Once a Hero

For other uses, see Once a Hero (disambiguation).

Once a Hero
Genre	Action-adventure Situation comedy
Created by	Dusty Kay Ira Steven Behr
Directed by	Kevin Hooks Kevin Inch Claudia Weill Harry Hurwitz
Starring	Jeff Lester Milo O'Shea Robert Forster Josh Blake Caitlin Clarke
Composer(s)	Dennis Dreith
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	3
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dusty Kay
Producer(s)	Ira Steven Behr Paul Pompian
Editor(s)	Stuart Bass Michael Berman
Running time	1 hour
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 19, 1987 – October 3, 1987

Once a Hero was an ABC 1987 science fiction comedy television series. The series starred Milo O'Shea as Abner Bevis, a down on his luck comic strip artist whose life is turned upside down when his creation, Captain Justice (Jeff Lester), comes to life. Also appearing in the series was Caitlin Clarke and Robert Forster.

Although widely promoted and critically acclaimed, the series was a ratings failure having to compete directly with NBC's Top 30 hit 227, and was cancelled after only three episodes were broadcast. Many ABC stations preempted the show's pilot with Star Trek: The Next Generation, which they correctly decided would be more successful.^[1] Marvel Comics began publishing a comic book spin-off, but this too was short-lived.

The fourth, unaired episode was to have featured Adam West playing a parody of himself.

Premise

Abner Bevis (Milo O'Shea) is the creator of a comic-strip superhero called Captain Justice. Lately Bevis is in a rut and repeating old storylines, and children have lost interest in the comic, so the comic's owners want to kill off the strip. Even the characters in the strip's fictional world of Pleasantville have started to notice that their lives are repeating themselves, and the lack of reader interest is causing characters to start fading.

Captain Justice (Jeff Lester) decides to cross the Forbidden Zone into the real world, where he becomes a real human being with no superpowers. Also crossing over is a detective character called Gumshoe (Robert Forster), who's looking out for Justice. The Captain's attempts to fight real-world criminals renews interest in the comic, and the owners agree not to cancel it; also, Bevis is inspired to make it more contemporary.

Adding to the stories is suspicious newspaper reporter Emma Greely (Caitlin Clarke), who keeps snooping around. Her troubled and precocious son Woody (Josh Blake) knows the truth about Captain Justice, but she doesn't.

Episode titles

Seven episodes were created, but only three of them ever aired.

№	Title	Airdate
1	"Believers"	1987 September 19
2	"Triangle"	1987 September 26
3	"The Return of Lazarus"	1987 October 3
4	"Things Get Ugly"	--
5	"Manos Arriba, Mrs. Greely"	--
6	"Remember the Cottonwood"	--
7	"Thank You, Captain Justice"	--

References

1. ^ Harmetz, Aljean (1987-10-04). "Syndicated 'Star Trek' Puts Dent in Networks". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/04/arts/syndicated-star-trek-puts-dent-in-networks.html. Retrieved May 09, 2011. 

External links

• Once a Hero at the Internet Movie Database
• Once a Hero at TV.com
• The show's opening at YouTube