You're all about popularity? Then the TV show beat the comics back in the day.
All TV shows beat
all comics in popularity. I'm talking about relative popularity. The Hulk TV was not a huge hit as it has been described. Obviously more people watched it than read
any comic book. But relative to other TV shows, it was not as big a hit as the Hulk comic was relative to other comic books.
It was Kenneth Johnson who made that decision. You watch the interview with Kenneth Johnson, not just one of the cast members who was not involved with any kind of decision there:
"I wanted it to not be comic booky in any way. One of the first things I changed was David Banner's name from Bruce Banner. Why? Because the Bruce Banner thing is like Lois Lane, peter Parker, it's all aliterative, all harked back to comic books roots and I was doing everything I could to get the show away from comic book root and that kid of feeling".
When getting the facts it's always better to go rioght to the source instead of secondhand hearsay.
Ferrigno was speaking about it in a very passionate way...I don't think it's something he made up in his head and then got upset about. Does he strike you as being that insane?
I hope you don't believe Johnson would be forthcoming about the decision being made because the name "Bruce" sounded too "gayish". There is no
way he could admit that in public.
He then talks about the Hulk's color and how little sense the green makes. And it certainly does, it was juyst a random decision. But it's a must because everyone's used to it and it's his visual identity. So Johnson kept the green color.
And well, you said that it was ridiculious to have a red Hulk. Don't they have red, gray, green and purple in comics? And a planet where he becomes a gladiator? And you can't take the TV show seriously? Heh.
So you think it would not be ridiculous to have a red Hulk? I'm curious about that.
How about one of these for Batman? They appeared in his book.
No, it's that the show and its real-world feeling connected more to people than the comic books. That's all.
Every TV show is seen by more people than read comic books. More people watched the Batman TV show than read the comic too....would you want a Batman movie to use your logic there? Thank god the Spider-Man movies didn't follow the example of that horrible TV show (made by the same people who made the Hulk TV show)
In the late 70's, the name Bruce was probably the furthest thing from "gayish", since you had Bruce Lee, Bruce Springsteen, and Bruce Jenner all being huge popular stars.
I agree (especially since I'm such a hard-core Bruce Lee fan)...but that name did have that stigma for some reason.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=308654
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=75;t=000898;p=1
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100222092416AAHoYP7
http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html?t=10712414#page:showThread,10712414
I saw you the first time when you spoke of ratings...but that does not tell the entire story. The TV show has been in re-runs and spun of three more television movies since it was cancelled. If it didn't have a successful impact, then you'll have to explain your view.
Oh I know about how the TV show managed to distort the Hulk's image in popular culture, but that version still did not resonate with the public enough to become a hit TV show. Similarly, the movie versions...taking cues from the TV version...did not become big hits either. (relatively speaking...making over $100 million domestic is a pretty big hit in other genres)
So that's why I scoff at any notion that the public is not interested in the Hulk character...he hasn't been put onscreen yet to find out. I think the public
wants to like him...witness the huge opening weekend of Ang Lee's
Hulk....and the fact that the Hulk is the character most people seem interested in for the Avengers trailers. If anyone ever actually makes the Hulk into an interesting character, it could do very well at the box office.
