Incredible Hulk Episode 1 – King of the Beach (DVD)

A crooked reporter threatens to expose the secrets of a hulk-building gym, so the owner hires the Incredible Hulk to help him out. The Hulk isn’t pleased about this, but he does it anyway. This is the first episode to feature Lou Ferrigno’s full transformation into the green-skinned monster (with a surprisingly realistic makeup job by Rick Baker). Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood also visited the set of this episode to show viewers how the actor transformed himself into Hulk-character.

After a stint in a mental hospital, David ‘Brennan’ returns to Trevorton, Colorado. There he meets up with his father and must fight a crop-destroying plague while also resolving a bitter emotional issue.

In this episode, a New York clothing manufacturer is bankrolling his daughter’s fashion show. But he’s being targeted by loan sharks. To protect the company, David ‘Benson’ must use the strength of the Incredible Hulk to take on the thugs.

While working at Valley View Sanatorium, Hulk-as-orderly David Banner uncovers unethical experiments being conducted on patients by a doctor who wants to win a Nobel Prize. Then he’s accidentally given a drink spiked with LSD, and becomes the Incredible Hulk.

David ‘Brennan’ encounters a Bonnie and Clyde-style couple in Arkansas who are enacting an explosive vendetta against a gas company. The Hulk must intervene to protect the family.

During this episode, a bodybuilder named Carl Molino (played by Lou Ferrigno) is competing in a contest. He wows the audience with his flexing routine and impresses Mandy, the girl competing against him. But when he is attacked by thugs, he uses the power of the Incredible Hulk to send them running.

After his Toyota gets a flat tire, David ‘Brennan’ attempts to change the wheel himself. But the thugs are waiting and he slams his hands on the car’s hood, turning into the Incredible Hulk. Joe Harnell’s eerie, choral music turns downright frightening as the Hulk’s eyes turn white and his skin turns green.

The two-hour pilot movie introduced the TV series’ origins and the Hulk character, while the regular one-hour episodes ran from March 10, 1978 to May 12, 1982. Created by Kenneth Johnson, the Hulk TV series transformed the primary-colored panels and action of the comic books into a palette of earth tones grounded in everyday reality. What the TV series lacked in visual effects eye candy, it made up for with raw earnestness. And it was in the second season that the show reached its creative apex. The Hulk championed for social justice, and his adventures were human scale and relatable. Rather than stopping world-devouring megalomaniacs on alien planets, the Hulk saved homeless people and struggling business owners. Occasionally, he would even save a car wash from a drug dealer. And in the end, the Hulk always came home to his loving girlfriend Betty Ross. This is one of the best episodes of the series. Lou Ferrigno’s transformation into the green-skinned hulk is one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen.