Spoilers

“Reseda Rose”

Something odd happened for a few episodes of the Greatest American Hero during the first season. Ralph Hinkley suddenly became Ralph Hanley. This was the first time one of Ralph’s students referred to him as Mr. Hanley.

This was done because President Ronald Reagan had been the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. and the show’s producers clearly did not want their titular character to be connected in any way to that.

It was a very weird time during the series with the change of name, but it only lasted a few months (according to Wikipedia) before the show reverted the name back to Ralph Hinkley.

This was a fun episode where Ralph and Bill were checking on a list of ‘bad guys’ when Ralph’s student Rhonda arrived to look for help. Her mother had disappeared had was missing.

This seemingly unimportant piece tied right into a huge international incident with Russians and Ralph and Bill had to try to stop.

I still d not know why Ralph doesn’t wear some kind of mask. His face is right out there. The show could have said that the suit automatically projected some kind of facial protection. It would have prevented Ralph from always having to cover his face with his arms when someone was shooting at him.

There was also a potential story beat of Ralph not being a very good father, putting the super suit ahead of his son Kevin, which we did see this episode. It is not something the show really touched upon, probably because it is more serious of an issue than the comedic lean that the show had. Still, Kevin was pushed off to Pam most of the time. It is a good thing Pam is so understanding.

Another fun episode with so much potential.