THE GREATEST AMERICAN ZERO

THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO
1981-1983 ABC

MAD #232, July 1982
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Mort Drucker

Hard to believe now, but at one time, this was the only superhero on TV.

The song on the radio is the song by Joey Scarsbury that was a top 40 song the year this show was on and was also the theme song to this. (Not everyone watches the video clips).

The premise was that Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) was a schoolteacher that was given superpowers by an alien spacecraft that he wasn't quite equipped for, and sent on different missions each week. He is accompanied by FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp) and Pam Davidson (Connie Sellecca), who had already been his lawyer and was sometimes his girlfriend. Tony (Michael Pare) was one of Ralph's students.

Efrem Zilbalist Jr. was star of TV show The F.B.I.

One of the criminals is probably caricatured as Bill Cosby because of his co-star billing with Culp in I Spy.

Judd Hirsch is driving a Taxi. Get it?

The comment on Mary Poppins' dress refers to how actress Julie Andrews appeared topless in S. O. B.

AMERICA'S GREATEST HERO
Cracked #181, October 1981
a: John Severin

Note they got the name of the show wrong on the cover.

Ralph's last name was changed to Hanley after a few shows to avoid association with Reagan assassin John Hinckley.

The Watergate break-in had happened long enough ago to be irrelevant by then.

Rhonda (Faye Grant) was another one of Ralph's students.

THE GROSSEST AMERICAN ZERO
Crazy #80, November 1981
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble

J. Edgar Hoover is rumored to have been gay.

Weird that Crazy, being a Marvel magazine, would end with the MLJ superheroes instead of their own.

Bananas didn't do a parody but featured William Katt on their cover.

UPDATE:

From Bananas #60, c. 1982