You always love superheroes.
You always love villains and heroes.
You put on that costume, black, tight.
You lose 20 pounds right away, you look great.
Meow.
We used to say,
"We put on our tights
to put on the world."
[ "Batman Theme" playing ]
He liked the walls to pop out.
He'd come in, and they would pop.
The generation of women my age
that had mothers that were saying,
"You can do whatever you set your mind to."
That tells you something about our culture
and what people really enjoy,
what people are more fixated on,
what grabs them.
SEACREST: They put on a costume
to entertain a nation.
WEST: It was easy to play Batman.
The moment I pulled on that cowl,
it was like, in my head, it was like,
"Hey, you want to go out and play Batman?
Let's go, come on!"
It's a clue, all right. But what does it mean?
To the Batcave. We'll analyze it.
I used to call them my "python pants"
because they nearly strangled you to death.
And, I mean, man was not built for tights, let me tell you.
Under this garb,
we're perfectly ordinary Americans.
Sometimes if a costume is right...
[ Sighs ]
you don't have to act.
Au revoir, Batman.
Running around in spandex and a cape, you know.
That's going to be my hero.
Who are you?!
I'm looking for the case file you're working on.
[ Bullet ricocheting ]
I wore less on the beach.
It was more than a bikini.
It was the American flag in a one-piece suit.
SEACREST: They played the characters
that sparked our imaginations.
I got beat up a lot as a kid.
So I wanted to be like the Hulk --
I wanted to be so strong, so invincible.
[ Grunts ]
The creator of "Wonder Woman"
really felt that girls needed a hero, too --
and developed Wonder Woman.
Women are the wave of the future.
And sisterhood is...
stronger than anything.
SEACREST: They had fun
and brought us along for the ride.
I thought, "Yeah, that's the kind of comedy
I'd like to try, something absurd."
Oh, I loved doing "Batman."
It was huge fun.
"Holy strawberries, Batman! Are we in a jam!"
See, that one, I thought, was a little on the corny side.
Holy popcorn!
Man-eating lilacs. Holy purple cannibals!
But they started giving Jimmy a chance to be funny
and do comedy and do comic bits.
Well, I'll be a side-winding gopher!
Whatever that is.
You feel like a winner, because no matter what,
the Hulk always succeeds.
He never fails.
In our dreams, we can be anything we want to be.
SEACREST: Together, they gave new life
to an established genre...
entertaining millions of every age.
They are the "Pioneers of Television."
It may the most famous scene in the Batman franchise.
Adam West, as Batman, tries to get rid of a bomb
that's about to explode.
That long sequence with the bomb on the pier
in Santa Barbara --
in which I couldn't get rid of the bomb.
Batman discovers this bomb, okay.
Of course, you know, it's going to go off,
so he's gotta get rid of it.
He runs over to this pier, and on one side,
he starts to throw it, and there's a mother duck
with her little ducklings down in the water.
He can't throw it there.
He runs in another direction,
here's the Salvation Army Band playing.
[ Band playing "Bringing in the Sheaves" ]
So the last line, he's totally winded
and frustrated,
and he says, what --
looking down at the water,
"Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb.
SEACREST: The scene epitomized
what made the "Batman" TV series succeed...
[ Explosion ]
the perfect combination of action and comedy.
To make it funny and ludicrous, absurd in a sense,
but always kind of believable.
SEACREST: "Batman" didn't start out as a comedy.
The original comic books were darker, more serious.
When the show came to television,
the producers wanted a lighter touch,
but they couldn't find an actor who could pull it off
until they saw this commercial for Nestle Quik.
MAN: Oh, Captain Q!
Join me in a glass of delicious chocolate Quik,
won't you?
Thank you, Doctor.
I could use some energy.
Incidentally, one of those torpedoes
you fired at me was circling,
and...
[ Explosion ]
You're sunk.
Toodle-oo, Captain Q!
Some people will do anything to get rich Quik.
Toodle-oo.
They saw them,
and they said, "Kid, I think you can play Batman,"
and they called me in.
SEACREST: The next step was casting Robin.
Despite looking at more than a thousand actors for the role,
no one seemed right.
Then Burt Ward wandered in
for his very first acting audition ever.
Go for broke, you know.
And that's what I did, all the way, right for the character.
And they loved it.
[ Sighs ]
Listen, Bruce, I've got an idea.
Yes?
Remember what the Riddler said
when he slipped you that summons?
"What is it that no one wants to have
yet no one wants to lose?"
And you answered, "A lawsuit."
SEACREST: From the first day of production,
almost nothing went right.
Explosions misfired with regularity...
sending Burt Ward to the hospital
four times in a week.
These guys that are setting dynamite charges,
you do not want to smell liquor on their breath
at 8:00 in the morning -- bad sign!
The signal!
I climb up, and as I get to the top --
just to get into position...
the car unexpectedly blows up.
Just excruciating pain.
They said, "Look, Burt, we will get you right over
to the emergency hospital as soon as we finish the shot."
I said, "What do you mean, I'm not going now?"
"No, no, you've got to go back and shoot the shot.
We got the whole crew, we got 80 guys in the crew here."
Well, it was kind of chaos
the first week or so of shooting
in that Burt kept getting in the way
of bombs and speeding cars.
SEACREST: The chemistry between Adam West and Burt Ward
worked from the very beginning...
although the two did have a friendly sense of competition.
If you noticed when he said his lines,
Adam spoke very slowly.
Robin's right.
He has a strange artistic compulsion to --
Artistic.
That's it.
The meaning of the first clue --
The Peel Art Gallery.
Why did he do that?
Well, he understood that if he spoke slowly --
and they had to be on him for the entire line --
it would take longer for him to say his lines.
The camera would be, therefore, on him longer,
and less on the other actors -- He was very smart about that.
The real crime?
Precisely, Inspector Bash.
The Riddler contrives his plots like artichokes --
you have to strip off spiny leaves to reach the heart.
We're talking, and then all of a sudden,
he opens up his cape and walks right up to the camera
and stands there blocking me out.
And the director said, "Wait a minute,
Burt's in the shot, Adam!"
He said, "I had to do it."
I said, "Why did you have to do that, Adam?"
He says, "Because I felt the moment.
I felt it was necessary."
I did occasionally kid Burt,
tease him a bit by holding up a cape
in front of his face and in front of a take,
but only if he misunderstood something...
if he was doing something he shouldn't do as my sidekick.
"Okay, take two," and it would come down.
SEACREST: In the first few weeks of production,
Adam West faced a more serious challenge
from producer Bill Dozier
over how to play the Batman character.
They wanted it very straight and "Lone Ranger" kind of thing
and nothing behind the mask.
I couldn't do that.
I felt that Batman is a very interesting character,
but even comedically -- as the bright knight
and not the dark knight --
you had to have fun with it.
SEACREST: Adam West won the argument,
and his Batman character
became one of the biggest breakout hits of the decade.
In the '60s, the three "Bs" --
Bond, Beatles, and Batman.
And I thought, "My God, I'm a part of that trio?!"
SEACREST: But behind the scenes, producer Bill Dozier
was actively working to keep control of his stars
on his show.
WEST: When I was on the cover of Life magazine,
he called me into the office.
He threw the magazine
down on his desk in front of me.
I just stood there and looked at him with a little grin.
And he said, "Oh, wait a minute,
don't forget,
there have been 12 Tarzans, Adam."
"Oh, okay.
We'll see."
SEACREST: Batman's influence on American television
was larger than almost any other show of the period.
Gleebs! It's Batman!
SEACREST: It was the first series to tap into
the colorful pop art movement,
personified by artists like Andy Warhol.
WEST: Look what was happening
in society, look at the world of art,
and all of those kind of wondrous, splashy,
primary, comic-book colors that people were painting in.
Anything I can do for you, sir? Check your cape?
SEACREST: The distinctive look, the tongue-in-cheek humor...
Just looking, thanks. I'll stand at the bar.
I shouldn't wish to attract attention.
SEACREST: and the huge ratings
meant "Batman" wasn't just popular, it was hip.
Everyone wanted to be a guest star on the show
as the villain of the week.
You shake a pretty mean cape, Batman.
Oh, I loved doing "Batman."
It was huge fun.
No man can resist the stunning note of my voice --
two octaves above high "C."
I want you to call Batman, hmm?
And have him meet you in some neutral place.
[ Gasps ]
If you desire.
Doing that whistle or that voice...
[ Piercing tone plays ]
that she does and everybody turns to stone --
yeah, it was a riot.
SEACREST: Fan favorites included Cesar Romero's Joker,
Burgess Meredith's Penguin,
and Frank Gorshin's Riddler.
He was always on the manic, dangerous edge,
which I loved, and I could relate to that.
And they all seemed to just thrive on this opportunity
to not be limited in what they were doing.
In other words, they could make their characters
bigger than life.
The whole world almost literally in our grasp,
and Batman and Robin still alive to block us.
[ Laughing ]
Everything pip-pip with the prisoner, comrades.
He hasn't a clue.
No, but I bet the Dynamic Duo has.
What? A clue in how we made the ship disappear.
SEACREST: Batman's most vexing nemesis was Catwoman --
played by Eartha Kitt,
Lee Meriwether,
and, most famously, Julie Newmar.
I mean, you put on that costume --
black, tight, you lose 20 pounds right away, you look great.
You've got high heels, you've got great dialogue,
you have fun.
It would be one of the choice roles for women of all time.
[ Screams ]
BATMAN: It's all over, Catwoman.
I'll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.
Marry me.
Everything except that.
A wife, no matter how beauteous or affectionate,
would severely impair my crime-fighting.
But I can help you in your work.
As a former criminal, I'd be invaluable.
What about Robin?
Robin?
Oh, I've got it -- we'll kill him.
She was...
naughty, yes,
delicious, yes.
She was a tease,
but she wasn't basically...
psychopath evil.
You might think so, but she wasn't really.
And she promised to date me when she gets out of jail.
Yeah, for good behavior.
That would be good.
Well, I got better as it went along
because playing an animal character,
you've got to feel that way, look that way,
sound that way, behave that way.
So it takes some learning.
It's...
I did get better by the third show
and the fourth show.
I was much more cat-like, mm-hmm.
[ Humming "Three Blind Mice" ]
You feline devil!
What have you done with Robin?!
Aw, is that any way to greet an old friend, Batman?
Not even a "Hello, how are you"?
[ Hisses ]
Meow.
When you know where the jokes are,
you know, you got to...
you gotta sort of warm them up and make them bigger
and kind of -- and then...
and then say the lines.
Mmm.
SEACREST: Julie Newmar's distinctive interpretation
of Catwoman made her famous almost overnight.
Of course, the skin-tight costume didn't hurt either.
NEWMAR: I moved the belt from the waistline down to the hips
because it was bright gold,
and that way it would accentuate the hips more.
May I?
Meow!
Au revoir, Batman.
NEWMAR: Sometimes if a costume is right,
you don't have to act.
SEACREST: The outfit may have helped Julie Newmar
get into character...
but the Batman and Robin costumes
had the opposite effect on Adam West
and Burt Ward from the very first day.
I'm there, and these two guys were saying,
"Here, take off your clothes."
"Well, why I'm taking off my clothes?"
"Well, we have this to put on you."
"Oh, well, I can't put it on by myself?"
"Well, you're going to need help to get into this."
The most uncomfortable thing I think I've ever
been in in my entire life -- most uncomfortable.
It's like every step I took, it pulled the hair on my leg.
I mean, just really not a great costume.
WEST: Being near-sighted and being behind
those holes in the cowl,
it made it doubly hard to see.
It's an obstacle, and yet it's very helpful.
For example, if I couldn't move my head easily
in that cowl and the way the cape was attached,
then I'd use that.
Remember how Cary Grant moved, kind of...
In other words,
I couldn't turn my head like this.
So I used that.
SEACREST: Every actor playing a superhero
faces a moment of truth
the first time they put on the costume --
will the people on-set react with a chuckle,
or will they believe?
WEST: I was a little timorous about that, a little...
taken aback with what might occur in that costume
when I walked on the set for the first time.
And I decided I'd walk through pools of light
to get to that spot --
in the costume -- as much like Batman as I could.
And you know what the hell happened?
I got over there,
and there wasn't a sound.
Everyone believed that I was Batman.
[ Cheering ]
SEACREST: The series became so popular so fast
that Adam West could fill stadiums just by showing up.
But by the time the second season premiered,
problems were already brewing behind the scenes.
Story lines became repetitive,
jokes turned stale.
By the third season,
production budgets were slashed
and ratings declined even further.
The producers' solution was to add a new character --
Batgirl, played by Yvonne Craig.
ANNOUNCER: Holy femininity!
Batgirl!
Batgirl?
Batgirl.
SEACREST: Batgirl couldn't save the "Batman" series.
But the character marked an important milestone
as TV's first female superhero.
A spinoff series of "Batgirl" was considered...
but by then, the bat-phenomenon had played out.
It wasn't until seven years later
that a female superhero finally took center stage
with a show of her own.
MAN: Wonder Woman says
she is not afraid.
Fire at will.
[ Drum roll ]
[ Fanfare plays ]
Did you see that, ladies and gentlemen?!
SEACREST: Launched in the mid-1970s
at the height of the women's movement,
"Wonder Woman" had a message of empowerment.
We'll send more agents!
No, the Nazis don't care about their women.
They let you fend for yourself,
and any civilization that does not recognize
the female is doomed to destruction.
Women are the wave of the future,
and sisterhood is...
stronger than anything.
SEACREST: But the more overt
feminine messages didn't last long.
The reason why in subsequent episodes
you didn't hear those kinds of things much anymore
was because of the network.
The network said, "We've got to get...
you know, this fem-- you're going to turn off
a lot of people with this feminist talk,"
because, you know, feminism was so dangerous.
SEACREST: Even with the toned-down scripts,
Lynda Carter pressed to ensure the series
portrayed positive role models.
Wonder Woman was intelligent, resourceful,
and in control...
often rescuing the show's male lead
played by Lyle Waggoner.
Wonder Woman!
Steve, are you all right?
Wonder Woman, am I glad to see you!
Thanks!
[ Explosion ]
I think he got a little sick of it,
to tell you the truth.
[ Laughs ]
I'll have you free in a few seconds.
I don't blame him!
You know we've been in that role for years.
Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm fine.
My pride's hurt a little bit.
And once again, I'm in your debt, Wonder Woman.
SEACREST: When guest star Bubba Smith
bristled at the notion
of his character losing a fight to Wonder Woman,
Lynda Carter found a subtle way to make her point.
We devised this little plan,
and they taught me how to -- it's really leverage.
We were just going to try to set it up,
but the camera was really rolling.
And so the stunt coordinator goes...
I said, "Okay, I bet you don't think I could this,
but let's just try it, let me just see.
We won't film it." I went -- boomp.
And...
And I -- so Bubba Smith --
I tossed Bubba Smith --
the football player.
He was a big guy.
Not too happy.
SEACREST: The "Wonder Woman" TV series was based on
a comic created by William Moulton Marston,
a man who was already well known
as the inventor of the first lie detector test.
A version of Moulton's invention made its way
into the "Wonder Woman" comic book and TV show
as the Lasso of Truth
that compelled villains to speak honestly.
[ Whip cracks ]
What is this?!
Only a little dinky rope, but I can't move!
No one can resist the Golden Lasso.
It binds all who it encircles
and compels them to tell the truth.
SEACREST: When Moulton's comic first came to television
in a 1974 TV movie,
Cathy Lee Crosby played Wonder Woman.
But her blond hair, small frame, and track-suit uniform
strayed far from the original comic book character.
For the TV series,
the producers wanted the embodiment of
the "Wonder Woman" comic,
but finding an actress who could pull it off
was proving difficult,
until they came upon Lynda Carter.
Her earnest attitude and statuesque looks
made her uniquely suited to the role.
CARTER: I will never have another character
that is that memorable.
Very few actors ever have a character
that is that, you know, seared into people's minds.
And I have to say that doing a comic book character
is almost impossible.
And there is a kind of a secret to it.
People want to believe and you have to make it real.
SEACREST: From the beginning, Lynda Carter faced challenges.
First came the costume,
which some thought was too revealing.
I wore less on the beach.
It was the American flag in a one-piece suit.
People thought that I pulled in my waist, I actually didn't.
Because my waist is really small --
or it was back then.
And the truth is I had them take it out
because I didn't want it to look too, like, hour-glassy.
I know, it's a ridiculous problem to have.
I thought it looked too small.
SEACREST: Acting was also a challenge,
because Lynda Carter was so inexperienced
when she landed the role.
There are a couple of real stinkers
in "Wonder Woman" where I had some --
they'd gotten me some acting coach
who thought I should really be playing up Wonder Woman.
So I did that, and it was...
They're really awful.
What makes you so strong?
On Paradise Island, there are only women.
Because of this pure environment,
we are able to develop our minds
and our physical skills,
unhampered by masculine destructiveness.
Stop!
Such information is utter rubbish!
SEACREST: Because superhero shows rely so heavily
on a single central character,
production can be taxing on the lead actor...
especially a newcomer like Lynda Carter.
That's why the guest stars were so important.
I've never worked in anything
where I didn't give everything I have.
I named this island Paradise for an excellent reason --
there are no men on it.
Thus, it is free of their wars,
their greed, their hostilities...
their barbaric masculine behavior.
LEACHMAN: But that to me was funny
even though nobody knew it.
[ Chuckles ]
I remember being in love with Lynda Carter.
You stay and talk, I'll get the car and bring it around.
Butter him up, try to make him tell you his technique.
Uh, Harold?
I drove.
I had bashed my head on the hatchback of my car,
really bad -- I had cut it open,
like, right here, like a third eye.
Because you can see, the make-up man
tried to fix it, but it's like I have a head wound
in the whole show.
And they should have just fired me, but they didn't.
I wonder what kind of surgery
Marcus Welby would call this?
I should have worn a hat or something.
I'd love to see it because I remember looking at it
in the mirror when we shot it.
I went, "This is not even remotely gone."
The make-up man, "No, let me put a little more yellow
to take the red out, put some more powder on."
No, there's a wound on my head.
I loved being with Lynda Carter working on the show
and meeting Ted Shackelford.
I set the coordinates for the demonstration run-through
for Washington, D.C., 1978.
Are there any objections?
No, you're the historian.
It was kind of a rubber outfit. He looked ridiculous, I thought.
They allowed individuals to accumulate
a massive fortune back then.
It will be fascinating to watch
a capitalistic society at work. Uh-huh.
Lots of technical jargon, and we're working in, you know,
things that Blondie here doesn't have a clue what those are.
Ted had to operate all the knobs and the buttons
and the things, and we're trying to
spit out dialogue like this and that.
This day is going to make history.
I can hardly wait to see their faces.
And it's all because of you.
After all, thanks to your genius,
the time portal practically runs itself.
SEACREST: Because female action stars were so rare
in the 1970s,
when Lynda Carter needed a stunt double,
the producers dressed up a man in her costume.
We couldn't have a hairy guy doubling me, you know.
There was just --
[ Laughs ]
There was one guy...
They had a Russian chair, I think it's called --
and it's a big swing.
And it's got...
and it launches a person into the air.
He had, like, a hairy chest and everything,
and a wig on.
"Oh, it's gonna be from the back, you'll never see it."
I said, "I can't have...
I can't have" --
It's like he's got this, like, a guy's square shape, you know.
It's like...
SEACREST: In one scene, Wonder Woman was supposed to
hang on to a helicopter,
but the shot would have clearly revealed the stunt double.
Lynda Carter decided to do the stunt herself.
I said, "Okay, okay, just roll it.
Just roll it!"
And I got up on the thing, and I got on the struts,
but I didn't use the little...
I didn't use the little safety thing.
I didn't know you're supposed to.
And I -- "Just take it up, just go, go, go,
before the sun -- the sun's going down, sun's going down!
Go, go, go, go!"
So they went... and the helicopter went up.
Puts me back down.
I said, "Good, we got the shot."
SEACREST: One slip would have been deadly.
Studio executives, infuriated that their star
might have been injured, made sure Lynda Carter
got a stunt double --
a female stunt double.
SEACREST: "Wonder Woman" lasted just three seasons,
but it was an important launching pad
for women in television.
It was among the first TV dramas with a female lead
and gave invaluable experience
to a wide range of female writers, producers,
and production people.
And the series launched one other career --
Wonder Girl, played by Debra Winger.
There were plans for a "Wonder Girl" spinoff series,
but Debra Winger wasn't interested.
And by 1979, the "Wonder Woman" franchise
had left the air.
By then, another superhero was hitting its stride.
As a little boy,
Lou Ferrigno put on a bulky hearing aid
every morning.
The other kids teased him mercilessly,
leading to schoolyard fights that Lou lost.
For comfort, little Lou read comic books,
especially "The Incredible Hulk,"
because the Hulk had the power to stand up to bullies.
FERRIGNO: Anytime I felt
devastated, emotionally insecure,
I would just read the comic.
It would give me a lot of inspiration and hope.
SEACREST: But Lou Ferrigno didn't stop there.
He resolved to give himself super strength --
like his comic book hero.
I got beat up a lot as a kid, so I wanted to be like the Hulk.
I wanted to be so strong, so invincible,
that I could command the same power like the Hulk does.
So that's how the connection began.
SEACREST: By the time he was 22,
Ferrigno had won the Mr. Universe title twice.
When "The Incredible Hulk" TV series went into production,
the producers needed a muscular type for the title role.
They turned to Arnold Schwarzenegger,
but the famed bodybuilder wasn't tall enough,
and so the the producers signed...
Richard Kiel.
FERRIGNO: Originally, Richard Kiel
was playing the Hulk,
but he was too big,
he didn't have the muscles, and he didn't have the look.
So one day, a director came on the set with his son.
And the boy said, "Dad, this is not the Hulk.
The Hulk's gotta look like the character in the comic book."
SEACREST: Even though shooting was well underway,
the producers now realized Kiel wasn't right for the role.
So the part was re-cast --
with the only person in Hollywood who had the height
and build to play the Incredible Hulk --
Lou Ferrigno.
FERRIGNO: I had to show all the emotion, become the character,
which I had no experience as an actor,
but I knew the character of the Hulk.
SEACREST: Within hours of landing the role,
Lou Ferrigno was in the green makeup,
working 16 hour days to re-film the pilot.
It wasn't easy.
At 4:00 one morning
in the rain, a scene called for the Hulk to flip a car,
but the steel cable that was supposed to
lift the vehicle broke.
Tired and overworked, Ferrigno wasn't about
to wait for the scene to be reset.
FERRIGNO: They had a car, and the cable snapped,
but I strong enough to hold the car midway
and just flip it over the cliff.
Tell you the truth, 4:00 in the morning,
those eyes, the wig, the teeth, I'm freezing to death.
Do you think I'm not going to turn that car over?
I mean, I think I really became the Hulk.
16 hours of filming and this was like 4:00 in the morning.
I was about to explode, I was so pissed.
And that's why it worked for the scene.
[ Growling ]
SEACREST: For Ferrigno, the biggest challenge
of playing the Hulk was putting on the required
six layers of green makeup,
an uncomfortable process that
took nearly four hours.
Removing the makeup was also a painstaking daily ordeal.
Once, in frustration,
Ferrigno stormed out
and drove home in full makeup and costume.
I'm on the freeway -- the 405 freeway -- driving.
I see another car on the side of me.
The guy is looking at me, so, you know, of course
I looked at him, looked to the right.
His eyes just lighten up, and he said, "Holy shhh!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs
and the poor guy just hit another car.
SEACREST: Ferrigno's Hulk was the alter ego
of mild-mannered David Banner,
played by veteran actor Bill Bixby.
My arm, it's sore.
I remember...
feeling incredibly strong.
It was me.
And it wasn't me.
I-I...
My eyes were white.
SEACREST: Bixby worked to ensure the series
stayed true to the comic
and resisted attempts to make the show more juvenile.
The network, I believe they were talking about
including like Martians, spaceships, and everything.
And Bill wanted to keep the format of the show.
He didn't want the show to look like a silly sci-fi show.
SEACREST: Thanks to Bixby's vigilance,
"The Incredible Hulk" continued to follow
the comic book's original premise.
Scientist David Banner was a force for good...
but he didn't have all the answers,
and he wasn't always in control.
Stop!
For God's sake,
don't do it!
[ Growling ]
SEACREST: The emotionally driven Hulk was a sharp contrast
to previous TV superheroes...
[ Fanfare plays ]
especially the one
who was always in control...
saving the day for humanity starting in 1952.
ANNOUNCER: Faster than a speeding bullet...
More powerful than a locomotive...
Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.
MAN: Look, up in the sky! It's a bird!
WOMAN: It's a plane!
It's Superman!
ANNOUNCER: Yes, it's Superman,
strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth
with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men!
SEACREST: When young George Reeves appeared
in "Gone with the Wind,"
he thought he was on his way to A-list stardom.
He was wrong.
War, war, war.
This war talk's spoiling all the fun
at every party this spring.
I get so bored, I could scream.
Besides, there isn't going to be any war.
Not going to be any war?!
Honey, of course, there's going to be a war.
If either of you boys says "war" just once again,
I'll go in the house and slam the door.
But, Scarlett, honey -- Don't you want us to have a war?
SEACREST: In 1951, Reeves was offered the role
of TV's Superman.
He didn't want it,
thinking television was beneath him.
But without any other prospects,
he reluctantly signed on
playing opposite Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane
and Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen.
Golly, Superman,
I thought I was a goner for sure.
Sorry to have timed this so close, Jimmy.
Oh, don't be sorry, I'm tickled to death.
I thought this must be a bit tough on George's memories,
being Superman now,
and he'd started off in "Gone with the Wind."
SEACREST: Reeves took an immediate dislike
to the costume -- 20 pounds of wool and fake muscles
that baked in the era before air conditioning.
There was this sponge pad in places, I think,
over his chest, over his shoulders and biceps.
And this made the suit get very hot.
SEACREST: Even worse was the system used
to simulate flight, which involved
hanging Reeves from piano wires.
Early on, the system failed.
The wires broke, and he fell on his super butt...
into this thing -- about five feet.
And he was very upset.
And he got up and brushed himself off like that
and said, "That's it."
He said, "Peter Pan flies on wires," he says,
"but my Superman doesn't fly on wires.
That's the last time I'm ever going to come in on a wire."
SEACREST: Eventually, a better system was developed
to simulate flight, and over time,
Reeves began to warm to the role.
His favorite part of the job --
crashing through walls.
He liked the walls to pop out.
He'd come in there, and they would pop.
Superman! Am I glad to see you.
Superman, you could have come in through the door!
Well, this seemed a little more spectacular.
SEACREST: The series' other trademark look was
Superman's flying exit...
accomplished with a simple diving board.
He would run, take a leap at the diving board,
and go out the window.
Goodbye, miss.
Golly.
If I could only fly like Superman
instead of taking those hot subways.
SEACREST: "The Adventures of Superman" was a big hit,
thanks largely to Reeves' likeable persona.
His superhero was never worried or upset.
Stay back, Superman.
This ain't no ordinary gun.
SEACREST: Just confident in his ability to deliver justice.
I don't want to hurt anybody, Superman,
not even you, but I will if I have to.
I warned you.
But it's gotta hurt ya.
It's gotta, it can melt cold steel.
SEACREST: Unlike his character,
George Reeves did begin to worry a great deal
about being typecast as Superman.
And his fear was realized when acting jobs dried up
as the series rolled into its final season.
Reeves drank heavily and left his longtime love,
Toni Mannix, for a younger woman.
He said to me, "Well, I met another woman."
And he said, "And she makes me feel like a boy again."
Well, there's no commenting on that.
The only line is, "You fool!"
SEACREST: Here in his home on Benedict Canyon
on June 16th, 1959,
George Reeves died of a gunshot wound.
To this day, no one is quite sure how it happened.
His death remains one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries.
It was a front-page story all over the world.
SEACREST: The coroner ruled Reeve's death a suicide,
but rumors swirled that the jilted Toni Mannix
was somehow involved.
[ Flashbulbs popping ]
In a bizarre twist,
Toni secretly revisited the crime scene
shortly after the death
and asked Jack Larson to join her.
LARSON: And we go into the house.
And we didn't talk much.
We went up these stairs.
In the bathtub
were these bloody sheets.
The police had taken the sheets off the bed
where George had died.
They were all blood -- you know, deep-brown with blood,
that, and a lot of blood into the bathtub.
And I started to feel sick.
SEACREST: When Larson turned around,
he saw Toni Mannix on the bedroom floor
examining two small bullet holes.
Why would the site of a suicide
have multiple bullet holes?
And how would Toni Mannix know where to find them?
Jack Larson wasn't looking for answers,
he just wanted to leave.
At that point, I said, "Toni, I have to leave.
I'm getting ill,
and I have to leave."
And so she said, "Okay, Junior."
SEACREST: Back in the car,
Toni Mannix gave Jack Larson her final thoughts
on George Reeves' death.
LARSON: And she leaned back in her car.
And she always talked like Jean Harlow.
And she said, "I never would have believed
that my love affair
would have turned into tragedy."
SEACREST: While the final moments
of George Reeves' life remain cloudy...
[ Gunshots ]
his legacy is clear --
George Reeves opened the door for TV superheroes.
Next!
SEACREST: Two decades after "Superman"
went out of production,
the genre got a major reboot
with a very different kind of superhero,
from TV's most prolific producer, Stephen J. Cannell.
If I'm going to do a superhero show.
I'm not just going to have a guy from a distant planet
who comes to earth in a meteor
and starts solving other people's problems.
My characters tend to be underdogs.
I much prefer the flaws to the strengths.
As a writer, I'd much rather write about a character
who can't get out of his own way
and yet manages to succeed anyway
than one who is the smartest guy in town.
We have to go and not wait until it's too --
Oh, hi.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't know the bathroom was in use.
Oh, yeah, I'm...
We can come back.
No, that's all right. I'm leaving,
I just needed to get this cape attached to my...
Look, I know this seems really nuts,
but I'm not...
See, what I'm doing here is
I'm late for a court appearance.
Look, it's okay. It's okay, really.
Look, we're all through anyway.
No, it's all right! No, don't touch us!
SEACREST: Stephen J. Cannell created
"Greatest American Hero,"
the story of a high-school teacher, Ralph Hinkley,
who gets a suit that gives him superpowers...
but then he loses the instruction manual.
Okay...
Okay.
Last night,
I was approached by a flying saucer
out in the desert.
Anyway... this saucer,
they talked to us over the car radio.
And Bill's partner -- he's a G-man --
he came out of the saucer, but he was dead.
And he had this package under his arm,
and he gave it to me.
And...
There were instructions on how to use the suit,
but I lost them.
The hook was, he's gonna lose the instruction book
and he's not going to know how to use the powers.
So it's going to be, you know,
some of the comedy will come from the fact that
he has to discover, along with the audience,
how the suit works.
What could be more perfect
than having a high-school teacher
thrust into the role of being a superhero
and yet being put at the disadvantage
of not knowing how to work it?
Not knowing how to fly,
not knowing how to work the magic of the red suit.
You're not doing it right.
You've gotta run, like, three steps
and jump with your hands out in front of you.
Oh.
See, I've never done this before.
My daddy's calling the police.
Terrific.
Uh, three steps, huh?
[ Screaming ]
SEACREST: When he signed on to do the show,
actor William Katt imagined
he'd be playing a superhero like Iron Man.
Then he saw the costume
that producer Stephen J. Cannell had in mind.
I just thought it would look better.
But when he said, "You ready to see the suit?"
I said, "Sure," so he shows me the suit --
the designer comes out and holds it up.
And I was just mortified because
it wasn't as cool as everything that you see now.
It sagged in all the wrong places.
So when I put it on, in the pilot,
when I turn around and I look in the mirror
and I look at myself, I'm mortified.
And that's Bill Katt looking at himself --
the actor Bill Katt saying, "There goes my career."
And that's what I was feeling at the time.
He's running around in spandex and a cape,
you know, that's my -- that's gonna be my hero.
Stephen got the biggest kick in the world
out of watching me squirm in that suit.
He just thought I was --
he was tickled constantly.
He laughed, and he'd go,
"I'm glad I don't have to wear that thing."
SEACREST: A reluctant hero needs someone to prod him along.
In "Greatest American Hero,"
that role was filled by Robert Culp
who saw the series as a retelling
of the ancient legend of Arthur and Merlin.
Merlin was a pretty tough cookie --
Merlin is me as Bill Maxwell,
the super gung-ho jerk.
But it's still Merlin -- in his negativity --
telling Arthur what to do,
and Arthur fighting back with all of his charm and warmth
and his down-to-earth nice guy qualities
that is the foundation of the story.
There's something you gotta know about me,
I'm by the book -- always have been,
always will be -- by the book.
And it really bends my frame
when things get over into the margins.
The margins! I'd say we're clear off the page here.
Just wait a second...
SEACREST: Robert Culp was already an accomplished actor,
but in "Greatest American Hero,"
he played a sidekick to the less-experienced
William Katt,
a situation that led to some conflict at first.
We truly did not like each other when we first met.
I mean, there was some real friction there,
and remarkably enough,
it was just another one of those things that it worked --
because the two characters were not supposed to like each other,
and we didn't like each other.
And I don't think you're my kind of guy,
nothing personal, just a fact of life.
All this is kind of an apology
for running out on you last night.
That's not my style either,
definitely not.
So...ahem.
I apologize.
It's high on my all-time list of favorites.
Listen, you gotta go, I got a class.
And nobody was doing as unique a style of comedy as I was,
and it was like I wasn't even there.
Yeah, really got me a live one here.
Oh, boy.
Look, I gotta go.
Listen, you call me in a couple of days.
If I figure out how to make it work, we can meet then.
We'll figure it out now, butterfingers.
And the next time I tell you something,
the only thing I want to hear out of you is,
"Yes, sir" or "How soon?"
That's all, that's it,
that's the basic drill.
I think Bob wanted to have first billing, you know.
And I think that that was a big problem initially.
And I kept saying, "Bob, it's not
'The Greatest American Hero and Friends,' you know,
it's 'Greatest American Hero.'"
But he was a really good sport,
and, you know, we worked that out fairly quickly.
SEACREST: In time, Katt and Culp became close friends
and, along with co-star Connie Sellecca,
they helped build a superhero show that aimed high.
But that wasn't what ABC wanted.
It was more satirical in nature
and more of a highbrow approach to comedy.
And the powers-that-be
at the networks, they wanted to cater more to kids.
SEACREST: Eventually, the network got its way
and Ralph began chasing down space aliens and sea monsters.
Come on, Ralph, what is it?!
Okay.
Voila!
Surprised, aren't you, Bill?
Uh...
Uh, this is it?
The "it" it?
The "it" that you were talking to me about.
Mm-hmm.
SEACREST: After "Greatest American Hero's" network run,
William Katt faced the same problem
that challenged George Reeves and Adam West --
typecasting.
KATT: When I did "Greatest American Hero,"
it really put the brakes on
a lot of work that I did on stage,
because now, I was "That guy in the red suit," you know.
And it took many, many years to get over that.
SEACREST: Nearly every actor who's played a TV superhero
has passed through the same stages.
First, they're happy to have the work...
then, when the series ends,
they feel the frustration of being typecast.
Later, there is reconciliation,
when the actor embraces the superhero
and comes to realize what the public already knows --
superheroes are beloved, not just for a few years,
but for generation after generation.
I decided myself that we were pioneers in television.
You always love superheroes.
You always love villains and heroes.
There was a heart in "Batman"
that it will always be on that celluloid,
and will never be lost.
What I tried to bring was something fresh
and something people had never seen as a dimension of Batman.
I love being identified with Catwoman.
And one of the main reasons
is that there will always be a Catwoman.
CARTER: They didn't think that a woman could hold a show.
"Wonder Woman" represented a lot of breakthroughs.
It's just like lightning in a bottle
when you get the right cast together.
You just -- you can't explain it.
It just works.
It tells you something about our culture
and what people really enjoy,
what people are more fixated on,
what grabs them.
They feel safe when they watch "The Hulk."
The Hulk makes them feel safe.
It's kind of like a green Santa Claus.
So what you had was a generation of women my age
that had mothers that were saying, "You can do
whatever you set your mind to."
We used to say, "We put on our tights to put on the world."
SEACREST: Together, they helped create
our culture's most enduring characters --
the superheroes.
They are the "Pioneers of Television."
have a different take.
They're a different animal.
Whereas, you know, we were fun, funny,
and for the entire family,
these things are more gothic,
and I think they try to explore emotional levels, possibly,
that we didn't.
But all I see is -- they're different.
I did the bright knight.
They're doing the dark knight.
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visit pbs.org.
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