This idea just may fly again

Stephen J. Cannell groaned when ABC executives first broached the idea of creating a superhero show. “I never got superheroes. I had severe dyslexia as a kid so I didn’t really get into reading comics. And then when I became a writer, I didn’t like them because they had everything. If the only thing that can get you is a piece of kryptonite, then that’s not very interesting to me; I was always more interested in the flaws in character.”

Finding flaws in tough guys has been a signature for Cannell, who created or co-created “The Rockford Files,” “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Baretta.” On that day in 1980, he wasn’t enthused about a man in tights, but he didn’t say no. “I had learned never to say no in an office; I once said no to Brandon Tartikoff on a pitch of ‘MTV Cops’ and that turned out to be ‘Miami Vice.’ . . . “

The “maybe” became “The Greatest American Hero,” a quirky show about a schoolteacher who gets a mysterious costume of alien origin but loses the “instruction book” on how to use its super-powered gifts. Years before “Hancock” and “The Incredibles” toyed with the comedic possibilities of frustrated heroes in a workaday world, Cannell’s “Hero” flew a shaky course in the sky.

There’s a revival underway: William Katt, the man who wore the red suit, has launched a comic book that continues the adventures; there are new animated shorts being made for online; and Cannell is in talks about a film that would introduce the brand to a generation already accustomed to cape spoofs after “Sky High,” “Superhero Movie,” “Zoom” etc. There has also been a tribute to the series hosted by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and a cast reunion at Comic-Con International.

I visited Cannell’s office on Hollywood Boulevard and, chatting with him and Katt, it was clear they view the 1981-83 series as a heroic moment. “This show was one of the high points,” Cannell said. “We had the right actors. The right writers. The right cinematographers. The right tone.”

Cannell had a three-pilot deal with ABC; the first series, “Tenspeed and Brownshoe,” fizzled. When the network suggested a hero show, Cannell realized that the secret sauce of “Rockford” might work again.

“With ‘Rockford,’ the idea was, ‘How would I act if I were a private detective?’ I wouldn’t act like Sam Spade. I wouldn’t act like Joe Mannix. If someone pulled a gun on me, I wouldn’t say, ‘I’m going to feed that to you.’ I’d give them my car and my watch. . . . We started this show with this idea: ‘What if I, Stephen Cannell, were out in the desert and a spinning ship came down and aliens gave me a suit that would let me fly? What would that do to my life? And what if it was a really stupid-looking suit?’ The first time you get caught in it, you can tell your wife or girlfriend that you’re on the way to a costume party. But the second time, well, you’re toast.”

A script reached New York stage actor Katt. “My agent promised me that we’d do four shows,” said Katt, who despised the suit that “sagged in all the wrong places.” For 44 episodes, he looked truly pained. “I only appreciated it,” he said, “in the aftermath.”

Now someone else may wear the tights. Cannell, who has film remakes of his “21 Jump Street” and “The A-Team” in the pipeline, said a “Hero” movie is ramping up. “We have a script. We have a director. . . . It’s going to fly again.”

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Read this and other pop culture dispatches at latimes.com/ herocomplex.