The Greatest American Hero backdrop
The Greatest American Hero poster
Action & Adventure
Comedy
Crime

The Best Episodes of The Greatest American Hero

Every episode of The Greatest American Hero ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Greatest American Hero!

The Best Episodes of The Greatest American Hero

The chronicles of  teacher Ralph Hinkley's adventures after a group of aliens gives him a red suit that gives him superhuman abilities. Unfortunately, Ralph, who...

Seasons3

  1. Background image for My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
    7.9/10(143 votes)

    #1 - My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

    S1:E6

    Ralph reconsiders his suit of powers after a flying mistake almost takes out a bus full of tourists. Bill also reconsiders his job path when one of his heroes is suspected of plotting out the theft of a precious diamond.

    0 Comments
    View all
  2. Background image for There's Just No Accounting...
    7.8/10(74 votes)

    #2 - There's Just No Accounting...

    S2:E18

    Bill convinces the parents of a kidnap victim to pay the ransom, certain that Ralph can recover it when he saves their little girl. Ralph finds himself being audited by an overzealous IRS agent who's convinced he took the ransom money. Meanwhile, Ralph and Bill keep getting shot at in drive-by shootings, but by who?

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Ivan Dixon
    Writer:Frank Lupo
  3. Background image for Dreams
    7.7/10(82 votes)

    #3 - Dreams

    S2:E17

    An act of kindness backfires when Ralph uses the suit to help a coworker with a personal project. This leads his other co-workers to take daring chances for their own shots at success. Soon, he must don the super suit not only to prevent them from ruining their lives, but also to save Bill from a vengeful, recently paroled killer.

    0 Comments
    View all
  4. Background image for Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory
    7.7/10(78 votes)

    #4 - Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory

    S2:E20

    Bill recieves hot tips on a speed factory working out of a fast food chain, and a newspaper reporter publishes pictures of Ralph flying.

    0 Comments
    View all
  5. Background image for Who's Woo in America
    7.7/10(82 votes)

    #5 - Who's Woo in America

    S2:E21

    Ralph's mother is re-marrying to a man who planted a much wanted micro-chip in her engagement ring.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Divorce Venusian Style
    7.7/10(85 votes)

    #6 - Divorce Venusian Style

    S3:E1

    After a loud argument with Bill, Ralph quits the hero business and turns in his super-suit. Unknown to both men, a gang of neo-Nazis plans to murder them.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Ivan Dixon
    Writer:Unknown
  7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of The Greatest American Hero

    READ
  8. Background image for The Newlywed Game
    7.7/10(72 votes)

    #7 - The Newlywed Game

    S3:E5

    Ralph and Pam's wedding is almost ruined when Ralph receives special orders from the President to fly a mission over the North Pole. Bill discovers the orders were faked, and that Ralph has accidentally given the Russians valuable military secrets.

    0 Comments
    View all
  9. Background image for Live at Eleven
    7.7/10(78 votes)

    #8 - Live at Eleven

    S3:E7

    An Aging TV anchorman plans to retire in grand style. He hires a band of mercenaries to sabotage a nuclear plant, hoping that his coverage of the event can launch a Presidential campaign. Ralph must stop the plant from exploding, but the saboteurs, now dying of radiation poisoning, are determined to succeed.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
  10. Background image for The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fastball
    7.6/10(113 votes)

    #9 - The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fastball

    S2:E1

    Ralph dons a baseball suit to trap Latino revolutionaries who plan to finance a coup by fixing ball games.

    0 Comments
    View all
  11. Background image for Operation Spoilsport
    7.6/10(105 votes)

    #10 - Operation Spoilsport

    S2:E2

    Ralph and Bill must stop World War III by defusing a corrupt military leader's plans to launch a suprise missile attack against Russia.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Rod Holcomb
    Writer:Frank Lupo
  12. Background image for Don't Mess Around with Jim
    7.6/10(100 votes)

    #11 - Don't Mess Around with Jim

    S2:E3

    Ralph and Bill are kidnapped by a tycoon that actually had his own suit given to him years ago by the aliens. The suit corrupted this man to use it for personal fortune, and he did not lose the instruction book. The aliens did not like the way he was using the suit, and they took it away from him.

    0 Comments
    View all
  13. Background image for Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell
    7.6/10(83 votes)

    #12 - Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell

    S2:E22

    Bill falls in love with a female FBI agent, and wants to tell her about the suit. She turns out to be a spy, and is ordered to kill him.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Robert Culp
  14. Background image for Heaven is in Your Genes
    7.6/10(81 votes)

    #13 - Heaven is in Your Genes

    S3:E6

    A former Nazi genetic engineer fakes Bill's death to use him in an experiment, but Ralph realizes his friend is still alive. He flies off to rescue Bill and the evil doctor's other victims, but a genetic horror created in an earlier experiment waits to battle him.

    0 Comments
    View all
  15. Background image for The Greatest American Hero
    7.5/10(344 votes)

    #14 - The Greatest American Hero

    S1:E1

    Ralph Hinkley, an average school teacher, is given a suit with amazing powers by aliens. Now, Ralph must decide if he'll use his new powers to fight crime, even though he already lost the suit's instruction manual.

    0 Comments
    View all
  16. Background image for The Best Desk Scenario
    7.5/10(113 votes)

    #15 - The Best Desk Scenario

    S1:E8

    At FBI headquarters, promotions are being handed out. However, Bill considers retiring from his job. Meanwhile, Ralph must use his suit to save Pam when she discovers her boss is the head of an underground operation.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for The Beast in the Black
    7.5/10(124 votes)

    #16 - The Beast in the Black

    S2:E6

    Ralph finds a window into the 4th dimension while scouting an old house. Bill gets possesed by a woman's spirit, and Ralph must return her through that window.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
  18. Background image for The Shock Will Kill You
    7.5/10(77 votes)

    #17 - The Shock Will Kill You

    S2:E13

    A space shuttle is about to crash, and only Ralph can save it. He does so, but ends up supermagnetized, perhaps permanently. Worst of all, a strange creature aboard the shuttle heads towards Los Angeles, electricuting all who get in its way.

    0 Comments
    View all
  19. Background image for Wizards And Warlocks
    7.5/10(80 votes)

    #18 - Wizards And Warlocks

    S3:E10

    King Abu Al-Fahad asks Ralph and Bill to help find his son, Prince Aha, who was kidnapped by Middle Eastern terrorists while playing a Dungeons and Dragonsesque game, Wizards and Warlocks. Their search leads them from Aha's college campus -- where they meet Aha's Keeper of the Clock, Joey Margolis -- to the game's author himself, Norman Fackler.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Bruce Kessler
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for A Train of Thought
    7.4/10(89 votes)

    #19 - A Train of Thought

    S2:E9

    Ralph crashes head first into a train, and gets amnesia. Pam and Bill have to convince him that the suit really works.

    0 Comments
    View all
  21. Background image for The Handpainted Thai
    7.4/10(76 votes)

    #20 - The Handpainted Thai

    S2:E11

    Years ago, prisoners of war were brainwashed to respond to a code phrase. Now, someone is using them to commit acts of sabotage. Bill and Ralph investigate, but Bill inadvertently falls under a hypnotic trance, leaving the heroics up to Ralph.

    0 Comments
    View all
  22. Background image for The Price is Right
    7.4/10(78 votes)

    #21 - The Price is Right

    S3:E2

    While attending a high-school reunion, Ralph discovers that the wife of a famous pro football player is held hostage to ensure her husband will throw the big game.

    0 Comments
    View all
  23. Background image for Plague
    7.3/10(81 votes)

    #22 - Plague

    S2:E8

    A psycho military cult leader tries to spread the small-pox virus.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for The Good Samaritan
    7.3/10(71 votes)

    #23 - The Good Samaritan

    S2:E19

    Tired of using the suit to fight crime, Ralph decides to branch out. He tries to intervene in a battle between an old man fighting for his home and the city taking it away, but Bill has him on the hunt for bank robbers.

    0 Comments
    View all
    Director:Bruce Kessler
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for Reseda Rose
    7.2/10(117 votes)

    #24 - Reseda Rose

    S1:E5

    Ralph uses his suit to help Rhonda, one of his students, after her mother is kidnapped by the Russians.

    0 Comments
    View all
  26. Background image for Now You See It...
    7.2/10(86 votes)

    #25 - Now You See It...

    S2:E10

    While practicing flying in the desert with Bill, Ralph gets a vision of a plane crash. It's the suit showing it to him, and Bill can only see it when he touches Ralph. They rush to the scene to find no plane, and figure out that it must be something that hasn't happened yet, and they're supposed to prevent it. We come to find out that Pam is on that plane, and it's been hijacked. To make matters worse, the plane has an experimental cloaking device that makes it invisible to radar, and the Air Force would rather shoot it down than have the plane in enemy hands.

    0 Comments
    View all

Best Episodes Summary

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" is the best rated episode of "The Greatest American Hero". It scored 7.9/10 based on 143 votes. Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont and written by Stephen J. Cannell, it aired on 4/29/1981. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "There's Just No Accounting...".