The Greatest American Hero: Season 1

Loved watching this growing up!

The Greatest American Hero(1981-1983) was a breezy action-comedy series created by Stephen J. Cannell. Joey Scarbury sang the show's classic soft rock theme song 'Believe It or Not'. George from Seinfeld(1989-1999) sang a spoof of it for his answering machine. William Katt(from 1976's Carrie) plays mild mannered teacher Ralph Hinkley. He tries to be patient with a class of misfit students just like in To Sir With Love(1967). Aliens from outer space give Ralph a red/black suit with superpowers and he's ordered to work with FBI Agent Bill Maxwell(Robert Culp). It's an homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind(1977) and Superman(1978). Ralph dates a lovely, raven black haired lawyer called Pam Davidson(Connie Selleca). I like the look on Pam's face when she first sees Ralph in the "supersuit". She thinks that he's lost his sanity. The Greatest American Hero pokes fun of superhero cliches and it's packed with robust heroics. The show's stunts, action scenes, and visual effects are solid considering the show's limited budget. For an entire season, Ralph's surname was changed from Hinkley to "Hanley" after some guy tried to assassinate President Reagan. There was a spin off pilot called The Greatest American Heroine. It was reedited and shown in syndication with the rest of this show. The music on this show was quite good. There are rumors that a Greatest American Hero movie is in the works. Will it sizzle or fizzle? Will it materialize? Believe it or not, this show is still fun!

Loved this show back in the day.

This episode, which we GAH fans abbreviate as "DVS," is considered by many to be the best episode of the entire series. It's the Season Three opener (although on the DVD set it isn't first on the disc), and it's a goodie. It was directed by Ivan Dixon (Kinchloe on "Hogan's Heroes"). It packs a LOT of stuff into a 1 hour show. The main theme is Ralph, Bill and the Suit. Ralph wants to give it up; he strips it off, hands it to Bill and walks off. A few moments later Bill is in danger and Ralph runs back to help him. Does he forget he doesn't have the suit on or is it simply because Bill's his best friend? Any way, that's just a small portion of this great ep. They meet up with the green guys again and get to go up in their ship. I don't want to say too much, just get it. There are some funny bits and some wonderfully poignant bits, when you realize how Bill and Ralph feel about one another. Watch for Bill going "Hold it! Freeze yer face!" It's priceless.

My wife and I used to watch this series each week when it was on TV years ago. I love the theme of it and it had such a psositive message to young kids to stay in school and graduate. It also sent a strong moral message about honesty and doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Seems like in most TV shows now, we see just the opposite values being stressed, not to mention knocking marriage, honor, duty, and love of Country, so this TV series and others like it have become my TV watching when I do watch TV now, simply because they espouse the values I was brought up with. It is very much worth the purchase and sharing it with your kids to give them a taste of what life and TV was like back in the 1980's. Great series, very well done, I have asked for the third and final season of Greatest American Hero for Christmas, I hope my family members will buy it for me. If someone doesn't, I'll buy it myself. Merry Christmas to all that read this review.

I loved this as a kid - and I'm so happy that it has held up. Cheesy special effects? Check. Terrible stunt doubling from a time before the viewer had the ability to pause or rewind (or had ever heard of HD)? Check. Silly early 80's Cold War plots? Check. Constant re-use of stunt footage (Ralph taking off, flying, landing, crashing into and through things) - also from a time when viewers couldn't binge-watch and might not notice? Check. But it's smarter than I remembered, and while he's earnest and good-hearted Ralph is also snarky and occasionally self-centered, and whatever they were like off-screen (and I've heard stories) William Katt and Robert Culp had great chemistry. Sweet without being cloying, slightly clunky, sometimes silly but never stupid - I have had a great time with this series.

I think movies and TV shows pretty much speak for themselves. If you are searching for this movie/show, you must be considering buying it. I purchased this for my electronic library because I did not feel the need to have the media. I am very happy with the fact that I can go to my library from my phone or tablet whenever I want to and watch this. It is also handy to be able to access it on my home theatre system you finish one and then go to the next; it avoids having to run up and down the stairs switching out DVD’s .

Always loved this series and was happy to finally find it on DVD. Ordered the first season, which includes the pilot, but was very disappointed in the quality of the DVD. Though the picture is excellent and the sound ok for a show that is like 25 years old, the DVD started to freeze about 10 minutes into the first disc. It kept getting worse after that and it was kind of tough to follow the story. Returned it to Amazon for a replacement, which I received less than a week later (great service, like always). The second shipment was a bit better, at least through the pilot. Only froze twice. Yet the next episode was always impossible to watch due to the same problems. Don't feel like returning this one so I ordered the Complete Series in hopes the recordings will be better. As the price on these DVDs is really low I feel it's worth taking another chance. The show is so much fun, not only for us who remember it from days gone by, but also for the youngsters like our grandchildren. Waiting for the new shipment to come in, keeping my fingers crossed the quality of the DVDs will be better than the first season!

Niente italiano

Needed the first season before watching the second season.

Love the show

Quelle bon souvenir de voir cette émission,sauf que j’ai reçu deux fois le DVD 1

I truly loved watching Greastest American Hero! All over again! What fond memories it brought back! Thank You! I highly recommend!