The Greatest American Hero (Seasons 1–3)

The Greatest American Hero (1981) is a comedy-adventure series you can watch online on iFILM. High-school teacher Ralph Hinkley is handed a red super-suit by visiting aliens, then promptly loses the instruction manual that came with it.

What follows is superpowers by trial and error. Ralph can fly, but he tends to crash-land face-first; he's strong enough to stop a car, yet mortified to be caught wearing the outfit. Pushing him into the field is a cranky FBI agent, Bill Maxwell, played by Robert Culp, while his lawyer fiancée Pam Davidson keeps him grounded. William Katt stars as Ralph, and nearly a dozen directors, Culp among them, took turns behind the camera.

This is the superhero formula flipped on its head: the world gets saved by a clumsy idealist who keeps pressing the wrong button. Its theme song, "Believe It or Not," climbed the charts and became a sound of the era. Stream The Greatest American Hero online on iFILM.