Jack McGee's absence understandable


A lot of reviewers complaining about Jack McGee not being there. Mostly fanboy wanking about how much more profound they thought the ending would've been. I think that both this story and Trial of the Incredible Hulk worked best without him. They obviously take place years after the series. McGee was last seen in Return and it seemed like his appearance was a token appearance.

I think his appearance would have been pointless in the last two movies. It's reasonable to believe that after all these years Mr. McGee has moved on with his life and let go of it. Although, existence of the Hulk has become an urban legend, McGee's career would be hurt by having fruitlessly chased the same story for almost 15 years.

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McGee is/was an obsessive kind of personality. While a well-balanced, rational person would never have become so obsessed with "his" story, McGee does. The fact that it ultimately hurt himpersonally and professionally is something he scarcely seems to notice.

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I still wished that McGee was in at least Death of the Incredible Hulk it would have been a good closure to the entire series. Throughout the Series they helped u understand McGee's obsession with the Hulk and show some charicter to him.

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what the devil is a fanboy

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[deleted]

A "fanboy" is someone (usually male) with a strong devotion to something or someone (in this case, the Incredible Hulk).

"Has anybody ever told you you have a SERIOUS IMPULSE CONTROL PROBLEM??"

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A final confrontation between McGee and Banner would've been great.

Banner: "It's all because of you McGee, that I've been running for the past 12 years! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!"

McGee: (awkward silence, realizing what he has done)

Banner: "Go ahead, publish your damn story! Sell another paper, make another buck!"

Later on, Banner, as The Hulk, ends up saving McGee's life. Banner dies in the climax. While he is laying there dying, McGee starts to feel REMORSE and GUILT, realizing he's ruined a man's life, all in the name of the press.

The end of the movie would show McGee retiring the story of The Hulk, and in addition, resigns from The National Register.

It's too bad Bixby and Colvin are not with us anymore. RIP you two!

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Are you kidding?...Jack McGee was a central character week after week...The point the rest of us Hulk series fans are making is that for closure, the show should have ended with David finding a cure and maybe him going to McGee with the true story of the Hulk, AFTER he cures himself.

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That would be a ironic ending as McGee watches the Hulk change to Banner,
and said " I never would of suspected him" ?

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What was the name of David's look-a-like character? I haven't seen any of the eps with him in it (or of David pretending to be said look-a-like)

Ben Grimm forever!

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from what I understand(this is unofficial rumours from the original makers of incredible hulk Kenneth and such) is they built Mc Gee's char and all where you find out why he chases and how in later shows saves him a few times is they wanted to end the series with Banner being caught, found out who he is and put on trial for elaine markums death and when Mc Gee realizes this, and attends the trial, Banner turns into the Hulk and Mc Gee figures out the whole truth is supposed to have helped banner escape become a fugitive with him. but using his contacts get him the help needed to cure himself well try to anyways not sure if they were planning a spinoff where mcgee and david together or not. I know mcgee char jack colvin and snf Bannr char bixpy liked the idea but the network cancelled in midseason and refused to let it go to the closure.

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This movie is awful. Any ending should have had David Banner exposed to the entire world. How Magee never found Banner alive and well is a travesty for the show and the characters. Magee caused the Lab fire which claimed the life of Elaina Marks...

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Speaking not as a fanboy of Jack McGee, in any case I am not a fan of his, he should have been present in this last movie. McGee was one of the main characters and a regular. It would have been sweet to see McGee in total shock seeing the Hulk fall from the sky and change into Banner as he took his last breath.

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Wasnt Magee told by his boss in the "Return of the Inrecible Hulk" that he wouldnt be running those stories no more. It was in the phone box i believe near the end? Theres your explanation right there as to why he wasnt in the last two films lol. I cant bring myself to watch death of incredible hulk as i find it really emotional. Seen it the least out of all the episodes and films.

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This was one of the best tv movies I've ever seen, but McGee's absence was a terrible flaw. It left the central theme of The Incredible Hulk unfinished.

The central theme of the series is this: David Banner is running from his demons--from within and from without. David's internal demon is the hulk (representation of his true self). David's external demon is McGee (representation of society). Just when one seems to be under control, the other appears and forces David to give up his happiness and run.

I read that the character McGee was based on Javert from Les Miserables. This makes total sense. Just like in Les Mis, the hero cannot find peace until he deals with both his enemies--until he forgives himself and is forgiven by society (McGee/Javert) for his past crimes.

David found peace with himself, but never faced down the other half of his problem which plagued him for 5 seasons.

Besides all that, I'm damn proud to admit I'm a wanking fanboy of Jack Colvin. ANYONE GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT? He & Bill Bixby were what elevated this series above cheese and made it a work of art.

P.S. Does anyone know for sure why Jack wasn't in it? Maybe he turned it down for some reason?

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I would say it here again, McGee could have been left out for the next movie since Hulk wasn't suppose to have died there. They didn't make this movie knowing that there would be no other, of course they had plans for another. But due to Bill's passing, it couldn't get made. Now, all those saying Hulk should have been cured, now really, does that make sense? I mean sure you could have a happy ending like that, but is it really a happy ending? The Hulk cured is practically another way of saying Hulk is dead. Meaning Bruce/David was trying to destroy a part of himself. His death was a fitting ending to the show. The series was basically made for you to feel sorry for the character, and it wouldn't have suited Hulk to be cured. His death was the only way out, sort of like it was fated.

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the thing that confuses me is if they were planning to make another movie after this then why would they call this movie the death of the incredible hulk?i think they should have had mcgee in the last 2 films.there were only 3 main characters in the entire series.was there ever any interviews with jack colvin,lou ferrigno,or bill bixby as to why he wasnt in the last 2 films?if anyone has any info please let me know.thanks

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SPOILER WARNING:

Fact: The title event comes out of left field at the last minute.

Fact: There had been announcements (in magazines such as Comics Scene and Amazing Heroes) that, as the two preceding TV-movies had featured adaptations of Marvel characters Thor and Daredevil respectively, this one was going to include a version of their She-Hulk.

Fact: The character of Jasmin/Yasmin (?) bears an unmistakable resemblance to Marvel Comics' Black Widow (at least unmistakable to anyone familiar with both; her "real" name has been changed [from Natasha Romanoff {sp?}] with no "code" name given at all, and her husband has been replaced with her sister; but these are superficialities and otherwise Jasmine is closer to the comic book Widow than the first film's aforementioned version of Thor was to his admitted basis).

So it appears that this script was rewritten multiple times:

She-Hulk is removed; Black Widow is added; BW is changed to non-licensed character Jasmin; the title is changed and the event indicated by the new one is added.

That comes to four changes. Since the idea was to have an additional Marvel character in each of these movies, She-Hulk was almost certainly directly replaced with Black Widow, reducing the number of potential rewrites to three. As the elimination of BW is in name only and therefore hastily done, it and the addition of the "Death" were almost certainly done in the same last-minute rush job, so that there did not have to be more than two rewrites. I believe the person who submitted the "Trivia" note for this movie claiming that the set of the death scene was initially preserved until the diagnosis of Bill Bixby's terminal cancer put an end to all plans is an assumption born out of confusion. I submit that the truth here is as follows:

After the script underwent a massive rewrite to replace She-Hulk with the Black Widow and there was as yet no decision made as to whether S-H or Iron Man would be used in the next entry, another decision was made--for whatever reason--that this would be the last movie in this series. This in turn led to decisions to feature no other Marvel character here and to kill off the lead. Given how minimal the rewrite to eliminate BW and add the death was (suggesting that the production team had very little time in which to do it and therefore was probably caught by surprise), the cancellation must have been from either the network, the studio (New World)'s upper executives, or just maybe Marvel itself. Does anybody know just when Bixby's cancer was initially diagnosed? Please note that there can be a big difference between when a celebrity is diagnosed with a serious condition and when it is announced to the public, and mind you it wasn't necessarily thought terminal at first. I can imagine the insurance company, after learning of star/director/co-producer Bixby's illness, saying something like, "Well it's too late for us to back out of this third one, but we won't give coverage for any more of these." As a precedent of sorts (for one thing, it happened a few years later) is Robert Urich's syndicated Western series, The Lazarus Man. It was cancelled because the policy holders required a prohibitive increase in premiums due to Urich's medical condition, even though it appeared to be in complete remission.

I submit that the person responsible for the previously mentioned "Trivia" note had heard that a fourth Hulk movie had been intended, assumed that it was planned to have followed what was actually filmed here and consequently assumed that the death scene set would have to have been saved. But #4 was actually scrapped before this was shot, and the script for this altered because of that decision. Any thoughts? Any documentation?

UPDATE on 1 August 2009: Further research, inspired by the discussion thread "Iron Man appearance" on this board, revealed the following;

1. As of early July 1989 (Comics Scene #9, October 1989, the "Comics Screen" listings) the third Hulk telefilm was firmly expected to air that fall and to feature She-Hulk, while the alternatives of a subsequent Hulk movie or a solo film were under consideration for Iron Man.
2. As of 10 July 1990 (Comics Scene #15, October 1990, same department) a fourth Hulk movie, Revenge..., was being scripted. No Marvel co-star was mentioned (both Iron Man--with Stuart [Re-Animator] Gordon touted as director--and She-Hulk were being developed for their own films at this point).

The second point there would seem to be highly consistent with the Trivia note about saving the final scene's set. However, at a point when there was no chance Bixby would be able to do it, the actor himself announced that he would be starring in sporadic TV movies reviving another one of his old series, The Magician. This was certainly something arranged to make Bixby think his cancer wasn't as serious as it actually was, and not a genuine project. Could the same thing have been the point of announcing that a fourth Hulk script was being written? Point 1 intensifies the problems with Death... itself, as it indicates that the film was postponed in order to remove the She-Hulk. And would they have so openly admitted that Iron Man was under consideration to appear in a fourth or fifth entry (the cited statement about him is phrased that ambiguously) if at that time the third film was planned to appear to be the end of the series? I think not. So while I freely admit that the person who submitted the Trivia note about the death scene's set being saved MUST be let off the hook that I previously placed him on (although he is probably the victim of a disinformation campaign, so to speak), everything else stands as demanding answers to questions.

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Meh. It might've been too gratuitous to shove him in just because the hardcore fans wanted him in. If a character can't contribute to a story properly, it's best not to include him/her.

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Jack McGee I don't think is over his obsession with The Hulk by this point, its an obsession, so unless he's in jail or committed he's still looking. There are two factors to remember, one is he seemed to have been fired at the end of "The Incredible Hulk Returns, " and David hadn't had a Hulk out in a while, so the trail has run cold. With McGee's connections all dried up due to dead ends and being fired, he had to go on his own, which makes it twice as hard to track down a lead and of course travel.
I wrote an outline a few years ago(before the Ang Lee Hulk)which would have been a tie-in with this series. It always bothered me that his story was never completed, because he does just disappear. So my idea was that David and the woman in the Returns film had a child, with David's radiated DNA inside of him he begins to experience signs of a change and doesn't understand why and goes to find out. Well at some point in my story he meets Jack McGee who by this time had found out that David Banner was alive for all those years and that he was The Hulk and he spent his time regretting chasing him, knowing that David was no monster, so within the story McGee tries to help David's son(named Bruce)find out if he'll ever suffer the metamorphosis that David did.

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Note that the first of these three films doesn't merely feature Colvin/McGee and the Register, but also a slightly altered version of the series' standard opening title sequence, complete with narration track by the even-then late Ted Cassidy. Only Joe Harnell's theme is retained in the other two films, and both times just for the end credit crawl. I think after they saw ...Returns Universal--the studio for the series itself--complained that they owned that stuff and New World--the studio for the TV movies--had no right to use it. Hence, the opening, McGee and the tabloid paper were dropped, but the music rights weren't completely blocked.

The GREEN HORNET Strikes Again!

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I asked in another post why Colvin wasn't in two of the three films, and even in the last season, he appeared in only one episode in the last season.

Initially, I thought it might have to do with the episode, "Interview With The Hulk" in season 6, where another reporter from the Register, steals McGee's notes, and sets out to find the Hulk himself.

He finds out about the Hulk and Banner, but in the end rescues him, and it seems like he has got the scoop on the Hulk, and McGee missed out. I thought that it meant that someone else got McGee's "exclusive", so he was no longer needed in the show, as he missed out on his "big break".

However, he still appeared in an episode the next season, and in the first TV movie, so he was obviously still hunting the Hulk.

It seems that maybe Colvin was no longer contracted to the station which did the show, and was unavailable when the last two TV movies were filmed. He may have been doing something else, or he may have had health problems.

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