8 Fun Facts About ‘The Greatest American Hero’ William Katt
In the early 1980s, popular television was a hodgepodge of nighttime soaps, moonshining brothers, groundbreaking sitcoms and escapist dramedy … but what it needed was a hero. And not just any hero — The Greatest American Hero, which premiered on NBC on March 18, 1981. Audiences quickly fell in love with Carrie star William Katt as mild-mannered schoolteacher turned bumbling-but-earnest superhero Ralph Hinkley, and couldn’t get enough of his chemistry with costars Robert Culp and Connie Sellecca. And, of course, there was the show’s “earworm to end all earworms” theme song, which was so catchy, it was the subject of a joke 15 years later on Seinfeld.
Though the show only lasted for three seasons, the tale of Ralph Hinkley and his fumbling attempts to save the world secured a permanent place in pop culture. Katt himself went on to have a jam-packed and multi-faceted career; he’s performed in theater, regionally and nationally, almost every year of that career, even when he was making films and TV series. He has also appeared in nearly 140 TV and film projects, writes and directs, and always makes time for his fans.
Here are a few more things you might not know about William Katt, the man who was The Greatest American Hero.
1 In 1975, Katt auditioned to play Luke Skywalker in the 1977 sci-fi blockbuster Star Wars
Director George Lucas chose Mark Hamill instead, but Katt caught a break when Lucas and his pal, Brian De Palma, were auditioning actors for their new films together. De Palma’s film? The 1976 horror classic Carrie.
2 Katt gained fame as high-school outcast Carrie White’s kind but ill-fated prom date, Tommy Ross
Courtesy of Everett
“We all had great careers because of it,” Katt told The Miami Herald of Carrie‘s young cast. “Before that, I was bouncing around from one theater job to another. … In a matter of weeks after that film came out, I was thought of differently.” And can we please talk about Katt’s luxurious head of blond curls, which were at their most luxurious in this film.
> How Brian De Palma Picked Sissy Spacek For ‘Carrie’
3 He and Sissy Spacek weren’t acting when they laughed their way through Carrie and Tommy’s slow dance
In the film’s last moment of happiness, before everything literally goes up in flames, Tommy guides Carrie in her first slow dance — one that gets progressively faster. “Sissy and I danced one way and the camera was going the other way and we ended up going faster and faster,” Katt told Yahoo News. “At the end of it, Sissy and I are laughing out loud — and the reason we’re laughing is because I’m literally spinning her so fast [that] she’s up off of the floor, and we are so”
4 Katt took a shot at being a pop star
Like many young stars at the time (think Willie Aames, Kristy and Jimmy McNichol, Scott Baio and others), Katt tried to parlay his Greatest American Hero success into a bona fide singing career. In 1982, he released the album Secret Smiles as “Billy Katt.” The music was solid, but Katt — who’d originally planned to be a singer — saved his considerable chops for the stage, appearing in a national touring company of “Pirates of Penzance” and on Broadway in the title role of “Pippin.”
5 His mother sometimes plays … his mother
NBC/courtesy Everett Collection
Katt’s mom, Perry Mason actress Barbara Hale, appeared as his character’s mom in the 1978 surf film Big Wednesday and in one episode of The Greatest American Hero. The pair also worked together in nine Perry Mason TV movies, with Katt playing detective Paul Drake’s son, Paul Drake Jr.
6 He loves a good ghost story, but skips the slasher stuff
Everett Collection
Katt told the Miami Herald that he tries to do 3 or 4 horror conventions a year, just because “the fans are always so lovely.” But when it comes to his own taste in horror, he prefers the spooky stuff over slasher films. “I love ghost stories,” Katt continued. “I kind of stay away from the slasher films, but I do like a good ghost story — Stephen King, Robert McCammon, who’s a great horror writer.”
And when it comes to the cons, Carrie isn’t the only movie fans want to discuss “House was received very, very well in the mid ’80s,” Katt said of the 1985 haunted house flick that costarred George Wendt, Richard Moll and Kay Lenz.
7 He’s been the voice of other superheroes
Katt has served as the voice of Batman in video games and TV series and as the Green Guardsman in 2002’s animated series The Justice League. He also voiced Dr. Roma in the 1994 cartoon, Animaniacs.
8 Katt still has fabulous hair
As evidenced on recent photos and videos from his Facebook fan page, Katt still boasts an awesome head of hair.
Remind 