This material is Copyright 2004 by Kenneth Johnson and may be reprinted with his
permission.
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The Truth of Science Fiction – by Kenneth Johnson
When I first came to Hollywood in the early ‘70’s, already having many credits
as a producer and director, my college buddy Steven Bochco told me I could
control my own destiny more if I began writing. I was resistant. Directing was easy
for me, whereas writing was hard. But I tried, and discovered that I had some
talent at it after all.
I then had the good fortune of spending some time with one of the grand old men
of show business, comedian George Burns. George told me how he had learned
over his long career that when fashioning fictional stories to entertain, it was vital
to put as much truth in them as possible. By that means George always hooked his
audience.
It was sage advice that I took to heart and made a cornerstone of my own
writing. Whether creating a story about sex researchers or stuntmen I did
extensive research into each subject that would inform my writing so that my work
would ring true to an audience’s ear. “Hold a mirror up to Nature,” quoth Master
Shakespeare.
But what happens when one tells a story that is about something not found in
nature, such as The Bionic Woman or The Incredible Hulk or much of the other
speculative fiction I’ve done. I realized that George’s advice became even more
important.
When I joined The Six Million Dollar Man as writer/creator of Jaime Sommers, the
bionic world was already created and rolling along, although the ratings were just
middling. I felt part of the reason for that was that the show was too earnest and
straightforward. What I felt was missing was a true sense of how I and most
people would behave if we were bionic.
Wouldn’t we do personal tasks, like mowing the lawn, at bionic speed? Of course
we would. And might our bionics occasionally backfire? If Steve Austin were using
his bionic strength to pull out a massive root -- and it suddenly snapped -- he’d fly
back and land flat on his ass. So I wrote that, but I was told, “You can’t have the
audience laughing at your hero.” I pointed out that if our hero could also laugh at
himself it would humanize him and make the audience love him all the more. I
stuck to my guns. To me that sort of thing was real and true – and it also injected
into my script with the other key element of true life I felt was missing in the
series – a sense of humor. In creating The Bionic Woman I took both of those
ideas to heart and invested them in my screenplay.
My two-part show that introduced Jaime attracted much attention, brought a fresh
new awareness to audiences and got me hired by Harve Bennett as a producer on
Six Mill. When The Bionic Woman returned to open the new season of Six Mill, the
show shot into the Top Ten for the first time and remained at or near Number One
while I was there. I was soon asked to spin off Jaime’s character into a separate
series (which also landed in the Top Ten.)
I decided to morph Jaime slightly -- from a globe-trotting tennis pro into a junior
high school teacher living in the small town of Ojai, California. Why? In an effort to
make her ever more accessible and closer to the truth of the everyday life which
audiences young and older were leading. Few of us have ever known tennis
stars, but we’ve all had teachers.
Her abilities were also given careful limitations. Writers would pitch me story
ideas where Jaime might turn over a truck, for example. I’d tell them she can’t do
that. They’d look askance, “But she’s bionic!” That’s right. And she can turn over a
car. But a truck is too heavy for her. She can jump down three floors, yes, but if
she jumps down four her bionic legs break. Even the expanded reality of the
bionic world had to have its own internal truth. By carefully adhering to those
truths and limitations the audiences were helped to thoroughly believe in Jaime’s
character and in her world.
I also kept up the level of humor, which Lindsay Wagner was a master at playing.
The small touches of “pocket bionics,” as we called them, leavened each story
with truth. Why search for a can opener when you can open up the tuna fish can
with your bionic thumbnail? And wouldn’t you peel those potatoes at bionic speed
to keep up with Julia Child’s cooking lesson? You bet.
Then came the call asking me to translate one of the Marvel Comic Super
Heroes into a television series. Yikes! I was being type-cast. And further, the
comic book reality was too far from the truth of everyday reality for my taste. I just
didn’t relate to people who donned colorful spandex to save the world. Such
people don’t exist in the real, truthful world. Additionally, I simply couldn’t imagine
having a pizza with Captain America.
However my wife Susie (the most well-read person I know) had recently given
me one of her favorites: Victor Hugo’s great humanistic masterpiece, Les
Miserables. I was in the midst of reading it at that time, so I had the rich
characters of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in my head as well as the concept
of a fugitive on the run.
I realized that I could take that essential concept, plus a bit of Robert Louis
Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and blend them with Stan Lee’s creation, The
Incredible Hulk, to make not a standard super-hero show, but an adult,
psychological drama that lived in the real world.
First I sought scientific support to bolster my effort to put as much truth as
possible into the piece. I poured through biomedical research to seek some
justification for the startling metamorphosis that transformed a normal man into a
power, primitive beast. I studied cellular biology so I could inform my fiction with
as much reality and logical techno-speak as possible. I suppose many other
writers of science fiction rely on true science as much as they can.
But I was anxious to go beyond that merely scientific information to find support
for my story that was truthful about human emotion.
Those who have seen my movie pilot for The Incredible Hulk, either on TV or
now on DVD, will note that it opens with a title card which reads: Within each of us,
oft-times dwells a mighty and raging fury.
To me that idea was the cornerstone upon which all the rest of the drama was
based, because who among us hasn’t felt that need to “Hulk-out” at some time in
our lives? Whether it’s anger at a child or parent, or moments of road rage, or the
terrible frustrations of hearing, “Please hold, your call is very important to us,” or
the growing fury of watching the little hourglass on a computer screen cycle
endlessly while the grains of sand of our lives slip away.
Because everyone has at some time truthfully felt those primal angers and urges
– that desire to let themselves fly wildly out of control – I used that idea to create
an immediate and visceral connection between each person in the audience and
my hero, particularly as portrayed by the gifted and empathetic actor, Bill Bixby
I believe that connection to the truth of human nature was largely responsible for
the impact that The Incredible Hulk TV series has had on millions of people
around the world over the years. And it inspired me in all of my subsequent work,
from my original mini-series V, to Alien Nation and beyond, to base everything
upon a core of human truth.
I’m hopeful that George Burns is looking down at me, cigar in hand, and smiling,
pleased that I took his advice.