Incredible Hulk Smashes TV Show MASH, the Thing, and Hollywood in 1978 Comic Book

 

A Moment in Incredible Hulk Comic Book and TV History and 1970’s Nostalgia

What happened when the Hulk saw himself on television in the comics?

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In this video we’ll go back in time to age of disco when Jimmy Carter was President, 1978. We’ll take a look at one of my favorite comic books of all time, Marvel Two-In-One #46 featuring the Thing and guest starring the Incredible Hulk. In this story, we find out what happens when the Incredible Hulk sees himself on television. Does he decide to go to Hollywood for autographs or does he want to be in the show himself, or does something else happen?

 Alan Kupperberg was the writer and artist, Roger Stern was the editor and at that time Jim Shooter was editor-in-chief. Before we get into it,  I have to point out the Energized Spider-man ad on the left. I always wanted that action figure as a kid, but I missed out. I did have a regular Spider-man action figure, but I digress.

This book is chock-filled with pop culture references from the 70’s that make it a true time capsule that we’ll point out as we go along reviewing the story. It begins at the home of the Fantastic Four the Baxter Building. There we find the ever lovin’ blue-eyed Thing as he often referred to himself, attempting to relax watching his expensive brand new 25-inch television set.

You know those things were about as expensive as televisions today. Keep in mind at that time you could get a comic book for 35 cents, but a 21-25 inch TV cost between 400-600 dollars which adjusted for today’s inflation would be close to 3300 dollars or more.

This is important context since in the story we see that the Thing gets so jealous over finding out the Hulk has his own TV show that puts his foot right through his very expensive brand new 25 inch television set.

But first, we get our very first pop culture reference.

Before smashing his TV, the Thing compares the Hulk to the biggest most iconic character of the 70’s, Happy Days’ the Fonz played by Henry Winkler, “The Fonz he ain’t!”

Happy Days ran from 1974 to 1984 for 11 seasons. According to wikiepedia, In 1978 Happy Days was the second most popular show of the year. The previous year it had been number one. If memory serves me, Happy Days would do very well, until the Fonz took on Mr. T and the A-team in the Tuesday night 8 PM timeslot. Nothing could beat the A-team.

Right away we get our next pop culture reference where the Thing states that he could knock the Happy Days spin-off Laverne and Shirley off the air in no time flat to which the Human Torch replies, “ You’d probably do better as Laverne or Shirley!”  That show was number one that year replacing Happy Days as the top show of the year and pushing the Fonz to number two.

At this point the Thing bellows out his own insult before throwing his wrecked television set at the Human Torch, “Look alive ya Sesame Street drop-out”, making our third pop culture reference.

Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman advise the Thing that instead of wrecking the Baxter Building he should go to Hollywood to talk to the producer of the Incredible Hulk TV series which the Thing thinks is a great idea.

Next, we see the Hollywood sign which has been a very important pop culture icon for decades, but in 1978 it was in desperate need of repair. It was that year that restoration work was completed in November of that year. Take note the D toward the end of the panel appears to have fallen down. Now look at an actual image of the sign in 1978 before the restoration was completed. It’s the second, “O” that is falling down. I wonder why they drew the wrong letter falling down? Well, the Hollywood sign makes our 4^th pop culture reference in this book.

After showing us some hoods planning on kidnapping a future Hulk co-star Karen Page to make what they think is easy money, we switch to the location of one Bruce Banner walking alone in the streets of a small Nevada town where he sees the Incredible Hulk TV show and becomes infuriated that they turned his life into some sort of soap opera. The transformation is triggered and the Hulk decides to leap off into the sky toward Hollywood.

But before he departs let’s look at the 5^th pop culture reference which is the Incredible Hulk TV show itself and its real life star Bill Bixby. You can see most of Bixby’s name on the TV screen in the panel before the Hulk smashes it. Also, I recognize the names Sonny Bono, Charo, Howdy Doody and a couple of other names I don’t recognize, but I’m almost certain never guest starred on the Incredible Hulk TV show in real life.

Next, we see that the Thing is finally arriving in Hollywood where he runs into the fictional kid show duck Uncle Waddles. I counted this as a pop culture reference because it appears to in fact be a cameo by Marvel’s own Howard the Duck in disguise. The 2006 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe included Uncle Waddles as an alias for Howard which is the only real proof we have that this is Howard and not a guy in a duck suit.

About the same time the Incredible Hulk is seen smashing through some Hollywood studios where he eventually runs through and smashes MASH, that’s the very popular Korean War comedy drama of the 70’s which starred Alan Alda. MASH was a top ten hit that year. An interesting side note, MASH’s final episode in 1983 was one of the highest rated television episodes of all time. Mash appeared in other comics as well such as Mad Magazine.

Next, we have to take a peak at the ads just past the middle of the book. If you grew up in the 70’s like I did I’m sure you’ll feel some nostalgia for the cartons advertised for the brand new 78 season on NBC’s Saturday morning cartoons. One of those cartoons just happened to be the Fantastic Four series which included Herbie the Robot instead of the Human Torch. A really fun cartoon show that year was the Hanna Barbera Godzilla Power Hour. That show was a lot of fun. I’m hoping they put the entire series on DVD someday. That same year Godzilla was also a star in Marvel Comics as well. He naturally had a run-in or two with the Fantastic Four and several other Marvel Superheroes.

Yogi Bear made a comeback that year changing his state park location to outer space, probably to cash in on the Star Wars craze. Notice the ad on the next page is a full-page promoting Marvel’s Star Wars book.

Back to the story we find that the bad guys have kidnapped Karen Page the future co-star of the Hulk TV show, at least in the comic book world. The Hulk and the Thing are now scrapping which probably had made the 20^th time they had fought up to this point in history. After the Hulk pretty much wrecks everything he finally thinks the Thing is not responsible for the Hulk TV show as he had previously thought and he takes the word of the producer that he’ll make the show better. Can you imagine the Hulk as TV critic anyway? You have to wonder what he based his critiques on. Somehow the bad guys end up captured as well.

This page brings us to the next pop culture reference, Cheryl Tiegs who is mentioned by the producer. She was a hugely popular model in 1978. Why the producer would choose her name to offer to the Hulk as a comparison I’m not sure. Seems like the Hulk would have like being compared to an action star better which at the time would have probably been Burt Reynolds.

We fast forward back to New York City where the Thing opens up a special package from Hollywood which includes the script for a proposed TV show with him as the star. The Thing isn’t happy to find out it’s a comedy sitcom called, “Thing in the Family” with the Thing playing the part of “Meathead”. Yes, this is our last pop culture reference to All in the Family a show a top ten hit that year that had been running since 1971. It’s a show that today would have been killed by the censors before it even had a chance to air, but was very popular in the 70’s. It was a stark contrast to Happy Days and other popular shows of that decade.

The story ends with the Thing crumpling up his script and seriously considering taking Uncle Waddles job offer for the kid show.

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