before his death. As a matter of fact he was working on it up to his death and the entire cast agreed no one could possibly replace him so they simply canceled the show. True story.
Ducktales..woo..hoooo
Bionic 6.
This show was my jam as a kid. I tried explaining the premise to my kids the other day and they just looked at me like I was stupid.
Same.
ya know, i remember the premise and i remember dancing to the theme song in my jammy's in sheer joy! but i dont remember any specific episode. i wonder if i would if i watched it now.
@@tabbysmithfield3794 you might be surprised the little things that come back. I have that happen all the time when I go back to something I haven't watched since I was a kid.
Feel like that’s like most things I try to explain to my kids re:things I watched as a child
Its like Chuck but a little more sillier.
here in Italy it was HUGE and well loved... it was called "Ralph Super-Maxi Eroe" and was on tv since 1985 untill 2000 like A-team and Ferrigno's Hulk sometimes with a lot of episodes always in repetition but well received by us as public.
It was popular all over Italy then?
@@btetschner yup!
That is very interesting.
Maybe people here (in the United States) simply did not appreciate its value.
I am not sure if I have ever watched an entire episode, though I have always liked the theme song.
I, for one, am Italy in microcosm here.
@@alanr4447a Do you live in a small village?
Connie Seleca was really something else back in the day!
She pretty much looks the same today.
She should have played Lois lane in the superman films.
SHE just was on show to look good, not for acting. AND did acting on show.
One of the greatest theme songs in all of television.
I swear I think if it wasn't for the theme song this show would have been long forgotten. It is without a doubt the most iconic part of this show and the part everyone remembers and knows even people who have never seen or heard of the show.
Cheers was my favorite, but i loved this too
I still sing it constantly
The golden age of TV theme songs - Cheers, WKRP, Greatest American Hero etc
Mike Post had so many smashes that he put out albums. I had one!
Bossom buddies!
Knight Rider, Airwolf, The Dukes of Hazzard, all brilliant.
William Katt was also great in the original Carrie, a very underrated actor.
And got vaporized as the priest at Barry and Iris's wedding in the Arrowverse Earth-X Crossover event. "Speak now, or forever hold your peace." - ZAAP. Bet he wished he had the suit on right then, he would have been an asset in the battle.
loved him in Pippin!
was good in Big Wednesday as well
I'll never stop loving this series. My teen son has only seen one episode but he sings the theme at least once a week without noticing.
I'll never forget this theme.
It is without a doubt far more iconic than the show itself. (Sorry but not sorry)
Forgive me for momentarily going all shallow, but: my god, I forgot just how stunning Connie Sellecca is.
Yep, I was always happy to see her in an episode
Back in the days when you had to wait week to week for your new show. This show definitely brings back the warm fuzzies.
As a Spanish speaker, this was the first American TV show I watched as a kid. I saw it on syndication in Florida when I was 7 and was hooked on it. I didn't remember the title of the show, but I loved it. It wasn't until 2009 that I rediscovered it on UA-cam.
Love the song too.
I still remember the episode scene where he loses the 2nd book of instructions. Learns that he can shrink. Does it. Puts the book down. Then gets scared by an ant and unshrinks leaving the book.
The instant Ralph set book2 down, I knew that was the end of it!
I was always soooo frustrated by that scene. The aliens in a later episode told him there are no more spare instruction books! Sucks for the next person to inherit the suit.
I always thought the book should've had a homing device.
@@rolandbujeiro42 That episode: "The Greatest American Heroine," the NBC pilot.
My head canon was always that there's a hypnotic suggestion built into the suit which forces the user to lose the instructions. The aliens want the recipient to grow into the power the suit offers by forcing them to learn how to use it the hard way, and so that they can't simply blame the aliens and absolve themselves of responsibility, the suit will always make the wearer somehow lose the book themselves.
Ralph lost the instructions to the suit *TWICE... That time he learned how to shrink himself then put the 2nd book down "on a boulder" aka a grain of sand then grew back to normal size. RIP. Poor guy couldnt win.
Yeah he was very clumsy
This, A-Team and Knight Rider were my live-action trifecta growing up. Also, almost every time I hear Ryan Reynolds, I picture Robert Culp's character. He'd be great in a reboot, if the production could afford him.
I got a Mint Mobile ad in the middle of the video and it made me realize the same thing.
Don't forget airwolf and street hawk (Granted that one was pretty much third tier, but I still liked it lol)
@@blackc1479 remember Automan and Manimal? 😁
@@theshadow2171 lol yeah, I liked em both but they couldn't stand up w the heavy hitters.....though I did always want my own personal cursor.
They might have trouble keeping Reynolds out of the costume.
I really like the concept of this show and I get the whole "lost the instructions" angle, but after the 20th time Ralph crash landed into something and gave no indication that he was going to improve simply by doing, the novelty wore off for me.
That theme song, though, is absolutely BANGIN'!
There was an episode where the aliens return and give him another instruction book and he almost immediately loses that one too. That was enough for me.
It would have been so cool if we saw a learning progression over time!
6:47 That's what got me stumped when I was learning Chinese in school because why would Stephen use the Chinese word of "centre" for a logo. Now I know. It's from a pair of scissors lying around. I can't imagine if he used another stationery such as a stapler or paper clip.
This is one of those shows I remembered from my very early childhood. I remember loving it. And then I decided to re-watch the show about a decade ago and was shocked to discover that it was actually a good show that held up nicely. Such great characters.
At the 25th anniversary reunion event Steven J Cannel said that of all of the television shows that he created, GAH was by far the best selling one on DVD. It had to go back into print several times to keep up with the demand. Unfortunately because of licensing issues (or being to cheep to peruse the rights) all of the DVD releases did not contain the Joey Scarbury cover songs that were in the original broadcast episodes and were replaced with new, crappier “sound-alike” songs for the syndicated and DVD releases. Can you tell I know a lot of worthlessness information about this show?
You and me both! One of my all time favorite shows. If you look up GAH on the Internet Archive, though, they have the pilot and about 12 episodes with the original music that were video taped during syndication in the 80s. Someone put them up on UA-cam a few years back, taped off the Action Channel, sadly, I didn't record them before they were taken down.
Scarbury's cover of Eve of Destruction is fantastic. It's a shame that it and others didn't make the DVDs. Still, there's good songwriting in the replacement songs and I like that they made it obvious that the new songs were homage to the originals. It was tastefully done and showed a lot of craft.
@@PaulBell-ko8mu I really wish I could agree with you, but for me the original music was as important to the integrity of the show as Cannell's writing and Culp's acting was.
@@TheNameisPlissken1981Using the original music was not an option. TGAH did a lot better at substitutions than WKRP. Nothing beats the original songs. I hope you didn't take my comment to mean that I prefer what was done afterwards. I don't. I respect the quality of what was done in the circumstances. It's good songwriting and production. If it was awesome, the new songs would have been stand-alone hits. That was never going to happen and the songs were never intended to be classics. Compared to what I hear on TV shows where they create their own music and try to make is sound familial, Post and the rest of TGAH did a fantastic job.
@@PaulBell-ko8mu I understand. I just wish I felt the same way because I struggle to enjoy certain episodes like Operation Spoilsport without the original music. In fact, I wish they just recycled the 6 or 7 original songs Post and Stephen Geyer did for episodes like Plague, Don't Mess With Jim & Capt. Bellybuster and the Speed Factory instead of using the music that they did use.
“Believe it or not
I’m walking awound
I nevew thought I could
Twick or twe-he-heat!”
Yes, my introduction to this show was, in fact, a Homestar Runner Halloween episode. (I saw the Seinfeld reference before that, but as a young kid who had never seen the original show, I thought George was just leaving a weird answering machine message.)
In case anyone was wondering, yes that was Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen, yes they were some sort of detectives, and no Goldblum was the one playing 'Brownshoe'.
Why do I remember this stuff?
Sexy Jeff Goldblum! His jurassic park scene made him unforgettable. Lol
Still the best theme song ever. I use it as my morning alarm.
I loved this show! The theme song was the first record I'd ever owned. My aunt and I were driving home when it started playing on the radio. I must have mentioned how much I liked the song and show, because we stopped by a local music shop and she bought the single for me. Goodness knows how many times I played it. :D
Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Yeah such a feel good song and feel good hour of evening TV.
My first record too
I watched this show as a kid, I watched it on FX when it aired weekends on the Triple Action TV block with Wonder Woman and Green Hornet in the 1990s, and I still watch it on ME TV today.
Oh yeah ME TV, I knew somebody was still showing this and The A-Team and pretty much any other iconic show from the 80s.
This was a favorite of mine. I can still hear Michael Pare calling William Katt "Mr. H." That must have been during the not-Hinckley episodes.
Gotta say I loved GAH when I was a kid...he just wasnt like other Super Heroes...it was such a great twist he lost the instruction book and couldnt remember how to fly
"Ralph's uniform grants him the powers of flight, super strength, invulnerability, invisibility, precognition, telekinesis, X-ray vision, super speed, pyrokinesis, shrinking, psychometry ("holographic vision"), and even the ability to detect the supernatural" = Can't find the instructions to the suit
The main reason I thought about The Greatest American Hero was because the kick-off for the Arrowverse's Crisis on Earth-X event had William Katt play the minister at the Flash's wedding, that proceeded to get crashed by another dimension.
And you know what, being the first person to die in a big crossover event isn't too shabby.
The amount of this video that was devoted to the song makes me happier than I can communicate in a UA-cam comment
I was expecting that Seinfeld reference and he did not disappoint.
LOVED THE SHOW! ALSO LOVED THE SONG! I need to add that something happened to me back in 2019 After my first year in new job whose field Id been doing 15+ years. The new GM gave me a wooden plaque saying "Employee of the year". Which In had DIFFICULTY accepting. See I had been abused majority of my life. I then took a photo of the plaque and added song to it as a video. "The initial lyrics of Believe it or Not". I felt unworthy of the plaque. I know how the character Ralph felt at being a superhero. "It should have been somebody else"
I'm sure you were worthy of every square millimeter of that plaque, the work that went into making it, and so much more. Those people that told you different most of your life? They were wrong.
Stay safe out there, 'k? 🙏
I think the concept for Greatest American Hero would work today too! I would like to see this get the silver screen treatment!
Watched this show non-stop and own the whole series now, it still holds up. I'd say it's even better as an adult, now that I understand the scripts.
At the time Robert Culp's portrayal of Bill Maxwell cemented in my young impressionable mind the template of what an FBI agent looked, acted, and sounded like for many years. A testament to Culp's screen presence and acting abilities.
I loved that show as a kid in the 80’s. The theme song was so catchy and Connie such a honey. Funny a super suit from space has a user manual and the symbol on the suit is a Chinese character.
I was a little young for this one, but a show I loved in a similar vein was My Secret Identity.
This was my favorite show when I was a little boy. When it would come on I would take this little bit I had and would put it on backwards like a cape. Then my parents wod pick me up and fly me around while the theme song played. We would all sing a long with it and at the end they would sing "believe it or not, it's Larry" (that's my real name) and then they would "crash" me into the sofa because Ralph could never land either. Honestly, it's one of my favorite memories!
I always wanted to watch this as a kid. I didn’t realize it ended when it did, which was right around when I was more conscious of the non-cartoon shows I was watching. Will always like the theme song. Good stuff!
I think in 1983 I got really into shows like Hardcastle & McCormack, Airwolf, and Simon & Simon.
As someone who missed a lot of these the first time as I was born in 80 so many of these series are still so iconic all these years later.
It feels so different and special compared to stuff now. They really tried to be a fun show with action but not so much violence. Very different then what we have these days for better or worse.
Just rewatched the whole series a couple months ago, love it
From what I remember he was like the clumsy Superman 🦸♂️ .... lol as a kid I enjoyed the hell out of this show!
Sometimes I wonder if shows with truly great theme songs make us love them because of the song, but I'd like to believe it's because the songs masterfully capture the spirit of the show. Greatest American Hero, Golden Girls, Family Ties and Growing Pains have theme songs that never get old.
Awesome stuff! I watched this series when it originally debuted and loved it. I still hope Mego will do a new action figure version of Ralph in the suit. I would buy that in a heartbeat! Thanks for the video!👍
This is prime childhood for me. Still love it all these years later.
We need the Greatest American Hero TODAY!
A number of years ago my father got me the series box set for Christmas. One of the best gifts I ever got!
after watching the movie I was both happy and perplexed when they announced that it was going to be a series.
I knew watching Ralph struggling to fly could only be funny for so long.
Oh man, Culp's read in that TV commercial sounded vaguely threatening. LOL. I loved this show.
As someone who's learning Japanese and therefore recognized the center kanji I was desperately hoping you'd address that. Thank you for doing so!
My Greatest American Hero moment was being sick as a kid. I was up late and the only thing on TV was a program guide for one channel, the rest were off the air. In the corner of the guide they looped the intro to the Greatest American hero over and over and over. It burned into my mind..
If you are looking a forgotten super hero movie that subverts all of the super hero tropes... The Specials is that film. It got overlooked because Mystery Men failed so hard this movie went direct to DVD. A great comedy well worth the watch if you like the subverted hero trope.
Used to love this as a kid. The alien's spaceship was pretty impressive. Even today I remember it looking pretty good.
Toy Galaxy just gave me a top ten worthy, weirdest life moment…. I woke from a nap, popped in my earbuds and watched this video. Enjoyed it immensely. I spend a minute or two to continue waking up, and I get up and go out to the living room, where my girlfriend is watching Seinfeld. No sooner than I realize what she’s watching, I hear the song. It was the same moment from this video! My brain immediately had a segmentation fault and core dumped.
*"Prehaps this world overstaturated by superheroes hasn't quite reached the point where it can appreciate a concept that subverts all the cliches of the genre the way the Greatest American Hero did."*
Have you seen how some of the heroes act in shows nowadays?
Actually the one that matches the most would be The Tick. Which I think all versions made fun of the tropes of the era it was made (though the first live action was more about the sitcoms like friends).
@@godpigeon what about Captain Hammer from Dr Horrible's sing along blog.
Legends of Tomorrow has (had) some of that aesthetic - screw-ups that still managed to prevail, but are actual messes in their lives, mixed with tons of comedy.
"Flying Red Center Hero" makes me love this show even more. Also, I miss when shows had theme songs that were radio hits, ha!
Had a hoodie made with the symbol......this was my superman when the super friends weren't on.....and yes.....the theme song STILL SLAPS!!!!!
I can't believe you were able to mention Stephen J. Cannell Productions without including or referencing their iconic logo sequence.
Nice! I loved The Greatest American Hero, its one of Stephen J. Cannell’s and Frank Lupo’s best created TV series. And the theme song, Believe It Or Not remains a fave.
My fave character on the show wasn’t Ralph Hinkley, but Robert Culp’s FBI agent Bill Maxwell, who even got mentioned in Marvel Comics’ The A-Team #1 (“Diamonds Are a Thief’s Best Friend”).
When it came out last year I really wanted to cut together a Falcon & Winter Soldier opening with “Believe It or Not” as the theme song.
Also, if you need another 80’s ABC TV show to pair with greatest American Hero, or to save for the premiere of a time travel show (Doctor Who, Loki, etc.) May I suggest Voyagers. Great job as always guys.
Voyagers? Holy!!! that's one deep cut I loved that show as a kid
Loved this show growing up! Met William Katt in 2008 at a convention and he got to have a brief chat with him, super nice guy!
The suit now resides on display at the Hall of Heroes Superhero Museum in Elkhart Indiana.
This show’s cast is the reason I am always telling people: this show ‘still holds up’!! The 3 amazing leads had perfect chemistry, and I rewatch this show every other Spring. Thanks for featuring it.
Don’t miss the Bob Saget episode in S3, called Wizards and Warlocks, since they couldn’t use ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ title. It’s great!
I always remember this as the show where I learned the word "scenario" as a kid.
I remember buying the boxed DVD set for this show. It had one of those digital recordings attached to it where you press the button and it plays 10 seconds of the theme song.
Love the "Play it backwards" Satanic reference! OMG... That was so fuckin' 80's, too!
Yes, was just singing the theme song last week karaoke in Japan. This classic full of camp series is pure 80s in a bottle. It what I dream of when I try to fly in my dreams.
Was big in Spain too, there was called “El gran héroe americano” Was aired during one summer from Monday to Friday. Fond memories.
The charm of the first series was the characters and the actors, regardless of any behind-the-scenes drama. People didn't watch because of the basic premise, that he got a supersuit from aliens, and I think that's why reboots don't work. The humor and actors, particularly Robert Culp, is what made that show work, not the IP.
Still my favorite 80's live action show. I really wish he could make a comeback
Nah we saw what they want to do with it same thing that's happening with the MCU and everything else marvel. If it ain't diverse and or woman it ain't getting made.
@@JohnDoe-wq5eu they most likely have a lesbian female recast
@@robd1329
So more like batwoman then, yeah that sounds just as likely.
Some properties are about those who played the characters and not just the idea 💡 of the property.
If you took all 3 leads and put them say an episode of Love American Style, Amazing Stories or an After School Special the chemistry would likely still exist.
Kindergarten to First Grade favorite 🤩.
Something you might have missed, the guy that played Ralph, William Katt's mother was Barbara Hale. She played Della Street on the long running TV show Perry Mason staring Raymond Burr.
I love Perry Mason
I was just going to mention the connection!
Great video featuring one of my favorite series of all time! I may wear out my DVD set before it’s all through. When I was in junior high school, one of my big thrills was singing lead on “Believe it or Not!” as the 8th grade choir sang backup. Good times! Given the show’s popularity, I have a hard time thinking of it as a “failure,” although, admittedly, I didn’t realize, until I bought my DVD set decades later, just how relatively short this series was. When you’re a kid, three seasons seems like a decade. But it can’t be a failure in my book, just a wonderful memory I will not forget.
I remember the show as a kid and couldn’t get enough of it. There was one episode in particular that really scared me is when Ralph went into the fourth dimension and his suit had no powers and he was being scratched up and attacked by demons. It really scared the sh*t out of me lol
That's definitely one of my favorite episodes. The demons knew of the suits powers and that in didn't work in their dimension. Creepy episode!
I still love the Greatest American Hero! I watched it as a sophomore in highschool and fell in love with it!
I love this show, even with its multiple, massive faults. Besides all the enjoyment I had of this as a child, I picked up the box set as soon as it came out and showed my kids. The pilot was far cheesier than I recalled, with visible green screen and a "stone" wall that bounced when he hit it. My kids laughed at how bad it was and I did right along with them.
Probably different experience watching on a 19 inch tube tv.
Oh yeah I remember this show and the theme song. One of my favorite episodes is when he had to tangle with a haunted house.
Very popular in Australia too. Loved it. This show is probably responsible for a bunch of red onesie's being sold. Losing the manual to the suit, frustrated the living hell out of me as a child (Kinda still does). Opening bars to the title song are instantly recognisable to any child from the 80's.
I regularly visit buffets in different cities around the states. Before I go to a buffet, I will place 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. After entering the buffet, I sneak the corndogs into some of the fried food section trays. It is such a joy for me to see other customers of the buffet eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
Waaaaaaat?
I believe you win the internet for today
This is illegal
Loved this show as a kid. The Beast in Black episode was very scary to me as a kid. I still recommend it to others.
Yes, those silver scars on his body were the stuff of future nightmares. I loved Ralph and his heroics, but that was a scary episode. Although, I'll never forget how hard I laughed when the IRS guy was tied up in that one episode I can't remember the title of and Ralph clapped his hands making the guy jump! He thought the bad guys were beating him again.
@@davidjames468 it was the scary eyes and the lady sitting by the fire that freaked me out. The music was very creepy as well. Haha I don’t remember that episode.
I adored this show. I was 3 in '81, but I still understood what was going on. Watching it in syndication years later, I think the death knell of the series was when Ralph had to fight a sea monster. That's when it lost its "down to Earth" tone.
I LOVED THIS SHOW. Wish it could come back… maybe in modern time (now) with his grandson finding the suit in the attic.
My parents would give me quarters to pick songs in the jukebox. The patrons must have hated me, because the only song I'd pick was the theme song to the greatest American hero.
The good old days :)
Everytime I hear the theme song to GAH it gets stuck in my head for the next 10 years
I remember reading about a movie adaptation effort in the early 2000s that would feature Owen Wilson as the titular befuddled superhero. I hit Google and couldn't find much in a cursory search - just an article saying that the producers had decided to go with an "unknown" instead of Wilson.
Loved this show as a kid!
"Belieeeeve it or not im walking on air"
even as a kid I knew it was campy and silly, but I still loved it because of it optimistic message of finding your path through adolescence.
I had the pilot movie on VHS and watched it repeatedly in my lower teens. Favorite episodes were "Beast in Black" and "Spoil Sport" with Sterling Hayden playing another obsessed USAF general.
William Katt did an episode of the Nickelodeon series The Thundermans (sitcom about a superhero family) playing the grandfather, "Sergeant Thunder", but he does say at one point that he was "the greatest American hero". 🤣
I loved this show as a kid , and the FBI batch was amazing to me because it allowed you to do anything once you showed your batch
You know why I like this channel? I can count on them to include a silly reference like George Constanza's answering machine message.
I used to doodle the Greatest American Hero in my notebooks in 2nd grade all the time: a stick figure with a triangle for the cape and curly lines for the hair on top. Loved this show!
Found a few episodes a few years ago, I get the show was a comedy but admit it bugged me that an somebody as smart and articulate as Ralph did not think to wear a mask when doing his heroic deeds. I saw an interview with Katt discussing how he and Culp didn't get along at first, so approached him [Culp] one day stating they needed to sort out the tension. I believe they became friends after that.
given the technological advancement we've made since the 80s I think a cowl would need to be added to the costume because where we're going to cost you would have their civilian identity expose right out the gate.
@@mrheroprimes He'd be filmed and viral on social media in a matter of moments...
I love this show so much. Scarbury did a ton of songs for the show. I wish there was a collection.
This show definitely needs a reboot.
That theme music still holds up after all these years
It's really one of those TV shows from the past that needs a movie to go with it. Seriously, Ralph was a reluctant hero, but someone who wanted to do good and help people. It was a show that had character and lovable characters and the fact that Ralph had little to no understanding as to what the suit could do just made things better because it meant it could be unpredictable. Something like this needs to be brought back.
We only watched a couple episodes, because it seemed to vanish from the schedule. It was awesome, and definitely left an impression.
I owned the 45 of the theme song, back when record stores would special order things for you. Still have some articles from back in the day.
TGAH should team up with Condorman and create their own multiverse of superheroes and villains that always seemed to miss the mark.
My favorite show to watch when I was 6. Has been my ringtone for years. Love your show! Thankyou