Arctic Light

[Sovay] The man really is both sincerely touching and a one-person Whumptober bingo card.

[me] I appreciate that anytime the question was asked in the writer's room "Who should we do this terrible thing to," the answer is invariably "Bill Maxwell."


So one of the things that gives Greatest American Hero a lot of its endearingly quirky charm is the show's score of mostly obscure 1970s and 1980s music, often arranged into little mini-music videos surrounding fight scenes, emotional character moments, etc., usually a few songs per episode. However, it also suffers from the problem of many shows from that era, where some of the music was replaced on the DVD due to rights issues. On the whole, this doesn't seem to have affected it all that much - either the song was obscure enough that they were able to clear the rights, or they found a replacement with the right general feeling - but there's one scene from the episode previously mentioned where the music really makes the scene, and sovay went and tracked down a clip of the scene with the original song ("Eve of Destruction").

However, the clip is a fairly low-quality TV rip, so I copied the video from the Youtube episode version and dubbed in the TV audio for a better-quality version to watch. (The timing might not be the best; I struggled with that a bit. Here's the one Sovay found.)

This is one of my favorites so far of the show's numerous mini-vids, not just because it's well edited with a great song (although that too!) but it also really got me emotionally: the non-superpowered character comes up with a plan that involves intentionally getting the attention of the military to whisk him off to a black ops site, except the timing on the rescue part doesn't work out as planned because the actual abduction turns out to be a lot more sudden, swift, and violent than expected. (Have I mentioned how much of a sucker I tend to be for the badass normals in a superhero world?)


(Edit: Link changed to Vimeo since Youtube went all copyright claim on it. Let's see how long this lasts. Password: eve)

Also it's possible I have been listening to this song on a loop all day. It's just a very catchy song in its bleak war-protest kind of way.

So basically on work breaks, this past couple of weeks, I started watching an early-80s superhero comedy on Youtube, Greatest American Hero. All episodes are on Youtube here. I loved this show when I was a kid, but, well ... it was the 80s, and I was a kid. I mainly just decided to check out an episode on my lunch break for nostalgia.

So I've been genuinely very surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. I'm not sure if I'd say it's actually good. It's very, very 80s, with a 2-dollar f/x budget and a whole lot of what you might call period-appropriate nonsense, ranging from silly but fun (amazingly unconvincing flying f/x, stock footage of things like rockets and submarines that they don't have the budget for, random nondenominational terrorists and Russians as baddies) and extremely unfunny (sexism played for laughs; no one finding it WEIRD AND CREEPY that the high-school teacher hero's female student has a crush on him).

But it's also very sweet and sincere at the most unexpected times. Apparently the creator intended the show to be a down-to-earth show about a superhero coping with little life problems, and the network wanted basically 1960s Batman, and what they got was a weird mix of both. In spite of how ridiculous some of it is, it's actually oddly grounded-feeling, almost like the Marvel Netflix shows in its general focus on ordinary people around the superheroes. I think aside from Heroes it's probably the most appealing superhero-ish thing I've seen that wasn't a Marvel or DC tie-in (a bar that's admittedly so low it's on the ground).

It's your basic "ordinary schmoe gets superpowers" kind of show, with, by the way, probably the most bonkers superhero origin story that I have EVER seen in ANYTHING, but I think what's making it work so well is that, for one thing, he's an extremely charming version of that character type, very earnest and sweet, and also, his girlfriend finds out in the first episode - telling her is actually one of the first things he does - so instead of what is basically set up as a buddy comedy/action show (naive hero + jaded, slightly unhinged gun-nut FBI agent sidekick), it turns into a 3-person ensemble comedy/action show. They are all very charming and adorable, and have great chemistry, and argue a lot and worry about each other. There are some uncomfortable scenes early on when the girlfriend, Pam, is getting unfairly jerked around by her boyfriend's new superhero career, but once the show starts settling in, the main couple is really adorable, with very little in the way of artificial obstacles inserted into the relationship; they're supportive and sweet and talk to each other about everything, and there's one episode in which everyone is quarantined for two weeks because of possible exposure to a disease (... relatable) in which it's not merely implied but as clearly stated as you can get away with in an all-ages 1980s show that they spend the entire two weeks more or less banging nonstop.

Anyway, I'm still watching the show - I'm only watching an episode every couple of days; progress is slow and I'm just now a little ways out of season one ... and they aren't long seasons - but I made a vid. As you do. Because I wanted one to exist and there is NOTHING.

Video quality is pretty low because I used the Youtube videos for source footage. I may someday remaster this, but honestly I was just making it for myself for fun, so why not? I've realized that one reason why I haven't actually vidded much lately is because it's gotten so complicated and hard, with an expectation of high-quality footage that can be difficult and expensive to get and slow to render. The most fun I ever had making vids was years ago, when I was just using episodes downloaded from the internet, taking clips was dead easy, and the results were good enough to make me happy and I didn't really care much about it beyond that.

So that's what this is: a fun little vid that I made for myself for play. Someday I might remaster it with nicer-quality clips (if I find a place to get them from; the show isn't available on iTunes and similar) but for now the vid is what it is, flawed and silly and earnest and fun, like the show itself. I don't think you have to worry about spoilers all that much; it's not really that kind of show.

Title: Waking Up in Vegas
Fandom: Greatest American Hero
Clips: Mostly season one, scattered clips from random other episodes
Warnings: None

Streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yatFZgARj6U
Download: Here (28 Mb zipped MP4)