The Greatest American Hero is making a comeback. But you may not recognize his name.
According to Deadline, Fox has give a Put Pilot commitment to a revival of “The Greatest American Hero,” a TV series created by the late Steven J. Cannell in 1981 that ran for three seasons on ABC.
In the original series, aliens gave high school teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) a suit that granted him numerous superpowers. Although Ralph promptly lost the instruction book that told him how to properly use the suit, he tried to be a hero alongside his future wife as Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca) and FBI Agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp).
The new version of “The Greatest American Hero” will reportedly follow Isaac, an “inner-city teacher” who discovers the suit and also manages to lose the instructions on how to use his new powers. Like the original series, Isaac will be paired with a government handler as he tries to help others while dealing with the temptation to simply use the suit for himself.
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The Lego Movie writers and directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller are executive producing the new take on “The Greatest American Hero,” which will keep the comedic overtones of the original series. Rodney Rothman is writing the pilot script and he will also be executive producing the project for 20th Century Fox TV alongside Cannell’s daughter, TV director Tawnia McKiernan.
While it’s been over thirty years since “The Greatest American Hero” went off the air, it still has a cult following. It’s also got a very memorable theme song and opening credit sequence, which you can see below.
