The BEST episodes of The Greatest American Hero
Every episode of The Greatest American Hero ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Greatest American Hero!
A special-ed teacher, an FBI agent, and a UFO? That's right, you've guessed it -- The Greatest American Hero. This show was first aired in 1981, and was both a comedy and a drama. A special "power suit" that only works on him is given to the teacher by the aliens, and he is paired up with the gumshoe FBI agent who keeps them both busy with his scenarios. The suit of "unearthly powers" gives the power of strength, flight, invisibilty, flames, telekenesis, vision of events without being there, protection from bullets and fire (if he remembers to cover his head!), and some others that he must figure out as well because; HE LOST THE INSTRUCTIONS THAT CAME WITH THE SUIT!
#1 - Hog Wild
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/25/1981
A motorcycle gang steals the super-suit, and tries to use it to take over a town. It only works on Ralph, so they must force HIM to do their dirty work while holding Bill captive.
#2 - Classical Gas
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/2/1981
Ralph's students start a band, and a promoter lands them a spot on a big ticket concert while trying to get Pam to go out with him.
#3 - Don't Mess Around with Jim
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/18/1981
Ralph and Bill are kidnapped by a tycoon that actually had his own suit given to him years ago by the aliens. The suit corrupted this man to use it for personal fortune, and he did not lose the instruction book. The aliens did not like the way he was using the suit, and they took it away from him.
#4 - The Greatest American Hero
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/18/1981
Ralph Hinkley, an average school teacher, is given a suit with amazing powers by aliens. Now, Ralph must decide if he'll use his new powers to fight crime, even though he already lost the suit's instruction manual.
#5 - The Hit Car
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/25/1981
Bill, who has been trying to bust open a drug ring for over 20 years, must drive a witness to Los Angeles for the trial of the gang leader and asks Ralph for help.
#6 - Saturday on Sunset Boulevard
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/8/1981
Russians are trying to find an heiress and her Russian husband in order to force them to establish a missile cache hold on their private island. Bill needs Ralph's help when he is suspected of failing a lie-detector test at FBI headquarters.
#7 - Reseda Rose
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/15/1981
Ralph uses his suit to help Rhonda, one of his students, after her mother is kidnapped by the Russians.
#8 - The Good Samaritan
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/31/1982
Tired of using the suit to fight crime, Ralph decides to branch out. He tries to intervene in a battle between an old man fighting for his home and the city taking it away, but Bill has him on the hunt for bank robbers.
#9 - The Best Desk Scenario
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/13/1981
At FBI headquarters, promotions are being handed out. However, Bill considers retiring from his job. Meanwhile, Ralph must use his suit to save Pam when she discovers her boss is the head of an underground operation.
#10 - Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/7/1982
Bill recieves hot tips on a speed factory working out of a fast food chain, and a newspaper reporter publishes pictures of Ralph flying.
#11 - Who's Woo in America
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/14/1982
Ralph's mother is re-marrying to a man who planted a much wanted micro-chip in her engagement ring.
#12 - Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/28/1982
Bill falls in love with a female FBI agent, and wants to tell her about the suit. She turns out to be a spy, and is ordered to kill him.
#13 - Divorce, Venusian Style
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/29/1982
Bill and Ralph can't agree on anything, and keep fighting. Ralph decides to quit the partnership, and gives to suit to Bill. Ralph takes a bullet meant for Bill, and the aliens drive them to Palmdale for a meeting. The American Nazi Party gets their hands on the suit, and after the aliens give Ralph and Bill a tour around their old condemned planet; the pair is told to try harder of suffer the same fate as their old planet did. They also give them another instruction book and, now they have to get the suit back.
#14 - The Price is Right
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/5/1982
It's football season again, and time for Ralph's high school reunion. Ralph's old friend and star pro quarterback named Price Cobb is the focus of the party, but is being forced to throw a game for the return of his wife who was kidnapped. Our heros find her, but Price is injured during the game. Ralph must go out and win the game with the suit on to prevent the villans from winning the bets placed against Price's team.
#15 - This is the One the Suit Was Meant For
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/12/1982
Pam has had enough and is convinced that as long as Ralph has the suit, there can be no relationship between them. Ralph promises her a week away from all the problems and the suit, and from Bill Maxwell. Ralph and Pam's vacation plans fall through so Bill sends them to a beautiful resort to get away from it all. Bill, of course, has alternate reasons to send them there than just being Mr. nice guy. Bill secretly tags along with the suit and convinces a very hesitant Ralph to hologram into a criminal ring that has stolen some very special government equipment, a spyplane to be exact, citing "This is the one the suit was meant for!" Ralph actually succeeds in foiling the plans of the criminals, leaves Bill to tidy up the mess, and gets back to Pam in time so as she doesn't even notice he's gone. All is well? Not so. With the suit still on, Ralph is hit on by a friends wife. Pam, of course, walks in on them. So not only does Pam catch Ralph in the arms of another woman, he is wearing the suit
#16 - The Resurrection of Carlini
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/19/1982
A magician killed performing his greatest trick seemingly returns from the grave to murder his three rivals. Ralph must use his suit to out trick the would-be killer.
#17 - The Newlywed Game
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/6/1983
Ralph and Pam's wedding is almost ruined when Ralph receives special orders from the President to fly a mission over the North Pole. Bill discovers the orders were faked, and that Ralph has accidentally given the Russians valuable military secrets.
#18 - Heaven is in Your Genes
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/13/1983
A former Nazi genetic engineer fakes Bill's death to use him in an experiment, but Ralph realizes his friend is still alive. He flies off to rescue Bill and the evil doctor's other victims, but a genetic horror created in an earlier experiment waits to battle him.
#19 - Live at Eleven
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/20/1983
An Aging TV anchorman plans to retire in grand style. He hires a band of mercenaries to sabotage a nuclear plant, hoping that his coverage of the event can launch a Presidential campaign. Ralph must stop the plant from exploding, but the saboteurs, now dying of radiation poisoning, are determined to succeed.
#20 - Space Ranger
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/27/1983
One of Ralph's students invents a radio telescope capable of decoding Russian satellite messages. The KGB tries to steal his system. When that maneuver fails, they decide to kill him before he can share his discovery with the CIA.
#21 - Thirty Seconds Over Little Tokyo
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/3/1983
A young Chinese scientist has invented a deadly particle "ray gun" weapon. A local gang kidnaps his uncle, hoping to obtain the gun. Bill's plan to save the Uncle backfires, and Ralph must test his suit against the deadly ray.
#22 - Wizards and Warlocks
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/10/1983
King Abu Al-Fahad asks Ralph and Bill to help find his son, Prince Aha, who was kidnapped by Middle Eastern terrorists while playing a Dungeons and Dragonsesque game, Wizards and Warlocks. Their search leads them from Aha's college campus -- where they meet Aha's Keeper of the Clock, Joey Margolis -- to the game's author himself, Norman Fackler.
#23 - It's Only Rock and Roll
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/17/1983
Bill is called by the manager of a rock group that is aboard a plane threatened by a bomber, who has hidden a device set to explode if the plane descends below 1000 feet. Ralph flies into action, but matters escalate when Pam is kidnapped and a band of bikers threaten Bill's life.
#24 - Desperado
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/24/1983
A weekend in the country leads Ralph, Pam and Bill into a race to save a wild stallion from a cruel rancher. The man blames the horse for a crippling injury. His men are also selling horses for use as dog food.
#25 - Vanity, Says the Preacher
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/3/1983
It seems that 30 years ago Bill helped some revolutionaries overthrow a corrupt regime in an unnamed Central American country, where he is now regarded as a hero. But now Bill's old revolutionary compadres have turned up, and they soon kidnap him and try to get him to help lead another revolution.