''Once a Hero'' is an American

action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...

television series that aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

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 actor. He was twice nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performances in ''Staircase'' (1968) and '' Mass Appeal'' (1982). Early life O'Shea was born and ...

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

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

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 actress best known for her roles as Valerian in the 1981 fantasy film ''Dragonslayer'' and Charlotte Cardoza in the 1998–1999 Broadway musical ...

and

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Foster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019), known professionally as Robert Forster, was an American actor. He made his screen debut as Private L.G. Williams in John Huston's '' Reflections in a Golden Eye'' (1967), followed ...

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) 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 * Josh Blake 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 a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

published 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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

*
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 1980s American superhero comedy television series American English-language television shows Television series by New World Television Television shows about comics American Broadcasting Company sitcoms