"Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." - Bill Bixby as David Banner
The Incredible Hulk: The Original Television Series Premiere DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The Incredible Hulk, a television series based on Stan Lee's comic book, came roaring to life as a pilot movie in the fall of 1977 on CBS. After the success of the pilot and a subsequent television movie, The Incredible Hulk joined CBS's schedule as a regular series in the spring of 1978.
In the pilot episode, we meet Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby), a research scientist who is plagued with nightmares and wracked with guilt since the death of his beloved wife Laura (Laura Parker) almost one year ago. Driving home from a romantic picnic, the couple's car suffered a blowout which caused the vehicle to careen out of control. Banner, thrown from the burning car as it began to flip, tried his best to save his wife, but was unable to open the car door.
Since the accident, Banner has changed the nature of his research at the prestigious Culver Institute. Along with his college friend Dr. Elaina Marks (Susan Sullivan), he investigates the phenomena in which ordinary people develop a sudden burst of superhuman strength when faced with life-threatening situations. This research only serves to fuel his guilt because he cannot understand why other people in situations similar to his own were able to save their loved ones.
The researchers discover that all of the participants in their study share an unusual deviation in their DNA. Banner also possesses the deviation, which leads them to believe that some other external stimulus must also be a factor in triggering the burst of strength. Late one night, Banner learns of a possible connection - excess gamma ray exposure caused by sunspots. It seems that gamma ray levels were high on the days when their subjects' incidents occurred. They were extraordinarily low on the day of his wife's death.
Eager to prove the theory and unable to contact Elaina, Banner decides to perform a risky gamma ray experiment on himself in the institute's radiology lab. He sets the machinery to deliver the maximum amount of gamma radiation that human beings can withstand, and then exposes himself to the harmful rays. Unknown to Dr. Banner, the machine has been recently recalibrated to deliver seven times the amount of radiation indicated.
Since he is seemingly no stronger than he was before, the experiment seems to be a failure. But soon Banner discovers that there is another vital triggering factor - anger. On his way home from the lab, a flat tire in a rainstorm sends him into a rage, and he is transformed into a monstrous green creature (Lou Ferrigno). Banner and Elaina begin an ill-fated attempt to reverse the gamma ray process, but thanks to the meddling of National Register reporter Jack McGee (Jack Colvin), the Hulk is wrongly accused of murder and David Banner is forced to go on the lam.
The series was written, directed, and produced by Kenneth Johnson, who had earlier been responsible for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. The pilot is stylishly directed and has held up well. Due to technical limitations and budget restraints the Hulk's transformation looks rather goofy, but the pilot knows its limitations and keeps the number of times that we see this rather low tech process to a minimum.
The pilot is also immensely helped by the presence of Susan Sullivan. She and Bill Bixby work well together, and she is able to make even the most ridiculous examples of science fiction techno jargon seem almost believable. She adds a touch of class to what could have been a thankless role.
The second side of the DVD contains the two hour episode "Married," which originally opened the series' second season. Mariette Hartley guests as Dr. Caroline Fields, a Hawaii-based hypnotherapist from whom Banner seeks treatment. Dr. Fields is dying, however, and Banner must try to find a cure for her Lou Gerhig's Disease-like ailment while she tries to help him to control his inner beast. In the process, they fall in love and marry.
This episode is pretty terrible and amateurish compared to the pilot. Gone are any traces of the pilot's stylish elements and the dignity with which it treated its subject. This episode looks cheap and hurried. This episode was obviously paired with the pilot because of its prolonged running time, but they are a bad match in every way. In the pilot, Banner is driven by the death of his wife, a woman he seems to have cherished even above his own life. Here we are expected to believe that he meets ands marries Dr. Fields within the space of a few weeks. This may (or may not) work when the episode is viewed in its correct place among the other episodes of the series, but on this DVD, the effect is jarring.
The tone of "Married" also jumps wildly from one extreme to another. When Dr. Fields receives an ominous update on her prognosis, she rushes off to drink herself to oblivion in a sublimely ridiculous "Swinging '70s" sequence. For those audience members who are too dumb to figure out what is happening, the club she chooses is helpfully called "Swingers." She heads off to her pickup's bachelor pad for some fun and games with another couple. Banner arrives just in time to save her from herself, but not before he turns into the Hulk, tears apart the groovy décor, and rips the hairpiece off of the stud that tried to take advantage of Dr. Fields. This "comic" interlude seems gratuitous and grotesque.
This also points out major changes in the personality of the Hulk from the pilot to "Married." In the pilot, the Hulk is basically gentle, only lashing out when threatened or when caged. Dr. Marks is able to simply talk to the Hulk and he calms down. In "Married" he behaves like a petulant child, smashing everything around him, even when he is not provoked. This just seems like a cynical way to jazz up the show by adding in needless mayhem.
The worst of the episode is saved for last when Mariette Hartley is forced to run around in a simulated hurricane while clutching her head and screaming for help. This scene is so bad that it is not even interesting in a campy way.
The episodes are on a double sided disc. The disc is housed in a keepcase that employs two plastic tabs to "lock" itself closed. This is a rather curious design, and the tabs themselves show signs of breaking off after being opened only a few times.
