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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
    8.7/10(3 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.

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  2. Background image for The Greatest American Hero
    8.2/10(6 votes)

    #2 - 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.

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  3. Background image for Reseda Rose
    8.0/10(2 votes)

    #3 - Reseda Rose

    S1:E5

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

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  4. Background image for There's Just No Accounting...
    7.8/10(74 votes)

    #4 - 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?

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    Director:Ivan Dixon
    Writer:Frank Lupo
  5. Background image for The Hit Car
    7.7/10(3 votes)

    #5 - The Hit Car

    S1:E2

    Bill, who has been trying to bust open a drug ring for over 20 years, must drive a witness to Los Angeles for the trial of the gang leader and asks Ralph for help.

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  6. Background image for Here's Looking at You Kid
    7.7/10(3 votes)

    #6 - Here's Looking at You Kid

    S1:E3

    When a secret gunsight is stolen, Bill asks Ralph for help in solving the case. However, Ralph runs into problems when he keeps turning invisible unexpectedly, and must deal with the pressure of meeting Pam's parents.

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    Director:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Fire Man
    7.7/10(3 votes)

    #7 - Fire Man

    S1:E7

    Ralph lends Tony a hand by finding him a job as a car repossesser. When Tony is arrested for arson, Ralph and Bill team up to find the real criminal.

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  9. Background image for Dreams
    7.7/10(82 votes)

    #8 - 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.

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  10. Background image for Captain Bellybuster and the Speed Factory
    7.7/10(78 votes)

    #9 - 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.

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  11. Background image for Who's Woo in America
    7.7/10(82 votes)

    #10 - 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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for The Two-Hundred-Mile-an-Hour Fastball
    7.6/10(113 votes)

    #11 - 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.

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  13. Background image for Operation Spoilsport
    7.6/10(105 votes)

    #12 - 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.

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

    #13 - 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.

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  15. Background image for Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell
    7.6/10(83 votes)

    #14 - 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.

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    Director:Robert Culp
  16. Background image for The Beast in the Black
    7.5/10(124 votes)

    #15 - 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.

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    Director:Unknown
  17. Background image for The Shock Will Kill You
    7.5/10(77 votes)

    #16 - 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.

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  18. Background image for A Train of Thought
    7.4/10(89 votes)

    #17 - 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.

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  19. Background image for The Handpainted Thai
    7.4/10(76 votes)

    #18 - 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.

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  20. Background image for Plague
    7.3/10(81 votes)

    #19 - Plague

    S2:E8

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

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for The Good Samaritan
    7.3/10(71 votes)

    #20 - 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.

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    Director:Bruce Kessler
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Now You See It...
    7.2/10(86 votes)

    #21 - 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.

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  23. Background image for The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
    7.2/10(83 votes)

    #22 - The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

    S2:E15

    Ralph and Bill hunt for the sea creature ""Carrie"" in the Bermuda Triangle thinking that the monster may be responsible for all of the boats that disappear there. They undercover a stolen boat ring, and never find the creature.

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    Director:Sidney Hayers
    Writer:Frank Lupo
  24. Background image for Saturday on Sunset Boulevard
    7.0/10(3 votes)

    #23 - Saturday on Sunset Boulevard

    S1:E4

    Russians are trying to find an heiress and her Russian husband in order to force them to establish a missile cache hold on their private island. Bill needs Ralph's help when he is suspected of failing a lie-detector test at FBI headquarters.

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  25. Background image for Just Another Three Ring Circus
    7.0/10(80 votes)

    #24 - Just Another Three Ring Circus

    S2:E12

    Ralph takes a job at the circus as a human cannonball while trying to help Bill bust a crime ring that involves a phony dating service.

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  26. Background image for Hog Wild
    6.8/10(101 votes)

    #25 - Hog Wild

    S2:E4

    A motorcycle gang steals the super-suit, and tries to use it to take over a town. It only works on Ralph, so they must force HIM to do their dirty work while holding Bill captive.

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Best Episodes Summary

"My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" is the best rated episode of "The Greatest American Hero". It scored 8.7/10 based on 3 votes. Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont and written by Stephen J. Cannell, it aired on 4/29/1981. This episode scored 0.5 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Greatest American Hero".