Incredible Hulk

[Guest Zack Malibu]

Since many of us are fans of the modern day hero shows (Smallville, Birds of Prey) or fans of the hero cartoons (JLA, X-Men, etc.), I wanted to know where everyone stood on this show. It's one of my favorite of all time, probably because I grew up with it and I've been such a mark for The Hulk my whole life. I've even noticed recently that Columbia House is offering episodes of this show on video, and I can also get them off Ebay rather cheap. I don't remember every episode, and the last time I saw this was when Sci Fi used to rerun it in the mid 90's. I'm pretty hopeful that the movie hype will allow episodes to air on TVLand or something, which would be awesome. Anyways, what's everyone else's opinion on the show?

[Guest razazteca]

Ang Lee is the director of the movie right? If he is than the movie will make alot of money, which will result in the public begging for the old tv series on DVD

 

the tv movies were pretty good also it even had other Marvel characters such as Thor or Daredevil.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

Trial and Death of Hulk were awesome, and the one with Thor had some good comedic bits in it.

[Guest starvenger]

Trial and Death of Hulk were awesome, and the one with Thor had some good comedic bits in it.

The one with Thor was pretty bad, and I think the comedy was mostly of the unintentional variety.

 

I have fuzzy memories of the actual show. Was it as Three's Company-level repetitive (same thing happens every show) as I seem to remember it?

 

I also remember meeting Lou Ferrigno at a comicon a while back - the guy is HUGE.

[Guest areacode212]

The show was a lot like The Fugitive/Quantum Leap/Littlest Hobo in that "David Banner" went from town to town helping people as the Hulk. I never saw the show in English (I grew up in Montreal, and thus only saw it on French-dubbed local stations), but I still liked it a lot. I don't know how well it's aged, but I have a feeling that I would still enjoy it if I saw the show today.

 

EDIT: I heard that the reason that his first name on the show was "David" was because supposedly, the name "Bruce" was considered to be (literally) really gay back in the 70's. I have no idea why.

[Guest Crucifixio Jones]

I have fond memories of the show. One of my favorite episodes is where the old dude made some contraption that would expose him to gamma rays and make him Hulk like. Except he was like...geriatric. It was a really cool two-parter.

[Guest GeneMean]

I really loved this show as a child. I haven't seen the series or any of the TV movies in years though. My favorite part was always when he would get those 'devil eyes' right before he would change. The thing that really stuck with me over the years was the title sequence.. "Don't make me angry..." and I thought that the theme song (even though it is '70ized') really conveyed this sense of sadness of this curse that Banner has.

[Guest Zack Malibu]

I have fond memories of the show. One of my favorite episodes is where the old dude made some contraption that would expose him to gamma rays and make him Hulk like. Except he was like...geriatric. It was a really cool two-parter.

I believe you mean The First, which is where Banner finds out that a man has the same curse as he, in that he becomes a Hulk like monster. I actually just tried to order that one off Ebay, but got outbid.

[Guest DrTom]

One of my favorite episodes is where the old dude made some contraption that would expose him to gamma rays and make him Hulk like. Except he was like...geriatric. It was a really cool two-parter.

That was one of my faves, too. I'm pretty sure Zack's right in that it was called "The First," and the other man's name was Frye.

 

I used to watch The Hulk religiously as a kid, and I caught it as often as I could when Sci-Fi aired it in the mid-90s. It's actually aged pretty well... better than I thought it would, at least.

 

All of the shows basically followed a formula. David Banner, on the run from the authorities and a nosy reporter, moved from town to town, taking odd jobs under assumed names. He always ended up helping someone who was in a bad way. Typically, he turned into the Hulk twice per show -- one to save himself, and once to save someone else.

 

Some other favorites of mine were the episode when the meteor landed, and its rays left him trapped in mid-transformation when he tried to turn back. Another good two-parter there. I also liked the episode when David got hit by the car, and overcame what would have been lifetime paralysis because the Hulk regenerated tissue at an amazing rate.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing a DVD box set sometime.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

The Hulk had that Highway to Heaven preachy do-gooder with powers kind of feel to it mixed with the saddness and tension of the Fugitive. I wish sci-fi would put a superhero type block of shows together with that as a centerpiece, it holds up just as well as any of the late 70's detective shows that are always on somewhere.

 

The series was a direct result of the Superman movies adding a more "adult" spin on superheroes. I believe I read that DC was very skittish about signing t.v. deals after the Superman movie success with the campiness of Batman still lingering. But Marvel was more than happy to lease out any and all of their heroes leading to a brief Spiderman series and several bad tv movies for the likes of Captain America and Dr. Strange.

[cawthon777 0]

I was luke-warm to the TV show as a kid, mostly because it was so depressing. He just went town to town, was always by himself...but you gotta love the Walking Away music!

 

Falling out of helicopter would never kill cartoon / comic book Hulk. Hulk smash helicopter, fall to ground, get up, brush himself off, then Hulk take nap before smashing more things.