CBS's Legendary 82-Episode Sci-Fi Action Series is Officially Free to Watch on Streaming

Before the release of the movies Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was tough to be a Marvel fan. Outside of the comic books, there were slim pickings of other media that took Marvel characters seriously. X-Men: The Animated Series is an obvious exception, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series was fairly solid too, but they were intended for children (even if they got away with telling more mature stories). Really, only one mainstream, successful piece of media took a Marvel comic book character seriously and it's currently available on Tubi to stream entirely for free.

The Incredible Hulk (1978)

Lou Ferrigno as The Incredible Hulk

Image: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Developed by television veteran Kenneth Johnson (V, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman), The Incredible Hulk was an hour-long primetime television show aimed at adults. It starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner (I’ll get back to that name later), a scientist who was exposed to gamma radiation in his laboratory. Whenever David loses his temper, he transforms into the Hulk, an enormous, muscle-bound monster.

In the first episode of the series, Banner’s transformation occurs and a fire breaks out at the laboratory. When the Hulk is spotted in the wreckage, he is believed to have killed Banner. This forces Hulk/Banner to go on the run. For the rest of the series, Banner works odd jobs and tries to escape the shadow of the Hulk, which he can never seem to do.

Photo: New World Television/Everett Collection

After kicking off with two TV movies in 1977, The Incredible Hulk ran for five seasons, totaling 80 episodes. It ended in 1982, but was then followed up by two TV movies in the late 1980s. Then in 1990, it concluded with The Death of the Incredible Hulk (although Death isn’t on Tubi, for some reason).

In an interview with the Television Academy, Hulk co-creator Stan Lee put it best:

“The Hulk television show, I thought, was wonderful. It was created and done by Kenneth Johnson, who I think did a brilliant job. I got quite friendly with him in the course of it. He was so smart. He took a character which, in live-action television, might have been unbearably foolish-looking, with nonsensical stories, and he made it as palatable for grown-ups as for kids — maybe more so, because what he did, if you remember, that series it was an hour show and in the course of the hour, you only actually saw the Hulk for, I don't know, five or six minutes maybe? Not that much. The rest of the time, it was Bruce Banner, played by Bill Bixby, as a very human, empathetic character that you cared about. So it was really an adult show about an interesting, complex hero with a lot of personal problems.”

For the serious commitment to, and regard for, the material, The Incredible Hulk is worthy of a look. That said, I’ll admit that it is dated in a lot of ways, particularly in regard to the special effects. In the series, when David Banner turns into the Hulk, Bixby is replaced with the 6-foot-5-inch, 300-plus pound bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno. Ferrigno does a great job in the role of the Hulk and he defined the role for many people, but if you’re used to modern special effects, it can be a little hard to swallow at times. If you can overlook that though — or, perhaps, even learn to embrace it — I can't see any reason why a Hulk fan wouldn’t enjoy this smart, well-written series that treated a Marvel hero with a level of sophistication that would take decades to replicate.

David?

Image: Universal TV/Everett Collection

Finally, if you’re still wondering about the name thing, for this TV show, Dr. Bruce Banner was renamed David Banner. According to Johnson, he didn’t like the alliterative, comic book-y name thing, so he changed the name to David. However, both Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno have put forth a different answer. They both have claimed CBS thought the name Bruce sounded “gay” and thus Dr. Bruce Banner became Dr. David Banner. If Lee and Ferrigno are correct, that's obviously very offensive. But hey, I did warn you that the show is a bit dated, so it's not too unbelievable that some outdated thinking also went into it.

The Incredible Hulk is available to stream on Tubi.