Actor Bill Bixby in the role that highlighted his career, Dr. David Banner.
134
the genre, until an encounter with a classic novel brought forth the potential of one of the projects. “I don’t deal with people in spandex,” said Kenneth. “And it was only because my wife Suzie had given me Les Miserables to read that I had the whole fugitive thing in my head, and that’s where I realized there was a way to make [it], take a little Robert Louis Stevenson, a little Jekyll and Hyde, a little Victor Hugo, and this ludicrous thing called The Incredible Hulk, and make a psychological drama out of it.” Writing about the inner-turmoil of Hulk came relatively easy to Johnson, who within a week had written the script to what would be the two-hour pilot. Quickly, he realized the need for a lead actor who could capture the sensitive complexities of Dr. Banner, and he found those qualities in his only choice to lead the series—Bill Bixby. The veteran actor had zero interest in playing the character, perhaps perceiving the project to be childish, but his agent persisted. When he finally read the screenplay, he was immediately smitten. “When I read the script, I realized that I had the opportunity of doing a series in the genre of the ‘creature films’ of the forties that featured Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Jekyll and Hyde,” uttered the late
Actor Jack Colvin as the intense and relentless reporter, Jack McGee.
actor in an interview for The Hulk magazine in 1978. “I believe that, in the long run, the original movie itself will become a classic—a television classic. I really do believe that… He is the personification of anger. He is anger brought to a physical sense.” With Bixby and Johnson’s involvement, the network ordered two two-hour movies based upon the treatment. In adapting The Hulk’s plight, the writer changed a few things from the comics, most noticeably the name of Bruce to David Banner because, “I was trying to get away from that comic book Lois Lane alliteration kind of stuff, so that it sounded a little more real.” To keep the believability of the show, super-villains like The Leader and Abomination were out as well. Rather, Banner’s adversary was a meddlesome reporter named Jack McGee, played sharply by character actor Jack Colvin, who was only seeking the truth behind Banner’s experiment. Johnson thought that it was enough work asking viewers to accept the destructive Hulk, and having other colorful larger-than-life characters would have diminished the drama he was presenting. Ken’s strongest revision was within The Hulk’s origin, which made the creature’s plight even more tragic. In it, Dr.
A facial make-up appliance being applied to Bill Bixby, a process which the actor reportedly did not like.