THE INCREDIBLE HULK: The Complete Series (Universal, 1978-82) Universal Home Video
Fairly idiotic to think the
producers of TV’s The Incredible Hulk (1978-82) were stuck on 7-ft.,
2-inch, Richard Kiel as their first and only choice to embody a live-action
reincarnation of Stan Lee’s massively muscular Marvel Comic superhero. With all
due respect to Kiel – who cut a memorable figure as the steel-mouthed menace,
Jaws, in two James Bond classics – The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker
(1979), he possessed none of the innate musculature necessary to carry off this
gargantuan green avenger. And, indeed, when directly assessed beside
pro-bodybuilder, Arnold ‘the Austrian oak’ Schwarzenegger (who actually
auditioned but was turned down), the artistic lean toward Kiel seems even more
inarticulately stupid. The aegis for a TV
series based on Marvel’s magnificent green beast began in 1977 when head of
Universal Television, Frank Price, pitched a plan to writer, Kenneth Johnson to
develop at least one show based on their licensed catalog of Marvel
superheroes. Johnson was, at first, unimpressed with the assignment, but after
perusing the pages of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, developed an affinity
for the Hulk, or more directly, the newly created character of Jack McGee, a vengeful reporter with the determination of a pit bull, modeled
on Hugo’s Jarvert. Johnson’s contributions to morphing the Hulk from comic to the small screen proved monumental. First, and foremost, he made the decision the
TV’s Hulk ought to be silent as opposed to Stan Lee’s Hulk who spoke in a sort
of fractured Cole’s Notes’ English. Lee wholeheartedly agreed with this
decision. Johnson also toned down the drama in the Hulk’s origin story. Physicist,
Dr. Bruce Banner became medical researcher/physician, Dr. David Banner (played
with exceptionally low-key genius by Bill Bixby), the horrendous cause of his
overwrought ‘anger management’ affliction and periodic transformations into the
Hulk, changed from gamma radiation during botched atomic testing, to a gamma-irradiated
laboratory mishap. Purging the series of all of the comic’s extemporaneous
characters, Johnson instead created Jack McGee (played with annoying
persistence by a weasel-eyed, Jack Colvin), the bane of Banner’s existence,
suspecting, though never entirely able to prove the Hulk and Banner were
one in the same.
Legendary comic superhero creator, Stan
Lee’s Hulk is an indestructible mountain of muscle, impervious to pain, and
capable of regenerating his physical self when exposed to life-threatening
accidents. For the TV series, Johnson purged nearly all of these super-human
attributes. Instead, the Hulk would experience, but endure and overcome pain.
Only once did the Hulk appear to be super-human, in Season 4’s, ‘The Harder They
Fall’, an episode where Banner, left a paraplegic, when next to transform
into the Hulk, experienced the miraculous regeneration of his spinal cord to
outlast his regression back into Banner by the end of the episode. As for the
name change from Bruce to David – Lee and star, Lou Ferrigno (cast as Bill
Bixby’s green-flexing alter ego) both recall the decision to be not entirely Johnson’s,
but rather at the behest of execs at CBS who felt ‘Bruce’ conjured to mind a
distinctly ‘gay’ vibe, while ‘David’ sounded more ‘butch’. Of the changes made to the Hulk, Johnson
had his way with all but one – the idea, Banner's alter ego ought to be painted ‘red’
rather than green, as red, apart from representing ‘rage’, also was a more
naturalistic color for human skin. Lee fought Johnson on this change – and won –
but later, was mostly complimentary to Johnson’s other tinkering. “The Hulk was done intelligently….an adult show that…made
him somewhat plausible. Women liked it and men liked it and teenagers liked it...it was beautifully done. He changed it quite a bit from the comic book, but
every change he made, made sense.”
Interestingly, Lou Ferrigno, who
eventually won the coveted – and lucrative - role of this muscle-bound, emerald
avenger was only 2 inches taller than Schwarzenegger, refused the part due to
his height. In his screen test, Richard Kiel reacted badly to the green contact
lenses used to tint the Hulk’s eyes. But it was Johnson’s own son who astutely
pointed out Kiel’s awkwardly imposing physicality was all wrong for the Hulk –
a vein-bulging brute of brawn. To create the Hulk’s inarticulate communication
of grunts and growls, producers hired actor, Ted Cassidy (Lurch on TV’s Addam’s
Family) who also provided the show’s prologue narration. Cassidy’s untimely
death in 1979, age 46, from complications to remove a benign tumor attached to
his heart, a condition known as acromegaly, but also responsible for his sonorous
voice, unusually square-jawed facial configuration and overall towering physical
stature, necessitated the hiring of actor, Charles Napier, who also made two
guest-starring appearances, before taking over this ‘grunt’ work – literally! Throughout
the series, the hulk’s make-up considerably morphed. Early tests, willed from a
3-hour application process, created a rather ferociously ugly incarnation, not
to survive beyond the 4th episode of Season 1. Of the many
endurances, Ferrigno found the contact lenses the most arduous. Indeed, he
could only stand them for 15-minute intervals. And while many pondered it was
Ferrigno’s own hair, the truth of the matter was the Hulk’s teased mop was
actually a construct of dyed yak hair made into a wig, glued down to the actor’s
head.
Ferrigno, who in childhood felt a
greater kinship to reading Superman comics rather than the Hulk,
eventually set aside his teenage anxieties – chiefly brought on by his
compromised hearing – to enter the bodybuilding scene as a major contender.
That Arnold Schwarzenegger should eventually surpass Ferrigno’s aspirations as
a pro-Olympian was, as yet, unknown. And Schwarzenegger’s being passed over for
the role of the Hulk, certainly seemed to indicate – again, at the time, Hollywood
would favor Ferrigno in the foreseeable future for super-stardom. Today,
Ferrigno is oft’ viewed as the Arnold ‘light’ of his generation in both the
arenas of bodybuilding and acting. But in 1977, while training for the Mr.
Olympia, Ferrigno landed the plum part of the Hulk almost by accident –
producers, inviting him to partake of the process of being painted green and
then ordered to flex on cue. “In those days there was no ‘spray on’ method,”
Ferrigno later explained, “They had a ball of ‘green’ clay (actually,
grease paint). I had a custom shower…(it) would be covered in green paint. I
had a fake forehead, nosepiece and teeth. It was extremely uncomfortable. They
wanted the biggest bodybuilder they could find…they hired me that day!” Of his
co-star, Bill Bixby, Ferrigno had nothing but glowing memories to share, citing
Bixby’s tutelage as a great benefit to his own acting on the show.
Throughout, The Incredible Hulk
had its share of celebrities and future stars to appear in supporting roles,
including Ray Walston (who had co-starred with Bixby in My Favorite Martian,
1963-66), future Falcon Crest (1981-90) and Castle (2009-2016)
co-star, Susan Sullivan and Kim Cattrall, of much later, Sex and the City
(1998-2004) fame. But perhaps the greatest homage to the ever-lasting appeal of the
Hulk came in the form of a never-to-be-seen visitation on the set, after hours
with a quiet knock at Lou Ferrigno’s dressing room door. Ferrigno was
understandably aghast when screen legend, Cary Grant suddenly appeared to
inquire if he could have a photo-op with him. “That was a great moment,”
Ferrigno admitted, “…because I suddenly realized the Hulk was so beloved by
everyone.” The modus operandi for the series was Jack McGee’s ongoing
investigation of one, Dr. David Banner, a widowed scientist, presumed dead, but
whom McGee suspects is traveling across America under assumed names. When
pressed to extreme anger or distress, Banner uncontrollably transforms into the savage savant, usually to right a wrong before, once more vanishing into the
background. When the series went off the air in 1982, its immediate syndication
practically ensured Ferrigno would return in the role. And in 1988, as the
rights reverted to MCA/Universal, 3 made-for-TV movies reunited Bill Bixby and
Lou Ferrigno: Nicholas J. Corea’s The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), The
Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), and The Death of the Incredible
Hulk (1990) – these latter two efforts, directed by Bixby.
Throughout its 5-yr. run, Dr. David
Banner, formerly of California's Culver Institute, and obsessed with
resurrection and the afterlife, following a car accident that claimed his beloved
wife, Laura, partnered with Dr. Elaina Marks (Susan Sullivan) to study those
self-possessed of superhuman strength under extreme duress. Banner’s hypothesis,
high levels of gamma radiation from sunspots increased their strength, is almost
immediately shot down by his contemporaries. Alas, impatient to test his theory, Banner conducts an
unsupervised experiment on himself with toxic levels of gamma radiation. Initially
believing the experiment a failure, Banner gets the surprise of his life as,
while changing a flat tire in the pouring rain, he injures his hand and is almost immediately
transformed into the green-skinned powerhouse, driven by rage and a primitive,
sub-human intelligence. Unable to quantify what has occurred during this
transformative state, Banner goes to Marks to investigate the nature of the
metamorphosis and a possible cure. Their research is hindered by tabloid
reporter, Jack McGee, who unknowingly triggers a horrific fire that kills
Marks. To escape prosecution, McGee publishes a story where he fingers the incredible
hulk as Marks’ killer, and thereafter crusades for the creature’s capture.
Believed to have also died in the fire, Banner grimly resolves to assume various
identities and odd jobs while he searches for a cure. Along the way, Banner
befriends troubled people whom he inadvertently ends up saving by being
repeatedly transformed into the Hulk, thereby chronically alerting McGee to his
whereabouts.
Incredibly, virtually every episode
in the series follows this same trajectory. For the first of the 3
movies made nearly 6 years after the series went off the air, a variation on
this theme developed. In The Incredible Hulk Returns, Banner’s Hulk
meets another Marvel superhero, Thor (Eric Allan Kramer), a Norse god, denied
entry to Valhalla. Jack Colvin made his last appearance as McGee in this movie.
For The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, Banner befriended Daredevil (Rex
Smith), and, in The Death of the Incredible Hulk Banner fell in love
with an Eastern European spy (Elizabeth Gracen) but, as the Hulk, plummeted to
his death from an airplane before reverting to his human form. Despite the
thread of finality in this latter effort, another Hulk movie was planned when
Bill Bixby suddenly died from cancer in 1993. Since its time, The Incredible
Hulk has returned to the big screen many times; alas, always as a CGI-rendered
and thoroughly disposable reconstitution of the comic book figure, rather than
the Ferrigno offshoot which, if nothing else, contained a kernel of reality to
ground the character in a sort of acceptable truth about humanity at large;
that, put to the test, we all experience a little of the Hulk’s rage against
the machine and discontent with our modern society we sincerely wish we could
express, perhaps, not always in constructive ways.
After a long delay, The
Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series + 2 movies arrives in hi-def on home
video states’ side. The series has been available overseas in ‘region locked’
offerings for more than a decade. It’s always been somewhat perplexing to me,
first, that Universal Home Video never bothered to do as much with its
illustrious TV holdings here as it did in the foreign markets in 1080p (we are
still awaiting releases of Columbo, Magnum P.I. and Murder She Wrote in
North America – all 3 series already out there in the European and Japanese
markets), and second, that when they do, it’s usually a farmed-out affair with
few bells and whistles to recommend it. But I digress. The Incredible Hulk
on Blu-ray looks adequate, though just. Quality across all seasons is fairly consistent and rates far better than the show has ever looked on
broadcast television or home video. That said, this is still sub-par mastering
from Uni, a studio not generally known for taking the time or spending the money to produce
optimal video masters of vintage product. Some of the episodes here fare better than others. Overall,
color saturation has been accurately rendered, though flesh tones still lean towards an unhealthy orangey hue. Originally shot on film stock, fine details abound as they should and - again - in
general terms, textures, contrast and film grain are a vastly improved.
Age-related artifacts are present, with some episodes looking worse for the
wear. The main titles across all seasons are a muddy mess, with fuzzy opticals
and dull colors. Honestly, no better source for these exists?!? Nothing, save a
recomposite derived from original and properly curated elements would fix this. Painstaking? Perhaps. But for a few measly minutes of main title - hardly, as costly as a redo of the entire show. The 2.0 DTS mono audio is passable, and,
on occasion, exports remarkable depth. Extras have been ported over from the
old DVD releases and include several audio commentaries, a pair of
introductions from Kenneth Johnson and Lou Ferrigno in 480i, and two featurettes on the
making of the series and its enduring legacy. Bottom line: you won’t be
watching The Incredible Hulk for reference quality 1080p mastering. That
said, what’s here should please most who have only known the big green guy from
old NTSC broadcasts and/or the thoroughly lackluster effort Uni put forth on
its old DVD’s. PS – none of the 3 latter
day ‘Hulk’ made-for-TV movies are included in this set. So, ‘complete’
isn’t exactly the word I would use to describe this set. Do not expect
perfection and you will not be disappointed. Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
Seasons 1-3 – 4
Seasons 4-5 – 3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3 – overall
EXTRAS
2.5
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