''Once a Hero'' is an American

action-adventure The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...

television series that aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

from September 19 until October 3, 1987. The series stars

Milo O'Shea Milo Donal O'Shea (2 June 1926 – 2 April 2013) was an Irish people, Irish actor. He was twice nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in ''Staircase (play), Staircase'' (1968) and ''Mass Appeal (play), Mass A ...

as Abner Bevis, a down-on-his-luck

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artist whose life is turned upside down when his creation, Captain Justice ( Jeff Lester), comes to life. Also appearing in the series were

Caitlin Clarke Caitlin Clarke (born Katherine Anne Clarke, May 3, 1952 – September 9, 2004) was an American theater and film actress best known for her role as Valerian in the 1981 fantasy film ''Dragonslayer (1981 film), Dragonslayer'' and for her role ...

and

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in ''Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in ''The Delta Force'' (1986), ...

Premise

Abner Bevis (Milo O'Shea) is the creator of a comic-book 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 title. Even the characters in the book'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 Gumshoe (Robert Forster), the embodiment of generic private detectives, who's looking out for Justice. The Captain's attempts to fight real-world criminals renew 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 Josh Blake (born 18 September 1998) is an English cricketer who plays for Surrey County Cricket Club. He is a left handed batsman and wicket-keeper. Career Blake signed his first professional contract with Surrey in 2022 until the end of the 202 ...

) knows the truth about Captain Justice, but she doesn't.

Cast

as Abner Bevis * Jeff Lester as Captain Justice/Brad Steele *

as Gumshoe *

as Emma Greely *

as Woody Greely *

David Wohl David Wohl is an American comic book writer and editor. He is best known as an editor at Marvel Comics and Top Cow Productions and, at the latter, writing '' The Darkness'' and ''Witchblade''. Career David Wohl began his creative career as a h ...

as Edward "Eddie" Kybo

Production

Jim Turner was initially cast as Captain Justice, he "was cast against type, a small, skinny guy ... It was supposed to be a joke", but when the producers became worried he might not be suitable as the lead, the role was recast with Jeff Lester. A pilot with Turner had been shot, and writer

Ira Steven Behr Ira Steven Behr (born October 23, 1953) is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his work on ''Star Trek'', especially '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', on which he served as showrunner and executive producer. He was th ...

suggested that key advertising-agency executives had seen the abandoned version of the pilot, which caused bad word-of-mouth for the show, ultimately dooming it.

Episodes

Seven episodes were created, but only the first three of them were aired in the United States.

Reception

Many ABC stations preempted the show's first episode with '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', which they correctly decided would be more successful after watching the ABC show; one station stated that "''Once a Hero'' is gone". Although widely promoted, the series was a ratings failure, and was cancelled after three episodes were broadcast.

In other media

Comics

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

began publishing a

spin-off, ''Captain Justice'', but this too was short-lived and was cancelled after two issues.Grand Comics Database entry for Captain Justice
retrieved Feb. 5, 2015

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0092420
The show's opening
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

*
Once a Hero
' at SFF.net 1987 American television series debuts 1987 American television series endings 1980s American comic science fiction television series 1980s American sitcoms American Broadcasting Company original programming American superhero comedy television series English-language television shows Television series by New World Television Television shows about comics