The things you find on the internet! A short lived television show, Mr. Terrific aired on CBS from January to August 1967. It told the comic adventures of Stanley Beamish who, after taking a secret formula produced by government scientists, became the heroic Mr. Terrific. At ten years old, I loved it. Considering how quickly it was cancelled I was part of a select audience. Part of the jingle that opened the show has remained with me over half a century:
Change a lamb into a lion
Like an eagle he’ll be flyin
Solid steel will be like putty
It’ll work on anybody.
As it turned out the formula instead only worked on one man, meek and mild Stanley Beamish. (You know, if you had a formula that gave great power, having it only work on someone who was a nice person and meek and mild might be quite fortuitous.) In the television series the role of Beamish was portrayed by the late Stephen Strimpell who did a good job in portraying Mr. Terrific as a nebbish with a heart of gold who used his new found powers only to help others.
The late Alan Young, fresh from his immortal role as Wilbur on Mr. Ed the Talking Horse, (it was the Sixties, you had to be there to understand), made an unaired pilot for the show that graces the top of this post.
I remember this as well and was confused when it went away. After all, how could something so funny just disappear?
IIRC, there was also a show on another network called Captain Nice. It aired right after Mr. Terrific and it followed roughly the same formula, much to my patient father’s chagrin.
The 80s version of that show was The Greatest American Hero
It didn’t fare any better in the Neilson ratings. I still remember the theme song, though.