The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989) and the Comics

[The Joker]

Here's a quality video going over the classic "The Incredible Hulk" television series, along with the later 'Bixbyverse' crossover tv films. In addition to featuring interviews from Lou Ferrigno, Rex Smith, and Eric Allan Kramer, among others.

[Silver Nemesis]

Great find, J! Probably the best video I've seen on this subject. It's a real treat to see new interview footage of the writer and actors discussing these films. I wish they could have interviewed John Rhys-Davies too, but just getting Ferrigno, Kramer and Smith is impressive.

I'd not heard about that She-Hulk 'Metamorphosis' pilot before now. I knew about the Brigitte Nielsen version, but not this one. The 6'3 Gabrielle Reece was an interesting pick for the title character. In casting her, they were obviously going for height and athleticism rather than muscle.

Speaking of unmade productions, Reece's husband, surfer Laird Hamilton, was cast as He-Man in Cannon's Masters of the Universe 2 after Dolph declined to reprise the role. But that project also got canned, and the costumes from MotU2 were repurposed (along with the sets from Cannon's unmade Spider-Man movie) for Van Damme's post-apocalyptic action flick Cyborg (1989). Supposedly Cyborg has been shown on TV in certain territories under the title Masters of the Universe II: Cyborg, even though it has nothing to do with He-Man.

Anyway, it's great to see this neglected corner of CBM history getting more attention. I've kept my original VHS copies of the Hulk movies, although I now also have The Trial of the Incredible Hulk on DVD. I get more fun out of watching those films than I do any of the Ruffalo movies. It's a shame the crossover between Bixby's Hulk and Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man never panned out. I still like to think of them existing in the same universe, along with Reb Brown's Captain America and Peter Hooten's Dr. Strange.

[The Joker]

Figured this was the best thread to put these scans (rather than the Bixby/Ferrigno Incredible Hulk thread) considering all the prior talk about She-Hulk already. 

[Silver Nemesis]

I've never seen those scans before. I don't know if the Nielsen She-Hulk would have been any good, but I can't believe it would've been as bad as the Disney+ show seems to be judging from the clips I've seen.

[thecolorsblend]

I remember John Wesley Shipp saying that one of the reasons The Flash failed to draw in a regular audience was that the show never really capitalised on the romantic tension between Barry and Tina. I think he's right about this. I've been re-watching the show lately, and I've noted that many of the strongest episodes are the ones that focus on the Barry-Tina relationship. The weaker episodes tend to be the ones that sideline Tina in favour of guest love interests. As far as I'm concerned, Amanda Pays was up there with Pfeiffer and Hatcher as one of the great beauties of early nineties DC adaptations.

I want to revisit this.

I think one of the reasons that Amanda Pays as Tina has such a strong following to this day is because she IS beautiful... but not impossibly beautiful.

To draw a comparison, I find that people who have never met Cameron Diaz in person have no freaking idea whatsoever how beautiful she actually is. She GLOWS. And that smile of hers will melt your face off from clear across the room. Diaz IS impossibly beautiful.

And as beautiful as Pays may be, she's not on that level. But what she DOES have going for her is some amount of beauty and an innate intelligence. You totally believe that she's a scientific wunderkind in the show because every aspect of her performance always relates back to her brains. You could picture a relative everyman like Barry dating her. It's not science-fiction.

And I think that's a big reason why a lot of fans shipped Barry and Tina. Barry's motivations and performance mostly come straight from the heart. The characters balance each other very well and Pays and Shipp obviously had strong chemistry together. Plus, Barry and Tina occasionally looked at each other in a way that you don't believe they're "just friends".

If the show had gotten a second season, it would've been time to take the gloves off and start exploring that relationship at least a little bit.

[Kamdan]

To draw a comparison, I find that people who have never met Cameron Diaz in person have no freaking idea whatsoever how beautiful she actually is. She GLOWS. And that smile of hers will melt your face off from clear across the room. Diaz IS impossibly beautiful.

In retrospect, it was a bit disappointing to see Diaz's strong debut performance in The Mask eventually relegate her to playing ditzy blonde roles, namely the Charlie's Angels films. It is indeed hard to pull off the natural quality she has. Malin Åkerman came pretty close when the Farrelly Brothers traded Diaz for her in The Heartbreak Kid, but Åkerman had nowhere near the lasting power Diaz has.

And as beautiful as Pays may be, she's not on that level. But what she DOES have going for her is some amount of beauty and an innate intelligence. You totally believe that she's a scientific wunderkind in the show because every aspect of her performance always relates back to her brains. You could picture a relative everyman like Barry dating her. It's not science-fiction.

Something quite noticeable in the progression of the series is that they attempted to make Pays more glamorous than she was intended to be. In the beginning, she dressed more conservatively and had a more naturalistic hairstyle. As they went on, she appeared to be more trendier and appeared to have changed hairstyles each week. It was perhaps an attempt to appease those who were wary about the show not pulling in the expected numbers on such an expensive show. Something very apparent in the early episodes of The Flash is the aesthetic Batman '89 took with the 40's meets the present vibe. Another example of that change was how the Megan Lockhart character had a perfect femme fatale hairdo that was reduced to a shorter 90's style for the subsequent Trickster episodes.

[The Joker]

[The Joker]

A great BTS photo from the shooting of "Trial". Director and star Bill Bixby with Lou Ferrigno (with Hulk slippers), Rex Smith as Daredevil (first live action appearance), and coincidentally Stan Lee's first on screen cameo appearance as one of the jurors.