Ralph Hinkley was minding his own business, a teacher on a field trip with his high school students, when the bus he's driving mysteriously drives itself out into the desert. A startled Ralph is soon visited by aliens, who had decided to endow him with superhuman powers to fight the battle against injustice and crime. To this end, they gave him a special suit and an instruction manual. Unfortunately, Ralph managed to lose the instruction manual, and the aliens have a nasty habit of never being around when you need them.

Ralph's surname was changed near the end of the first season from Hinkley to Hanley because of the name's negative connection with 'John Hinckley' (the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981). Ralph's last name was changed back to Hinkley in the first episode of Season 2 ('The Two Hundred Mile an Hour Fastball'), after the furor over his name subsided. Interestingly enough, the unaired 1986 "Greatest American Heroine" pilot includes a scene in which Ralph Hinkley meets the President of the United States (who was still Ronald Reagan in real-life 1986).

[about a woman who said she saw a sea monster]


Bill Maxwell:
She probably thought she saw what she said she thought she saw.

Crew or equipment visible: In the pilot when Bill and Ralph are talking in the bathroom at the school, the morning after the alien encounter the shadow of a boom mike is visible on the wall throughout most of the scene

Written by Mike Post & Stephen Geyer
Performed by Joey Scarbury
(theme song)