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Kenneth Johnson and Lindsay Wagner comfort an overheated Bigfoot on the set of The Bionic Woman.

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the coming of the t v huLk

In 1977, Kenneth Johnson was riding a wave of success. The busy writer/director/ producer was working on The Six Million Dollar Man TV series. The adventures of astronaut Steve Austin (Lee Majors) mangled in a crash and re-built with modern technology to become a government agent had already been a hit. When Johnson came onto the show, he successfully brought the popular series’ ratings up even higher.

While The Six Million Dollar Man usually had the Cyborg spy bat-tling Cold War villains, terrorists and James Bond-style megalomaniacs, Johnson injected hardcore sci-fi and fantasy ideas into the show, even adding Bigfoot in two of the series’ most iconic episodes. Bigfoot was played by legendary wrestler Andre the Giant.

“The Sasquatch was an intriguing character because I was always looking for worthy adversaries for Steve Austin to go up against. Then it was fun to turn the tables and discover that Bigfoot was also robotic,” Johnson admits. While writing another episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, he created Jamie Sommers, The Bionic Woman, who became a popu-lar spin-off series that eventually eclipsed the original show in popularity. As Bionic Woman started stomping The Six Million Dollar Man in the ratings, Johnson became the studio’s go-to guy for TV fantasy. This made him Universal’s first choice when they decided to adapt the Marvel superheroes.

When he first met Hulk, Johnson wasn’t interested. “That’s putting it mildly,” he jokes. “I came upon The Incredible Hulk when I was told that Universal Studios had just bought the rights to several Marvel Comics superheroes, including Captain America, The Human Torch, Ms. Marvel and The Hulk.

“[Then-Universal head] Frank Price asked me which one I wanted to do and I thought, ‘Gee, thanks, Frank, NONE of them!’ I don’t deal that well with spandex or primary colors and frankly, I couldn’t relate to The Human Torch…”

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A n A P P r o A C h F o r t h e h u L K

His opinion changed when he came up with an approach for Th e Hulk. “I was reading Les Miserables at the time, a gift from my wife Susie. I had Jean Valjean and Th e Fugitive in my head. In the shower that morning, I was thinking of how I was going to turn Frank down on the Marvel superheroes,

when I suddenly thought, ‘Maybe there’s a way to take this ludicrous thing called Th e Incredible Hulk and turn it into something with Victor Hugo and Robert Louis Ste-venson’s Doctor Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.’ ”

Johnson decided to “turn it into a psychological drama about a man who is cursed and the whole point of Banner is that he is struggling to make the entire TV series come to an end! I started writ-ing it on Easter Sunday. I called it Th e Hulk because I just couldn’t bring myself to type the words ‘Th e Incredible Hulk’  — it sounded too ludicrous!”

Instead of being pursued by a relentless policeman, Banner is doggedly trailed by tabloid reporter Jack McGee ( Jack Colvin).

“McGee is the Inspector Javert character from Les Miserables,” Johnson confesses.

“Literally, that’s exactly who he is! I didn’t want to make McGee a cop like Inspector Javert, because Th e Fugitive did that exactly with Inspector Gerard, so I made him a

yellow journalist from a tabloid rag. I didn’t want to do Th e Incredible Hulk at all originally, but now I was actually getting excited about it.”

He jettisoned Banner’s entire supporting cast — there is no General “Th underbolt” Ross, nor daughter Betty or even loyal teenage sidekick Rick Jones. We never meet Doc Samson, or Major Glen Talbot. No villains like Th e Leader, Abomination or Th e Terrible Toad Men show up — especially not the Toad Men. “No, no, no — My Hulk would NEVER meet Th e Toad Men,” Johnson chuckles. “We really didn’t want him fi ghting mole monsters or creatures from Space!”

Johnson also weakened Th e Hulk. No longer a bulletproof behemoth leaping from state to state and country to country, stopping only to smash

hulk has a rich supporting cast including rick Jones, doc samson, Betty and her father, general ross. None would be used for television.

hulk has a rich supporting

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tanks and jets, the TV Hulk is a nimble, raging creature incapable of speech. If Hulk smashes a wall or car, that pretty much completes his violence for the episode. He runs away at the end of a confl ict, to avoid being shot. In the comics, Hulk usually uses his fi sts to protect himself from the military and monsters. For the show, this would not do.

“It was important to me that Th e Hulk never hit anybody,” Johnson says.

“It seemed kind of unfair, because his fi sts were so big, nobody would have a chance and it would be too easy to just have him hit people.”

On the TV series, Th e Hulk is treated like the elusive Sasquatch: a creature that is covered by the tabloids who print blurry pictures of him but considered an urban legend by the public at large. Bigfoot was the popular subject of documentaries and TV shows when Hulk was on the air. Like Sasquatch, Th e Hulk is pursued by a few devoted hunters and cryptozool-ogy types, all of whom hope to fi nally prove Hulk’s existence by killing him.

n A M e g A M e

To complete the comic-to-TV makeover, even Bruce Banner’s name was changed. “I did that to avoid comic-book alliteration. ‘Bruce Banner’ just sounded too comic-booky to me,” Johnson explains. “Re-naming him,

Mocked by the show’s producers, the terrible toad Men still caused a lot of trouble for hulk’s Family.

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I used my son’s name. I think my son David was very amused by that. I named Banner ‘David’ because it’s a very solid, substantial name. I wanted a name for him that would take it away from comic-book alliteration, like Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Peter Parker.”

At the time, Stan Lee used one of his Stan Lee’s Soapbox columns to good-naturedly protest the name change. “Universal Studios just com-

pleted a live-action, 2-hour special TV movie of everybody’s favorite jolly green giant,” he wrote in 1977.”What do you think they called ol’ Doc Banner? Bruce? Uh uh! Bob? Forget it! They decided to name him Dave. What there is about our recalcitrant little rampager that makes it so tough for people to get his name right, I’ll never know!”

“Stan was not too happy with me changing Banner’s name,” Kenneth Johnson says with a smile. “But I told him, ‘Okay, Bruce is his middle name — so it will say ‘David Bruce Banner’ on his tombstone every week in the opening credits when you see the grave!’ When I looked for a new name for Banner, the first name that popped into my head was David! I always thought of it as a good, worthy name. My sons grew up on the set of The Incredible Hulk. My younger son Michael was seven at the time, and has fond memories of being chased around the Universal backlot by a big green Lou Ferrigno.”

david Bruce Banner’s empty grave.

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Bruce is actually Banner’s middle name in the comics as well. When Stan Lee slipped in an early issue by referring to him as “Bob Banner,” a reader called him on it. Marvel awarded “No Prizes” — gaudy envelopes with nothing inside — if readers caught a flaw in the story. Stan quickly explained that his full name was “Robert Bruce Banner,” so calling him

“Bob Banner” was entirely appropriate. Another reason Kenneth Johnson may have used the name “David” is even more intriguing. Because his Hulk borrowed the framework of The Fugitive, calling Banner “David” may have been a subconscious tip of the hat to Fugitive star David Janssen

PA g i n g doC t o r B A n n e r

Before Johnson could begin the series, he needed a star for David Banner. Ironically, he chose a man whose name was perfect for comic-book allitera-tion: Bill Bixby! A versatile actor, Bixby was adept at comedy and drama. He started out on the popular sitcom My Favorite Mar-tian, where he played a likable, befuddled reporter hiding the title alien played by Ray Walston.

After appearing in a couple Elvis Presley movies and starring in the well-received TV series The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bixby gave an acclaimed performance in the PBS movie, Steambath, as a guy who refuses to accept that he’s dead. He followed that by co-

starring in and co-directing the blockbuster Rich Man, Poor Man, whose spectacular ratings gave birth to the television miniseries.

There was surprise in the industry when Bill Bixby followed this great success by agreeing to star as a scientist who transforms into a big comic-book monster. Lynda Carter, Adam West, Christopher Reeve, Van Williams and Bruce Lee were all unknowns when they agreed to play Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Green Hornet and Kato respec-tively. Bixby was a trusted “name” in television, so for him to take a gamble

Bill Bixby became tv’s dr. Banner.

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on doing a big dramatic fantasy series could have been an embarrassing misstep.

During interviews promoting The Incredible Hulk, Bill Bixby addressed this head on, telling the press, “I have my agent to thank for it,” because his agent insisted that he read Kenneth Johnson’s pilot script. Ironically, Bixby himself had to be talked into doing the show. Bixby admitted to The Kansas City Star that “I had just gotten off an airplane and my agent handed me two scripts. One was The Incredible Hulk. I laughed. The other was a serious title that rang of American history, something meaningful [that] we actors aspire to and say ‘Gosh, we would like to be associated with this.’

“I told him, ‘Honest to God, did we go through The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Steambath and Rich Man, Poor Man just to do The Incredible Hulk?’ He told me, ‘Bill, Read it.’ ” After reading it, the actor was hooked. Bixby immediately realized the show’s wide appeal. “We’ve all been with our ladies and [been] put down by someone and unable to do anything about it. We’ve all been in circumstances when we would say, ‘God, I wish I had the Hulk in me just once!’ ”

Paul Brandon, Bill Bixby’s agent, was the man who made him read that script. Brandon notes “that Bill was right about that. We were given the script and had a firm deadline [from Universal]. We had to give them an answer the next day, no later than ten a.m. Bill and I met at a little Bistro on Sunset Boulevard. We talked and Bill finally said, ‘Okay, I’m leaving. Tell me what we’re doing tomorrow about The Incredible Hulk.’

“When I thought about it more and more, I felt The Incredible Hulk was the right move. I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let’s do The Incredible Hulk…’ That was it. I knew it would work, because comic-book characters were catching on; they were getting a big-budget Superman movie ready and that had quality people in it like (Marlon) Brando and [Gene] Hackman. I liked Kenneth Johnson and his Hulk script was really good — it was very serious and interesting. You really wanted to see what happened next while you were reading it,” Paul Brandon states. “I knew that by doing The Incredible Hulk, it was a good way of changing his cache to give Bill a patina of interest [in fantasy].”

Brandon felt that “because of Kenneth Johnson, I knew the execution of the screenplay would be first class. I also thought the trend towards fantasy was going to be a big one — Star Wars actually came out the year we did the Hulk pilot, which proved that we were right to do it.”

Once he had Bixby on board as Banner, producer/director/writer John-son knew his Hulk was ready to go. “The network liked my idea for The

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Incredible Hulk and they were very happy that I convinced Bill Bixby to come aboard. Bill Bixby, who I called ‘Bix,’ was a great guy, very smart.

“Bix was my first and only choice for David Banner. I loved the perfor-mance I had seen him give in Steambath. He’s amazing in that and he was just terrific as David Banner. Bill was as reluctant to do Hulk as I was,” Kenneth Johnson opines. “If you’re a serious actor and somebody

hands you a script called ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ you say, ‘I’m not gonna do this childish crap!’ But Bill read it and saw what I had done, which was leave the comic-book origins behind and take the core: a man struggling with this psychological problem.”

Bixby “and I were great friends from the get-go,” Johnson adds hap-pily. “We also had many knock-down, drag-out arguments, but never about bullshit. It was always about character, storylines, etc. Our rule was whoever was right got to win.”

At the time, Bill Bixby was mocked for doing The Incredible Hulk. Bixby told The Chicago Tribune, “At first, everyone was on my case, saying, ‘You’re doing What?!? Come on, Bill, after Steambath, Rich Man, Poor Man and [The Courtship of ] Eddie’s Father, you’re going to do that?’ They

Any pain or stress to david Banner brings out his primal side, the incredible hulk!

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really got me mad and I said, ‘Just watch the show.’ There is something I knew up front: You hear the title The Incredible Hulk and it brings out the intellectual snobbery in the viewing audience, but most of all [in] the critics before they even saw it. We have overcome not only our title, but the negativism. What I love most about the show is that children are not afraid of The Hulk. They know.”

Bixby told Comics Scene Magazine that by doing the series, “I defi-nitely learned what working long, hard hours was about. Yet I also found playing David Banner was a major acting challenge. Here I was,” Bixby explained, “playing somebody who was trying to suppress a primitive alter ego. At one point during the show’s run, I became frightened because I thought I would run out of the capacity to keep dealing with Banner’s problem. But I didn’t, because Banner was a multi-faceted personality and exploring those facets always gave me the opportunity to stretch as an actor.”