If the series had continued for a full fifth season, what kind of ideas for plots can you think of that weren't used?
I can see David getting mixed up in a cult of some kind, either a young girl in trouble, or perhaps even getting conned himself, if a sweet-talking cult leader (could be a woman)promised David a cure, then David struggles to break away and lead the other members out of it as well.
Any other ideas?
I would have liked to see the Hulk undergo some kind of extra mutation...or even have a tweaked idea using the Gray Hulk concept!?
shareWell, the "cult" idea sort of happened, in a sense, in season 3's "Babalao". That's the episode where, basically, a witch doctor cons a lot of people into believing he can heal people better than actual medicine and traditional MDs.
Naturally, David and our favorite certain green alter-ego, prove the witch doctor to be a fraud in the end. There was a female MD David was particularly trying to help all along, too, which the witch doctor was basically trying to do away with...so, David had a motive, which may have been slightly ulterior...*LOL*
Your idea was a good one. This episode, unfortunately, was not done well, and was one of the worst episodes of the entire series, in my opinion. That said, maybe it just freaked me out when I was 8-9 years old. I'll have to revisit the madness of this episode and see if I was maybe too harsh about it. Kind of doubt it though...*LOL*
I agree that 'Babalao' was a weak episode; not sure why exactly, since Bill Bixby is fine as always, but the execution seemed too campy I think. Since we know that it is a con from the outset, I didn't really think of the premise as a cult(despite the voodoo angle), but you have a point.
Your idea was a good one.
to get an idea of what type of Hulk plots might've featured in the remainder of the 5th season (and a 6th and 7th) maybe have a look at what was popular in movies around 1983/84/85 (like the way Prometheus 1/2 took from the SF/alien visitation movies of the early 80s, and that airplane one took off from the Air disaster movies and the earthquake one did wit the disaster movies - )
so maybe a haunted episode (Ghostbusters) or time travel (Terminator/BTTF)
how about:
The Day of Future Past
Its 1984. 7 years to the day of his wifes death. Banner in a lab in the process of attempting to reverse his condition via a compound made from an ultra rare mysterious flower from the Amazon (as in TIH 2008 movie)...he injects but something goes wrong and his eyes go white as the transformation begins...then everything goes dark...when he awakens he finds himself in his 1977 body before he transformed himself into the hulk...on the morning of the day of his wifes death..
disbelieving at first thinking its a dream/hallucination etc he gradually comes to accept his good fortune and sets about making sure events are changed....the time of his wifes death eventually comes around. he dosnt go out in the car with his wife, instead they stay put in the house. however Banner starts to feel ill...and suddenly finds himself back in the lab present day...screaming in pain, anger etc he uses the last of the compound and tries to will himself back so much so he Hulks out destroying the lab in the process but he manages it, coming around in 1977 again only to find his wife is driving him in the car to the nearest hospital...he desperately tries to get her to stop but the inevitable happens and once again the tire blows crashing the car... as before hes thrown from the car and his wife is trapped. He does the same as before tries desperately to lift the car but knows its useless as hes preHulk....as he tries and becomes increasingly agitated the unthinkable happens...his eyes suddenly change and he turns into the Hulk lifting the car and dragging his wife out before it blows up... His wife is unconscious but eventually comes around to see the hulk...she is afraid but at same time knows the creature saved her...The hulk slowly transforms back to david as she hazily watches...David reawakens present day post Hulk out in the damaged lab...At first he is happy hoping to find his wife is alive and well present day...only to find her not there and he begins to suspect it was all a bad trip brought on by the flower compound. But he researches old newspaper articles and finds out his wife died from internal injuries the day after she was saved from the burning car in mysterious circumstances..presumably by her husband who was found unconscious nearby, his clothes shredded and burned. Her last words - 'David saved me..'
Banner mourns the loss of his wife once again...knowing he can never try again..
There was a ghost episode of sorts called 'Haunted'.
I think time travel would have been considered too fantastic a premise to use by creator Kenneth Johnson, though I'll offer one possibility:
In the last episode, David gets involved in a time travel experiment and becomes determined to go back to the day of the lab explosion, but Jack McGee follows him, and after discovering that David is indeed alive and the Hulk, also discovers to his horror that he was the one responsible for it when he sees himself knock over the chemical container. Guilt-stricken, Jack agrees to help David find a cure, and reclaim his reputation in their present, after they both realize that time travel is too dangerous to mess around with, or the machine that was used is destroyed by the Hulk.
Just an idea though!
Yes that's an interesting idea. Timetravel may not have fitted into TIH universe but if they'd done further seasons maybe they'd have loosened up a bit and gone more comic book to get increased ratings (but still real world like The First, Prometheus) maybe it couldve drawn influence from timetravel stuff up until that point (Somewhere in Time, Xmen DOFP comic)
Other stuff might've been a Hulk/Spiderman team up 2 parter with NHammond (as I believe was to happen for one of the latter TV movies), Hulk vs The Military with Gen Ross, The Leader (but more real world looking than the huge head) and some more of the comic book villains
I haven't seen The Amazing Spider Man TV series in a long time, and the fact that it has never been released on DVD is a big reason why. Don't know what the holdup is, but you would think that, after the huge success of the Sam Raimi Spider Man trilogy from the past decade, its release would be a logical way to cash-in on that, but apparently the rights holders think otherwise!
Certainly, the first two(of three) reunion TV films brought in Thor and Daredevil, but I didn't care at all for them, thought it was a big mistake to do so(especially Thor, though Daredevil is at least plausible).
Only Kenneth Johnson can answer this question for certain, and besides, he had no involvement with those three reunion films, unfortunately, and may not even regard them as canon...
Time Travel was indeed used for the 1982 Hulk cartoon where Dr. Banner thought of travelling back in time at the moment before he was exposed to the gamma bomb when he rescued Rick Jones but something turn wrong and Banner as the Hulk along Betty Ross, General Ross, Major Talbot and Rick Jones go back in time to the prehistoric era in the episode "The Creature and the Cavegirl". That episode is posted somewhere on Youtube.
Other ideas they could had used for the live-action series.
David had helped a football player and a baseball player. How about a hockey player?
Having his doppleganger, Mike Cassidy from "Broken image" to do a 2nd cameo, doing a jailbreak, going for a revenge against David.
A Christmas episode where David return to the family farm in Colorado with his dad and his sister. It could also features cameos of Michael Rourke (The Disciple) and Emmerson Fletcher(Interview with the Hulk) and some others who knew David/Hulk for a Christmas reunion.
Your ideas are good ones, especially the notion of the Hulk on a Hockey rink!
Didn't see the Hulk cartoon series, since I was primarily interested in the TV series only.(Just like I never read the comics either.)
If the series had continued for a full fifth season, what kind of ideas for plots can you think of that weren't used?
Your idea sounds interesting too.
How about this:
David learns of a class-action lawsuit being filed by other victims who had the same model car that David did on the day his first wife Laura was killed in. The other litigants use David's case as a prime example of what was wrong with that make of car,(a defective gas tank) and David seriously considers letting the world know he is still alive, in order to testify on their behalf, but the Car manufacturer is ruthless, and employs thugs to intimidate the plaintiffs, and of course David ends up targeted as well...
That remindsme, on a forum devoted to the live-action Hulk. One poster suggested then his car was possibly sabotaged in a plotline similar to the Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Deadly replay". Let's imagine what if his car was really sabotaged, by who and why?
shareThe idea that David's car may have been sabotaged never occurred to me, but is an interesting possibility; Perhaps Laura had an angry and jealous old flame who decided to get revenge by killing them both(we know very little about Laura after all.) Or it could have been some professional jealousy as well, by either a colleague of David's or Laura's(again, we don't know what she did for a living either.)
shareLaura was a medical researcher. David said so in one of the early episodes. I think it was the one where he was a zoo employee.
shareLaura was a medical researcher. David said so in one of the early episodes. I think it was the one where he was a zoo employee.
McGee is temporarily blinded in an accident, which co-incidentally also traps him and David and some law-enforcement guys together for an extended period. David has to provide medical care, while also using his talent for cunning and deceit to keep Jack from guessing his identity.
Good question. I like the idea of the rumored She Hulk storyline where David would give a blood transfusion for his sister and she would later learn she could change into a Hulk as well.
Some other ideas:
Mr.McGee could learn the truth about David. Banner and McGee could run into each other and McGee see a transformation. It would change the dynamic a little (which would be okay for a five year show) where McGee now knows to look for David Banner (yet never exposes Banner is alive in his newspaper because he secretly has a moral debate with that) and starts chasing him knowing specifically to look for him.
Another idea is where Banner thinks he has found a cure. He is able to develop some kind of serum that appears to have cured him. This would be in a two part episode. During the course of the episode there will be times where he was shocked he didn't change into the Hulk. Then a situation happens where Banner realizes he can't save someone or a group of people he wants to help. He begins to question if he actually has grown used to changing to the Hulk and it doesn't bother him at much. Toward the end, he does change into the Hulk realizing the serum was only temporary.
Also, another episode Banner realizes that many times he has gotten into situations because of his refusal/inability to defend himself due to his relatively small size and the fact that he is not an aggressive person by nature (there is an episode sort of like this but it was when an experiment went array). Banner decides to receive marital art training from a secretly evil man and David, to his shock (and the audience lol) actually is able to win a fight and protect himself. Banner begins to find himself becoming more aggressive and when he does change, the Hulk gets more aggressive. Banner realizes, more than ever, that he must try to control his own temper or the Hulk could indeed become more violent.
The She-Hulk plot with his sister Helen...maybe
David being temporarily cured is interesting, but what if he cured himself before the conflict was resolved, and he realizes that only the Hulk can save the situation, which means another overdose of gamma radiation will be required...
If David had learned Akkido, which is a purely defensive martial art, then he could have resolved the conflict without getting angry, but that of course is a big if!
Thanks for the reply.
maybe Marvel should do a comic series of the rest of the 5th season with the likeness of Bixby/Ferrigno:
http://scottblairart.deviantart.com/art/Lou-Ferrigno-Hulk-393819269
maybe an adaptation of the pilot too
An idea I had that could have potentially made a good episode... Titled: TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
David Banner learns of a new device that has been developed, that can remove different radiations from the cells by splitting the radiation particles and drawing it out from the body.
David decides to investigate and try this new machine on himself, David manages to cure himself from changing into the Hulk. However there is one catch, it's separated the Hulk from him. Now David and the Hulk are separated, David must find a way to bring the Hulk back and save himself and the uncontrollable creature.
A similar idea was played with in the cartoon series, though my idea wasn't inspired by it. As I had this idea long before I saw the cartoon episode that dealt with them splitting.
sounds good also like Star Treks TOS Enemy Within
often tv shows use storylines from other shows (e.g. star trek doing various Twilight Zone ideas in the Trek verse etc) so surprised they didn't do this in the hulk show actually - there were hints at it in Married where Banner and the Hulk are separated in his mind, and that rock music ep where banner gets drugged and hallucinates the hulk (which turned him into the hulk - trippy!)
and that rock music ep where banner gets drugged and hallucinates the hulk (which turned him into the hulk - trippy!)
e.g. star trek doing various Twilight Zone ideas
Bill Bixby appeared on The Twilight Zone in the fourth season episode 'The Thirty Fathom Grave'.
shareYep, he didn't have a very big role, but if it had been a half-hour episode (instead of one of the few hour-long ones), he probably wouldn't have been on screen as much as he was.
Some trivia: Bixby wasn't in the Navy in real life (but his father was), but he was drafted into the Marines.
I like that idea. That actually would have been an excellent season finale or first episode of a new season.
shareThere was some talk of in the last season of The Hulk that David's sister got sick & he caught wind of it some how so he goes back to his home town to help her out & get better so he gives her a blood transfusion which would had made her The She Hulk I been reading about that here online but they never made that episode it's too bad cuz then The She Hulk would had her own show
Mr. Allen C. Sokolik Jr.
I have seen on some website (can't recall where) a script that was actually written by Jill Sherman, who did many of the Season 2-3 episodes and a few from Season 4, but was never filmed, that involved Banner working in a funeral parlor. I think it was called "Good Night, David Banner" or something like that.
Kenneth Johnson also said he was going to do an episode where McGee was accused of murder, and Banner had to help clear him. And a 2 part episode where Banner and a bunch of teens crashed in a plane on some island, and the teens all worshipped the Hulk as some sort of god.
The unfilmed script where David Banner work at a funeral parlor or the cemetairy was "David Banner R.I.P.". Here the links to the script
http://www.incrediblehulktvseries.com/FanLounge/Unfilmed%20Scripts/DBR IPAct1.htm
http://www.incrediblehulktvseries.com/FanLounge/Unfilmed%20Scripts/DBR IPAct2.htm
Thinking about Joanna Pettet appearing on the series gave me the idea of her playing a Hollywood actress(herself basically) whom David befriends after getting a job on her TV or film set(it's possible!) Perhaps helping her deal with a deranged fan for example; this could work as a mystery episode.
shareI didn't read the responses you received on your post but the "cult" story was already used. I haven't seen it in awhile but I think Eve Plumb (from "The Brady Bunch") was the teen mesmerized by a cult leader.
It only stands out to me because I've noticed that a LOT of tv shows seem to use that theme. I was a fan of "Psych" (Roday), "Monk" (Shaloub), "Wonder Woman" (Carter) and I know all of them had at least one episode that involved infiltrating and rescuing someone from a cult.
- Get busy living, or get busy dying. Andy (The Shawshank Redemption)
Eve Plumb did not appear on The Incredible Hulk, but I checked, and she did appear on an episode of Wonder Woman called 'The Pied Piper', which fits your description. (Haven't seen that show in decades, but Linda Carter was extremely well cast!)
The closest the cult idea was used was in a below-average episode called 'Babalao', but that was just a tenuous connection.
Yep, that was the name of it. All my awesome kid-of-70s-tv memories are bumping into each other! Thanks for the correction (and not lambasting me about it)!
- Get busy living, or get busy dying. Andy (The Shawshank Redemption)
You're welcome, and lambasting is not my style!(Especially when it is undeserved).
Found this on YouTube, thought you might like it(it is quite well done).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo1Kr_FB7hA
Well, I've rarely felt like it was "deserved" the times it's happened. LOL
Awesome link. I could watch that for hours. We, hands down, had the BEST generation of tv! Thanks!
- Get busy living, or get busy dying. Andy (The Shawshank Redemption)
One more idea would be similar to 'The Beast Within', only this would be set in an animal shelter that David volunteers at for room and board. I would rather not reuse the familiar crime scenario, but instead some outbreak of animal virus like Parvo could be the impetus of the plot(and metamorphosis of course!)
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