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Post by greenguy on Mar 25, 2021 15:24:00 GMT -5
I'll be posting some rare video from TGAH on the archives channel, I'm kicking it off with a interview with William Katt on Good Morning America from December of 1981. This was during TGAH's 2nd season, and one must wonder what Katt thought when GMA host David Hartman intros him as "Jim Katt". I removed the audio from the flying scenes of the clip, "Believe it or Not" is playing over the shots and this will get a copyright violation if it's heard.
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Post by greenguy on Mar 26, 2021 14:10:14 GMT -5
Here's another pretty rare piece of video, the only blooper I've ever ran across from the series.
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Post by greenguy on Mar 27, 2021 11:36:18 GMT -5
Just added a short promo for the pilot movie.
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Post by greenguy on Apr 17, 2021 13:21:24 GMT -5
Here's a rare William Katt interview from Lifetime television from 1985. He discusses TGAH a bit, but is there to promote Baby Secret of The Lost Legend.
Also a short video example of a bit of my project converting TGAH into HD, and restoring each episode to "as seen on the original ABC broadcasts"
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Post by justanotherskirt on Apr 18, 2021 13:59:28 GMT -5
Re the Good Morning America clip... Wow, just... wow. I feel sorry for William Katt. He was so uncomfortable about being interviewed. I'm not sure if I should say it even now: it's so obvious he hated the part. It's a shame that he didn't have more fun with it at the time. And David Hartman was being so serious! (Was he always like that? I didn't watch that show.) Interesting to hear that at least one reviewer saw the show's potential to be more than kiddie fluff. I'd like to see that review. I think it was a brilliant concept that had awesome potential for satire and social commentary.
And about the bumpers, I'm curious. What had to be restored, what was lacking?
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Post by greenguy on Apr 19, 2021 14:58:55 GMT -5
Re the Good Morning America clip... Wow, just... wow. I feel sorry for William Katt. He was so uncomfortable about being interviewed. I'm not sure if I should say it even now: it's so obvious he hated the part. It's a shame that he didn't have more fun with it at the time. And David Hartman was being so serious! (Was he always like that? I didn't watch that show.) Interesting to hear that at least one reviewer saw the show's potential to be more than kiddie fluff. I'd like to see that review. I think it was a brilliant concept that had awesome potential for satire and social commentary. And about the bumpers, I'm curious. What had to be restored, what was lacking? I've always thought he looked uncomfortable, from the day I recorded it. Then for Hartman to call him by the wrong name, I felt bad for the guy especially when I had already read he wasn't big on interviews to start with, and who can blame him. From my early days of watching GMA, I think Hartman was always like that but I can't say that 100%. I believe Katt has said a few times he was a bit serious back then, and when it's your job I'm sure he was afraid he would be typecast. In a 2016 issue of Famous Monsters magazine he said "I'm remiss that at the time I wasn't aware on the impact it was having. I wish I had given it more respect at the time. I famously wouldn't go out and do appearances in the red suit. People thought I was spoiled or uncooperative and that I should be grateful and thankful to have that show. Now, I look back and say kick that kid's ass! Get out there and give thanks for what he was given" The fact he hated that costume really worked to his advantage in that role, as did him and Culp not getting along at the start, the sparks really fly in the pilot and first couple of hour long shows. Probably his dislike of the suit hindered him in real life a bit, but it's good to know he has come to terms with that and realizes they were doing good work and giving a ton of people entertainment that we enjoy to this day. I don't know what review Hartman was talking about, I have a few but none seem to mirror exactly what he said during the interview I had to build the bumpers back from scratch, since all that I have are 40 year old videotapes the quality would be so jarring if I cut those bumpers into the DVD versions. So after converting the DVD footage into HD, I used the scene of the billboard crash from the pilot and edited it the same way as the original bumper. Then I added THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO in the correct font style over the freeze frame. I used the audio from the original bumpers from my original broadcast tapes on the new footage.
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Post by greenguy on Sept 14, 2021 8:06:48 GMT -5
Many fans who originally watched the series on ABC have no doubt noticed the bizarre way the mirror pan down the suit has been changed in the pilot. I first had suspicions the original footage had been damaged, and when Cannell had new prints made for syndication in the late 90s (and eventually used for the DVDs) the way its seen now was the best fix to be had. No footage appears to be missing, as I've put the scene back together in the way it was originally broadcast. Another mystery waiting to be solved as a result of the new 90s prints.
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Post by greenguy on Sept 17, 2021 9:50:39 GMT -5
Just finished the original pilot movie teaser recreation
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Post by greenguy on Sept 18, 2021 16:54:00 GMT -5
Here's the next week preview for The Hit Car that I reconstructed using clips from the enhanced to HD episode, and it's combined with the audio from the original ABC broadcast.
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Post by greenguy on Sept 25, 2021 18:25:41 GMT -5
Original ABC preemption promo that aired on Dec. 23rd 1981
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Post by greenguy on Sept 26, 2021 17:43:01 GMT -5
ABC Now Is The Time short spot
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Post by greenguy on Sept 26, 2021 18:12:41 GMT -5
Longer ABC Now Is The Time Spot
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Post by greenguy on Sept 27, 2021 7:42:41 GMT -5
ABC Come On Along promo for the series 3rd season Friday night "death slot" This was for the ABC rebroadcast of Hog Wild.
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Post by greenguy on Sept 28, 2021 8:54:38 GMT -5
Here's my final ABC Come On Along promo for the series. It's for the rerun of Captain Bellybuster and The Speed Factory that aired in TGAH's ill-fated Friday night "death slot". My original tape had some bad glitches, and there's a bit left of one I couldn't remove. At least the audio track survived intact, with no garble. This was when networks would "lie" in their promotions (ABC & NBC did all the time) about an episodes storyline for a rerun to try and trick audiences into thinking it was a new episode!?! Listen to Ernie Anderson's voiceover, no one is "impersonating The Greatest American Hero", and the mob was not "looking for the secret of the suit" but damn...Anderson sure could make it all sound great and exciting. Enjoy.
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Post by greenguy on Sept 28, 2021 14:16:39 GMT -5
Two more promos added. Here's the long version of the ABC promo for The Shock Will Kill You. The infamous episode that Katt stated in a TV Guide interview that he allowed to let himself be talked into this kinda show once, but he didn't think he would do one like it again.
and here's a generic promo that ran on Chicago station WGBO in the series first syndication run. This aired in the mid to late 80s, the exact time couldn't be recalled by the fan who provided the clip to me. A HUGE THANK YOU SIR!!!!!
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Post by greenguy on Oct 1, 2021 10:28:47 GMT -5
Two more promos added to the archives channel on You Tube. Both for Train of Thought, a 20 second version and 30 second version. It's nice to see ABC still occasionally put together stand alone promos for the series instead of lumping it together with the 2 other shows in the Wednesday night line up.
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Post by greenguy on Oct 2, 2021 15:32:13 GMT -5
Two new videos added to the archives channel. 1st up is a ABC "specialty" promo for the pilot broadcast. According to the legal documents from the Warner Bros. Inc v. American Broadcasting Co. court case (Superman vs. TGAH) in the weeks leading up to the pilot's premiere ABC ran nearly 200 promos. They ran five, ten, twenty, and thirty seconds (you will see more examples of these in the future from the archives) and most were just slight variations of the thirteen basic promos. Many were totally made up with scenes from the pilot, but as the air date neared ABC ran some "specialty" promos that had custom footage with the cast mixed in with footage from the pilot.
Next is the ABC teaser for The Hit Car that I recreated. It uses the 1920x1080 HD footage from the episode that I will play for the next video chat. The audio is from the original ABC broadcast with voice over by Ernie Anderson. It's a little different from the "next week" preview that was seen at the end of the pilot movie broadcast.
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Post by greenguy on Oct 2, 2021 17:28:04 GMT -5
Here's a 30 second stand alone ABC promo for the original broadcast of fan favorite Operation: Spoilsport. Notice Sgt. Jensen's voice doesn't have the creepy reverb sound FX added yet as heard in the finished episode. I tried to clean up the video a bit, as sometimes our cable tv would go "fuzzy" and make the picture look like bad antenna reception. My software didn't really come through this time.
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Post by greenguy on Oct 6, 2021 15:27:34 GMT -5
Here's the ABC teaser from the pilot movie rebroadcast. Same scenes as the original, but the Ernie Anderson voice over was altered a bit for the rerun.
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Post by greenguy on Oct 24, 2021 12:54:05 GMT -5
Two more promos added. First is another specialty ABC promo, and the 2nd is a syndicated promo from WXON out of Detroit. A big thank you to TGAH fan Rex for sending that one along to me. Your box of Milkbone is on the way.
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