Back in the Day… We had Fun Superheroes

Image by Pexel

Back in the day, we had fun TV shows. In the 1970s and 80s, we loved our superheroes. Every generation loves superheroes, but ours were more down to earth. They mingled with the little people when they weren’t out saving the world. The following are some of our favorite superheroes.

The Incredible Hulk

Bill Bixby was the original Hulk. Bixby was a fairly good actor and elicited sympathy as the poor schmuck who turned into a green monster every time he lost his temper. Remember the classic line? “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

While trying to find a cure for his transformation into the Hulk, long-suffering David Banner went everywhere and did just about everything. Throughout the series, he spent time in a rodeo, worked in a carnival, as a lumberjack, at a zoo, in an arcade, and even helped a little boy land a jetliner in one episode.

The music was the best. At the end of every show, lost soul David Banner walks away from yet another Hulk disaster, no closer to ending his green curse than he was at the beginning. The music was enough to make even the most stoic among us shed a tear. The show ran from 1977 to 1982.

Wonder Woman

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman ran from 1975 to 1979. The plots were pretty basic and revolved around Wonder Woman saving the day, or her man, Steve Trevor. All the girls of my time wanted to be like her, and the guys tuned in to watch her run around in what amounted to a strapless bathing suit.

Some of you diehard Wonder Woman fans may remember that Diana had a little sister who showed up in some episodes. Debra Winger played Drusilla, who became Wonder Girl for three episodes. Poor Winger received ridicule for not doing the “spin” as she turned into Wonder Girl with the same flair as Lynda Carter.

The dumbest thing about this show isn’t its slight campiness or how Wonder Woman is always in the right place at the right time, it’s how no one ever knows that Diana Prince is Wonder Woman. Come on people, wearing a pair of glasses and pulling your hair back in a ponytail will keep your closest friends and colleagues from recognizing you? Despite these inconsistencies and some of the silly plot lines, Wonder Woman was a fun show to watch.

The Six Million Dollar Man

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.” This was the memorable line we heard during the opening of the Six Million Dollar Man. Colonel Steve Austin crashes and comes back from near death with two bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic eye.

Steve Austin was the first cyborg, before Arnold in the Terminator. As much as I liked the Six Million Dollar Man, some of the episodes were pretty dumb. A few of the guest stars in some of the episodes, such as Flip Wilson didn’t really seem suited for a show about a bionic man. The Big Foot episode was pretty cheesy, too. In one of the close-ups, you can see the actor’s real teeth under a set of false bigfoot teeth.

Like most of the other superhero shows of its time, the plots were pretty basic good guy vs. bad guy stuff. The series struck gold when they gave Steve a girlfriend, Jamie Sommers. This masterpiece of scientific drama ran from 1973 to 1978.

The Bionic Woman

Forget Oliver and Jenny from Love Story, Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers were the great super couple of the 1970s. In a two-part 1975 episode, Jamie and childhood friend Steve fall in love and plan to get married. Of course, it doesn’t go as planned, and it appears that Jamie dies.

Besides going on secret missions and fighting bad guys, Jamie and Steve use their superpowers for more frivolous activities. During different episodes, we get to see bionic window washing, bionic lawn mowing, and even a bionic pillow fight. We always knew where human muscle use ended, and the bionics took over because of the bionic sound effects.

Jamie Sommers was a down-to-earth role model. She taught school and played tennis when she wasn’t catching the baddies for a secret government organization. Of course, she would rip thick telephone books in half when she needed to get the attention of her students.

The Greatest American Hero

From 1981 to 1983, we had the Greatest American Hero. This is a super-hero parody about a teacher named Ralph who gets gifted with a superpower red suit from a bunch of aliens. However, he loses the instruction booklet and has to learn through comical trial and error how to use the suit.

For some reason, I never got into this show like I did the previous superhero shows. Ralph is likable, but a total goofball. He loses the first instruction manual, and I’m thinking, okay, things happen. But in season three, he gets another manual from the aliens and loses that one too.

Even if you didn’t like the show, it did have a great theme song. Believe it or Not was probably one of the best TV theme songs. The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, only to be beat out by Endless Love.

These shows were for the most part corny and cheesy, but we loved them. We had some great superheroes… back in the day.