The Incredible Hulk: "The First"

[Earth 2 Chris]

Special guest Michael Bailey stops by to discuss this standout episode of the legendary Hulk TV series!

If only we'd gotten a Dick Durock "The First" Mego figure!!! Anyone done any customs of this guy?

http://traffic.libsyn.com/supermates/SuperMates_E46_IncredibleHulk_TheFirst_MichaelBailey.mp3

Chris

[hedrap]

I talked to Dick Durock a handful of times. Once, I ran into him at a deserted con and we went around for a bit. We were talking Swamp Thing, and The Hulk ep was what lead to the Swamp Thing offer as they needed someone with size who could also handle the makeup. I mentioned how surprised I was Ted Cassidy was never on the show while he provided the Hulk voice and shows' voiceover and Durock replied that he was under the impression "The First" story was originally conceived for Cassidy, but he died during production of the third and fourth seasons.

Re: CBS. CBS wanted more sci-fi elements, but it was Bixby who was against it, not Johnson. While Johnson was against "comic book" fantasy, (not science fiction), Bixby didn't want anything otherwordly outside Hulk. When CBS tried to impose more sci-fi, Bixby would threaten to quit. CBS felt Johnson quasi-sandbag them on the show as this was Mr. Bionic Man and he handed them Dr Jekyll: The Fugitive. So they restricted the budget in hopes it would either make Bixby quit or tank the ratings. When it didn't happen, they finally just canceled it and nobody knew it was coming. Johnson and Lee have been able to write the shows history as nobody from CBS back then either cares to correct, or is alive.

You can connect the threads of Johnson's work and see why Hulk kinda/sorta fits in his catalog. There's a springboard from 6MDM, where Hulk is the merger of Steve Austin with Bigfoot, and that makes sense considering the popularity of those two characters. But without the other elements - maskatron, venus probe - 6MDM is a really boring show. And that's what Hulk became; 6MDM minus the craziness.

Bixby was a very complicated guy. The show became his outlet, but as Ferrigno has commented, he wasn't mentally present after his son died. It was a distraction and semi-outlet.


I must have connected Porkins and Eckhart in college as Porkins was a ongoing gag for one of my roommates. Never realized that was him in Flash Gordon.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Interesting. I knew about Bixby's son's tragic death, but that was about it. They did sneak some more "out there" elements in during the later seasons, like this and "Prometheus".

Yeah, "Porkins" has quite the geek resume!

Chris