The Incredible Hulk: The Tragic Legacy of the 1978 TV Series

Act Two – The Accident

Logline: A brilliant but tormented scientist, fleeing his past, arrives in a small Washington logging town where a ruthless foreman’s greed threatens to crush the workers—but the monster inside David Banner may be the only thing that can stop him.

The Genesis: From Comic Book Chaos to Primal Drama

In the late 1970s, superheroes were not cool. The Batman camp series had been canceled a decade earlier, and Superman (1978) was still in post-production. CBS producer Kenneth Johnson (known for The Six Million Dollar Man and V) was tasked with adapting the Hulk. The problem? Johnson hated comic books. He found them silly.

References

Conclusion

• "The First" (Season 4): A two-part episode revealing that another man, Dell Frye (played

The Name Change: Dr. Bruce Banner became Dr. David Bruce Banner.