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Paul Davidson

WFME’s <i>Greatest American Hero</i> Extravaganza!

T-minus one day and counting.

Yes, that’s right folks. By tomorrow at this time you will be able to go out of your cold, dark homes and apartments and motor homes and swing on down to the Best Buy or the Tower Video or the mom n’ pop video store near your house and buy The Greatest American Hero: Season 1 on DVD.

And in celebration of such a joyous event, we here at WFME would like to take a little time out to honor the goodness of said referenced show.

And so, just as people knew what they were doing when JFK was shot, or when the Challenger accident happened — I ask you this: Do you remember what you were doing, the night that The Greatest American Hero premiered on TV?

I was throwing a fit.

A big old screaming fit. Because back then, there was no VCR or TiVo. If you wanted to watch a damn TV show you had to stay up to see it. Can you even conceptualize that? You had to ask your parents if you could stay up late. Damn, it was on at like 9 o’clock or something, and I just was not able to stay up that late.

These days, kids have it way easier, don’t they? Sure, record it. Or have TiVo download it. Then the kids can watch it when they’re awake. Seriously, that makes me sort of jealous. To think, if they had such technology back then, I would have some real conceptual knowledge of what was being aired on TV. I would be able to have intelligent conversations about television shows in the 70’s like Taxi and Mary Tyler Moore. But there’s nothing there. Zip. Zilch. I could tell you more about Electra Woman and Dyna Girl instead of those other high-watermark shows.

I know, it’s sad.

But what I do know is that The Greatest American Hero‘s two-hour pilot was nominated for an Emmy. That the show’s title song was a hit on the radio. That after a guy with the last name of Hinkley tried to kill the President of the United States, the show’s creators changed our title character’s last name (also Hinkley) without any mention of the change. He just suddenly had a brand-new last name. And then, when the Hinkley thing blew over, they went right back to his last name.

Sure, there are other stories related to The Greatest American Hero that have shaped my life. But I’ll leave those for the truly curious folks.

In the meantime, all hail William Katt, Connie Selleca and Robert Culp. For today…is their day-before-the-real-day, Day. Tomorrow will be the real-day Day, but what can I say, I’m a leg up.

Hoo-hah.

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