Hollywood has tried to get a reboot of The Greatest American Hero off the ground for quite a while now, but hasn't had a ton of luck. That may change soon, as the latest pitch for a female-led version of the series just took a sizable step forward at a major network. ABC has ordered a pilot for a retelling of the goofy superhero series, which sounds quite a bit different from the original show.
The Greatest American Hero reboot pilot will not follow Ralph Hinkley, but instead an American-Indian woman by the name of Meera. Meera is a 30-year-old with a love for karaoke and tequila floating through life directionless and searching for its meaning. Things change for Meera rather quickly when events transpire that grant her an alien super suit to protect the world. The character description indicates Meera doesn't know what she's doing with the suit, which sounds like the only similarity between her character and Ralph Hinkley-- who was a substitute teacher for special education high school students in the original series.
The pilot for The Greatest American Hero reboot is billed as a half-hour single-camera-comedy. Rachna Fruchbom, a writer for ABC's Fresh off the Boat, will write the script and series creator of Fresh Off The Boat, Nahnatchka Khan, will be the executive producer according to TVLine. Neither individual has experience with working on superhero shows, although given the tone of the original series, that likely won't be much of an issue. Both women have a solid background in comedy, so hopefully they can create some laughs and convince ABC to give this pilot a series order.
As previously mentioned, this isn't the first time Hollywood has tried to reboot The Greatest American Hero. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller had a reboot in development a few years back that changed the name of the hero to Isaac, although kept the basic origin of the hero being an inner city school teacher. Prior to that, the original series did try to spin off the show with a female lead with The Greatest American Heroine, but ultimately scrapped the project.
One big question mark surrounding this reboot of The Greatest American Hero is whether or not the show's classic theme song will return as well. "Believe It Or Not," was arguably one of the most memorable parts of the series, and the song was so popular at the time it managed to reach number 2 on the Billboard Top 40 charts in 1981. Of course, theme song selections are probably the last thing on the minds of creators when pitching a show, but if this pilot gets a series order and the intro isn't some variation of this popular theme, some folks are bound to be disappointed:
The Greatest American Hero reboot is still in pilot status at ABC, so there's no guarantee it will make it to series. For a list of shows that are guaranteed to come to television in the near future, visit our midseason premiere guide.
