Mark Thomson

"I tell them about that, they stamp tutti-fruity on my record, send me to the basement, and phase me out on the medical"

This episode has some good character development with Ralph's class, as well as some hilarious sequences. Bill flunking his polygraph test is inspired: what can he do? tell the truth about the ship and get put in the rubber room or deny it and fail the test for lying? Culp balances Maxwell's cockiness with real vulnerability when he gets caught out. Ralph's subsequent break-in at the Federal Bureau is a fun little sequence, especially when he confronts Carlisle, who later winds up assigned for psychiatric assessment. It would have been interesting if later in the series when Carlisle meets Ralph he would have perhaps remembered him from the break-in.

Episode Synopsis

Sergei Valinkov walks across town to meet his lover, unaware that they are both being watched by concealed parties. Carlisle and some of the other agents are doing the broken-down car routine and watching Sergei. A Russian suicide squad is also watching Sergei. When he meets up with Teresa Chimerosa, both parties make their move. Sergei and Teresa are both happy to be together again, but their happiness is short-lived when Carlisle and attempts to arrest them both. They get into the FBI car and are taken away. The Russians pursue the FBI car and force it off the road. During the ensuing shootout, Sergei and Teresa escape but become separated.

Bill arrives at FBI headquarters and gets cut off by the Russian ambassador, who pulls into Bill's parking space. Carlisle doesn't like Bill, and tries to get him thrown out of the secure floor. Bill does his best to antagonise Carlisle. Bill's had to come in for his annual FBI lie-detector test.

Ralph is teaching the class about caste systems in other countries. The students aren't paying attention and Ralph is getting frustrated. He vents at the class, and refuses to teach them until the explain what's going on with their attitude. They feel the lessons don't apply to them and that they already know it all, and that society has it in for them. Ralph explains that they bought it on themselves with their behaviour, and they need to just deal with it. The students decide they want to leave school.

Bill is failing his lie-detector test. He's caught lying because he can't answer the question about anything unusual happening during the past year truthfully, because of the alien spaceship and the suit. Sherman says Bill will be kicked out of the FBI for failing the test. He gets a second chance, and if he fails that, he'll be discharged. Sherman also suspends Bill.

Ralph tells Pam about his class and wishes he could get them more involved. Bill interrupts dinner with his lie-detector problem. Ralph is incensed about Bill having to take a lie-detector test every 6 months. Pam suggests they could sue the FBI for harassment, but Bill won't have it. He thinks the test is justifiable, but he's bugged that he blew it because of the suit. Bill wants Ralph to bail him out of this mess. Bill wants Ralph to break into the Bureau building, find out what's got Carlisle worked up, then they solve the case, and use that to trade Bill out of the flunked test.

Ralph flies across the city to the FBI building, crashes through the roof, breaks in the door, and is confronted by Agent Carlisle who's working late. Carlisle shoots Ralph, but the bullets just bounce off the suit. Ralph asks for the case file he's working on, and Carlisle gives it too him. Ralph jumps out the window and flies away with it.

Bill is delighted with the case file and that Carlisle is in deep trouble. Bill explains the scenario with Sergei and Teresa, and resolves to find them before Carlisle or the hit squad. Pam and Ralph feel sorry for Sergei and Teresa, but they can't find them with the suit because they don't have anything from the couple that has their vibes on it. Bill says they can't go searching the streets because they don't have any troops. Ralph volunteers the class to help search for the fugitives.

Sergei is searching for Teresa also. Teresa is hiding in a sleazy motel somewhere in the city, wondering where Sergei is.

The next day, Ralph brings the class to help search for the missing Russian couple. Meanwhile, Carlisle's been given a lie-detector test, tells the FBI interrogator all about Ralph and winds up being admitted for psychiatric testing. Ralph's class meet up with Maxwell, and they're not keen on helping him. Bill butts heads with Tony Vilicana as usual. Ralph breaks them up and sets them back on the job. Bill decides to search for Sergei, and tells the class what he wants done. Ralph and Pam assign Bill to manning the phone in the command centre - something Bill isn't thrilled about, but everyone else enjoys. Ralph drops groups of students off every few blocks to look for Sergei. Rhonda and Pam go together - Rhonda asks Pam about her and Ralph's relationship. Ralph goes looking with Tony and discuss friendship. Tony hits upon the idea of looking for Sergei's relatives in the phonebook, and they find a possible relative close by. They go to investigate.

Sergei is arguing with his brother Frederik when Ralph and Tony spot him. The Russian hit squad is also on his trail. Ralph reports into Bill, and Bill rushes to intercept Sergei. Pam and Rhonda also rush to meet them. Sergei meets up with Teresa, as the Russians arrive and shoot out the car tires. They take Teresa from the car and drag her back to there car. Ralph leaves Tony in the van and chases down the Russian's car. Pam takes off after Ralph, and in the alley, Ralph changes out of his clothes in the phone booth. While Ralph struggles to get his pants off over his shoes, the Russians' car gets stuck at the end of the alley and reverses back, so Pam shoves a dumpster out into the alley to slow the car down. Ralph runs up the alley at super speed, but slips on a banana peel, and launches into flight. Crashing onto the car bonnet, Teresa manages to escape once again, but this time the Russians capture Pam to force Ralph to let them escape. This time they have Sergei and Pam.

Back at Bill's command centre, Bill tells Teresa that he will get Sergei back. Teresa offers to trade herself for Sergei, but Bill won't have it. Ralph and the class are worried about Pam. The Russian's make contact with Bill who negotiates the exchange for Pam. Bill agrees to exchange Teresa at the dam.

Bill and Ralph go to the dam to make the exchange. Bill is starting to like Tony a little bit, although he won't really admit it. The Russian's arrive for the switch, and Ralph uses the suit's holograph power to check for a double-cross - sure enough they have another armed guy in the trunk of the car. Bill sends Teresa across the dam, and Ralph slips out of his civilian clothes in the car. As they begin to exchange hostages, Ralph runs across the dam at super speed and catches the Russian team by surprise. Ralph frees Sergei, and Teresa gets away, but Pam is dragged into another double-cross by the Russians - a surprise helicopter! They fly away with Pam held hostage again. Ralph flies up to the helicopter, grabs Pam, and returns her to the ground. They all make their escape.

Bill holds a little victory party in his rented hotel room, and manages to trade Sergei and Teresa for the flunked lie detector test, as well as never having to take another test again. Ralph stops Tony from stealing liquor from the party. Tony has fitted one chrome spinner hubcap to Bill's car for a joke. The kids have decided to give school another go with Mr. H.

"Wouldn't you know it, I get the only lemon supersuit in the entire galaxy"

This episode finally sees the introduction of a new power in the suit - the invisibility that the aliens sugggested Ralph try. It's a lot of fun that he can't control it again, it won't turn off at will, and his panic when he can't initially reappear. His discomfort at being caught in public is kicked up a notch in an hilarious sequence where he takes a bus ride and everyone behaves like he has a contagious disease. The stuff up at the restaurant is also pretty funny.

Episode Synopsis

Beller Air Research is testing a new experimental aircraft fitted with a special computer-controlled gun sight. The pilot in the plane stops responding to the control towers requests, and the plane heads off course, before diving and disappearing off radar. Maintenance engineers find the pilot knocked out and tied up - the planes been hijacked! The military officers spring into action to find the plane. Meanwhile, the hijacker has landed the plane in the desert, camouflaged it, and started ripping out the valuable gun sight.

Ralph is teaching his class about politics. The kids are trying to get one of there classmates to run for class president. They've got him running even though he doesn't want to do it. As usual Tony has the wrong idea about it, and misunderstands. Ralph offers to explain it properly to them later. Bill drafts Ralph in on his latest problem - the missing gun sight. Ralph has problems of his own, with Pam's parents arriving in town to meet him. As usual, Bill doesn't care. Ralph rings Pam from Bill's car phone to cancel meeting her parents at the airport, so they can go search for the plane in the desert. Bill gives Ralph a voice-operated walkie talkie so they can keep in touch.

Pam meets her parents at the airport. Her mother is excited to meet Ralph, because she thinks he sounds dependable, solid, feet on the ground... Meanwhile, Ralph is flying back and forth across the desert searching for the plane, slamming into the ground and bushes. Bill is less than understanding about Ralph's crashing, and keeps pressing him to try again. Eventually Ralph stumbles onto the planes location.

Bill's disappointed in Ralph because the gun sight is already gone. He figures that Ralph wasted too much time crashing about in the desert. They find the pilot's helmet, and Bill figures they might be able to pick up some vibes from the helmet and get a hologram showing them where the sight is. Ralph puts on the helmet and gets a holograph of the house where the sight is being kept. Bill figures the house might belong to a mercenary group that he's aware of, and figures they might have a bloodbath coming up if they take on these mercenaries. Ralph doesn't want to hurt anyone, so Bill suggests maybe he could see if the suit can do telekinesis, so he could just take the weapons off the bad guys.

Pam's father has dragged them to a hardware store, because he wants to check out other stores. Back home he runs his own store, and he's obsessed with hardware, more than meeting Ralph. Her parents are dismissive of Pam's choice of career. Pam says Ralph is taking them out to dinner. Pam's mother can't wait to see Ralph.

Bill asks Ralph to try to push him over with his mind. Ralph concentrates hard, and pushes with his mind - and promptly vanishes! Ralph can't turn it off, and Bill can't figure out to how to make him visible again either. Ralph's obsessing about being stuck invisible, but Bill can see the possibilities of this new power. While Bill is driving along talking to invisible Ralph, he gets pulled over by a cop for talking to himself. Luckily he manages to talk himself out of being hauled away to the funny farm.

They arrive at the mercenary house, and Ralph finally reappears. Ralphs elated, but Bill doesn't want him visible now. Unfortunately Ralph starts fading in and out, then disappears entirely. He can't control the new power properly. Bill makes out the car has broken down, while Ralph uses the suits holograph to spy on the people in the house. He discovers that they are planning to sell the gun sight to foreign buyers later that night at one of the foreign embassies. Ralph says he'll meet Bill later at the consulate, because he has to go to his dinner date.

Pam and her parents are at the restaurant. Ralph still hasn't arrived yet, and Pam is disappointed in him. Pam is defending his lack of dependability again. Her parents prattle on about the hardware store while Pam sits waiting for Ralph to arrive. The maitre'd comes to tell her there is a call for her at the front desk - it's Ralph who's at the restaurant but still invisible. He calls out to Pam, but she can't see him - just the phone in the booth floating in the air. Ralph gradually becomes visible again until he's left standing in the restaurant in the suit. Ralph makes out he's advertising for a play and gets thrown out of the restaurant. Pam just dies of embarassment!

Ralph doesn't want to fly to meet Bill, so he catches the bus instead. Everyone treats him like a weirdo and moves away from him. Bill contacts Ralph on the walkie talkie, and everyone looks at him like he's a nutter. Ralph smashes the walkie talkie out of frustration!

At the consulate, Bill is doing the broken-down car routine again, when he's captured by one of the mercenaries on security. Bill is taken into the consulate and locked up. Ralph arrives and evades capture by disappearing again. He locates the gun sight and frees Bill. Bill has Ralph steal the gun sight from the sale, then they escape the embassy by flying off the roof. Ralph crashes and injures Bill again.

Back at school, Ralph has finally met Pam's parents, and has invited Pam's father to talk to his class about politics, as her father is Mayor of Deerlick Falls. Bill arrives to thank Ralph, and Ralph says he isn't going to come with him on any case, as he's taking the Davidsons' to lunch. Ralph then turns uncontrollably invisible again.

"I'm angry because I'm flying into windows and walls. Everyone out of the pool, here comes Ralph!"

This episode has some witty banter and starts to establish the relationship between the characters. I like how they don't really get along, Bill has no respect for Ralph and doesn't really listen, and it just adds to Ralph's frustrations. He can't control the suit, and he can't control this person that he's been partnered with. And of course it's all very funny for Pam until Bill's attitude spills over onto her. It's also very funny watching Ralph try to cope with the suit in public: he looks like he could squirm out of his skin when he is caught in the hotel wearing it. There's lots of great one-liners between the characters, and sets up good groundwork for what's to come in the series.

Episode Synopsis
Gangsters girlfriend, Starlet Wild, has asked to be transported to a trial where she will turn evidence against the gangster. She specifically requested Bill Maxwell, but is instead transported by another agent. On route, the car they are in is attacked by the black Hit Car (featuring gun ports in the sides). The gangsters shoot and injure the FBI agent before leaving. Luckily Starlet escapes unharmed.

Ralph is telling Pam about his plans to get the class involved in a production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Ralph recruits Pam to help, but the class are less than enthusiastic. Bill arrives and interrupts to drag Ralph into the Starlet case. Bill has made plans for Ralph to come help him and totally disregarded Ralph's wishes. Pam has been designated 'third string utility man', backup for cokes and sandwiches when required. This doesn't go over well, and causes friction in the group. Bill is desperate to get Starlet to testify against Johnny DeMotti, and has been pursuing him for 15 years trying to convict him. They leave for San Francisco to pick up Starlet.

Johnny DiMotti gets the message that Maxwell is transporting Starlet. They arrange another attempt to kill them. Bill and Ralph meet up with Starlet at a hotel. Starlet starts coming onto Ralph, much to Bill's disgust. Bill wants to get underway, but Starlet refuses to fly because her astrologer says not too fly. When Starlet goes to the window, the hitmen start shooting. Everyone dives for cover, but Bill sends Ralph out in the suit. Ralph flies out the bedroom window, across the street, and crashes into the wrong room in the hotel. Ralph hastily excuses himself from the bedroom, and escapes down the stairwell. Utterly humiliated by people staring and commenting on the suit, Ralph steals a coat and flees the building. The hitmen escape.

Bill is disappointed that the hitmen got away. Starlet is adamant that she won't fly, and Ralph is pretty sick of it too. They drive to Los Angeles, and Starlet makes stupid blonde conversation all the way. Ralphs intelligence is a turn-on to Starlet, and she flirts madly with him. Bill wants to pull over and stop for the night at the safe house, but Starlet won't stop until Santa Barbara. Ralph offers a solution; they can stop at Pam's bosses house in Santa Barbara. Pam isn't happy but agrees to come to the rescue. She drives out to meet them at the house.

They eventually reach the house, but Bill isn't happy about the security of the property. Starlet and Pam don't get along very well, and Bill is disappointed that Pam didn't provide any food. Johnny gets a message from the hitmen who have followed them to the house.

In the morning, Bill has started eating the dog biscuits from the cupboard. Bill gives Pam permission to 'whacky smacky' Starlet if she comes onto Ralph anymore. Ralph receives a holograph from the suit warning him of the hitmen. He tells Bill who springs into action with a plan. Bill goes out the front door to draw their fire, while Ralph ambushes them from the back. Bill is shot, and Ralph chases down the hitmen's van on foot (at over 80 mph). Bill arrives and takes the hitmen into custody, and makes Ralph fly back to the house. Ralph screws up and crashes into the ocean.

Johnny is furious that his hitmen have wound up in the nuthouse. Johnny decides to personally go to Los Angeles to supervise the next hit himself. Meanwhile, the group arrive in Los Angeles at the courthouse. Bill congratulates the team, but Ralph refuses to fly ever again. Bill offers to take Ralph out to the desert to practice sometime. As Bill and Starlet go into the courthouse, the hit car makes an appearance and starts shooting at them. Bill gets shot in the leg while protecting Starlet. The hit car escapes, but Bill is happy that Starlet will finally be able to testify against Johnny. In the hearing, Starlet refuses to testify anything and pleads the 5th amendment not to answer any questions because they may incriminate her.

The district attorney is furious with Bill for wasting his time. Bill is confused, but Ralph figures it out: Starlet was simply a ruse to lure Bill out so Johnny could kill him and end Bill's interference in his business. Bill doesn't want to believe it, but really can't refute the argument and ends up laughing it off. Ralph and Bill have a discussion about partnerships, but Bill really isn't listening to Ralph. Bill says he's going to stop for cigars, but really wanders into an italian restaurant where Johnny and Starlet are. He makes Johnny so angry that he decides to get the hit car and wipe him out immediately.

Bill realises Johnny is following him, and Ralph decides to swing by the school to see how the students play is coming along. Bill thinks that's a good idea because the school is deserted on the weekend, but doesn't realise that the students are there. Bill walks into the auditorium and recognizes he's miscalculated: he tries to evacuate the students when the hit car starts shooting. Ralph and Bill slip out the side door, where Bill returns fire on the car while Ralph slips out of his street clothes. Ralph flies between the buildings, crashes onto the road and slides up under the hit car. He then turns the hit car up on its side, and shakes the gangsters into submission.

The class put on their play which Bill grudgingly attends. Ralph is happy that he made the effort to come, but Bill is really listening to a sports game on a radio earpiece.

Look at what's happened to me. I can't believe it myself. Suddenly I'm up on top of the world. Should have been somebody else. Believe it or not, I'm walking on air...

If you don't know the theme song you must have been hiding under a rock during the 80s. I love this show, it's my guilty pleasure from my childhood. So when the chance came up to get the season sets, I scrimped and saved for months to get them from the States. Happily, I still love them as much as I did when I was a kid and now my kids do too. The premise is brilliant, the cast are just fun to watch with their bickering, fun storylines as we watch this ordinary every-man struggle with this alien 'gift'. Sure some of the effects aren't up to current standards, and my adult brain quite happily finds continuity mistakes and bloopers, but do I care. Not one damn! It's still damned good clean family fun. I don't have to worry about my kids watching this and getting exposed to sex, graphic violence, or adult language. I've always thought that William Katt is an underused actor, since you never seem to see him in much these days, but I think he's really good in this.

The Season One set includes 8 episodes, and the unfinished pilot for the Greatest American Heroine. The pilot for the new show after the original was cancelled featured a woman receiving the suit from Ralph. It was good to see the original characters again, but I can't say I liked the woman much. It would have been interesting to see if she'd have grown on me more had the show been picked up though. As it was she's kind of irritating. But Robert Culp is a joy as always.

The episodes are:

1. Pilot

2. The Hit Car

3. Here's Looking at You, Kid

4. Saturday on Sunset Boulevard

5. Reseda Rose

6. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

7. Fire Man

8. The Best Desk Scenario

The picture quality is about what you'd expect for a TV show that is 25 years old now (god has it really been that long), with some softness or grain evident, particularly during the flying sequences. The picture is full-frame, no letterboxed or anamorphic transfer here, but not too surprising considering how the show was shot. The audio is Dolby Digital 2 and generally sounds pretty good. My one complaint about this set (and subsequent seasons), is that they have replaced some of the songs from the episodes. Well-known tracks that fitted beautifully with the episodes have been replaced by generic 'blah' tracks, or sometimes theres nothing there. I'd have happily paid a bit more if they had left the original music in. This is particularly irritating in later seasons where songs are directly mentioned in the episode, but have been replaced.

Still if you were a fan of this show, or just nostalgic for the 80s this set is well worth the purchase.

Pilot Synopsis

John, an FBI agent is pursued through the desert by Neo-Nazis in off-road vehicles. They eventually catch up with him, and kill him.

Cut too Ralph at the High School where he works. Having been assigned the Special Education class of troublemakers and rejects, he decides to take them on a class trip to the desert for a geology lesson. On the way, the class stops at a diner where Tony Villicana aggravates FBI Agent Bill Maxwell. Ralph tries to apologise but they fail to get along. Bill is looking for his missing partner, John.

Later, on the way home, the school bus breaks down. Ralph elects to go for help, leaving the students with the van. Walking along the road, Ralph is nearly run down by Bill, his car under the control of an outside influence. Once together, they are locked in the car, and an alien spaceship approaches. The aliens contact Bill and Ralph via the car radio, and offer Ralph a suit embued with unearthly powers. Bills murdered partner, John, delivers the suit to the pair, and leaves with the aliens. Bill promptly abandons Ralph in the desert. Ralph accidentally drops the instruction manual from the alien package in the desert.

Nelson Cory is extremely rich, and funding Senator Adam Taft to manipulate him closer to the presidency. He plans to do away with the President, placing Adam Taft in office, and thereby controlling the future President to advance his own schemes.

Ralph returns to the van and finding it now working, returns the class home. Later, he opens the alien container and finds the gaudy red supersuit inside. Pam, Ralph's attorney and girlfriend, rings to remind him that he has a court date in the morning for custody of his son. Meanwhile, Bill is snooping about trying to find out what happened to his partner John. He runs into Nelson Cory's bald-headed goons, who take him to Cory's base for interrogation.

Ralph takes a beating from Tony Villicana in the boxing ring to try to earn some respect from his students. Delayed in traffic to his court date, Ralph grudgingly decides to try the suit to see if he can get their faster. After flying uncontrollably down city alleys, he slams into a billboard, and is left unconscious on the pavement. A sleazy investigator takes pictures of him in the suit. Ralph is hauled away to the mental hospital by the police.

At the hospital, Ralph is humiliated to be caught wearing the red suit. He's restrained in a hospital room, pending psychiatric evaluation. The suit starts showing him visions of Bill and where he's being held. Ralph easily escapes from the restraints, but is having a hard time coping with the suit. When Pam arrives she is bewildered at his apparent mental breakdown. Ralph takes Pam's car keys and escapes the hospital with Pam in tow. They drive out to Cory's mansion to rescue Bill.

Ralph flies into Cory's mansion, locates where Bill is being held, and breaks down the wall to rescue him. They then fly over the wall, and crash down on the other side.

As they escape, Pam starts to have a mental breakdown coping with everything that is going on. They stop in a park to discuss it, and Ralph ends up proving to her that his story is true when he lifts her VW car with one hand. Bill starts cooking up all kinds of superpowered scenarios to beat back the Russians.

After working out what Nelson Cory is up to, and asking Rhonda (one of Ralph's students) to babysit, they approach an Army officer about Cory's skinhead military goons and plans. He offers to help them, but ends up taking them back to Cory's base. Turns out he's in on it too.

Ralph quickly subdues the guards with the help of the suit, and they escape their holding cell. Bill comes up with a plan to prevent the assassination of the President. Ralph flies up to the President's approaching helicopter and scares it away. He then defeats Cory's men, and Bill captures Nelson Cory. Ralph enjoys a flight home, the suit behaving itself for once.

Ralph and Pam meet Bill in the desert. Bill has cleaned up the mess with the investigator and photos. Bill apologises, but says they need to run the operation better and he's going to make the command decisions from now on. They settle into an uneasy partnership. The aliens return and praise Ralph's handling of the situation. They agree to leave the suit with Ralph. They suggest that next time Ralph tries using the power of invisibility. Ralph calls out for another instruction manual, but they leave.