The Incredible Hulk was a series from the late 1970s (it debuted in 1977) and ran for essentially four seasons. It was created by Kenneth Johnson, who also created series like The Six Million Dollar Man, the original Bionic Woman, V, and more. The show starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (a Mr. Universe winner and a Mr. Olympia runner-up) as The Hulk. The story is heavily modified from the comics. First, the main character's name is changed from Bruce to David (which apparently irked Stan Lee, who got a producer credit on the show) and it dropped the failed super-soldier program storyline in favor of one in which David attempts to tap into the hidden strength that people have when faced with life and death situations. David was unable to save his wife during a car accident and tries to find out why he could not tap into this hidden strength. In the course of his experiments, he hits himself with a massive dose of gamma radiation which causes him to change into the Hulk when he is scared or angry. A reporter named Jack McGee and played by Jack Colvin believes that The Hulk killed David Banner and his lab partner. So, Banner, instead of saying that The Hulk did not kill him, pretends to be dead and wanders the country living off the grid and trying to figure out a way to stop his metamorphosis into The Hulk.
Another big deviation from the comics is that the Hulk was not fighting the military and supervillains. David traveled from town-to-town and invariably found someone (usually a woman) in distress and in need of help, and would come across the worst, most corrupt person in town that the Hulk would end up having to scare off or stop. The show had very much a feel of the 1970s from the look to the way people talked, but the overall storylines could be made in any era. There are definitely things that the show did that could not be done the same way, like using the term "wetback" in an episode and allowing some stereotypes to be used that would never fly today. That said, the show did deal with topics such as racism, drugs, and the pillaging of Native American lands (in an episode in which the Native Americans were bad guys). It also had a ton of recognizable guest stars including an incredibly young Kim Catrall (who the show tried to pass off as a Native American) and a young Ernie Hudson. The show was never big on continuity, however, using the same actors in different roles quite a bit. For example, Gerald McRaney guest-starred three different times in three different roles.
Technically, it did air a handful of episodes in a fifth season in 1982, but those episodes were filmed at the end of the fourth season in case an impending writer's strike occurred, so a fifth season could air uninterrupted. However, during the hiatus between seasons four and five, the President of CBS decided to cancel the show (despite the fact that the ratings were still good, although not as high as they once were) because the show had "run its course". So, the final five stand-alone episodes were aired and the show went off the air without any resolution to the storyline or a proper ending.
In the late 1980s, Bixby produced a series of three tv movies (and directed two of them) that finally gave closure to the series. The first two movies, The Incredible Hulk Returns, and the Trial of the Incredible Hulk were horribly bad, and brought the series into the larger Marvel Comic universe, introducing a horrible version of Thor and an okay version of Daredevil (along with an awful version of Kingpin). The third movie, The Death of The Incredible Hulk, was a much better movie and did provide an end to the storyline (and co-starred former Miss America and alleged Bill Clinton hookup Elizabeth Gracen). While it was better than the other two movies, the ending was deeply stupid and probably left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of fans.
So, overall, the series was mostly good, but when it was bad, it was pretty bad. Lou Ferrigno managed to stay in great shape, even through the final TV movie, although he looked like he aged (even with the green makeup on) much more than Bixby looked like he aged. The show is much different than the superhero shows of today, both in how it was filmed, the special effects (or lack thereof) that were available back in the 1970s versus now, and in terms of storyline continuity. The one thing that I do not like about the show is that it criminally underused the character of Jack McGee. He was ostensibly a co-lead yet would disappear for long stretches, and in some episodes only appeared for a few seconds. His character deserved to find out the truth about David and The Hulk and get the last scoop. Instead, Colvin was not brought back (or refused to return) after filming The Incredible Hulk Returns and so his character never got a concluding arc.
The series is available on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Some of the DVD sets include the last TV movies, but the Blu-ray set does not. So, if you want the tv movies you have to find the DVDs and you may have to resort to buying imports because the US versions have been out of print and are very hard to find, especially at a reasonable price. After rewatching the show all the way through I can say I enjoyed it more as a kid when it came across as really cool. As an adult, it is kind of hokey. I was not old enough to watch the series when it originally aired, but I did see the re-runs that aired in syndication. I found that I did not remember any of the actual stories from any of the episodes, but I remembered the line "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry", the Hulk outs, and the opening title sequence voiced by Ted Cassidy (who played Lurch in The Addams Family) more than I remembered anything else. Chances are, those will be the most memorable things about the show for most people.
