'Greatest American Hero' Returns

Back in the early months of 1981, the nation was about to have an actor transform into a president and the hostage nightmare in Iran was about to end. MTV was about to be launched. In 1981, Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton would be born. And in those early months a new adventure-comedy TV show arrived and it finally arrives this week in a brand spankin' new DVD set.

"The Greatest American Hero" was an unusual mix of comedy and drama and fantasy. A mild mannered school teacher (William Katt) receives an unwanted draft into superhero status one night when aliens give him a vivid red super suit and an instruction book on how to operate it. The aliens depart and unfortunately, our "hero" loses the book.

Mixing the comedy and the drama was well done by stars Katt and an oddball FBI agent (Robert Culp), though most people recall the show these days because it's theme song actually broke into the Top 40 charts.

I'll have more on this new DVD boxed set from Anchor Bay in a few days, but the limited edition set now available boasts some true fanboy items to attract your attention -- the limited edition tin-box set includes all 3 seasons, a full length American Hero cape and the instruction book on it's operation (don't lose it!!), and 200 randomly inserted autographed pics of Katt. This new set has already earned the sci-fi Saturn Award for "Best Retro Television Release on DVD".