Monday, July 25, 2011

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

I could swear that I've linked this already, but for the life of me, I can't find where, so maybe it's just been on my "Link this!" radar for a while, without actually getting linked. Anyway, over at Musings of a Sci-Fi Fanatic there is a truly wonderful post about the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk (the Bill Bixby-Lou Ferrigno show).

The credits roll to the theme of Joe Harnell's The Lonely Man and Banner's lonely journey begins. The theme highlights the tragic reality of the figure that is David Banner always walking away alone. This version of the Hulk has been called an "American classic." I think that is a great assessment of what the folks involved with this series, aimed for adapting from a comic book. It's the perfect American tragedy.

This was a strong start to the possibilties ahead. As a character study Johnson gets the dark tone, but I can imagine there were suits in the room that were uncomfortable with a story centered on a tragic figure. The Incredible Hulk was clearly intended to be a big green doozy of a series. It's one of the first comic book characters to move beyond conventions and present something much bigger and do so successfully.

It's really a terrific post. Go read it.

2 comments:

mad photog said...

I remember the Hulk. It was pretty dark for TV. I always thought that the comic Hulk couldn't be transferred to live-action, since no human being, even Lou Ferrigno, could be that big and muscular.

Roger Owen Green said...

I watched everything with Bill Bixby.