STAR DEFENDS COMIC
BOOK HERO AND SHOW
By S. Nicely
The Kansas City
Star , June 25, 1978
(abridged version)
Bill Bixby was more
than a little defensive during the first of several interviews
with groups of television critics here last week. He said he had
(seen) too many bad headlines and stories about “The Incredible
Hulk”, his
new hit series on CBS.
“It seemed to be a
perfect opportunity for the press, bored all year, to take
a shot at us,” he said. “The Jolly Green Giant” was one
press characterization, and he asked, “Is that so clever,
folks?”
But Bixby said he
had no reason to be defensive because the audience, not
the critics, saved the show. It has good ratings and has been
picked up for another season on CBS. He accused the
critics of reacting to the title the same way he did when
he first saw it and new nothing about the Hulk, an American
comic book character for 16 years.
“I had just gotten
off an airplane and my agent handed me two scripts. One
was “The Incredible Hulk”. I laughed. The other was a serious
title that rang of American history, something meaningful
we actors aspire to and say, ‘Gosh, we would like to be
associated with this.’
“I told him, ‘Honest
to God, did we go through Eddie’s Father, Steambath,
and Rich Man, Poor Man, to do The Incredible Hulk?’
“He told me, ‘Bill,
read it.’”
Bixby will continue
as Doctor David Banner, a research scientist whose laboratory
experiment comes back to haunt him in the form of a Frankenstein-like
monster during periods of anger or high anxiety. Lou Ferrigno
takes over after the transformation and Bixby told us a little
about him.
“Lou is 6 foot 5 and
weighs 285 pounds. He was twice Mr. Universe and once Mr. America.
Most successful bodybuilders are 5 foot 10 or less and he is
extremely unique in that his body is in the right proportions.”
Bixby said Ferrigno
had a hearing deficiency at birth and actually learned to
speak before he could hear. He wears a hearing aid and has learned
from experience to carry a couple of spares in case one
gets broken during filming.
“If you cut off Lou’s
hearing in the middle of tearing down a wall and you yell
‘Cut!’ he just keeps breaking things,” Bixby said.
It took Ferrigno at
least seven years to build his body, Bixby said, and three
to four hours of strenuous workouts a day to keep it that way.
Bixby believes that
the show is successful because of the psychological need
of everyone to “Hulk out” in certain frustrating circumstances.
“We’ve all been with
our ladies and put down by someone and unable to do anything
about it. We’ve all been in circumstances when we would say, ‘God,
I wish I had the Hulk in me, just once.’”
More than anything,
Bixby said, the “Hulk” is entertainment and entertainment
is the primary purpose of television. His show offers an
escape, a perfectly permissible way for the viewer to rest his
tired mind..
But future episodes
will not be devoid of contemporary issues facing Americans,
he promised. “We are going to go into social problems and use
the Hulk to examine them. Psycho surgery, teen-age alcoholism
and teen-age pregnancy are three. Kids have a very great
respect for the Hulk.”
Asked if he minded
sharing the star’s role with Ferrigno, Bixby said no. He
said that since he is 7 inches shorter and 130 pounds lighter
than Ferrigno, there is no way he could possibly play both
roles.
“I’m pre-Hulk. He’s
the Hulk. Besides, when I turn into the Hulk, I get to go
home.”
Bixby’s television
career got its momentum on “The Danny Thomas Show”. He was
a regular cast member for a season on “The Joey Bishop Show” and
co-starred in the “My Favorite Martian” series. He currently is
the host of the children’s “Once Upon a Classic” presentations
on PBS which “…meets my responsibilities to the literate
aspects of my career,” he said. “That’s how I pay
my dues.”
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