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"The Greatest American Hero"
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Episodes: All (44)  |  With full-length videos ()  |  With videos ()  | See all videos (45) »

Season: 1  |  2  |  3  |  unknown
Year: 1981  |  1982  |  1983  |  1986


Season 1


Season 1, Episode 1: The Greatest American Hero

Original Air Date—18 March 1981
The Pilot episode of the series. School teacher Ralph Hinkley meets FBI agent Bill Maxwell on a field trip to the desert, where they are met by a UFO that gives them a mission and a red costume with amazing powers. The new team must then use those powers to thwart a conspiracy.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 2 -- Hinkley and Maxwell struggle to get an informant to court in order to testify against a mobster who is recently out on parole.

Season 1, Episode 2: The Hit Car

Original Air Date—25 March 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 3 -- Hinkley's plans to spend time with Pam's parents who are visiting from Minnesota are thwarted when he is called upon to defend his country's national security.

Season 1, Episode 3: Here's Looking at You, Kid

Original Air Date—1 April 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 4 -- Maxwell and Hinkley discover that they are in the midst of international affairs that could gravely affect the world.

Season 1, Episode 4: Saturday Night on Sunset Boulevard

Original Air Date—8 April 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 5 -- Hinkley and Maxwell discover a direct link between an important spy network in charge of stealing secret weapons documents and the disappearance of one of his student's parents.

Season 1, Episode 5: Reseda Rose

Original Air Date—15 April 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 6 -- Maxwell enlists Hinkley's help when he finds out that his war-time hero turned L.A. cop is planning to break the law in a big way.

Season 1, Episode 6: My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

Original Air Date—29 April 1981
Ralph retires the suit after his super-heroics result in a near-tragedy. Bill desperately needs Ralph to help him crack a corrupt cop caper masterminded by a war buddy. Can the Lone Ranger remind Ralph of a hero's great responsibility?

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 7 -- When one of Ralph's students is suspected of arson, Ralph enlists the help of Pam and Maxwell to prove the boy's innocence.

Season 1, Episode 7: Fire Man

Original Air Date—6 May 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 1: Episode 8 -- Ralph revs up his unpredictable super powers, racing to Pam's rescue when her promotion to junior law partner becomes a death sentence after the bright young attorney discovers her boss is entangled in an underworld bribery scheme.

Season 1, Episode 8: The Best Desk Scenario

Original Air Date—13 May 1981

Season 2


"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 1 -- When America's national pastime and national security are endangered, FBI agent Bill Maxwell sends superhero Ralph Hinkley into the thick of a major league pennant race to become baseball's hottest overnight sensation.

Season 2, Episode 1: The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fast Ball

Original Air Date—4 November 1981
Crooks needing cash to swing an arms deal bet heavily on a baseball game and beat up the star of the team they bet against. Ralph joins the underdogs to make sure they win and the gamblers lose their money.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 2 -- When an automatic missile system goes haywire at the hands of an ultra-militant general, Ralph Hinkley and Bill Maxwell are summoned by the aliens to another eerie encounter.

Season 2, Episode 2: Operation Spoilsport

Original Air Date—11 November 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 3 -- When Ralph tries to deliver the will of a dead man who is alive, he finds himself in the middle of a close encounter of the strange kind.

Season 2, Episode 3: Don't Mess Around with Jim

Original Air Date—18 October 1981

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 4 -- Ralph tries to save himself and a town from a rampaging motorcycle gang.

Season 2, Episode 4: Hog Wild

Original Air Date—25 November 1981
A motorcycle gang steals Ralph's super suit and terrorizes a small town.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 5 -- The kids' big break could be ruined if Ralph can't stop terrorists from releasing nerve gas at their concert.

Season 2, Episode 5: Classical Gas

Original Air Date—2 December 1981
Ralph and Pam help the kids rehearse their rock band for a show not realizing the promoter plans to release nerve gas into their crowd.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 6 -- Will Ralph's suit protect Bill from a real estate agent -- or his ghost?

Season 2, Episode 6: The Beast in the Black

Original Air Date—9 December 1981
Bill is possessed by a woman's spirit. To rescue him, Ralph crosses to another dimension and discovers that his super-suit won't function.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 7 -- Ralph and Bill have to save mankind from a deadly plague virus that a fanatical right wing military group hopes to unleash on an unsuspecting world.
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Season 2, Episode 7: The Lost Diablo

Original Air Date—16 December 1981
Bill learns of a lost gold mine and tricks Bill and the kids into helping him search for it.

Season 2, Episode 8: Plague

Original Air Date—6 January 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 9 -- Ralph suffers amnesia when he gets knocked out while trying to stop a hijacked train.

Season 2, Episode 9: Train of Thought

Original Air Date—13 January 1982
Ralph suffers amnesia after a collision with a train and can't remember who he is, or what his super powers are. Meanwhile a terrorist cell plans to release atomic waste in a small town.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 10 -- Ralph gets tied up in time while trying to save Pam from an air crash before it happens.

Season 2, Episode 10: Now You See It

Original Air Date—20 January 1982
Ralph discovers a new power - the ability to see the future. For example, he can see the plane on which Pam is traveling will crash.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 11 -- Bill and Ralph uncover a devious plot to threaten the Western World when a band of hypnotized ex-war prisoners are drawn into service by the sinister Gen. Vin Chow.

Season 2, Episode 11: The Hand-Painted Thai

Original Air Date—27 January 1982
American pilots, hypnotized years ago in Vietnam, are activated to bomb a dam, destroy valuable farm land and disrupt an important scientific meeting. Ralph and Bill must stop the planes before they reach their target.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 12 -- Ralph becomes a human cannonball to investigate the disappearance of a Polish clown.

Season 2, Episode 12: Just Another Three Ring Circus

Original Air Date—3 February 1982
Bill is assigned to locate a missing circus clown. Ralph is recruited to infiltrate the circus as a human cannonball act.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 13 -- Ralph becomes magnetized while preventing a space-shuttle crash then contends with an alien stowaway.

Season 2, Episode 13: The Shock Will Kill You

Original Air Date—10 February 1982
While rescuing a stricken space shuttle Ralph becomes hyper-magnetized resulting his being attracted to all things metal.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 14 -- Ralph, Pam, and Bill find out how the suit will do against voodoo, when they find themselves pitted against the evil president of a small island country in the West Indies.

Season 2, Episode 14: A Chicken in Every Plot

Original Air Date—17 February 1982
Ralph, Pam and the kids fly to a Caribbean to visit a friend of Bill Maxwell's. When they arrive they find Bill's friend murdered and island racked by a voodoo-driven revolt against the government.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 15 -- Piracy, drug smuggling, a corrupt warden of a penal colony -- and maybe even a sea serpent, are the ingredients to this tropical punch.

Season 2, Episode 15: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Original Air Date—24 February 1982
While visiting Bermuda, Bill investigates whether dinosaur attacks may cause the loss of ships in the Bermuda Triangle.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 16 -- Hinkley and Pam's Squaw Valley vacation turns serious when they call in Bill to help a Czech downhill racer and his girlfriend defect with secret information.

Season 2, Episode 16: It's All Downhill from Here

Original Air Date—3 March 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 17 -- When Ralph uses the suit to help his associates realize their dreams, it complicates all their lives.

Season 2, Episode 17: Dreams

Original Air Date—17 March 1982
A man arrested by Bill and Ralph is released from prison and vows vengeance upon the two men. The normally unperturbed Maxwell is scared out of his wits by the threats.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 18 -- Ralph's suit proves no match for the I.R.S., when a satchel of money from a kidnapping turns up in Ralph's living room.

Season 2, Episode 18: There's Just No Accounting...

Original Air Date—24 March 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 19 -- Ralph's good deeds get complicated when two convicts escape and Bill thinks he's the target.

Season 2, Episode 19: Good Samaritan

Original Air Date—31 March 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 20 -- Ralph teams up with a hamburger helper -- Captain Bellybuster to bust a drug ring.

Season 2, Episode 20: Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory

Original Air Date—7 April 1982
A man who plays a superhero for a hamburger chain discovers the stores are a front for drug dealers. When a reporter investigating his claims for murder, the icon calls on Ralph for help.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 21 -- Ralph's Mom is going to marry a con man who is smuggling a micro-chip that corrupt oilmen have killed for.

Season 2, Episode 21: Who's Woo in America

Original Air Date—14 April 1982
Ralph mother comes for a visit and announces that she is engaged to be married to Philip Kabala, a much younger man. Kabala has a shady background though and a bunch of thugs mistake Rslph for the fiancée.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 2: Episode 22 -- Love is blind, even for Bill Maxwell, who finds himself falling for a beautiful foreign agent. Will love or the deadly Mr. David stop Bill's heart first?

Season 2, Episode 22: Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell

Original Air Date—28 April 1982
Ralph breaks into the FBI archives and helps Bill solve a number of cold cases. As a result, Bill becomes a hero and a target for a beautiful KGB assassin.

Season 3


"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 1 -- Ralph is critically wounded when he rescues agent Maxwell from a band of neo-Nazis, which leads to an eerie high-speed chase into the desert where his alien protectors save his life and reveal the secret of operating his super-powered suit.

Season 3, Episode 1: Divorce, Venusian Style

Original Air Date—29 October 1982
After a loud argument with Bill, Ralph quits the hero business and turns in his super-suit. Unknown to both men, a gang of neo-Nazis plans to murder them.

Season 3, Episode 2: The Price Is Right

Original Air Date—5 November 1982
While attending a high-school reunion, Ralph discovers that the wife of a famous pro football player is held hostage to ensure her husband will throw the big game.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 3 -- Ralph and Pam - who decide to become engaged - discover that Maxwell's gift of a tropical island vacation is a trick to use Ralph and his super suit in recovering a stolen super-secret military aircraft.

Season 3, Episode 3: This Is the One the Suit Was Meant For

Original Air Date—12 November 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 4 -- Hinkley finds himself involved in a bizarre and nightmarish escapade when he investigates murder attempts on three well known magicians who are planning on performing three of the late great Carlini's tricks at the Magic Castle on Halloween.

Season 3, Episode 4: The Resurrection of Carlini

Original Air Date—19 November 1982

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 5 -- The biggest day in the lives of Ralph and Pam - their wedding day - is made even more complicated when the President sends Ralph on a secret mission to the North Pole.

Season 3, Episode 5: The Newlywed Game

Original Air Date—6 January 1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 6 -- The fake death but real kidnapping of Maxwell leads Ralph on a wild chase to a tropical island, where a demented scientist plans to use Maxwell in his genetic engineering experiments - the last of which created a hideous monster.

Season 3, Episode 6: Heaven Is in Your Genes

Original Air Date—13 January 1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 7 -- Ralph and Maxwell become embroiled in a bizarre scheme when a disgruntled news anchorman plots the terrorist takeover of a nuclear power plant to launch his career. William Windom guest stars.

Season 3, Episode 7: Live at Eleven

Original Air Date—20 January 1983
While foiling a Plutonium robbery, Ralph gets exposed, and discovers a new ability. He mentally influence people. He and Bill must discover who is behind the attempt, and prevent his other plans.

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 8 -- Ralph's unusual new student creates international chaos when his class project of building a radio telescope for tracking orbiting satellites brings the CIA and KGB down on the school.

Season 3, Episode 8: Space Ranger

Original Air Date—27 January 1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 9 -- Ralph and Maxwell battle sinister forces that have taken a young scientist's uncle hostage in exchange for an advanced weapon that could dramatically shift the world's balance of power.

Season 3, Episode 9: Thirty Seconds Over Little Tokyo

Original Air Date—3 February 1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 10 -- Ralph and Bill play a real life game of dungeons and dragons to save the life of a Middle Eastern sheik.

Season 3, Episode 10: Wizards and Warlocks

Original Air Date—1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 11 -- Ralph and Bill find themselves protecting a rock star after an attempt has been made on his life.

Season 3, Episode 11: It's Only Rock and Roll

Original Air Date—1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 12 -- Ralph, Pam and Bill try to save a beautiful stallion from an obsessed rancher.

Season 3, Episode 12: Desperado

Original Air Date—1983

"The Greatest American Hero" (1981): Season 3: Episode 13 -- Bill is given a Man of the Year Award by a small South American country only to return there to re-live his past and future.

Season 3, Episode 13: Vanity, Says the Preacher

Original Air Date—1983

Unknown Season


The Greatest American Heroine

Original Air Date—1986
The aliens tell Ralph to find a suitable replacement for himself when his secret identity is revealed to the world. Much to Bill's disgust he selects a woman to be his successor.

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