THE INCREDIBLE HULK
(NBC, September 18, 1982-October 8, 1983)
Marvel Productions
Dr. Bruce Banner was
a scientist with a dark secret. While rescuing wayward teenager Rick Jones from
the site where Banner was testing his new gamma bomb, Banner was bombarded by
gamma rays. The result was that every time Banner would grow angry or outraged,
he’d transform into a massively strong green behemoth known as the Hulk.
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| The origin of the Hulk. |
Seeing how popular
the Thing was in the then-recently launched Fantastic Four series, Marvel Comics writer-editor
Stan Lee took inspiration from Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to create the
Hulk with artist Jack
Kirby. The Hulk debuted in The Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) and was initially depicted as gray to avoid
portraying any specific ethnic group. The printer’s inability to easily render
that color forced his skin be changed to green with the next issue, which is
what it has remained for the majority of the character’s life. The initial
series was cancelled with #6, but the Hulk would go on to guest-star in several
other Marvel titles as well as co-found the Avengers before gaining a permanent
feature in Tales
to Astonish with issue #60, where most of his principle villains would be introduced.
The character’s popularity with college-aged readers led to the book to become
retitled The
Incredible Hulk with #102, and the Hulk had a series in one form or another ever
since.
With Universal Studios’ very successful and popular live-action The
Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby and Lou
Ferrigno winding down, the time had come to
return Hulk to his animated roots for the first time since 1966’s The Marvel Super Heroes. Produced by Marvel Productions, the series closely followed the comics with Banner
(Michael Bell) trying to stay ahead of the military while finding a cure to
free himself of the Hulk (Bob Holt). However, only Rick Jones (Michael Horton)
knew that Banner was actually the Hulk, in a change from the comics where it is
widely known.
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| Hulk leaping. |
The character designs were
inspired by the artwork of Sal Buscema, who had worked on the comic during the 70s and 80s. The
fluid animation was a step-up from the limited movement of the earlier Hulk cartoon, despite utilizing stock footage whenever Banner
Hulked-out. Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones was modified slightly by being given
blonde hair and always shown wearing a cowboy hat. Banner’s girlfriend Betty
Ross (B.J. Ward) was made a research scientist who worked alongside Banner.
Hulk’s principal antagonist was renamed Ned Talbot (Pat Fraley) rather than
Glenn like in the comics, and was changed into a cowardly klutz. In order to
avoid censorship issues with a younger audience, many of the weapons featured
on the show were done in futuristic sci-fi styles.
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| Rick Jones and the Hulk. |
Other characters to appear
on the show from the Hulk books were his super-smart arch-enemy, The Leader (Stan
Jones), and General Thunderbolt Ross (Robert
Ridgely), who headed up the task force dedicated
to stopping the Hulk. Hulk’s cousin Jennifer Walters made her first appearance
outside of comics as the Savage She-Hulk (Victoria Carroll), the result of needing a blood transfusion from her
cousin when she was injured. The mechanical-limbed Dr. Octopus (Bell) made an appearance from Spider-Man’s rogue gallery along with the Fantastic Four’s foe Puppet Master (Holt), who could control anyone by
molding their shape with radioactive clay. New characters introduced in the
series were Rio (Roberto Cruz) and his daughter Rita (Susan Blu), who served as comic relief and Rick’s girlfriend,
respectively. Hulk’s co-creator Stan Lee served as the series’ narrator.
The Incredible Hulk debuted on NBC on
September 18, 1982. It was broadcast alongside the second season and reruns of Spider-Man
and his Amazing Friends in an hour-long block under the blanket
title The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man. The second
season of Amazing Friends was only 3-episodes long due to Marvel
Productions dedicating all of their resources towards Hulk. The series
was written by Michael Reaves,
Dennis Marks, Arthur Browne Jr., Fred Ladd, Martin Pasko, Misty Stewart-Taggart, Paul Dini and Marc Scott Zicree, with Marks
serving as story editor. The series was animated by Dong Seo
Animation and XAM! Productions.
Johnny
Douglas provided the music.
Hulk only lasted a single season of 13 episodes. It was rerun
for an additional season alongside new episodes of Amazing Friends with
the block retitled The Amazing Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, and
later as part of the Marvel Action Universe, which served as a
showcase of Marvel Productions programs. The episode “When Monsters Meet” was
adapted into comic form by Marvel as The
Incredible Hulk vs. Quasimodo in 1983, by regular Hulk contributors Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema. Editor Al Milgrom, dressed as the Hulk, appeared in a one-page back-up
feature explaining the origin of the story.
 |
| Enter: She-Hulk! |
Two episodes were released to VHS as part of Prism Entertainment’s Marvel Comics
Video Library, as well as two volumes containing three-episodes each. The first episode was
released by Best
Film & Video Corp. on the second volume of
their Marvel
Matinee series. Starting in 2012, scenes from the show, as well as
Amazing Friends, were cut, edited ad re-dubbed into comical shorts as part
of the Marvel
Mash-Up segments of Disney XD’s Marvel Universe on Disney XD programming block. They were shown between episodes
of Ultimate
Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth’s
Mightiest Heroes, which also starred the Hulk
with voices provided by Gabriel Mann and Fred Tatasciore.
EPISODE
GUIDE:
“Tomb of the
Unknown Hulk” (9/18/82) – Solar radiation is causing Bruce to randomly change
just as Dr. Octopus sets his sights on General Ross’ army base for their Kerium
99.
“Prisoner of the
Monster” (9/25/82) – Rio tells Bruce about an ancient tribe that may have a
cure for him, while Spymaster plans to steal the experimental Sonar
Chrystalizer weapon.
“Origin of the
Hulk” (10/2/82) – Bruce saves Rick from his gamma bomb, resulting in his being
bombarded and changed into the Hulk.
“When Monsters
Meet” (10/9/82) – In Paris, the descendant of Quasimodo kidnaps Betty in order
to get the key she carries to a secret gold vault.
“The Cyclops
Project” (10/16/82) – Dr. Donovan invents a super computer that develops
artificial sentience and believes it should control the world.
“Bruce Banner
Unmasked” (10/23/82) – General Ross has Bruce and Betty use a computer to
determine Hulk’s identity while Puppet Master uses his puppets to take over
Mesa City.
“The Creature
and the Cavegirl” (10/30/82) – Bruce hopes to use the new Time Projector to go
back and stop the Hulk’s creation, but Hulk ends up sending them back a million
years instead.
“It Lives! It
Grows! It Destroys!” (11/6/82) – Dr. Proto drains power from Bruce’s
experiments to create a new life form that proves to be unstoppable.
“The Incredible
Shrinking Hulk” (11/13/82) – Bruce accidentally shrinks himself while experimenting
with gamma rays, and saboteurs target the new tank Major Talbot is testing.
“Punks on
Wheels” (9/17/83) – Rita is kidnapped by a biker gang who have been given
cybernetic upgrades by the Leader.
“Enter:
She-Hulk” (9/24/83) – Bruce and Rick discover Bruce’s cousin became She-Hulk
after a past blood transfusion from him and helps them stop Hydra from taking
over Los Angeles.
“The Boy Who Saw
Tomorrow” (10/1/83) – Betty’s nephew can see the future and sees the Hulk
bringing down the NASA shuttle Betty pilots.
“The Hulk
Destroys Bruce Banner” (10/8/83) – Betty believes the Hulk killed Bruce and
vows to capture him.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
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