Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley.

Today, I’m sharing my thoughts on three TV movies featuring ‘The Incredible Hulk’, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. This is ironic, considering I’m still watching the TV series at the time of this review. I might as well share my thoughts on the TV series so far before I get onto talking about the TV films.

‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series was shown from 1977 to 1982. There were two pilot TV movies shown in 1978 before there were five seasons shown from 1978 to 1982. Bill Bixby stars as Dr. David Banner (more later on) and Lou Ferrigno stars as the Hulk, based on the Marvel Comics character. 🙂

It’s been interesting to see how a live-action version of the Incredible Hulk from Marvel Comics was done for TV in the 1970s and 1980s compared to how the Hulk is done in the movies, especially through the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’. Obviously, CGI effects weren’t prominent back in the 1970s/1980s.

The acting talents of Bill Bixby and Lou Ferringo have been pretty good for the most part, especially when seeing the transition between Bill Bixby into Lou Ferringo as the Hulk. Mind you, the storytelling does get repetitive as you watch the episodes throughout the seasons of the TV show. 😐

I’m currently on Season 3 of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and I received the TV show on DVD for my birthday back in May 2022. It’s not as action-packed and full of special effects compared to what you see in the Marvel movies of today. The storytelling is also leisurely and laid-back compared to today.

It also becomes amusing and ridiculous when you see the shirt-splitting moments of David Banner becoming the Hulk and afterwards, you see David back with a new shirt after being the Hulk. One wonders how he was able to find a new shirt so quickly after being the Hulk every time in the series.

Also, is he able to afford a new shirt after tearing the one he wore before becoming the Hulk when he gets angry? Maybe because he’s a doctor, he can afford it, but even if that’s the case, it’s stretching it a bit too far. You cannot help but take the mick out of watching the TV show for a little while here.

With that said, ‘The Incredible Hulk’ must have been a winner for TV audiences at the time back in the 1970s and 1980s. The episodes are more standalone instead of being part of a continuous story, which I would have preferred in order to become engaged with the journey that David Banner goes on. 😐

There’s also an element of ‘The Fugitive’ 1960s TV series about ‘The Incredible Hulk’ here, especially when David is on the run and is being pursued by an investigative reporter – Jack Colvin as Jack McGee. For the first season, it can be compelling, but after a while, it does get repetitive at times. 😐

Despite that, what I find amazing in ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series is how it portrays both David Banner and the Hulk as being heroic, especially when interacting with certain guest characters in each episode. This is something that I don’t think the modern-day movies have latched onto so much. 😦

There isn’t a lot of Marvel Comics influence throughout ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series as far as I’m aware. There isn’t even an occasion where David Banner meets up with other Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man and Captain America, which would have been interesting had the TV series dared it.

And this leads me onto talking about the three TV movies that were made from 1988 to 1990 after the TV series ended. The first two TV movies at least featured David Banner/the Hulk teaming up with two other Marvel Comics characters in the hopes of starting off a couple of new spin-off TV shows. 🙂

We’ll get into that more as we go through each movie in turn. Before we start though, let’s just get back to talking about Bill Bixby playing David Banner. Yeah, right from the start, he’s not called Bruce Banner as in the comics. He’s called David Banner – or more accurately, he’s David Bruce Banner. 😐

I’m not sure why it was decided to have the main character be called David Banner instead of Bruce Banner, but I’ve heard two sources on it. Firstly, I’ve heard that the producers wanted to make the TV series devoid of any comic book references, thus why they decided to call the hero ‘David’ instead of ‘Bruce’ here.

This is quite peculiar, considering the TV show is based on a comic book character anyway. Secondly, I’ve heard it rumoured that the producers wanted the hero to be called ‘David’ instead of ‘Bruce’ because they thought ‘Bruce’ sounded like it was a gay name, which is really bizarre and nonsensical.

I never thought of Bruce Banner being a gay name in any of the movie versions of the Hulk and I don’t think Bruce Wayne is a gay name when he’s Batman. Did the producers of the TV show think that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were gay in the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series? I wouldn’t have considered that possibility. 😐

Anyway, let’s talk about each of the three TV movies in turn. First up is ‘The Incredible Hulk Returns’, which was released in 1988. This film has David Banner/the Hulk teaming up with the Mighty Thor, played by Eric Kramer. It was very interesting to see this team-up in the TV movie itself.

As I’ve established, the aim was to create a spin-off TV show featuring the Mighty Thor after his debut appearance in ‘The Incredible Hulk Returns’. Sadly, the decision wasn’t taken-up, which on reflection was probably for the best, as The TV version of Thor in this film isn’t as impressive as the Thor in the ‘MCU’.

Mind you, there are elements of the Hulk and Thor teaming up that are better in ‘The Incredible Hulk Returns’ than in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. For one thing, David Banner/the Hulk is taken more seriously in ‘The Incredible Hulk Returns’ compared to the comedic approach for the Hulk in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’.

Then again, there are traces of Thor from the ‘MCU’ in this TV version of Thor in ‘The Incredible Hulk Returns’. After all, Thor likes beer-drinking when out on the town at night. 😀 If this Thor ever had his own TV series, I’m sure he’ll end up being another Fat Thor like he was in ‘Avengers: Endgame’. 😀

The film also features Steve Levitt as Donald Blake, which I believe was the name of an alias that Thor went by when he passed as a human being in the comics. There’s also Jack Colvin as Jack McGee, who sadly makes his final appearance playing the character in ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV universe. 😦

The second of the three TV films is ‘The Trial of the Incredible Hulk’. And this of courses means the Hulk teams up with…the Fantastic Four. 😀 Na, just kidding. Though that would be amazing. 😀 Instead, the film sees David Banner/the Hulk teaming up with Matt Murdock/Daredevil, played by Rex Smith.

Out of the three films, ‘The Trial of the Incredible Hulk’ is my favourite. I know it’s more of a ‘Daredevil’ movie than it is an ‘Incredible Hulk’ film, but I enjoyed this film because I was more familiar with Daredevil than I was with Thor. This was also made to start a spin-off ‘Daredevil’ TV series.

Sadly, that didn’t happen, which is a shame, since Rex Smith is decent enough as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Mind you, I would have made his Daredevil suit redder as it is in the comics compared to the black skin-tight suit he wore, which I found a shame when watching this TV movie.

Also, despite it being called ‘The Trial of the Incredible Hulk’, the Hulk doesn’t actually go on trial. It turns out to be a dream for David Banner when he becomes stressed out and doesn’t want to stand trial. Incidentally, the trial dream sequence has a special cameo appearance of the late Stan Lee in it.

The film was released in 1989 and was directed by Bill Bixby. 🙂 As well as Rex Smith, there’s John Rhys-Davies as Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin. It was interesting to see John Rhys-Davies as the Kingpin. I wouldn’t have thought of him as the character compared to Michael Clarke Duncan in the 2003 film.

The third and final entry of the three TV movies is ‘The Death of the Incredible Hulk’, which was released in 1990 and it was directed by Bill Bixby. This is like the official end of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series and it’s sad how it ends considering it actually features the demise of the main character. 😦

I would’ve ended the film differently by having the Hulk being killed off and David Banner managing to survive. As I understand, there were talks of a fourth ‘Incredible Hulk’ film to be made called ‘The Revenge of the Incredible Hulk’, which would have resurrected the character, which is interesting. 😐

That never happened due to the low ratings ‘The Death of the Incredible Hulk’ received on TV, and Bill Bixby sadly passed away in 1993 from prostate cancer. It’s a shame, since Bill Bixby made the role of David Banner his own and so far, I’ve enjoyed his performances as the character in the TV series. 🙂

As for rest of ‘The Death of the Incredible Hulk’, it was decent enough, especially with featuring guest stars like Elizabeth Gracen as Jasmine, Philip Sterling as Dr. Ronald Pratt and Barbara Tarbuck as Amy Pratt. There’s also Anna Katarina as Bella a.k.a. Ashenko, who happens to be Jasmine’s sister.

There’s John Novak (who was in the 1996 ‘Doctor Who’ TV movie, would you believe) as Zed, and there’s Andreas Katsulas (who’s been in four episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’) as Kasha. There were amusing moments to enjoy, including when David Banner dressed up with a moustache.

‘The Incredible Hulk’ Original Movie Collection has been an enjoyable bunch of films to check out on DVD. They end the TV series decently. Whilst I’ve raised issues about ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series in general, I do enjoy checking it out now again. The TV movies are a part of that, and I’m pleased I’ve seen them.

I hope to check out the rest of ‘The Incredible Hulk’ TV series soon.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂