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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Superhero Sunday: The Also-Rans

The popularity of the campy Batman TV show of the sixties led TV executives at the time to look for other superheroes upon which to capitalize. The live-action Green Hornet, based on the popular radio serials (and soon to be a major motion picture), proved moderately successful and introduced America to Bruce Lee as the martial artist sidekick Kato.
However, not all forays into the TV superhero world were as successful, and probably with good reason.
Mister Terrific ran from January to May of 1967 and featured the adventures of wimpy Stanley Beamish who developed super strength and the ability to fly whenever he took a special pill. The pill only worked on Stanley and only lasted one hour. I don't know what kinds of pills the network executives were taking, but, fortunately, their duration was only 17 episodes.


Captain Nice starring William Daniels hit the scene at the same time. Captain Nice was superior to Mister Terrific in that it mercifully lasted for only 15 episodes.

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