greatest american hero

ABC has officially ordered a pilot for ‘The Greatest American Hero’, a female-fronted remake of the series that originally ran from 1981-83.  A reboot, ‘The Greatest American Heroine’ was attempted in 1986, with the original cast returning to pass the baton to a new focal character, but the series was not picked up.

‘Fresh Off the Boat”s Rachna Fruchbom and Nahnatchka Khan will executive produce along with Mandy Summer and Tawnia McKiernan, the daughter of Stephen J. Cannell, the creator of the original series.  ‘The Greatest American Hero’ will be produced by the Fierce Baby banner, which is based out of 20th Century Fox Television.  ABC is owned by Disney, who just purchased 20th Century Fox, so this is a bit of synergy.

The new show will feature an Indian-American female lead, named Meera, who enjoys drinking tequila and singing karaoke.  She becomes entrusted with a super suit from aliens in order to protect the Earth.  In the original, the lead character Ralph Hinkley (played by William Katt) lost the instructions and spent the bulk of the series fumbling through his adventures.

The new show adds additional diversity, with a female lead who is of Indian descent.  ABC has helped to diversify television with its comedic series ‘Fresh Off the Boat’, ‘Speechless’ and ‘Black-ish’ and dramas like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ and ‘Scandal’.

It’s also the latest reboot coming to television.  The CW has ordered a pilot for ‘Charmed‘.  ABC is rebooting ‘Get Christie Love’ a detective series that was the first drama with a black female lead.  CBS is reviving ‘Murphy Brown’ with original star Candice Bergen and NBC is creating a female-led spinoff of the ‘Bad Boys’ movies, with Gabrielle Union in the lead.

No casting for ‘The Greatest American Hero’ has been announced.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter