Before She-Hulk, Daredevil and Thor were stars of the MCU, they were part of The Incredible Hulk TV-verse. Learn all about Thor and Daredevil's failed spin-offs and discover why She-Hulk was almost...red and gold???
Narrated by Kevin Maher
Written by Nick Nadel
Edited and graphics by Mike Schuster
Produced by Kevin Maher and Nick Nadel for Atomic Abe Productions
Executive Producer: Tim Finn
Thumbnail by Colton Ogburn ( / coltonogburn )
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Everyone makes fun of these, but if you were a Marvel comics fan back then THESE WERE ALL WE HAD and they will always hold a special place in my heart.
MCU changed everything, back then Marvel fans got bullied, now "Marvel fans" are bullies
And in many ways, they're truer to the spirit of the original comics.
Cue the GIF of Steve Carell pointing and holding a drink
@@AHalevonEric Why?
@@AHalevonEric Make sense next time.
I was at the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1983. In those days, towards the end of the parade line, you could walk up to your favorite movie star and shake their hand. That night i shook hands with Lou Ferigno, William Shatner, and Ted McGinley. It was an awesome night.
That IS awesome!!
I really liked that version of Daredevil as a kid. John Rhys-Davies as Willson Fisk
I'm assuming you mean "You (as a kid) liked the movie". Your wording could be misinterpreted as "that version of Daredevil as a kid" and everyone knows Matt Murdock as played by Rex Mason was a grown attorney when he had the accident that would make him become Daredevil.
At least the TV version of Thor wore his helmet!
That was to protect his Asgardian noggin'.
@@user-qg3fr6lo7r That's what it's always been for.
And come right down to it, the Kramer Thor ends up more dignified than the Hemsworth Thor.
But no beard. A Norseman who is clean-shaven?
@@MGower4465 He had been clean-shaven in the comics since 1962.
I remember watching the Hulk movie with Thor with my mother back in the day she really liked Hulk, she has passed now and I completely forgot about that movie,... watching this made me remember her and put a smile on my face, I wish I knew how lucky I was back then watching it with her.
Ha! I did the same thing with my Grandpa. He wasn't into superhero stuff..comics, shows, etc, but I told him Bill Bixby was in it and he said-"oh, well maybe we can watch one episode." He was hooked! Always asking what time, day, etc. Those were great times we shared. He died in 1992, but it's the little things in life that make us remember our loved ones.....
Same hear. We watched the show together every week also.
Bless you and the mom memory!
@@dennisanderson3895 Thank you.. I appreciate that
I never knew I missed out on a Rex Smith Daredevil series. That would have been AMAZING.
It had promise, as offered within the Hulk TV-film.
I would’ve wanted to see a Hulk and Spider Man team up. I think that’s what the fans REALLY wanted to see.
From what I've heard, Bill Bixby and Nicholas Hammond both really wanted this to happen. But the network suits just couldn't agree and it never came together.
John Rhys-Davies as Kingpin is really wonderful casting, just needs a better look and script, but what a great actor for that role. Oh, what could have been
Fond memories about those movies.
Steve Levitt, who played Donald Blake was in a movie called Hunk where he played a nerdy guy who transforms into a muscular man. Guess that was good practice for the Thor stuff!
That movie was on HBO alot. Always after 11.
8:21 that "Yep, Harry Hamlin." Line is hilarious, i had to pause the video until I stopped laughing.❤
Thanks!!
Reportedly, there was a real effort at one point to get the Nicholas Hammond "Spider Man" show into a crossover with Bill Bixby's "The Incredible Hulk", but that too, went by the boards...
That would’ve been cool, definitely would’ve gave me a chance to watch it even if I don’t like that Spider-Man show. Tho granted I’ve seen worse Spidey shows. (Cough) Ultimate Spider-Man (Cough)
That would’ve been cool, definitely would’ve gave me a chance to watch it even if I don’t like that Spider-Man show. Tho granted I’ve seen worse Spidey shows. (Cough) Ultimate Spider-Man (Cough)
The Hulk series always frustrated me that Hulk never fought anyone super powered or interesting. Just local bullies and thugs which quickly got boring. The movies finally gave me what I wanted. Hulk vs Thor. Daredevil and Kingpin. I loved how Thor was portrayed in the 80s movie too. Shame neither got their own series
It's true, the original series never had any major foes for the Hulk. But there is a two-part episode called "The First" where Banner meets the original Hulk.
I remember the Hulk fighting a Ghost or a possesed house to save a kid
Speak for yourself, the only thing his battles lacked was not being so damn pg. He always threw them and never seriously harmed them lol.
@@jeffbenjamin7186 because the Hulk is actually an extension of David Banner and Banner is not a killer so the monster doesn't kill either.
@@Akkatlah Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t throw a punch or two ever lol. The hulk is a rage monster, it was said that some sort of agreement was made to keep violence to a minimum. So i’m pretty sure that’s the only real reason lol
I remember watching all the made for TV Hulk Movies !! Great Video !! 👍
Gabriella Reese as She Hulk would have been awesome
Very enjoyable video, always like learning about these back door pilots. I used to watch The Incredible Hulk all the time on CBS, but don’t think I ever saw these movies. Great to see Lou Ferrigno show up recently in the miniseries The Offer playing the actor Lenny Montana who played Luca Brasi in The Godfather.
Ok so the black daredevil suit was way before its time and calling Kingpin Wilson Fisk was dope to me🤷🏾♂️
Fun fact: The origin of the Ninja Turtles is based on Daredevil. Many things TMNT are. For example: The evil ninjas in TMNT are called "The Foot" in tribute to the Daredevil evil ninjas called "The Hand". Kevin and Peter (TMNT creators) are huge Daredevil and Frank Miller fans. :)
the Hulk was from the Colossal man Films
@@jakeblack212 Stan Lee also claims he was inspired by Frankenstein's monster as well. Both he and the Hulk ultimately don't want to hurt anyone and just want to be left alone.
I remember when TMNT first came out. I just thought "kiddie comics" and never bothered to collect them. Ah well...
Thor, Chuds, Mummenschanz...this one's got it all!
4:42 "I am what I always will be, and I need to drink!"❤
I knew that was a dream sequence as soon as the hulk started choking the lawyer. The Hulk don't do that kind of thing.🙂 Very good informative video 👍
As a kid watching The INCREDIBLE HULK TV SERIES, I often wondered if there could have been A CROSSOVER EPISODE(S), PART 1 AND 2) with THE WONDER WOMAN SERIES.
Oh! So many of us wished!!
If the Thor spinoff had been a success, maybe Thor and Dr. Blake would have become separate characters in the comics or the MCU.
Fun channel idea. Didn't know about Smallville and hulk doing these backdoor pilots. Makes sense when a show goes on long enough as some spinoffs work. 10:19 tmnt used the foot which was a parody of the hand from daredevil lol.
I remember really enjoying the Hulk and Thor tv movie when I was a kid. My father really enjoyed the scene where Thor encounters the Jack McGee reporter character from the original TV series played to perfection by Jack Colvin. Such a fun scene.
Yeah, and if I'm not mistaken that's the last time we ever see Jack McGee. because I don't remember seeing him after that.
Super premium content. Keep up the great work 💫
Wow that was cool to see The Man and King cameos
Great video Atomic Abe Productions I totally enjoying watching your the first MCU shows
Can we go back to these days
It's not clear from the video if you already know, but Eastman and Laird intentionally cribbed Daredevil's origins for the Ninja Turtles. Hell, the Turtles comics originally implied in a copyright friendly way that it was the same truck.
Cribbed? It was a straight up parody, basically. Foot instead of the Hand. And the teenage mutant part was a reference to the X-Men.
The courtroom scene must have been a dream sequence because right off the bat I noticed how Hulk could hurl a whole witness stand railing at the wall of book shelves and not disturb a single one! Haha!
Thank you for a positive fun video on some sentimental favorites!
In the trial you can see ones of first StanLee cameo when David was judged and Stan is in the Jury. 😮
As someone who got to see Mummenschanz live back in the late 70s I hurt myself laughing.
Great Video! As a kid in the 80's THIS was one of a few GREAT comic adaptations on TV, so yeah, we watched them, regardless if you were a Marvel OR DC fan. Yes, that's me to the left and YES, I'm a HUGE Flash fan! I met Lou at a couple comicons and yes, he's one of the coolest guys out there! He did a Q&A and basically told his life story...WOW! Anyway, it's shows like this that keeps the superhero shows on TV...today(2024)!
New to channel and thoroughly enjoying it!
Your forgetting Captain America 1978
Yesssssss! That awesome freaking motorcycle I wanted as a toy! 😅 Loved how it launched out of the van like a rocket!
It was never a series. just 2 crappy TV movies.
That multiverse idea would never fly, they could've used Nicholas Hammond as a Peter B. Parker type character in the Doctor Strange multiverse movie, but they didn't!
Lou Ferigno also voiced the Hulk in the 90's cartoon.
Death of the Incredible Hulk featured a Russian female spy who was, essentially, Black Widow.
I’m surprised you didn’t make a Thor Shazam comparison
Oh wow. Thad Castle is an EXCELLENT choice for Aqua Man.
15:08 Whoa Whoa! She Hulk with gold skin and red hair?! and they thought green wasn't a pretty color?! I never knew that. It's kinda sad that they used the Hulk as a springboard to get other Marvel Super heroes their own shows, I think they could've worked well on their own.
little known fact: the same barrel of toxic stuff that blinded daredevil went into the sewers and also created the ninja turtles. look it up.
The CIA has known about it for years!!!!
8:48 it's cool seeing the Hulk wearing purple pants like in the comics.
While these may draw laughter today, for those of us who followed the xby/Ferrigno Hulk, they were a fan's delight in those days. Rex Smith did a fine Daredevil, and his costume was a little closer to the original 1960's version by a bit. Thought Eric Kramer's Thor was a blast as well; it's a crime the "suits" thought there was only room for one superhero on TV then. "Though I enjoyed John Wesley Shipp's "Flash" a great deal, too. Had She-Hulk shown up, I would've preferred Gabrielle Reese -- green! -- by far. Bittersweet thinking how the world's changed in so many other ways, and of what could have been...
Could you talk about the last two episodes of Green Acers. Both were failed city based sitcoms, since CBS was going through the "Rural Purge".
yes, I need to see those!
You know , one thing i mever understood was the the change to the donald blake/ thor . In the comics donald black with strike his cane on the ground becoming thor . Here he holds the hammer calling odin .i mean the whole interaction thing but still... It was weird
I love how Netflix did "the Turk": "I'm Turk Barrett, baby. The door ain't been built yet that can hold me back!"
No way that Rex Smith music video is real 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My only complaint about Death of the Hulk was that Magee wasn't in it to finally realize the Hulk didnt kill Banner in the lab explosion.
An extra for the American ninja pt 4!! Turtle power!! 🤣🤣 HILARIOUS, dude!!!
Glad that you reference that daredevil was the inspiration of TMNT
i love when actors and writers go on strike , entertainment gets BETTER hahaha
I liked that old daredevil too and him with hulk woulda been 🔥 fire
This series was pretty good for the time! Although granted I’m assuming they didn’t have that big a budget due to not having the Hulk fight well known Hulk villains.
I wonder how Rhys Davies career would have gone had the series gone long term. 🤓😎✌🏻
I remember watching the premier of Death of the Hulk as a little boy. Seems cheesy now but that death scene made me cry lol
Jasmine was a LOT like Black Widow. I was certain they were the same character. Loved these movies! Edit: typo
Silver Sable was supposed to be in Death of Hulk.
Oh my God. I have never laughed 😅 so HARD!! THANK YOU ❤😊
A Daredevil show was more viable than a Thor show. Man, how many writer guild strikes happened through the decades?
Good video, but you didn't mention that Captain America guested on some Incredible Hulk episodes - I assume that was in hopes of another TV series.
Stone Cold Steve Austin with a Ballpeen Hammer playing Thor? I’m in!
No
Don't forget they almost teamed the Hulk and Spider-Man on Tv too
I would've loved to see that. (Well, in theory)
@@atomicabeNicholas Hammond (who played "Spiderman) " said that in an interview
Kramer is also in American Wedding and TNT's Rough Riders
Didn't John rys Davies also voice kingpin in the animated series?
Well for the death of the Hulk, Banner did say the damage had to be catastrophic. 1st being onboard a plane that explodes, then falling a great distance to the ground before your body can recover will do that.
Spider-man VS Chud, the crossover we absolutely needed.
I watched The Hulk TV series when it aired but missed the movies. If you didn't have a family member record these specials on the VCR you were just out of luck, with no way of telling when or if they would air again. I looked up what was on TV May 22, 1988 when The Incredible Hulk Returns aired at 8pm on NBC. It was The Gary Shandling Show on Fox, Baby M TV movie on ABC and My Father My Son TV movie on CBS. As a side note, The Tracey Ulman Show aired at 10pm so you could see shorts staring an early incarnation of The Simpsons.
Sadly I was able to watch reruns in the 80's (I was D.J.ing in clubs) and missed this second series!!!
I'd love to see them make an "Immortal HULK" mini series, starring Lou Ferrigno. The show could focus on the *body horror* and less on the hulk requiring a uber-jacked look. They could say that, without banner, the hulk has an altered look BUT is still just as much a threat.
There was a backdoor pilot in the original series as well. Oddly it starts as a sequel to an earlier episode with a San Fran dojo. In the BDP, David returns to that dojo and meets wounded cop Rick Springfield.
Oh wow! And Rick Springfield also appeared on an episode of WONDER WOMAN. He's the DC/ Marvel cross-over element. Just like Hostess Fruit Pies.
I remember that. Rick Springfield also starred in the original pilot of *Forever Knight* AKA *Midnight Cop* as Nick Knight, the vampire cop who fights against evil and his own dark nature.
Wait, what about the quasi-Iron Fist episode season 2, episode 17 'The Disciple," during the series' original run with Rick Springfield, or season 2 episode 6, "Another Path," a rough version of Dare Devil's mentor "Stick" or season 2 episode 19 "Kindred Spirits" a quasi-Sasquach/Wendigo being similar to the character(s) in Alpha Flight comics or season 3 episode 18 "The Psychic" introduces mutants to the small screen or the backdoor quasi-SHIELD episode season 4 episode 1 and 2 "Prometheus" or the 1st iteration of Savage Hulk in season 4 episode 4 "Dark Side" and season 4 episode 5 "Deep Shock" we see aspects of the Hulk's precognitive abilities, separate from his comic book 'talents.' Then there is the two-parter "The First" in season 4, episodes 12 and 13. A reimagined version of Frankenstein monster and the comic character "The Abomination." Prometheus and The First are my favorite Sci-Fi episodes, and one more I didn't mention before. It's a two-part episode that is very tragic and brings Dr. Banner's sorrow to bear. Season 1 episodes "The Bride" and "Bride of the Incredible Hulk." The performance from the guest star Mariette Heartly was so good that she was nominated for and won an Emmy for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama!" All but unheard of in a Sci-Fi show or movie, even some forty years later. If you don't tear up after watching it, you ain't human.
Speaking of multiverses, WHY THE HECK hasn't Nicholas Hammond been introduced into the multiverse? He's still alive and kicking and was the first live-action Spider-Man! Not to mention, the show had a funk/jazzy theme song (that, for some reason, can't be downloaded anywhere). I'm just saying.
I remember watching these two on Space around early 2000's.
If they were going to bring the Marvel TVverse,. they would have done it in Multiverse of Madness. (I hear Raimi TRIED tracking down Peter Hooten for a cameo.)
The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk was actually pretty good for it’s time. The Thor back door pilot? Not so much.
That big blond actor has certainly played a _back door Man_ in some other films or TV shows.
If they were to be spinoffs, it wouldn't have worked, because they wouldn't have the copyrights to portray them as close as possible. The TV version of The Hulk was already watered down although it had a good long run.
The TV adapts did the best they could, granting not merely the then-current social norms but also available FX. (In fact, they actually did pretty good!)
Kramer had a great turn in “True Romance.”
Eric A. Kramer also did well in the 1990 low-budget flick, "Madonna: A Case of Blind Ambition."
I had no idea about any of these either. I knew of the Incredible Hulk 70's series but didn't know about the 80's movies and attempt at spin-off's. At least they tried, because had they not, then we might not have seen the amazing Marvel movies that came out several years later.
It's funny how these details you never noticed when you were a kid but now it's so obvious
Why the bad background music throughout the video?
I always wonder why, in TRIAL, why Banner, in his dream, maintained a beard but Hulk did not. In a way it makes sense, I guess.
I thought in the death of the hulk it would work better if Black Widow was in it
That mullet-wig on Ferrigno killed everything!
As a kid, I never noticed the wig. I just loved it! Lou is always gonna be the Hulk to me!
4:05, 4:11 - I like the way that dork just nonchalantly keeps handing Thor his hammer.... so much for the mythology...
ha ha, excellent point!
Well there were plans for yet another Incredible Hulk tv movie where David is brought back to life by Dr Ronald Pratt and this time when he transforms into the Hulk he keeps his intellect. Due to Bill Bixby's declining health and death plans for a 4th Incredible Hulk tv movie were cancelled. 🧟🧟♂📺🎥
When I saw header I immediately figure Thor and Daredevil. Lol Trial of the Incredible Hulk also features Stan Lee's very first cameo in a Marvel movie. 😀
You unlocked a childhood memory in me with that Mummenschanz comment
You completely overlooked the Dr. Strange spin-off of the same era.
It wasn't a backdoor pilot within The Incredible Hulk.
Isn’t that Bob Duncan from Good Luck Charlie? LOL
He fought the old hulk once in a double episode. Also, they didn't have the budget or the special effects to have hulk fight other super heros as you suggest.
Your right the character is so much more diverse and complex today. In the day the entire character was up to Lou to sell. HULK concept was mean and green and good flexing without shitting him self. The to date hulk is something I choose not to consider and maybe it will go away. Lou and Arnold were such competitors I always thout it be great to see them go at it the Marvel world.
Strange how the MCU Thor seemed based on this one.
If Daredevil 90s TV series was a big hit I think we can get backdoor pilot for Live action TV series of Venom Lethal Protector TV series I will watch that
The hulk returns and the trial of the hulk are great movies
Great TV series and very cool movie returns. I was also a fan of Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man and too a lesser degree (no offense Reb), the 2 Captain America movies. I really wish the universes would have been shown as the same one. Even more frustrating that if rumors are true it actually did almost happen. The MCU multiverse (especially thanks to Spider-Man) will hopefully give us at least one more visit to this great universe. But for a longer stay, maybe they can do what Adam West and Burt Ward did with those Batman '66 animated movies? Especially if getting Brown, Hammond and Ferigno together (The Dr Strange actor and Thor and DD also would be cool to toss in there; maybe even finally Mitzi).
I remember that...
They also tried to do a hulk and spider-man crossover movie with the live action spider-man series that never got made. Neat fact hulk is not stan lee's first live cameo it is an episode of muppet babies comic book capers where he was in live segments along with animated spider-man and hulk cameos! He next hosted a tv special spider-man on the move before showing up in hulk.
I love both those movies
This was the way I was introduced to Thor 😂