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Actually, the show was The Greatest American Hero. I loved the show when I was just a young whippersnapper.
There were rumors of a movie starring Adam Sandler but I haven't heard much.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]by[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] L. WAYNE HICKS[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Of all the movie projects now in the Hollywood pipeline, among the most interesting is the big-screen treatment of the 1980s TV show "The Greatest American Hero." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The Greatest American Hero" aired from 1981 until 1983 on ABC, serving as a relatively small footnote in the annals of television history and another line on the long resume of the show's creator, Stephen J. Cannell.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell is best known for creating or co-creating more than 40 TV shows. "The Rockford Files," "Hunter" and "The A-Team" are among the best-known. But he's also created some unappreciated gems, including "Tenspeed & Brownshoe," which starred Ben Vereen as a con man and Jeff Goldblum as a would-be private eye, and "The Greatest American Hero." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The Greatest American Hero" blended so many genres it's hard to pigeonhole, although the show was nominated for an Emmy Award for comedy in its first year. Part science fiction, part action, part comedy, "The Greatest American Hero" offered a glimpse into the life of a man suddenly given enormous powers. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Schoolteacher Ralph Hinkley, given a special suit by aliens, found himself impervious to bullets, able to fly and infused with super strength - but only while wearing the suit. Unfortunately, Hinkley (played by William Katt) lost the instruction book to the suit, so his attempts to use his powers - especially flight - often ended badly. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Helping Hinkley in the fight against crime were an FBI agent, Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp), and his attorney girlfriend Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca). [/FONT]
The[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] show wasn't without its critics, notably Warner Bros., which DC Comics, publishers of Superman. Warner and DC sued ABC and Cannell, claiming copyright infringement. In one promo leading up to the March 18, 1981, premiere of "Greatest American Hero," Katt stood in front of a mirror admiring his red suit. "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Ralph!" Warner and DC lost the fight. The court ruled that Hinkley, with his flailing arms while flying, was "sufficiently dissimilar" to the more graceful Superman, whose owners had sought an injunction against ABC airing the show. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell has left the television grind for the life of a novelist. He's written 10 novels so far. Big-screen treatments are in the works for two earlier books, and for two of his series, "The A-Team" and "Greatest American Hero." [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]During a telephone interview, Cannell talked about plans to bring Ralph Hinkley to the silver screen. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Are you working on the "Greatest American Hero" movie?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Not on that or "The A-Team." I actually didn't want to be the writer of either one of those because I've written so many as television scripts. Since you've got to redevelop them as feature films and you need to come to them with a fresh perspective, I thought it was better to get other writers involved, so that's what we're doing. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Out of all the things you've done, why make "The Greatest American Hero" into a movie? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: A producer came to me. He loved the show and he thought he could set it up and asked me if I would give him the right to do it and I said yes. I didn't think much would come of it and he set it up at Disney. Now there's quite a bit of excitement about it. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Are you excited about it? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Oh, yeah. I always thought it was a great idea, full of special effects and there's comedy in it. It's a character comedy. What the show always was about wasn't so much about the superpowers as about human foibles. When we were doing the stories on "Greatest American Hero," we weren't sitting around saying, "Let's do a story about terrorists who put botulism in the water supply in Los Angeles." What we would do is we would say what's a funny emotion, what's a funny human emotion? We'd be thinking around, a bunch of writers in a room and somebody says, "You know what I think's a funny emotion? Hypochondria. All writers all hypochondriacs because we have these huge imaginations. You get a little bump on your arm and it's, "Oh, ****, I've got cancer." Hypochondria is a funny emotion. Somebody said wouldn't it be funny if there were some terrorists who put botulism in the water supply and Maxwell goes down to the FBI and gets every shot available to man to protect him but he doesn't offer them to Hinkley. Now they're up there together and he's going, "Well, you've got the suit" and Hinkley goes, "Yeah, but I don't know if the suit's going to protect me" and these guys are spending the whole hour checking their tongues for swelling. The whole thing was a rip on hypochondria and the reason it was nominated for an Emmy the first season, not in drama but in comedy, because that's all we were doing. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I remember a script called the Best Death Scenario. What it was about was everybody was going up except Maxwell, who was going backwards. Hinkley gets made an assistant vice principal at the high school. Pam gets made a partner at her law firm. And Maxwell is moving in the other direction. They move him off the agent floor. He's now got a cubicle in the basement. It was all about what our dreams are, what we want for ourselves, what's important in life. Yeah, there was a crime story that was going on and we had our heavies and we had our superheroes, but what the hour was really about was that. That's what we were trying to do. That made the show really fun to do because we were all looking at that - not at the crime story, but what is the character story. I want to make sure we do that in the movie. I don't want the movie just to be some guy in red pajamas running around committing all kinds of great heroic acts. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: You have to have the humor in there as well. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah. Yeah. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Who do you see as being cast in this? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: I don't know. We have to get a script first. Who would be on my dream list? Adam Sandler, maybe. Somebody like that. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: When are we going to see this movie? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: The vagaries of the motion picture business being as they are, who can tell? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Was this an easy show to get on the air? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: It was actually easy enough to get on the air, hard to keep it on the air. What happened was ABC asked me. Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, they're huge half-hour producers, but at the time Marcy and Tom were in charge of creative development at ABC, so I was working for them. I went in and Marcy said to me, "We would love to have you do a superhero show." I said let me think about it. I've learned never to say no in a meeting. I thought about it. I thought the only way it would be fun to do it would be if I were the superhero. Somebody like me. What would happen to my life if a spaceship came down and gave me a suit? What would happen to my life? I would be destroyed, especially if it was a little spandex outfit with little Speedo trunks and a cape and ****. How do you walk around in public like that? I went back to Marcy and Tom and I said I would do it if the superpowers could be in the suit and not the guy. I don't want him to be from Krypton. I don't want him to be from a star far away. I don't want the powers to be in him so when he takes this suit off, he's just you or me. I want him to be very ordinary. That's why I made him a teacher. I didn't want him to be a heroic type guy. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Did you grow up reading comic books? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: No. I never liked them. I was very dyslexic. I didn't read very well. I was an athlete. I was always outside throwing balls and stuff. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: So ABC liked your idea? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Well, they accepted it and they said OK. So then I wrote it and we shot it and then Marcy and Tom left ABC and some new people came in and they wanted a real traditional superhero show. I was at war with them all the time. I had cut a deal with Marcy and Tom on this where I said, "Look, what interests me about this is the human comedy of it. What would happen if I get this superhero suit and my kids catch me in it?" The first time I could say, "Well, I'm getting ready for Tom's costume party on Saturday night." But after they catch me in it a couple of times they're going, "Dad. What are you doing? Why do you keep putting that on?" What would it do to you? And if you get caught? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the pilot, they put him in a mental institution. When he tells his girlfriend, Pam, she's saying, "You've got to tell me what's happened to you, why you keep wearing that suit." He goes, "Well, it's got powers." And she says, "It's got powers, huh?" Trying to explain to her that he could fly. It was hysterically funny, I thought, as long as it was an everyman kind of guy. If he was Clark Kent, I wouldn't think it was as funny. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: And he didn't know how to use the suit? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: He didn't know how to use the suit. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Was that always part of the idea? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah. I wanted it always to be a problem. I wanted the suit to be a problem, not a solution. And that was a big difference to any other superhero show that I'd ever seen. When I pitched that to them, they agreed. They thought that was a great way to go. But then they got replaced. And so now the new people came in and they didn't agree with that. I'd already agreed to do the show. I wouldn't have agreed to do the show if I couldn't have done it the way I wanted to do it. I would have passed. So now it was on the air. There was 13 episodes and I was stuck making them and I was fighting with ABC every day about it. I managed to not give in. If you look at the shows, you'll see that I didn't give in. But boy, I was not a popular camper. But the show ended up getting moved to a bad time period and eventually after two and a half years was canceled. I think if they left it on Wednesday nights at 8 o'clock, we'd have been on for eight years. Because it was a big hit there but they were so angry at me about not acquiescing about that change. They just wanted a real in your face superhero show. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Was the cancellation unexpected? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: No. Because they moved us out of that time period into a much worse time period. I must tell you it was the most devastating two-and-a-half-year battle with them. I'm not saying they're wrong. They came in and they didn't like what I was doing. So what are you going to say? It was in the top 20 in the first season. But it wasn't like the No. 1 show on television. They liked it, the number, but they thought it would be in the top 10 if I changed it and I didn't want to change it. We fought and they said well let's put it over here and see how it does. They moved it out of the time period where it was performing into another time period and didn't do as well there and they said see, see? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: They thought it was your idea that was faulty vs. the time period? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah. You know what? Who knows what it was. I'm not saying I was right. I'm just saying that was the show that I agreed to do and I didn't want to do the other one. I wouldn't have signed up for the other one. I would have passed. I was given the opportunity to do this show by the head of programing at ABC and then when they left I just got caught in the new regime. I'm not angry about it. I understand it. I understood that's how things go. Sometimes you get hit by that. But that's what happened. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Did you lose sleep over the lawsuit? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah, a lot of sleep because the show looked like it was going to be a hit and all of a sudden Warner Bros. comes in there and tells us that they own the entire super hero genre, that no one else could ever create another superhero with a cape. Because they bought DC Comics, they believed they owned it and we won that suit and in fact redefined copyright law. That's a landmark suit. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Out of all the shows you've done, how would you rate "Greatest American Hero" against your measure of success? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: There are two kinds of measures of success. One is creative success and the other is commercial success. Obviously, "The Greatest American Hero" was a mediocre commercial success but it was a very good creative success. The same with "Tenspeed & Brownshoe." And some shows are both, like "The Rockford Files." They're creative successes and they're commercial successes. So I would say that it was a really good creative success. It was exactly the show I wanted to make despite all the energy wasted over fighting over how to do it. It ended up being the show I wanted to do. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Greatest American Heroine was on very briefly. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah. We only made a pilot. We didn't sell it. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Why did you decide to revisit the character as a woman? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: It was actually Robert Culp who wanted to do that and he came to me with that idea and wanted to do it. I said OK, so we did it. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: This is after the first one had been canceled? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Yeah. Well after. And we got Bill Katt to come back and help us with the pilot and give the suit over to this girl. It was good. It was fun. But it didn't work. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: There are several Web sites devoted to Greatest American Hero. Why do you think a show that was only on for two and a half years is so fondly remembered? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Because it had its own vibe. It was very definitely its own thing. There was no show that I can recall, ever, or film, ever, like it. It was really special in that respect. It was very creative, very different. It wasn't a normal superhero show. I think that, for whatever reason, we struck a nerve with it. And it's been fondly remembered and it's been rerun a lot of times. So it's done well. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: Do you think that loyalty to the show, that interest in the show, is going to translate into a feature project? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: Could. I don't know. I'm not the guy to ask for stuff like that. I have no opinion about any of that. I always just think you try and do the best work you can and you throw it out there. I'm surprised sometimes when shows are hits and a bit surprised when some shows are not hits. I've given up trying to predict. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hicks: What would be your dream cast for Maxwell and Pam? Anyone you're thinking about? [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cannell: You know, I never do that. I did mention Adam Sandler but there are other people I cold see playing it, too, including Brad Pitt. But I'm not going to waste any time on that until it becomes a reality. When the script gets right and we start going out to actors then we'll start to make an actor list and there will be names that will come up that will never have occurred to me that will be better than the ones that I had. Then we'll go out and submit it to somebody. Let's suppose we get Adam Sandler. That's going to affect who you do as Maxwell. That's going to affect who you're going to cast as Pam. If you put in a straighter kind of an actor to play Hinkley, then you're going to go a little more comedic with Maxwell. Is it Robert Duval? Is it Gene Hackman? Who is Maxwell? I don't know. It could be any of those guys. You're trying to build a cast based on who the other performers are. [/FONT]
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