The Greatest American Hero
Nov. 29th, 2007 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janradderMy sister just sent me this in an email.
Ahh, what memories it brings back. I woud watch it faithfully each Thursday night after coming home from swimming practice, the smell of chlorine filling the living room, my hair still wet and brittle (from said chlorine). I really don't know why I watched the show again and again, week after week. I hated it. I was, however, obsessed with superheroes and this was a show about a superhero, albeit a lousy one. Each week, I would hope, nearly pray that William Katt would finally learn how to use his suit and become a regular superhero. But he never did. The show was a one note joke, banged over and over endlessly -- here was this guy who was given a suit with super powers but he didn't have the instruction manual (I can't remember why) and so he was doomed to endlessly fly like a cat flung by its tail trough space, legs and arms flailing helplessly as he tries to keep from crashing into the ground or a wall or a building or people which he invariably always did. Needless to say, for those who have not seen The Greatest American Hero, the joke became stale somewhere in the middle of the first episode. And, still, I watched faithfully, hoping for a different outcome.
My disappointment and dissatisfaction with The Greatest American Hero was only matched by my equal displeasure in the John Ritter vehicle, Hero At Large. Yet, as with GAH, I would inevitably watch HAL each time I saw it was on HBO at my grandparents' house. I don't know what I thought would happen. Maybe I thought that this time I'd like the movie. Maybe I thought it would end differently. Neither ever happened. The movie always ended the same way it always did and I hated it just as much as the first time I saw it (but really, what should I have expected from a film that starred an actor who would later go on to star in both Problem Child 1 and 2?).
(And yes, I must admit, I knew the words to and loved the theme song, Believe It or Not. Sadly, I also liked Christopher Cross.)
