‘GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, TAKE 2’--WITH DOUBLE TAKE

“The Greatest American Hero,” the former ABC series about a crime fighter with a super-powered suit, could turn up on NBC’s fall lineup with a heroine in the title role.

Stephen J. Cannell, whose production company produced the show for ABC during its 1981-83 run, said Monday that filming begins this week on a 25-minute presentation for NBC for “The Greatest American Hero, Take Two.”

If NBC orders the show as a fall series, the scenes shot in the presentation will be included in a two-hour pilot episode to kick off the resurrected series.

The pilot script, already completed by Cannell associate Babs Greyhosky, has original hero William Katt turning over the special suit that he got from extraterrestrials to a fellow schoolteacher, played by New York stage actress Mary Ellen Stuart. Stuart will assume the role of superhero, with Robert Culp resuming his role as the FBI agent who is the hero’s partner.

Cannell said the idea for the project originated two months ago, when NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff commented to him that he felt “Greatest American Hero” should never have been canceled.

In fact, “Hero” currently earns good ratings in syndication. Additional episodes of a new “Hero” series, added to the existing 44 from the ABC run, would make the reruns even more valuable to independent stations and network affiliates, and potentially more lucrative for Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

Cannell, whose company already produces “The A-Team,” “Riptide,” “Hunter” and “Stingray” for NBC, said he would probably pull the existing episodes from syndication if NBC orders the new series. Syndication would likely resume after the new show had completed at least two seasons on NBC.