Add to the list of television series headed to the big screen: The Greatest American Hero. They are are casting the two main male roles of Ralph Hinkley and FBI Agent Bill Maxwell (played in the series by William Katt and Robert Culp, respectively). The film is set to be directed by Stephen Herek, whose directing credits include Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Mighty Ducks and the big-screen version of Dead Like Me.I liked The Greatest American Hero as a kid. I've always like the superhero genre and to me this character's origin was a mix of Superman and Green Lantern. More interestingly, I realized as I got older that the three main characters of Ralph, Bill and Ralph's girlfriend Pam represents three different personality types. Ralph was the dreamer, Pam was the pragmatist and Bill was the pessimist.
Since Ralph was the dreamer, he was the one with the ability to change the world. Or, this could just be me talking nonsense and looking at a quaint '80s series with rose-colored glasses. What do you think a modern take on this show would be like?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-03-2008 @ 3:08PM
Logan said...
If they handle this right, I'd love to revisit these characters, even with different actors.
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2-03-2008 @ 5:42PM
bayportbob said...
this could be good..... but if it a P.O.S. like a lot of remakes of old tv shows or movies then forget it. the original concept of the tv show was pretty cool but it then digressed into the high school kids based story lines and then regan got shot and they changed the name of the character and then blah blah blah.......... i hope it is good tho
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2-03-2008 @ 5:43PM
eugene said...
Only one crap show left to be "reimagined", bring on the movie version of MANIMAL!
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2-03-2008 @ 5:44PM
Scott H said...
It's very hard to imagine anyone successfully stepping into Robert Culp's role as Bill Maxwell. I'd like to see it, assuming they don't turn it into a spoof where the whole movie is cheesy and making fun of the TV show. In other words, NO WILL FERRELL.
I'd also like to hope that a movie might inspire them to get the #&*@ music rights worked out and re-release the TV series DVDs with the right music, at least the Joey Scarbury songs (beyond the theme, of course) and "Rocket Man". Right now it stands as the second most botched DVD release in history, right after "WKRP", of course.
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2-04-2008 @ 2:10AM
Nathaniel said...
Well, if the guy who directed the first Bill and Ted is doing it, I'm in.
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2-04-2008 @ 3:28AM
Ryan said...
I was young when the show aired, but I remembered loving the theme song, and being really frustrated that he couldn't fly properly.
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2-04-2008 @ 12:58PM
Seth said...
Growing up watching this show was a frustrating experience.
I actually wanted Ralph to finally find the instruction booklet to his suit and/or be contacted by the aliens so he could become a full blown superhero and stop screwing around.
Never happened.
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2-06-2008 @ 5:19PM
Daniel said...
I'm pretty sure there was an episode where he was revisited by the aliens and provided with a replacement manual. While reading the manual and learning how to use his powers properly, he shrunk down to near-microscopic size. While shrunk, he placed the manual on a nearby boulder (actually, a grain of sand). He then grew back to normal size, the book forever lost amongst the grains of sand on the beach. Or something like that - it's been a long time and I'm too lazy to look up episode info.
2-08-2008 @ 1:49PM
Barry said...
I was thinking of a good actor to replace Robert Culp as Bill and the first person I thought of was Stephen Baldwin -- but then I realized he's already playing in a GAH remake, "Chuck".
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6-06-2008 @ 5:50PM
ERIC said...
as a young kid i always loved this program and the thought of someone actually making a movie is so great and i'm waiting for it at the movies. if i knew this earlier i would of gone to the casting since i look like ralph the superhero of this tv series. never missed a show hope they finish this movie soon............
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