Category Archives: TV

As the Bill Bixby Hulk TV show wound down, NBC launched THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1982) as a Saturday morning cartoon. It strongly resembles the Hulk’s Silver Age run in Tales to Astonish: in between the Hulk clobbering various threats (Doctor Octopus, Spymaster) Bruce Banner struggles to keep his identity secret with Rick Jones’ help, while fellow scientist and girlfriend Betty Ross wonders where Bruce keeps disappearing to.

It’s adequate but uninspired compared to the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons of the 1990s. It’s distinctive in making Betty a scientist years before the MCU (in comics she was Bruce’s Girlfriend, General Ross’s daughter, nothing more) and showing her as capable in other ways: in the final episode, when she’s convinced the Hulk has killed Bruce, she goes after him like an avenging fury.

It’s also interesting that “Origin of the Hulk” has all the visuals of the gamma bomb test from the comics but they never spell out that the gamma-ray device Bruce is testing was a weapon. Nuclear testing no longer being cool, it’s the closest anyone’s come to using the comics origin on either the big or the small screen. And finally this gives us She-Hulk’s first screen appearance, though not a memorable one. “Looks like you captured a stuffed gorilla!”

The first season of THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1996) has a stronger voice cast (Neal McDonough as Bruce, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, Genie Francis as Betty, Cree Summer as Jennifer “She-Hulk” Walters and Matt Frewer as the Leader) and draws more on the Bronze Age when Hulk (created this time by a gamma-powered engine exploding) was restlessly wandering all over the country, pursued by General Ross’s Hulkbusters. Betty is once again a scientist (I’m surprised they never retconned this take into the MU) and we have a huge array of guest stars including Thor, Iron Man and Ghost Rider. A much more entertaining show and She-Hulk’s personality shows how much she improved since her debut: where Bruce is unleashing his buried rage, she unleashes Jennifer’s buried swagger and sense of fun. “Totally irrelevant, Gargoyle — you know I don’t do gratitude.”

BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING (1932) is a Jean Renoir film in which a bourgeousie bookstore owner saves a tramp from going down, takes him into his home, then both of them and the businessman’s family have to adjust. It’s a quirky, cynical little comedy of manners, much better than the more pretentious American remake Down and Out in Beverly Hills. However it does not shed as much light as I thought on Renoir’s later The Testament of Dr. Cordelier. “He spat in Balzac! He respects nothing!”

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) is a vast improvement over Oscar Wilde’s tedious book, though it wasn’t quite what I was in the mood for relaxing after Thanksgiving dinner. George Sanders as Wotton tosses off Wilde’s epigrams, convincing young Dorian (Hurd Hatfield) that nothing is more important than staying young — which Dorian proceeds to do, even as his soul ages from sins such as driving singer Angela Lansbury to suicide and then moving on to innocent Donna Reed. Hatfield’s increasingly flattened affect as the film progresses becomes increasingly creepy. “The only different between a caprice and a life-long passion is that a caprice lasts longer.”

Somehow I never wrote about the Mexican film PACTO DIABOLICO (1969) in which John Carradine uses his deceased friend Dr. Jekyll’s research as the basis for a youth potion so that he’ll never have to worry about someone taking over his research and getting all the glory after he dies. Wouldn’t you know, there are A Few Side Effects, such as gouging out women’s eyes and dressing in a top hat and cape even as Carradine turns into a beastman?

At least, I think that’s what’s going on — whether from subtlety or sloppiness they never spell out clearly that Carradine’s using Jekyll’s chemical theories, so first time through I was a lot more confused. Not the worst movie I’ve watched for Jekyll and Hyde but not particularly good either. “The time has come for a supreme, inevitable meeting with destiny!”

ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME was a mixed bag for me over the years (sequential season reviews here, here, here, here, here). The initial premises has PI Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) discovering the town of Storybrook is populated with refugees from fairytales, cursed by the evil queen Regina (Lana Parrilla) to live as mortals denied their happy endings. Emma, of course, refuses to believe it, let alone that she’s the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who pulled a Jor-El and Lara to get her to our world before the curse hit.

While Disney frequently used the show to promote their film catalog it did offer clever spins on the old tales (Ginnifer Goodwin as a rebel Snow White was a lot of fun). On the other hand, it was often way too soft on Regina (as I discuss here): while her time as Evil Queen was fueled by tragedy, that doesn’t change that she laid waste to a kingdom and made Snow’s life a living hell over a child’s innocent mistake. Less tragic than psycho.

I rewatched the end of S6 and the beginning of S7 because Jekyll and Hyde play a role along with multiple other fictional characters (Nemo, Count of Monte Cristo). I felt (and still do) that the duo’s appearance comes off largely pointless: it’s more a useful plot point to have Jekyll’s formula split off Regina’s dark side, giving us the Evil Queen as villain while keeping Regina reformed

That said, from the Jekyll and Hyde perspective it has some interest. It’s one of the few (only?) times the formula physically splits good from evil the way Jekylls are always saying it should. Only it doesn’t split them psychologically: Jekyll is odious and Hyde is capable of grief and softness. The show was definitely running out of steam, but it wasn’t done yet. “It appears there was one final twist.”

The Disney + series SHE-HULK, ATTORNEY AT LAW (2022) riffs on both the Dan Slott run on She-Hulk (she’s an attorney tackling superhuman law) and John Byrne having her break the fourth wall (“Excuse me, who’s series is this?”). Tatiana Maslany plays Jennifer Walters, Bruce Banner’s cousin; when she’s injured in an accident, he saves her with a blood transfusion and guess what happens?

I watched this initially for the Hulk chapter of Jekyll and Hyde but Jen doesn’t change from repressed rage the same way — as she points out to Bruce, she’s spent her whole life learning to keep her anger in check, like when some dude lectures her on her own specialty of law. I kept watching because it’s funny. A fight with the super-villain and influencer Titania, who’s trademarked the She-Hulk name. A lawsuit involving an Asgardian shapeshifter who banged a guy by appearing as a big-name rap star. I also like that unlike a lot of the MCU, this has no qualms about letting a villain like the Porcupine show up in costume. The finish suffered from too much fourth-wall breaking but I’d still like to see S2 (Disney is mulling). And I’m sorry I didn’t think of mentioning the show during a recent Con-Tinual panel on TV courtroom dramas. “Either there’s a big twist coming or I’m about to get fridged.”

THE AVENGERS (2012) introduced Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, (following Ed Norton in the 2008 film), a role he’s held in the MCU ever since. The movie holds up well as Nick Fury puts together a team to stop Tom Hiddleston’s Loki conquering the Earth (with a high enough body count his later switch to reluctant hero seems like a stretch) with the help of the alien Ch’Tauri. It holds up well, except the Ch’Tauri didn’t impress me then or now — if Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) can kill them with her trusty automatics, they ain’t that much.

Ruffalo’s more brittle as Bruce than Norton’s more controlled Banner, which fits with his comment at one point that he doesn’t have to get angry — he’s always angry. One of the strengths of the movie is that everyone is aware how dangerous Bruce is: when the Black Widow thinks he’s about to Hulk out, even she’s scared. The film doesn’t have the kick it did originally (whoa, all the MCU characters in one movie together!) but it is still fun. “Until such time as the world ends, we’re going to act as if it intends to spin on.”

She-Hulk cover by Mike Mayhew, Avengers by Kirby. All rights to images remain with current holders.

MY OWN WORST ENEMY (2008) was a short-lived TV series starring Christian Slater as white-collar family man Henry Spivey — who discovers one day that he’s a cover identity for Henry Albright, an agent for the government’s Janus spy network (Edward and Henry, as in Hyde and Jekyll, get it?). This keeps Edward on ice between missions — only the computer implant that creates Henry is malfunctioning so that they randomly shift between identities. Edward’s having to deal with Henry’s kids; Henry’s having to carry out spy missions. Is it just a glitch — or is someone sabotaging Janus from within?

I caught at least some of this originally and it was fun to rewatch — though not so fun I’m wracked by it ending on a cliffhanger after nine episodes. As it’s so marginally Jekyll and Hyde, though, it’s going in the appendix. “Chalk one up for my side of the gene pool.”

Rewatching THE TESTAMENT OF DR. CORDELIER (1961) proved frustrating as the English subtitled version I saw on YouTube has gone and only a French-subtitle one was available. Combined with the notes from the first viewing, it served my purpose well enough though and let me correct a couple of errors in my initial synopsis. Jean-Louis Barrault does an amazing job as both the dignified yet cruel Cordelier and the twitchy, unsettling Opale (his body language is very discomforting) who has a mean streak with even less restraint, for example snatching crutches away from an injured man purely for kicks.

Reading about the film in Ronald Bergan’s Jean Renoir: Projections of Paradise, I learned Barrault’s cane-wielding walk was a twisted version of Charlie Chaplin’s “little tramp” character (Renoir was a huge fan). Renoir aired the film on TV (which I knew) because even for an A-lister like himself, it was getting harder and more expensive to make movies for the big screen. He’d also concluded films didn’t give actors enough time to develop their character before the director yelled “cut!” For this film, he let Barrault and the other cast members decide when the scene was done. It paid off in performance quality but drove the producers nuts (a lot of film got wasted).

When I first saw THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008) it felt like a sequel to Ang Lee’s Hulk. Rewatching right after the other film, I realize they’re not consistent — the back story on Edward Norton’s Bruce becoming the Hulk here is not the same, but it’s close enough it doesn’t feel like a reboot (no worse than many comics have done). That said, it seems to owe more to the Bill Bixby series — the origin visuals are close and we get a quick glimpse of Bill Bixby on TV in one scene (I’m sure he’d have cameoed if cancer hadn’t taken him too soon).

The plot concerns General Ross (William Hurt) hunting Bruce in hopes of studying his green alter ego (nobody calls him Hulk until the very end) and creating an army like him (“You ever hear of the WW II super-soldier project?”). Things get complicated when soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) becomes obsessed with Hulk’s power, enough to transform himself into the Abomination (making him English but born in Russia seems pointless, even though the comics’ Blonsky was born there). Despite Liv Tyler as an unconvincing Betty, this is a much better movie and shows the beginnings of building the MCU, with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Junior) showing up at the end to chat with Ross (what a kick that was at the time). “You won’t like me when I’m hungry.”

Cover by Herb Trimpe. All rights to images remain with current holders.

Back when CBS’ The Incredible Hulk was on the air, I was in college. I largely skipped it but caught one episode when I was home on break. I didn’t care for it.

The plot of “Never Give a Trucker an Even Break” has David Banner (Bill Bixby) unwittingly embroiled in a battle between a pretty trucker (Jennifer Darling) and a gang of hijackers — a battle the latter would win except David keeps getting angry and hulking out. It struck me as a story that could fit into any of TV’s wandering-hero series, except with the Hulk as a deus ex machina.

Wandering heroes were a thing in the 1960s. Route 66. Then Came Bronson. Run, Buddy Run. Characters criss-crossing the country, dropping into small towns or big cities, then moving on; I’m not sure if it was the zeitgeist or the flexibility it gave writers in terms of stories but it was way popular.

Most significant for the purpose of this post was The Fugitive, which ran from 1963 to 1967. Richard Kimble, convicted of the murder of his wife, travels across country hunting the one-armed man who really killed her, pursued by the cop who thinks Kimble’s guilty as sin. That template — wandering hero is both pursuer and pursued — would inspire lots of later specfic show, including The Immortal, The Phoenix, Starman and a bunch of shows that never got past the pilot movie stage.

Rewatching The Incredible Hulk for Jekyll and Hyde, I like it much, much better. I wonder if that’s because wandering heroes, particularly the Fugitive-knockoff type, aren’t as much of a thing any more? But definitely it’s much superior to my memory of it. That’s all the more impressive given that producer Kenneth Johnson wasn’t at all enthused about doing a comic book show. He didn’t like the “incredible Hulk” name, didn’t like Bruce Banner’s alliterative moniker (hence changing his given name to David) and didn’t want it to look too comic-book. Nevertheless, he made a good show out of it.

A lot of that is due to Bill Bixby in the lead (with Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk of course). He’s a good actor and really radiates decency. As my fellow Atomic Junk shop blogger Greg Hatcher (now deceased, alas) puts it, his first thought when he recovers from hulking out is “what did I break this time? Who did I hurt?” The trucker episode works because he spends much of it with this baffled smile reflecting that he has no idea what the heck is going on.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1977) was the movie that started it all. A year ago David lost his beloved wife (Lara Parker of Dark Shadows) in a car crash. Since then he and research partner Elaina (Susan Sullivan) have been researching the question of how some people exhibit superhuman strength in a crisis enabling them to save lives, because David would very much like to know why he couldn’t do that. It turns out to be a combination of genetics — David has the same DNA element as the “lift the car off my kid” people — and gamma radiation from sunspots (not hitting David at the time). David decides to test himself late at night by using a gamma-radiation device to dose himself (the one weak moment — I don’t buy he couldn’t have waited) but it’s wired to give off way more radiation than the dial says.

Later, when David’s driving home in pouring rain, his car gets a flat. He gets out to change it, gets increasingly frustrated and suddenly he changes … the Hulk is born.

By the end of the movie, thanks to an unwitting screw up by tabloid reporter Jack McGee (Jack Colvin), Elaina’s dead, the Hulk is blamed for killing both her and David and Dr. Banner is on the run, searching for a cure. McGee, as we learn in subsequent stories, is in pursuit.

It’s a good movie, well acted, mostly effective special effects and the Hulk shows more power than I remembered. It pointedly sets up that for all his rage, the Hulk is still David and “David Banner doesn’t kill.” The Hulk never punches anyone, just throws them aside (which is bad enough but it’s easier to believe they’ll walk away)

The follow up movie A Death in the Family, AKA Return of the Hulk, is underwhelming. David gets a gig working on a paraplegic young woman’s estate, only to discover her widowed stepmom is paying the woman’s doctor to poison her (the real reason she can’t walk). It’s very much a stock Wandering Hero story and made me think I was right to avoid the show.

No, I wasn’t. Johnson and his writers (he wrote some shows, not all), and Bixby’s performance manage to make the shows absorbing. Even the Hulk is more than the deus ex I thought; multiple episodes show that like his comic-book counterpart he’s capable of being tender and protective in many situations. And his feats of strength, if not up to the comics, are pretty impressive. There’s a reason it ran five seasons when other Marvel attempts to hit live-action TV flatlined.

The Wandering Hero aspect does have its drawbacks, particularly as I had to binge the first season. Some sketchy geography (this week in NYC, next week in San Diego!). Too many romances, all the more awkward when he’s still grieving his beloved wife and then Elaina. McGee has little purpose in most episodes other than a goad to keep David moving on. This aspect also makes me aware how times have changed: this was an era when you could walk in and get a job without a background check or providing a list of every job you’ve ever had back to your college days.

I may not get to more of the series before the book wraps up but having bought the DVD set I’ll definitely watch it all.

Art top to bottom by Jack Kirby, Marie Severin, Kirby again, Severin again. All rights to images remain with current holders.