LAMPOONING a successful story, picture or genre of Film has been a time proved tradition in Hollywood. We can see even in the earliest days parody being reflected in the work of names such as Will Rogers (UNCENSORED MOVIES-Douglas Fairbanks as ROBIN HOOD and others), Stan Laurel (MUD & SAND Valentino's BLOOD & SAND-bullfighting), Ben Turpin SMALL TOWN IDOL (The Western) and Buster Keaton (THE FROZEN NORTH-Western-but William S. Hart in particular). The practice of spoofing serious movie types and their stars has made much of the stuff that was the one and two-reel comedies from such names as SENNETT-KEYSTONE, ROACH and EDUCATIONAL/Christie.
THE emergence of the Super Hero as the important cultural contribution from the emerging and growing Comic Book publishing business was met with an almost instantaneous induction into the world of the Parody with the coming of Paul Terry's MIGHTY MOUSE Cartoons starting in the World War II period, 1943 to be exact.* OF course the trend continued thru to the Television Age with characters such as UNDERDOG and COURAGEOUS CAT; but hit the primetime TV when the world was given the BATMAN Television Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox/ABC, 1966-68); which is arguably a parody in itself.
BUT in the ensuing season, both CBS and NBC came up with their own Super Hero send-ups in MR. TERRIFIC (Universal/CBS, 1967) and CAPTAIN NICE (NBC Television/Paramount Studios, 1967). The two had many more similarities than differences. They were easily confused with each other; being much like the earlier situation involving THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS, only more so. Needless to say, neither one made it into a second season.
TIME, it is said, heals not only all wounds, but also any and all bad ideas for TV series; so long about a decade and a half later we tuned into THE GREATEST American HERO (Stephen J. Cannell Productions/ABC Television Network, 1981-83). This time the parody would succeed, lasting into three distinct and different seasons.
WHILE it was definitely a member of the Parody genre, it came from a different Branch of the Family Tree than did previous entries. GREATEST HERO started out with what could be perceived as a straight drama-action story; that being the reception of a Super Power laden costume-suit from Alien Beings while being alone in the dessert. What a great thing! Who wouldn't want such a thing to happen to them! BUT now hold on now, Schultz! With such powers and marvelous threads to go along, there would certainly be some special problems inherent. For example, how to control the suit's flying power? How to measure one's take-offs and landings? What to do about your proclivity toward motion sickness? ALL of these, along with some other common human deficiencies, are what puts the humor in what would easily a straight Drama. The story lines and characters may be slightly more exaggerated at various junctures, but by and large, they are played straight.
THE Series co-stars William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, the somewhat unwilling recipient of the Super Suit and Robert Culp as the most straight-laced F.B.I. Agent Bill Maxwell. The two worked well, playing off of each other's character idiosyncrasies like a well honed team.
THE combination of on-screen talent and the mixture of genres worked out very well for the series, which sailed through 3 seasons. The ability to follow the story on two levels; about in the same manner had the BATMAN Series in late '60s wound up being an advantage to building-up its loyal followers.
NOTE: * In one of those stranger than fiction occurrences, when the first Terrytoon cartoon about a super-powered rodent came out it was titled: SUPER MOUSE RIDES AGAIN with the title character being called "Super", not "Mighty". However, a Comic Book entitled SUPER MOUSE hit the news stands at about the same time as the cartoons release. The whole thing was no one's fault; so no hurt, no foul. Producer Paul Terry unilaterally rechristened his little cheeser the more familiar, Mighty Mouse.
POODLE SCHNITZ!!
THE emergence of the Super Hero as the important cultural contribution from the emerging and growing Comic Book publishing business was met with an almost instantaneous induction into the world of the Parody with the coming of Paul Terry's MIGHTY MOUSE Cartoons starting in the World War II period, 1943 to be exact.* OF course the trend continued thru to the Television Age with characters such as UNDERDOG and COURAGEOUS CAT; but hit the primetime TV when the world was given the BATMAN Television Series (Greenway/20th Century-Fox/ABC, 1966-68); which is arguably a parody in itself.
BUT in the ensuing season, both CBS and NBC came up with their own Super Hero send-ups in MR. TERRIFIC (Universal/CBS, 1967) and CAPTAIN NICE (NBC Television/Paramount Studios, 1967). The two had many more similarities than differences. They were easily confused with each other; being much like the earlier situation involving THE ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS, only more so. Needless to say, neither one made it into a second season.
TIME, it is said, heals not only all wounds, but also any and all bad ideas for TV series; so long about a decade and a half later we tuned into THE GREATEST American HERO (Stephen J. Cannell Productions/ABC Television Network, 1981-83). This time the parody would succeed, lasting into three distinct and different seasons.
WHILE it was definitely a member of the Parody genre, it came from a different Branch of the Family Tree than did previous entries. GREATEST HERO started out with what could be perceived as a straight drama-action story; that being the reception of a Super Power laden costume-suit from Alien Beings while being alone in the dessert. What a great thing! Who wouldn't want such a thing to happen to them! BUT now hold on now, Schultz! With such powers and marvelous threads to go along, there would certainly be some special problems inherent. For example, how to control the suit's flying power? How to measure one's take-offs and landings? What to do about your proclivity toward motion sickness? ALL of these, along with some other common human deficiencies, are what puts the humor in what would easily a straight Drama. The story lines and characters may be slightly more exaggerated at various junctures, but by and large, they are played straight.
THE Series co-stars William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, the somewhat unwilling recipient of the Super Suit and Robert Culp as the most straight-laced F.B.I. Agent Bill Maxwell. The two worked well, playing off of each other's character idiosyncrasies like a well honed team.
THE combination of on-screen talent and the mixture of genres worked out very well for the series, which sailed through 3 seasons. The ability to follow the story on two levels; about in the same manner had the BATMAN Series in late '60s wound up being an advantage to building-up its loyal followers.
NOTE: * In one of those stranger than fiction occurrences, when the first Terrytoon cartoon about a super-powered rodent came out it was titled: SUPER MOUSE RIDES AGAIN with the title character being called "Super", not "Mighty". However, a Comic Book entitled SUPER MOUSE hit the news stands at about the same time as the cartoons release. The whole thing was no one's fault; so no hurt, no foul. Producer Paul Terry unilaterally rechristened his little cheeser the more familiar, Mighty Mouse.
POODLE SCHNITZ!!