Greatest American Heroine


I recently got all three seasons and saw 'again', the Greatest American Heroine. I say 'again' as I vaguely remember catching it in syndication, especially the arm wrestling scene. After watching it, I'm SO GLAD this never got picked up. Aside from the actress not being all that interesting, it seemed like a bad imitation of the show. The scene where Ralph, Pam and Bill say goodbye to each other was SAD. Three characters that were great together being forced to split up. It was bad enough that the show got canceled WAY too early but to add that scene on top of it was too much.

Obviously, they couldn't help the cancellation or the studio execs but as much as I like William Katt, I gotta take exception with his decision not to come back to the role. He mentioned in an interview that he was offered a lot of money by NBC to reprise the role when it was a hit in syndication. He refused as he was already contracted for the Perry Mason mysteries. I realize that it put him in a bad position but really he couldn't have worked around his commitment? Steady work for actors is REALLY hard to come by and you would think that with his mother being in the business for so long she would have sat him down and said "you need think beyond this week". The odds of being on a hit series, let alone the very noticeable lead, are astronomical. Its one thing to have a show and then its gone, you can't go back. But when, only two years after its canceled you're offered to return with a guarantee episode list and maybe a piece of the backend, seems like a no-brainer. This is especially true if you have a say in the tone of the show.

For true fans, this ep is a novelty but best to watch the series without checking out 'heroine'.

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I agree that, overall, 'Heroine' sucked.

But actually I'm glad we have it because of the (to me) awesome 'goodbye' scene.

We never got that during the show's original run.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

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I think the worst part of that show is that Ralph is now a celebrity and it's all gone to his head.

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While I know that a lot of Katt's decision too was based on his dislike of the costume (and given the version they forced him to wear in the spinoff attempt I can understand that), I'd like to offer another perspective:

There is more than meets the eye here - Perry Mason was a CBS show, and while the movies WERE made for NBC, there could've been a dispute about who owned the rights to the show.

Additionally - speaking as an extra who did end up with a short term contract - they're very difficult to break without resulting in fines and other expenses. This is also a huge factor when you honestly don't know what gig you're doing next and don't want to lose any money that can pay bills.

There's also sadly the potential for blacklisting - in that if you break a contract for whatever reason, it gets around that you're willing to ditch something for a "better gig" and you can lose more offers.

Mason at the time the movies came out was still a huge sensation, while "GAH" admittedly had a cult following but many didn't remember the show anymore.

Add to it that Connie Sellecca was in "Hotel" and ABC REFUSED to let her work on two shows on competing networks could've factored in. And sadly, I don't know of any person who could replace Connie as Christine Frances.

I don't think the show would be as strong without all three together. It also was going to be in the watershed hour - which means that even if we had it as Bill and Ralph we'd had these sappy, watered down stories like we had in the pilot (which BTW the full script is WORSE than what we got).

I think what bothered me more was that instead of waiting a year or so for Katt to do whatever films he was obligated to (as he didn't do all the Mason movies), then offer it again, they tried the new route. It was CULP's idea to bring in a woman in the suit.

In fairness to Mary Ellen Stuart - she's a good actress, but not a good COMEDIC actress which is what the show needed.

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I liked the newer/shinyer version of the suit used in the episode, I figure at that point they would've made it alittle more comfortable for William Katt to wear at that point.

The thing I disliked the most about the episode is when he was called by teh green guys to give up the suit, Ralph barely put up any argument for all the good he'd done or even seemed like he wanted the responsibility anymore. Weird.

'When there's no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.'

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