Claire and Tod, in their second and final episode of 2024, review and recap Season 1, Episode 4 of The Greatest American Hero, beloved yet short-lived action-comedy-scifi TV show that aired on ABC television from 1981 to 1983.

For "Saturday on Sunset Boulevard," (first aired April 8, 1981) we switched over to Plex, where you can watch along, free with ads, if you're so inclined.

In this episode, we discuss the value of a high school education, the total lack of probative value of polygraph tests, and recap this fine episode of American TV and its gripping tale of Soviet espionage, FBI investigative procedure, and the unpaid labor of remedial high school students on behalf of a rogue agent.

One content warning: Tod gets a little pervy about the fact that you can spy one of the character's nipples pretty clearly. If you're the sort of person who is deeply offended by female human breasts, you will want to avert your eyes when watching this episode from timecode 40m35s to about 41m20s (and skip over the podcast from 35m55s to 36m34s).

These episodes are fun to record, and hopefully we'll double our volume in 2025 (at least!). Hassle Claire to make us record more often! Contact info is below! I promise you, fan mail will absolutely guilt her into it!

Like the show? Cool! Let us know: email us at counselor@hotforteacher.tv, or even better, chat with us on Mastodon, where we do all our social media stuff: @HotForTeacher@FriendsOfDesoto.social.

Best of all, you could rate the show nicely on your podcast app. Hearing from you makes it much more likely we will record episodes on something approaching a real schedule!

Tod and Claire come off of a multi-month hiatus, and dive right back into watching and overexplaining everything about the beloved early 80s Gen-X staple prime time action-scifi-comedy show, The Greatest American Hero.

In, "Here's Looking at You, Kid," the third episode of season one, Ralph and Bill must find and recover a top secret fighter plane gun sight, which has fallen into the hands of the renegade mercenary, McCready. Also, Ralph meets Pam's parents, played by June Lockhart (what a huge get!) and Bob Hastings (also not bad!).

This TGAH episode first aired April 1, 1981, two days after President Ronald Reagan was shot, and the episode was hastily edited to blank out Mr. H's last name while ABC figured out what to do with their title character who happened to share the last name of the would-be assassin.

Claire and Tod also talk about loads of other things, like invisibility trick photography, Casablanca (which, like The Invisible Man, ALSO features Claude Rains), Superman (and ABC's successful defense against Warner Brothers and DC Comics), the hateful stereotype of Brooklynites being coded as stupid, George Costanza's answering machine greeting, and so much more. An hour more!

Goofs: I'm pretty sure we say it's a CBS show. It's not. It's an ABC show. But that doesn't much matter here in the future, where you can watch it for free with ads, thanks to Tubi: https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/479554/s01-e03-here-s-looking-at-you-kid

This podcast episode was first released April 9, 2024. I imagine someone will want to know that in the distant future when people do holocasts that review old podcasts from the 21st Century.

Like the show? Cool! Let us know: email us at counselor@hotforteacher.tv, or even better, chat with us on Mastodon, where we do all our social media stuff: @HotForTeacher@FriendsOfDesoto.social.

Best of all, you could rate the show nicely on your podcast app. Hearing from you makes it much more likely we will record episodes on something approaching a real schedule!

In which Claire and Tod recount the second episode of The Greatest American Hero, "The Hit Car," originally aired on ABC on March 25, 1981. Starring William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, Robert Culp as Agent Bill Maxwell, Connie Sellecca as Pam Davidson, and featuring Gianni Russo as Johnny "The Dancer" Damanti and the lovely -- but maybe not quite as beautiful as Pam -- Gwen Humble as Starlet Wild.

Right now, you can watch GAH for free on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/487813/s01-e02-the-hit-car.

Also, we just learned there's a book! Read the interview with the author, Patrick Jankiewicz, on Gizmodo why don't you? https://gizmodo.com/greatest-american-hero-companion-author-interview-1850446563

Or even better, buy it from a local bookshop! Why yes, it does come in hardback. Maybe just in time for Xmas? Since Claire doesn't listen to the episode, much less ever read the show notes, she'll never know that I just got it for her!

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-greatest-american-hero-companion-hardback-william-katt/19996881?ean=9798887711485

Like the show? Cool! Let us know: email us at counselor@hotforteacher.tv, or even better, chat with us on Mastodon, where we do all our social media stuff: @HotForTeacher@FriendsOfDesoto.social.

Best of all, you could rate the show nicely on your podcast app. Hearing from you makes it much more likely we will record episodes on something approaching a real schedule!