Trivia / The Greatest American Hero

• Breakaway Pop Hit: The theme song. It peaked at #2 a few weeks after the show premiered. It then hung around for two years in the Billboard Hot 100, making it one of the biggest pop hits of the 1980s. Now find someone who knows all the words to that song who's actually seen an episode of the show.
• Dawson Casting: The high school students. So much so that Michael Paré (Tony) is only three years younger than Connie Sellecca (Pam). And Faye Grant (Rhonda) is only two years younger than Sellecca.
• Distanced from Current Events: Ralph's last name was briefly changed from Hinkley to Hanley in the wake of the 1981 assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan, due to Hinkley also being the last name of his assassin, John Hinkley, Jr. Ralph's last name was changed back to Hinkley after a few months.
• The Cast Showoff: Faye Grant gets to sing in "Classical Gas" and "The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea".
• Edited for DVD: In "Operation: Spoilsport" the aliens pressed Ralph forward by continually playing the song "Eve of Destruction." Due to copyright issues the song is replaced in the DVD release.
• Executive Meddling: Cannell wanted a light comedy with real world problems as opposed to the network, who wanted Villain of the Week "Superhero" type plots.
• He Also Did: season two recruits Frank Lupo and Patrick (Burke) Hasburgh co-created with Cannell The A-Team (Lupo later thought up Hunter (1984) by himself), 21 Jump Street and Hardcastle and McCormick (both Hasburgh),when Lupo left Stephen J. Cannell Productions there was Werewolf (1987) and Something is Out There (returning to blond people with superpowers!).
• Hey, It's That Sound!: in "Divorce, Venusian Style" the computers on the little green guys' ship make the distinctive Star Trek Bridge sound effects.
• The Merch: Courtesy Mego, who provided Ralph and Bill in 3 3/4" scale, packaged with the VW Beetle. Incidentally, all three are now considered very rare and valuable by collectors.
  • In the episode "The Best Desk Scenario", actor Eugene Peterson plays a character named Clarence Carter. No, he doesn't sing "Patches", "Strokin'" or "Slip Away" in this episode.
• Real-Life Relative: In "Who's Woo in America," William Katt's real life mother, Barbara Hale, plays Ralph Hinkley's mother Paula.
  • Robert Culp's sons appear in "Vanity, Says the Preacher."
• Renamed to Avoid Association: Hinkley was briefly renamed Hanley following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. It was reverted back after a few months.
• Screwed by the Network: Stephen J. Cannell had envisioned this as a show focusing on down-to-earth, real life problems, the powers would be in the suit, not the guy (though the suit would only work for him) and Ralph would try to solve ordinary-type issues. The ABC executives whom Cannell had pitched the show to, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, had actually agreed to go along with this. Unfortunately, however, after the show was picked up, Carsey and Werner left ABC to form Carsey Werner, and the new network executives demanded that Cannell incorporate more fantastic plots, which ultimately alienated viewers.
  • The final blow came when ABC moved it to Friday Nights. The ratings went down so fast four episodes were left unaired.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact
• Throw It In!: The scene of Ralph writing his name on the blackboard with the chalk breaking at the start of the third season's credits was a blooper.
• Written and Directed by Cast Member: Robert Culp with "Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell", and "Vanity, Says the Preacher" (the latter was one of four episodes not shown in the network run, although it and the others did get shown in syndication- unlike the pilot for some reason).
• You Look Familiar: The actor who played Pam's Hardware store owner Dad in "Here's Looking at you Kid" shows up as a sports announcer in "It's All Downhill From Here" and "The Price Is Right".
  • Christine Belford who played a ghost trying to take over Maxwell's body to stay in the land of the living in "The Beast In The Black" turns up again in "Thirty Seconds Over Little Tokyo" as a lawyer friend of Pam's who shares Bill's love of sports.

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