The Incredible Hulk - The Complete Fourth Season
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Movie Reviews of The Incredible Hulk - The Complete Fourth Season
Movie Review: Hulk smashes through a stellar fourth season, but the end is near.
Summary: 4 Stars
After a subpar 1979-1980 season, The Incredible Hulk returned to television in November 1980 after a writer's strike. As the majority of the 18 episodes of the season would show, The Hulk still had plenty left in his tank. New and inventive storylines were presented, the stars of the show stepped behind the camera as opposed to in front of the camera, and Ol' Greenskin delivered in his first speaking role. This was to be however, the last hurrah for the big green guy, as the show soon became marred by tragedy and cost cutting.
The season opens with the thrilling two-part action packed episode "Prometheus." David Banner's encounter with a meteor brings out his alter ego. However, Banner finds himself stuck in mid-transformation when he reverts back to his normal(?)self, and the military investigating the creature along with the meteor further complicate matters. "Prometheus" ranks among the best in the all-time episodes of the series and effectively bridges the gap between the first three seasons to the end of the series.
What made season four effective was that the most important episodes centered on Banner and his quest to finally rid himself of the creature, something that season three seemed to lack. This is evident in episodes such as "Darkside." When Banner attempts to supress the emergence of The Hulk, he instead taps into the creature's evil side. Another episode that reaches into the depths of Banner's subconsciousness is "Deep Shock." When the creature is electrocuted at a power plant, the side effects of the accident have Banner seeing into the future, with possible fatal results. The episode at the centermost point of season four is "The First." SPOILER ALERT: This IS the closest that David Banner will EVER come to finding a cure to rid himself of The Hulk. Once Banner thinks he is finally free of the creature, he encounters a man who once had Banner's affliction. Banner discovers that the man is not interested in helping him, but instead longs to have his power back, regardless of the cost. There would be other episodes after this two-part thriller, but the series in all respects peaked after these episodes.
Series stars Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin directed episodes of the series for the first time during the fourth season. Bixby in "Bring Me the Head of The Hulk", another episode dealing with Banner's quest for a cure, and Colvin with "Goodbye Eddie Cain," and the haunting "East Winds." All three episodes are solidly done, with Bixby's episode a series standout.
The Incredible Hulk was always great for tearing on the heartstrings of its audience, and season four is no exception. In "King Of the Beach," Lou Ferrigno performs in his first speaking role. The episode is really a showcase for Ferrigno, with Bill Bixby mostly in the background playing a supporting role. While "King Of the Beach" is sometimes knocked for its predictable script, the episode is entertaining for its unique photography and touching storyline. In "The Harder They Fall", David finds himself adapting to life as a paraplegic. After some thought, he believes that he can walk again with the emergence of the creature. One of the most powerful episodes of the series, "The Harder They Fall" is a can't miss.
Perhaps the final great episode of The Incredible Hulk is "Interview With The Hulk." When a reporter (not named Magee) traces down Banner and blackmails him into telling his story, Banner agrees. Unbeknownst to Banner, the reporter is from The National Register and Magee is soon on the hunt for both of them.
Oddly enough, it was during the filming of this episode when Bill Bixby (while on the set) learned of his son Christopher's death from a throat infection. After this episode, "The Incredible Hulk" seemed to lose its momentum, and the quality of the show changed drastically for the rest of the season as well as the remainder of its run. After shooting several less than spectacular episodes in the summer of 1981 that would become the fifth season, The Incredible Hulk was unceremoniously cancelled by CBS due to a slight change in ratings and cost cutting that originally threatened to compromise the quality of season four. More on that when season five comes to DVD.
Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk - The Complete Fourth Season
Summary: 5 Stars
the best tv from the ,80s and i'd watch it over again.. its worth the moneyMovie Review: Best Season Of Them All
Summary: 5 Stars
It's about time that they put this 1980-81 Season of this show on DVD and I've been dying for it finally come out too, especially since the 4th Season was my favorite season throughout The Incredible Hulk's whole 4-year run on CBS along with the fact that the Hulk's 1980-81 Season was probably the best season of them all too as well as the most upgraded season of them all, since they had some significant and touching episodes like "Free Fall", "Dark Side", "Deep Shock","King Of The Beach", "East Winds", "The First", "The Harder They Fall", "Interview With The Hulk", etc.
For instance, in the "Dark Side" episode they showed a side of David and the Hulk that nobody has ever seen before after an experiment to cure David's affliction with the Hulk fails by backfiring.
In the "Deep Shock" episode David(Bill Bixby) starts being able to see the future after surviving a brutal electrocution that nearly killed him.
In the "King Of The Beach" episode Lou Ferrigno does a dual role as well as Lou's first speaking role on this show with David helping Lou out with his body building contest and helping him rebuild his confidence with his disability.
In "The First", while searching for a cure to stop his horrendous struggling ordeal with the Hulk in this 2-parted episode, David stumbles onto the discovery that there was once an evil creature similar to the Hulk many years ago that came out 30 years ago and way before David's creature did and way before David's experiment that caused David's infliction with the Hulk in the first place along with what started Jack McGee's obsession and pursuing of the Hulk, except the evil Hulk was extremely dangerous and deadly, unlike the Hulk.
In addition to what made "The First" episode intriguing, while David finally finds a cure to his ailment from the Hulk, David unintentionally ends up helping a bitter old man(Harry Townes) relive his days and ability to transform into the evil Hulk again after Dell Frye(Harry Townes) witnesses David transforming into the Hulk after getting beat up in Part 1, which therefore contributes to David being put between a rock & a hard place, which unfortunately basically puts David in a no-win situation with very little hope left to battling his malicious affliction with curing the Hulk while trying to put an end to Frye's ability to continue his relentless charade as the evil Hulk while David struggles to attempt saving more people from getting hurt and killed by Frye's creature.
Therefore, David's failure to put a stop to Frye's evil creature and the evil Hulk's destruction of David's antidote to finally putting an end to David's fiasco with the Hulk contributes to David transforming into the Hulk again as usual leading the Hulk and Frye's creature to fight to the finish at the end of Part 2 just before the evil Hulk gets killed off by Sheriff Decker(Billy Green-Bush)when McGee(Jack Colvin) finally discovers he's been barking up the wrong tree all along in this entire episode thinking that all the killings and incidents caused by Frye's evil creature was the Hulk, especially since nobody really knew about the evil Hulk, but McGee still decides to keep tracking the Hulk and David at the end of this episode since McGee is still convinced that the Hulk is still a major danger to society and still continues to pursue the Hulk with a passion, just like the hard nosed Col.Decker(Lance LeGault) and desperate Col.Lynch(Bill Lucking)did with Hannibal, Face, and B.A. on THE A-TEAM for similar reasons.
In "The Harder They Fall" episode David becomes crippled after getting run over by a car with McGee still hot on the Hulk's trail as usual, but part of what I couldn't help finding intriguing about McGee pursuing the Hulk in "The Harder They Fall" episode was also because McGee had also appeared in the previous episode "The First", which basically dealt with 2 Hulks in that episode, which McGee even witnessed for himself.
In the "Interview With The Hulk" episode; David opens up to a down on his luck newspaper reporter(Michael Conrad)by telling him about his horrific 4-year ordeal to cure his infliction with the Hulk and how McGee has been a thorn at his side ever since by using clips from previous episodes from the first 4 seasons for example, kind of like they did in the previous season in the "Proof Positive" episode.
The Fourth Season was also the first season to have episodes directed by Jack Colvin as well, since he directed the episodes "East Winds" and "Goodbye Eddie Cain", even though McGee(Jack Colvin) didn't even appear in those episodes, although it would've been nice and more interesting if McGee had appeared in those episodes as well as directed them, but something else I noticed about the 1980-81 Season of the Hulk was McGee seemed to have started coming out less and less often in this season, since McGee didn't appear in as many episodes in the 4th Season as he did in the first 3 seasons, despite the fact that McGee at least appeared in half the 1980-81 Season episodes.
Additionally; the 1980-81 Season was also the last full season of The Incredible Hulk throughout its whole 4-year run before CBS had cancelled The Incredible Hulk all of the sudden on short notice without sufficient warning, due to budget cuts along with the fact that the 4th Season was also the last real season with Jack McGee, since McGee nor the "National Register" was no where to be found in the short-lived 5th Season with the exception of only one episode, which was the "Triangle" episode.
Therefore, the Hulk's Fourth Season was also the season when the special effects on this show were starting to get too expensive, because of all the budget cuts that started happening when Ronald Reagan got elected president in the mid Fall of 1980, which was also why The Incredible Hulk's 4th Season got off to a late start and didn't have their Fourth Season opener episode until November of 1980 instead of having their Season Premiere for the 1980-81 Season in September or October of 1980.
It was also interesting seeing some cool guest stars in the 1980-81 Season such as
-Jared Martin in the "Free Fall" episode during his DALLAS days.
-Bill Lucking in the "Dark Side" episode before his Col. Lynch days on THE A-TEAM and after previously guest starring in "The Antowuk Horror" episode from the Hulk's 2nd Season.
-Charles Brill in the "King Of The Beach" episode before his Capt. Lipschitz days on SILK STALKINGS.
-Michael Conrad in the "Interview With The Hulk" episode during his HILL STREET BLUES days.
-Eddie Barth in the "Patterns" episode before his SIMON & SIMON days. etc.
-Billy Green-Bush guest stars on The Incredible Hulk for the second time in "The First" episode after previously guest starring in the "Wildfires" episode.
The Incredible Hulk's 4th Season also takes me all the way back to memory lane to the recession we had back in 1981-1982 when Ronald Reagan was president and when The Incredible Hulk was part of CBS's Friday night line-up every week starting with THE INCREDIBLE HULK at 8PM, followed by THE DUKES OF HAZZARD at 9PM, and then DALLAS at 10PM to top that off, which gave me something else to look forward to every Friday.
So now that Universal has finally come out with Seasons 3 and 4 on DVD, I don't know what's taking them so long to put The Incredible Hulk's 5th Season out on DVD, but I hope to see The Incredible Hulk's short-lived 1981-82 Season come out on DVD soon, especially since the 5th Season was also the last and final season of The Incredible Hulk, due to budget cuts.
It's just too bad that Universal didn't decide to combine The Incredible Hulk's short-lived Fifth Season onto The Incredible Hulk's Fourth Season DVD, especially since the Hulk's 5th Season was only half a season with barely 7 episodes, unlike the first 4 seasons of The Incredible Hulk, but my suspicion on why Universal didn't decide to combine the Hulk's Fifth Season to the Hulk's Fourth Season DVD was perhaps due to Universal wanting to get more money out of their customers, especially since Amazon like every other business is seeing quite a decline in sales lately, due to the recession we're in right now, because of George Bush, Jr's presidency.
Therefore, I initially blame Reagan for The Incredible Hulk cancelling all of the sudden when it did back in November of 1981 during the middle of its short-lived 5th Season run on CBS, since there was no longer enough money in the budget to keep running this show, due to the rough economy we had back then during Reagan's presidency.