Should They Have Had More Sci Fi Elements?

Like George Reeves Superman it's rooted in a kind of cops and robbers format that a lot of shows back then were.

Would've liked Hulk fighting gamma mutants unleashed by gamma rays from sunspots.

Would've helped a bit, all the plots dealt with difficult subjects, crooks, natural disasters etc. It was pretty much the same thing every episode, it's like "what? is that it?".

Androids would have been plausible, but needed to be done seriously, not campy.

Bigfoot was handled indirectly in 'The Antowuk Horror'.

There was a "mad hunter" in 'The Snare'

To include aliens...?

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The show managed to do well with its fugitive Jekyll/Hyde premise though it would have been cool to see them embrace a little more from the superhero background. Captain America and Spider-Man suffered a lot more from the bland grounded direction Universal and CBS took them in than the Hulk. Bill Bixby was enough of a charismatic lead that it wasn't torture waiting to see Ferrigno rip a few shirts and show some feats of strength.

It really would have been cool (to me) to see Ross or Talbot hunting the Hulk, or maybe even see Betty tying to help him. Hmm, I guess these are things they did in the 90s cartoon but I think they'd have worked.

I think had the show benefited with more Sci-fi elements, e.g mad scientists, androids etc, it might have reduced the episode numbers. The show even though with it's budget, did use a lot of stock footage, for cost purposes... It probably worked out easier and cheaper to work more grounded in reality then science fiction...

Oh, I don't know...


I am sure that some fans would have liked to have had a more Sci-Fi/Comic book tone to the show... And even I would have liked to have seen a few stories done in this area...

But, Honestly, I think one of the things that made this show so good, and still holds up today, was that fact that it didn't...

Also, as noted by other posters in this thread, is the fact the show didn't have a huge budget. As I recall, people who worked on the show and who have been interviewed have said, they could only have David "Hulk Out" twice per episode. Even in episodes like "The First"... it seems pretty cheap by show standards today. Seriously, two hulks fighting, and they barely touched one another? And the only thing that was damaged was a room? Episodes like that, wouldn't happen today!

...Most episodes dealt with aspects of the human condition... And my favorites were the one which David had to deal with himself.


Like the episode "Homecoming", where David returns home, because he didn't want to be alone on Thanksgiving... and he has to deal with his estranged relationship with his father...

or at the end of "The First, Part 2", When Del Frye's creature breaks the syringe containing the last of the cure, and David breaks down crying because his salvation has been taken away from him...

or "The Psychic", When David thinks the Hulk killed someone and David has an emotional breakdown and considers suicide.

And I still love "The Pilot" episode where David is frustrated while trying to find out why he couldn't save his wife, while others could...



Most of what I remember from the show, isn't about The Hulk... It was about David Banner! And that is because you could identify with David every time. The Hulk was just there to save David's life or solve the villain of the week problem.

That probably all had to do with the show having such a small budget... The writers had to create good stories to tell, instead of relying on a bunch of gimmicks to keep audiences interested.

Now, don't get me wrong, not every story was great, and there were a few stinkers that were hard to forget...



Thank Goodness, the show had two great actors like Bill Bixby & Jack Colvin to help tell all those great stories...

And not every scene was taken seriously either, which added some levity to the show, and made it more interesting. The Banner avoiding McGee scenes were always fun to watch.


It was a great show in its day, and still holds up today, but, I don't think it would be made the same way today, with modern day audiences.

A new show would have to have a more Sci-Fi/Comic book tone... Sadly...