Mr. Terrific (1967)

About

Stanley Beamish (Stephen Strimpell) is the wimpy proprietor of a gas station, and the only one who a pill works on that turns him into a superhero. Hal Walters (Dick Gautier) is his business partner, whom Stanley has to hide his secret identity from, and Harley Trent (Paul Smith) and Barton J. Reed (John McGiver) are the government agents that Stanley works with.

ABC's "Batman" was an unexpected smash hit that all three networks were eager to cash in on -- but as is always the case, the network suits didn't understand why that show worked. ABC tried replicating its success with "The Green Hornet," NBC had "Captain Nice," and CBS greenlit this series -- which has nothing to do with the D.C. comics character Mister Terrific (Michael Holt), who made his debut appearance 30 years later.

In the original pilot, Stanley worked in a shoe store, had a regular girlfriend, and was portrayed by Alan Young ("Mr. Ed"). The network inexplicably ditched that version for a more dumbed-down show -- and they didn't even bother to shoot a new pilot, they just reduced the show's premise to a Paul Frees voice-over in the opening credits. And if that wasn't redundant enough, viewers had to endure watching Stanley get sick every time he took a pill.

The show played on CBS Monday nights sandwiched between Gilligan's Island and The Lucy Show. By a strange bit of coincidence, it was immediately followed by Captain Nice on NBC, so many young viewers would switch channels to enjoy a superhero hour. Unfortunately, the majority of audiences didn't make the switch. Mr. Terrific ranked #36 in the season's ratings, but Captain Nice was near the bottom of the charts, while Lucy scored #4. Legend has it that it wasn't just the ratings that did these shows in. Both Captain Nice and Mr. Terrific had to ingest experimental pharmaceuticals to trigger their superpowers (the show's German title, "Immer wenn er Pillen nahm," translates to: 'Whenever He Takes a Pill'). With the shows continuing in reruns throughout the infamous "summer of love," drugs were right in the public consciousness, and it's been alleged that parents organizations pressured the networks to pull the plugs.

Not counting the pilot, which is a low-quality VHS transfer, these episodes were duped from the German DVD release. Titles are in German, but the rest of the credits and the audio is in English.

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Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

CBS

Language

English

Who can watch

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