TV: The Incredible Hulk

Adapting a comic book superhero series into a television show can be a risky business. While sometimes these translations hold up pretty well ("Lois and Clark"), many series simply never get off the ground ("The Flash"). The central problem in all of these versions is the balance between seriousness and camp - do we want "The Joker" to be Heath Ledger or Cesar Romero? "The Incredible Hulk," one of the finest comic book TV series, falls firmly into the former category:



The protagonist is David Banner, not Bruce Banner (eschewing the cheesy alliterative comic book name for the Hulk's alter-ego), and Bill Bixby gives a performance that would come to define the character for decades - emotionally withdrawn, brilliant, but ultimately good-hearted. Lou Ferrigno's Hulk is actually more effective than the cartoony CG version in the Ang Lee feature film, mostly because of the earnest menace exuded from his body language. This Hulk might not be able to throw tanks into the air or leap into low Earth orbit, but he sure doesn't mind whipping the bad guys in glorious slow motion:



The focus on drama meant some effective storylines and almost zero interference from the rest of the Marvel universe (fantasy and superhuman events were mostly limited to the Hulk himself). For most people, the scene of Bixby hitchhiking away from another town (along with the theme "The Lonely Man") is etched in memory, and thus parodied relentlessly: