Is the 1978 Hulk show worth checking out?

[Ken Ashcroft]

It's sad the series didn't get a happy ending.

[Flash Gordon]

Oh man I adored it growing up.

I think it's up on netflix, I'd love to rewatch it.

[Hypestyle]

I guess the show is on Netflix or Hulu. Also it will be airing on MeTV soon.

[Jon-El]

I loved it as a kid! I was actually terrified during the pilot. The Hulk was pretty scary to me. I bought the first two seasons & have enjoyed them. It's not meant to be watched one episode after another though. It's not built to be enjoyed like that. I'm pretty sure a new viewer would get really bored watching more than two episodes back to back. Each episode is self contained with no plots bleeding into the next one. Binge watching isn't a good idea. I grew up on it & know what I'm getting so that helps.

Great show to me but I'd recommend watching a single episode first. I prefer the first two seasons as Ferrigno was in amazing shape & the makeup was a bit scarier. Season 4 though has two storylines that were a bit more "comic book" like & they're really good.

[Zero Hunter]

Plot of every episode. Banner shows up in a town. Tries to find a job. Gets a job. Is made angry. Turns into the Hulk. Hides what happened. Helps the person in trouble. Turns into Hulk again. Leaves town. Plus their is a reporter out there trying to prove he is still alive.

As an 8 year old, it was great to watch. It would be fun to watch it now as well I'm sure. But yes, if you know what you are getting into. Bill Bixby is great, you will hear the classic line, "Please Mr McGee, don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

That pretty much sums it up. As a kids it was fun. As an adult it is not that great a show.

[Cmbmool]

As a fan of the HULK it gave us the first true live action form of the Green Goliath, but it differs from the comic as it doesn't contain any of his enemies or supporting cast.

If you enjoy an interesting one-hour show in which you see David Banner trying to use his curse for good, then you may enjoy this program.

[ed2962]

Like the others have mentioned, it's a low budget show and not very superhero-y. It actually has a lot in common with the old The Fugitive television show. But it's still somewhat entertaining

[manatree]

It was basically more The Fugitive reworked with the reason for the guy being on the run being turning into a monster more than a murder charge than true superhero action, but it was well-acted and written for the most part and worth watching. It's currently available streaming on Netflix, which also has the new Daredevil and Jessica Jones series, so that would be a good avenue to catch it rather than buying discs.

I always thought it was a reworking of Kung Fu.

[ChrisIII]

It still influences the Hulk to this day in the comics and films I think. The "Don't make me angry" line for example has been used in both the Bana and Norton Hulks (Although I'm not sure if Rufallo has said it). Lou of course has made a few cameos in the films (Think he also provides the Hulk's growls and ocassional dialogue, although apparentally his own growls in the TV show were actually Richard Kiel's), and the Norton film has a clip from one of Bixby's old TV shows as a sort of in-joke. Norton's film also uses the "Lonely man" piano theme at some points, and the origin story is very similar with a sort of chair and gamma zapper thingy. Also the Hulk is mostly silent in the films, something that kind of happened in the TV series too.

Nic Nolte's father character was also "David Banner" in the 2003 film.




A few of the comics have also been somewhat inspired by it; Bruce Jones for example had a similar set up although with more recurring characters and a sort of X-files thing going on.


The series doesn't really have much to do with the comics stuff apart from Bruce/David thing. Instead of General Ross there's a reporter as an antagonist. Apart from one episode there's really no gamma monsters for Hulk to fight. Betty is also nowhere to be seen (Although Banner does have a few love interests over the course of the series).

[ChrisIII]

It still influences the Hulk to this day in the comics and films I think. The "Don't make me angry" line for example has been used in both the Bana and Norton Hulks (Although I'm not sure if Rufallo has said it). Lou of course has made a few cameos in the films (Think he also provides the Hulk's growls and ocassional dialogue, although apparentally his own growls in the TV show were actually Richard Kiel's), and the Norton film has a clip from one of Bixby's old TV shows as a sort of in-joke. Norton's film also uses the "Lonely man" piano theme at some points, and the origin story is very similar with a sort of chair and gamma zapper thingy. Also the Hulk is mostly silent in the films, something that kind of happened in the TV series too.

Nic Nolte's father character was also "David Banner" in the 2003 film.




A few of the comics have also been somewhat inspired by it; Bruce Jones for example had a similar set up although with more recurring characters and a sort of X-files thing going on.


The series doesn't really have much to do with the comics stuff apart from Bruce/David thing. Instead of General Ross there's a reporter as an antagonist. Apart from one episode there's really no gamma monsters for Hulk to fight. Betty is also nowhere to be seen (Although Banner does have a few love interests over the course of the series).

[Surf]

It's sad the series didn't get a happy ending.

Of the three TV movies the Death of the Incredible Hulk was a real downer.
The one with Thor was kind of lame even back in the day. Now the one scene where Hulk gets hit with Mjolnir if I remember right was kind of cool but the Thor character was kind of a clown show.
Now Trial of the Incredible Hulk was my shit, I must have watched that a dozen times. I still have my original VHS tape somewhere recorded on LP (kids, that's was the long play setting on the VCR). Black suit Daredevil with the baton. The best scene of that movie is the dream sequence where David turns into the Hulk in the middle of court room. An overlooked Stan Lee cameo in that scene.

Can't forget about the 2 part Prometheus episode too.

[Iron Maiden]

I never understood why they did that. I do remember that when they showed his gravestone it said "David Bruce Banner," so at least there was that.

I think it was never said publicly but I think it was a silly homosexual joke at the time . IIRC there was a Monty Python sketch about these Australian guys named Bruce and they all disliked "poofters". The mechanical shark from Jaws was nicknamed Bruce. I guess there was just some weird connection about the name Bruce and being gay.

I liked the show at the time but to tell the truth I've not watched it in reruns. I was highly regarded for a show with superhero origins and got some Emmy nominations. I remember there was a pretty good episode where Mariette Hartley was a woman he fill in love with and she died in his arms. Just looked it up and it's an episode called "Married". BTW, she was also in a Star Trek episode where she was a political exile in a frozen wasteland and Spock fell in love with her