MovieChat Forums > The Incredible Hulk (1977) Discussion > I miss this show, probably my first Marv...

I miss this show, probably my first Marvel experience


I'd seen the Superman movies, the 1960s Batman series and maybe the Spider-Man cartoon of the early 1980s, but live-action is where it was at and The Incredible Hulk was just that.

I'd watch every episode I could, I loved the title sequence with the gamma ray exposure and the sad music at the credit sequence when Bill Bixby's character would lament on having to be alone for the rest of his life or until he could find a cure, and of course...

...the transformation into the Hulk itself! I loved seeing the various random situations that Bruce Banner would get into that would lead to his getting angry ("Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like when if I'm angry") and then the moment that he snaps: he stares into the camera with pale eye contacts with that wonderful "horror" music, then the close-ups of his clothes tearing to reveal green skin underneath, and finally, Lou Ferrigno is there instead and he snaps into slow-motion action to wreak his revenge on the wrongdoers in spectacular 1980s fashion, growling and roaring all the time, until he sees he's done enough to then run away and turn back into Bill Bixby, sans most clothes.

This show was so iconic in the early 1980s that even British comedy TV shows paid homage to it, for example, The Young Ones in its final episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll9aWvGFwsY

But still, a classic series, and I do miss it!

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I like this show a bit but it is not a faithful adaptation of the source material and it's because of so many ignorant people who grew up on this show that we can't have a successful movie adaptation of the Hulk comics. But oh well.

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It's not a faithful adaptation?

So what was meant to happen?

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Just watch this and you'll understand why. Also Hollywood has never done a faithful adaptation either.

https://youtu.be/Tu_kh5eZwjg

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Didn't you watch the SpiderMan TV series around that same time?

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I was born after these shows were on but the Spider-Man live action show was not that great. I rented some episodes of it on VHS from Blockbuster. The best episode was probably the one where Spider-Man was cloned but then it was ruined by the ending where the clone accidentally kills himself by swinging into a power poll.

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