The Incredible Hulk - Pilot

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I have been debating on how to honor Stan Lee’s memory in my own way. I have been mulling for quite some time the idea of reviewing The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno for the blog going back a few years as well. On a day off, I thought, “Why not now?” I started with the Pilot, featuring a wonderful Susan Sullivan (I just couldn’t help feel disappointed that she wasn’t a recurring character, perhaps a love interest pursuing his whereabouts in a different way than grocery story magazine reporter, Colvin, looking to further his career if he could get a big scoop on the Hulk) as scientist/researcher, Elaina, working alongside Dr. David Banner in a project to determine what within the DNA of people provides extraordinary strength during high-stress situations (such as a mother lifting a 1200 pound car to get her son out, a woman underpinned by a post, etc.). This stems from Banner’s unfortunate car accident (Banner has a problem with tires blowing out while driving) with the love of his life (prior to Elaina), Laura (Lara Parker of Dark Shadows fame), being killed when the vehicle goes up in flames while turned over on its roof. I never knew Ted Cassidy (Lurch of The Addams Family) did narrative and Hulk “sounds” work until I researched the show a bit which I thought was a neat bit of trivia. The Pilot is a movie from 1977 (shot in the summer of my birth) setting the groundwork (with alterations from the Lee comic) for what lies ahead for Dr. David Banner.

Much like Laura, Elaina is also killed, admitting her love to Banner when he was in the form of Hulk, her confessing to him as her body was dying…I got seriously choked up at this. But even more tears came when poor David Banner, addressing the tombstone and grave of dear Elaina, doesn’t recall this profession of love, telling her he loved her, remarking that he figured she felt the same…although, to him, she never told him. This bit of depressing subtext is a continuing reminder that when in the form of Hulk, no memories carry over to Banner once he returns to his natural state. Hulk, even as Banner’s outrage and anger inflamed develops it, doesn’t kill. In fact, the Hulk only harms when provoked so that fear that pervasively haunts Banner is explained to him by Elaina in the Pilot. Yet, understandably, because he doesn’t recollect any memory or sustain any part of his experience as the Hulk, Banner can never relax or find any ease. And without Elaina at his side, Banner must walk the country alone, hoping a cure for the gamma injection that derived from an experiment (he didn’t realize the power of the machine until Elaina explained to him that the day before it was “improved”) to improve his strength (encouraging a development in his DNA that others had due to “sunspot gamma”) will eventually be discovered by him. He is suspected by Colvin’s Jack McGee as dead due to the explosion of his lab and attempt to rescue Elaina from the burning structural fire. Using that to his advantage, Dr. David Banner moves from location to location, under identities and aliases created to keep his true identity hidden, considered deceased until he can once and for all locate a cure that “fixes” his “abnormal” DNA.

As a kid, this journeyman series gave Banner plenty of isolated stories where he could converse and develop friendships/relationships with whoever is casted each episode, while his ongoing story arc in finding a cure remains a mission/objective. His eluding McGee also remains a focal point. Sometimes McGee isn’t involved but in a minor way, while other times he narrowly misses Banner who just narrowly escapes detection. I always enjoyed the clever escapes the series would provide Banner.

The Pilot introduces Ferrigno’s green-skinned, chiseled physique (a standard bearer in Marvel films today) to us when Banner hurts his hand during the change of a tire in a rainstorm. Trying to replicate this in a protective steel-reinforced chamber (with six-inch thick glass) provides fans with quite a Hulk outburst as he smashes that structure and goes berserk in grand fashion. Elaina looks on, voice-recording the experience. The car Hulk unleashes fury on during the rainstorm is quite a grandiose way to kicks things off with what it can do. Those contacts and the hair, tattered clothes left behind after the Hulk goes away, the character has remained quite a pop culture icon. I used to watch this show all the time in syndication and reruns. It is a staple of my childhood. I had forgotten about the scene by the lake with the girl and her father while camping and fishing! It is right out of Frankenstein (1931) but Hulk knocks down a tree and attempts to use it as a means for the girl (who flees into the water out of fear, tipping out of her canoe) to return to shore. And you get the first “victim toss” as the father fires a shotgun at Hulk (another reminder of Frankenstein to me!) and is hurled in the air into the water by it.

McGee accidentally knocking over the acid, with the spill causing the explosion when it oozes into a machine, has an irony its own: he claims the Hulk caused the explosion and deaths of Elaina and Banner, not realizing it was actually him that was the root cause!

Musician Harnell’s “The Lonely Man”, a melancholic melody that often bookends each episode, is also introduced and fittingly encourages a resonating sadness that lingers on the mind as it reminds us that Banner just can’t set down roots or find peace in one place too long, having to move on due to his “condition”, having to stay ahead of persistent McGee and anyone who might tie him to his past. Always running and because Bixby is such a talent, so capable of securing your attachment to his situation, remorse for his loss and inability to surmount any sort of success, affection for his Dr. David Banner as he just can’t seem to curtail his dilemma; The Incredible Hulk maintains its appeal, even as special effects and movie magic have taken this character and the Marvel Universe into greater heights unimagined in 1978.