Question about The Incredible Hulk TV show

In the 1970's The Incredible Hulk TV show, when The Hulk went back from being The Hulk to a regular guy again did he remember what he did when he was The Hulk? Or did he black out and not remember it like he'd gone on a bender?

I've never really seen the show and was just wondering how that worked. Thanks!

 

Actually I think he knew he became the hulk

 

I also think he knew, hence his saying to people, "Don't make me mad, you wouldn't like me when I''m mad."

Chad

 

Having just watched most of the series on The Horror Channel in the last year-and-a-half, I can categorically state that David Banner doesn't have any memory of what the Hulk does, other than mere momentary flashes afterwards.

Good series, still holds up well, if only Universal had allowed showrunner Kenneth Johnson to finish out the fifth and final season and give the story a proper conclusion instead of cancelling it outright for no good reason when it already was set to end; Johnson had about 8 or 9 scripts in the can plus the unwritten two-hour finale in mind, and literally begged the studio to let him finish it, alas...

 

Do you know how the finale was supposed to play out?

 

David was finally going to be cured.

Also, it was going to be revealed that his real name was Bruce.

 

If my memory serves me correctly (and I believe it does), according to Kenneth Johnson, the two-hour finale episode would have seen reporter Jack McGee finally catch up with David Banner and expose him, leading to the latter's arrest and trial for the death of Dr Elaina Marks in the pilot episode, and by the end, Banner would have finally rid himself of the Hulk once and for all, either finding a cure or whatever, possibly with McGee's help, gaining a redemption of sorts for the meddlesome reporter.

The series was always going to end after it's fifth season, it had clearly run it's course and was past it's best, plus Bill Bixby wanted to move on and do other things. It's a pity the studio axed it just on the cusp of them wrapping things up, the ratings for the finale would have been enormous at the very least... but they never even got to the stage of putting it on paper much less filming it.

 

I think your answer to OP is here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077031/trivia
Because David Banner never has any recollection of his actions as the Hulk, Bill Bixby did not watch Lou Ferrigno perform on set, and Ferrigno was never present for Bixby's scenes.

 

Ah-ha! Thank you!

 

Bruce was his middle name in the tv series. David became his first name for several reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Hulk_(1978_TV_series)

 

I watched this show when I was a kid, the only things I remember about it are the music at the end was sad and I think it was the start of the show, he was changing a tire in the rain, the wheel brace slips and he turns into the Hulk.

 

I like the 2nd episode where he takes the bear and flings her thru the air (She lands safely in the water)

 

Yeah, I remember that he knew when he became the Hulk, however, he didn't know what went on while he was the Hulk.

 

Never seen the show?

You may have to get your 80's card revoked!

 

Ha! Well, I just haven't caught any of the repeats on TV over the years.

 

I worked on the last season of the show for CBS, and that's my answer, too. In the Marvel comic book, they occasionally had Bruce Banner's affliction change, so that he'd have Banner's mind inside the Hulk body, or he'd change to the Hulk permanently and would become a raging monster all the time. So there were changes to the plot in different years.

BTW, I was told by the show's editor at Universal that Lou Ferrigno was difficult to deal with and very demanding, and they limited his appearances in the last couple of years of the show. Surprisingly, the cop character, Jack Colvin, was beloved by the cast and crew and so they went out of their way to feature him as much as possible (despite the fact that he's not in the comic book).

 

We moved to a new house in the suburbs in 1978 and we got two things we never had before: cable and a colour TV! If you ever wanted to see a couple of kids go absolutely ape **** crazy you should've been at my house the night my brother and I were flipping through channels and saw this thing called the Hulk on TV!

 

"Hey mom, check it out- he's green!"

 

Funnily enough my Mom did watch it with us.

 

WOW! You are just a fount of information and tidbits, Vidiot, never even look at another cheeseburger again 'cause we want you on this forum for many, many years to come .

Just whilst we're on the subject, did you know then-head of CBS programming Harvey Sheppard, and why exactly did he cancel the show at a moment's notice, it seems not even Kenneth Johnson got a straight answer on that one...?

 

The one thing we always joked about was that since Lou was much bigger than Bill, in reality the Hulk would most likely be rampaging completely nude as the clothes wouldn't have stood a chance during the transformation.

 

I always thought he knew he had been The Hulk after he transformed back (because of the clothes and whatever), but did not remember what happened. Killer show, either way.

 

I don't remember him saying that. I recall it being "angry" rather than "mad"

 

There were some abrupt cancellations here and there. I did some work for Sharon Gless in the late 1970s (before she got on Cagney & Lacey), and I mentioned to her in passing that her previous show, Switch, had never officially been cancelled -- instead it was "put on hiatus" and just never returned. She totally agreed and said that she, Robert Wagner, and Eddie Albert were stunned that the show wasn't renewed, because the ratings were fine. Some cancellations come totally out of the blue and happen more because of politics and money than they do for ratings per se.

I know in the case of Kenneth Johnson's V, he had been fired because he delivered the specials late and overbudget, and that's two things the studios and networks won't put up with. I worked on V: The Final Battle, and I can remember the post producer telling me there were a lot of yelling matches behind the scenes on that one.

 

They've also done other alternations to the Hulk/Banner relationship, including:

• When The Hulk gets made he transforms into a raging Bruce Banner, with the disadvantage that he can't reach the levels of power that are only achievable with rage.
  
• The Hulk and Banner were split for a time, with Banner being normal and The Hulk is basically an animal with no human intelligence. For both to survive they eventually had to be merged back together.
• He transformed into Joe Fixit, a grey version of The Hulk who is less strong but intelligent. BTW, The Hulk was originally grey but the color was changed to green because the color grey wouldn't print consistently on the comic pages.

One that comes to mind is Gilligan's Island. At the end of the third season the cast departed, expecting a fourth season. Then the series was unexpectedly cancelled to make room for Gunsmoke.