If you thought that what triggered my downward spiral last weekend was proof that I’m too loosely wrapped, then you’ll be calling for them to bring on the funny jackets when I tell you what finally snapped me out of it: full immersion in the SYFY Channel’s 20 hour The Greatest American Hero marathon I DVRed over Sunday and Monday. I defy anyone to do that and not come away with a smile (or brain damage :roll:)!
For anyone who’s ever looked, you’ll have noted that in the very first post for the My Heroes volume of this blog, Inspiration, The Greatest American Hero was the first thing on the list. That’s just how much I liked that show. I mean, how can you not love a guy who manages to stumble and fumble his way through saving the day, time after time, despite losing the instruction book for his alien provided super-suit – TWICE?!?!
To this day, in fact, The Greatest American Hero theme song plays through my mind whenever I’m in a particularly good mood. And the full version of “Believe It Or Not” (Written by Mike Post and Performed by Joey Scarbury) is even better!
Look at what’s happened to me,
I can’t believe it myself;
Suddenly I’m up on top of the world,
Should’ve been somebody else.
I never thought I could feel so free;
Flyin’ away on a wing and a pray’r,
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.
Just like the light of new day,
It hit me from out of the blue;
Breakin’ me out of the spell I was in,
Makin’ all of my wishes come true.
Believe it or not, I’m walkin’ on air,
I never thought I could feel so free;
Flyin’ away on a wing and a pray’r,
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.
This is too good to be true,
Look at me
Falling for you.
Believe it or not,
Believe it or not,
Believe it or not,
Believe it or not.
Believe it or not, I’m walkin’ on air,
I never thought I could feel so free;
Flyin’ away on a wing and a pray’r,
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.
Believe it or not, I’m walkin’ on air,
I never thought I could feel so free;
Flyin’ away on a wing and a pray’r,
Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me.
Amazingly enough, while searching out that video I found a Youtube page where you can watch full episodes of this classic show: YouTube – The Greatest American Hero. For some strange reason, neither this site or the SYFY marathon includes the pilot episode, but both had my favorite episode, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” (from season 1).
I don’t know how I missed that site back when I did the Inspiration post, but I have been following The Greatest American Hero (William Katt) on Facebook ever since.
Well, I’ve gotta go. There’s still a few hours left for me to watch! 🙄
I want ice water.
I Want Ice Water! 
I don’t think that series ever aired in Britain, but the wiki synposis and youtube theme music are strongly suggestive that we have missed a goodie! Distraction therapy is excellent when it works, glad this did it for you! HAND and W/E.
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You did, I agree, and WTF does “HAND and W/E” mean? 😆
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Have A Nice Day and WeekEnd…
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oh thank god an explanation came along… I was also wondering… 🙂
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Duh! The Urban Dictionary gives too many definitions sometimes. Most of the one’s for “HAND” had to do with things guys do with them when they’re alone, and most of the ones for “W/E” had to do with the size of one’s endowment! 🙄
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This is merely to re-establish post notification by email after a change enforced on me, sorry!
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Funny, you’re not the first that I’ve had to re-approve. What’s up with that? 😀
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In Britain googlemail became gmail a few weeks ago, supposedly without any need for us to rejig links. Well, they dumped 50+ of mine into a spam file that it took days for me to find… so I manually changing, “just in case”. How’s life?
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I’m doing good. Thanks for asking! 😀
I’ve never even heard of “googlemail.” It’s been Gmail since I signed up about 4-5 years ago. 😕
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For some reason they couldn’t use that here until a law case got sorted, and we are still g not G mail! Glad well.
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If nothing else, these comment exchanges have shown me that Britain is NOT “the next county over” like so many of us here like to believe! 😆
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Greatest American Hero was great until he started figuring out his powers.
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Sad but true. I wonder if they just weren’t prepared for it to last that long? 😯
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I’ll find myself humming that little ditty (or singing the actual words) from time to time. Yikes. 🙂
Yes, I watched it during its first run on television. Cute show. Connie Sellecca was pretty darn adorable, too.
My condolences on watching SyFy. That will unwrap you every single time. I find that they really butcher programming to make room for too many commercials, so I refuse to watch.
BTW, I like the thoughtful use of formatting in this post. Well done!
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That song does have some serious staying power. And Connie Sellecca, *drool*
SYFY can be a real neuron blaster all right, and I think it may have actually gotten worse with the name change. And I try not to watch anything that I haven’t DVRed first, though they do get tricky sometimes when they think you’re trying to avoid their damned ads. 😡
I think you’re talking about the scrolling window. I sure wish I’d known how to do that before! 😀
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btw is it just me or isn’t the 1st 5-10 sec of the music the start of Hill Street Blues?
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I don’t know if you noticed it, but by the time I tried to play the video again to answer your question the damned embedding had been disabled! If you take a look, you’ll see that I’ve edited the post in order to keep the visuals from the show while still having the full version of the song. Check out the song titles in the second video!
Whew! 😀
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Hadn’t thought of this show or the song for years. I loved it when it was first aired. Thanks for the memories.
By the way, since it’s so prominently featured here, what is the suit’s logo supposed to be? I don’t recall ever hearing an explanation, if there was one.
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That song does have some serious staying power. And Connie Sellecca, *drool*
SYFY can be a real neuron blaster all right, and I think it may have actually gotten worse with the name change. And I try not to watch anything that I haven’t DVRed first, though they do get tricky sometimes when they think you’re trying to avoid their damned ads. 😡
I think you’re talking about the scrolling window. I sure wish I’d known how to do that before! 😀
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You’re welcome. I’m just glad to know that I’m not the only goofy one. Apparently there’s been a great deal of speculation about the symbol on Ralph’s suit. It’s covered on the Wikipedia page I linked to, in the “Ralph’s uniform and hero persona” section. I found it to be “Vewy Eentowesting!” 😀
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Now there’s a programme I’ve not heard about in ages! Thanks for getting that naff theme song stuck in my head!
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You’re welcome. Naff is my specialty! 😆
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so loved this one and it aired in sweden and was much loved I can tell ‘ya… but my, had so forgot about it… gonna watch some episodes now and might put in some 21 jump street as well for good measure from that youtube site.. just brilliant…
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I’m going to see if I can make a DVD collection from the on-line episodes. I hate trying to watch full shows on my monitor.
21 Jump Street? With a young Johnny Depp? Gotta check that out!
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saw on ep today of 21 jump street, can someone explain to me WHY I like this show when I grew up… it’s truly truly quite dreadful…
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Oh you poor man. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that SOME memories are better off forgotten? I’ll bet Johnny Depp wishes he could forget! 😆
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yeah I left the other episodes, don’t wanna see no more, my teenage memories could be shattered completely 😀
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haha—that’s one dainty superhero right there. That dude looks like a 15 year-old Ellen Degeneres after getting a perm and throwing on a cape…
Great song—reminds me of George Costanza’s answering machine…
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hahaha, oh yes, amazing that he was allowed to have that hair-do, can’t have been so macho to have even in the 80’s…
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Hey! I was so envious of William Katt for his hair when I first saw him in the original Carrie. I struggled mightily to reproduce that hairdo back in the 70s when I was still trying to get that “afro” look to fit in! 🙄
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Looks like an awesome show to me! I love the superhero shows from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s…. I mean I used to watch the old Batman show when it was on tv a few years back… Until they stopped showing it…. =(
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I loved Batman, even though the show was nothing like the comics. I think it was the fact that, even as young as I was, I got it’s “tongue and cheek – don’t take this seriously” format of the show. 😆
There was another short-lived oddball-superhero show from those days called Mister Terrific. It didn’t last though, probably because the authorities became uncomfortable with kids thinking that they could be miraculously changed by merely taking a pill! 🙄
But my favorite superhero show from way back was The Green Hornet. I don’t remember HIM that much, but I certainly remember his tricked out car and his kick-ass side-kick “Kato” who was played by Bruce Lee! 😎
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Oh, gosh! I loved that show! And the theme song always puts me in a good mood. I credit that show with teaching me what the word “scenario” means.
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Hey there. Thanks for stopping by! I must admit that I used the word “scenario” a bit more than needed after watching that show. 🙄
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