This material is Copyright 2004 by Kenneth Johnson and may be reprinted with his permission.

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.