William Katt | The Complete Pioneers of Television Interview

[@ann-mariebarmby1228]

Just love William Katt ...Connie Selleca and Bob Culp ...the Greatest American Hero i grew up watching ...iconic show ...one of the Best ever !!

[@johnflynn9619]

Wm Katt is Great. Very Underrated Actor.

[@billstrat2917]

First Love and Big Wednesday, great movies.

[@keithmorange]

One of my favorite shows as a kid and rewatching it now still a great show. It Will always be special to me.

[@keithmorange]

I wear a GAH t-shirt on 4th of July and when people recognize it they light up and almost every time shout “Greatest American Hero!”

[@chrism1950]

One of the best superheroes ever. Thanks William Katt...awesome show and interview.

[@nailpolishnook7373]

Greatest American Hero had a great theme song!

[@basketofpuppys]

Epic Show that is still fun to watch and Enjoyable for all ages

[@annehajdu8654]

Best TV theme song.

[@noblemav]

William Katt, (what can I say) Terrific actor, humble as. I watched the show back in the 80’s and was disappointed they cancelled the show….never really thought to much after that, but 40 years later on utube I managed to watch the whole episodes over.

[@mirrorlessthesis3599]

It sure worked for kids! I loved it. Monsters, aliens, and everything else. As a kid, I didn't see it as a comedy, but now I can see it how it can be.

[@kevinkaatz883]

I didn’t think it was a comedy, but did think it was made for adults and is a top-notch show, well acted

[@robynheavner4689]

Love William Katt! Great actor and handsome as ever at 72 2023!

[@kevinkaatz883]

In fall of 82, when I was 11, watched them film at Castle Park arcade in Sherman Oaks. Ralph was in the wash, wearing a jesture’s hat and pretending to look at the holograph on the wall

[@topdog1128]

To me, William Katt is the greatest american hero.... Loved that show..

[@christinebehnke9132]

I loved that show. They need to do a reboot!

[@ginabizzarosghosts7831]

Wow he's still soo handsome

[@annehajdu8654]

His hair looks goofy here.

[@peecee1384]

I think he’d look better with short hair. Waddya think?

[@ann-mariebarmby1228]

Really will always live Bill soo beautiful and eloquent xx

[@susanfontana2018]

He’s a hair bag and needs a hair cut badly!

[@williamhowerton744]

No it doesnt. Looks perfectly fine. Does not look like 72 at all.​@annehajdu8654

[@chesterlane3032]

It has been 40 years since the greatest American hero went off the air and recently William Katt had a Birthday and he's old enough to be my uncle or a old friend who I really liked and admire from the 80's

[@annehajdu8654]

He's 72 now.

[@rikipuppy7684]

LOVED that show! And he is still handsome as ever

[@halaheleu7013]

The greatest American hero was way ahead of its time.

[@kamuelalee]

William Katt was fantastic in The Greatest American Hero.

[@welcometoSunnydale291]

He has aged beautifully. Loved this show as a kid

[@ChesterBenjaminLane]

I grew up with both of his mom and him too because they are related with each other and that they are mom and son and I got all 3 seasons of the Greatest American Hero 1981-1983

[@gforceeatingcorrect]

AMAZING Actor.... so was his Dad !!!

[@Nicks_Pix]

Yep

[@debbieloyer6882]

His Mom (Barabara Hale) played Della Street on Perry Mason.

[@antoniocruz1163]

This show brought back a lot of memories from the 80s. Thank you.

[@chrisv.4071]

He seems like a very decent man ......❤❤❤❤❤❤humble

[@ann-mariebarmby1228]

Beautiful guy inside and out xx❤❤

[@robbyrdog]

My favorite childhood movie believe it or not is the horror movie House. William Katt was PERFECT in that movie.

[@HC-cb4yp]

Appealing guy.

[@PatrickL.McConnell]

Wonderful to see and hear this interview! Thank You for your ART!!!

[@movieclipz1441]

I love William Katt, always be one my favourites 😇

[@MissWitchiepoo]

I loved Greatest American Hero and though I have never bought many DVDs I did buy the box set because this was one of the few shows I loved enough to buy. I also loved Robert Culp he was so funny. I would have loved to tell William that he was even popular in Denmark:)

[@paanne1013]

I don't know how old this interview is, but William Katt still looks Fine. I just finished watching the series this past weekend and wanted to see more. My son, who was 11 at the time, watched the show every week and I would peek in to see "Ralph". I saw a video recently on KZbin of him in the play "Pippin" and discovered what a talented man he truly was. He can act, sing and dance and he does it all well. William Katt was a young handsome actor, now he is a mature handsome actor. He is so humble.

[@busticator8626]

I grew up watching the show, and I’m rewatching it now for the second time with my kids. They are enjoying it, too. I think the show has really held up. Ralph, Bill, and Pam had such great chemistry and Carlisle was a great recurring role as well. It’s a shame he didn’t jump at the chance to take the role again…

[@acemacgruber6593]

I’m surprised there wasn’t any conversation about the movie Carrie, or about the movie First Love with Susan Dey. It would’ve been interesting to hear what he had to say about them.

[@troymccain7438]

This man is a living legend ❤

[@chiquitagoodwin7926]

Our family loved it, my little brother just loved it

[@peecee1384]

Connie is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. And so sweet. 🥰 Loved Robert Culp (great in Columbo, too!) William seems like a thoughtful, grounded, very nice human being.

[@paanne1013]

You should check out The Rifleman, Robert Culp was in that two times, very young at the time.

[@candacetalley9261]

I love that show The greatest American hero I wish it was back on TV 😞 📺🙏🏿🙏🏿

[@marykarim6430]

You are amazing! Thanks!

[@candacetalley9261]

I think William Katt did a very good job of playing The greatest American and I do say he's better than Superman 😂🎉🙏🏿🙏🏿👑👑

[@robvangessel3766]

I streamed GAH a bunch of times and at its best, I love it. It struck me that the love-hate relationship between Ralph and Bill Maxwell was a LOT like that between Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad (another addiction of mine). The ONLY element I have trouble with in GAH is the depiction of Ralph's "problem students": West Side Story stereotypes, dated even for that time, and all speaking with Brooklyn accents in the middle of Los Angeles! When they're on screen, it's like nails on the chalkboard. Mercifully, they don't get a WHOLE lot of screen time. IMO, it's the show's one weakness. When they're in an otherwise terrific episode (like the pilot), I just grin and bear it. That said, the series' 3 leads - Katt, the brilliant and gorgeous Connie Sellecca, and the late, super great Robert Culp - created some of the best moments in tv history.

[@paanne1013]

The gal who replaced Faye Grant in a few of the shows, was HORRIBLE! Some of those kids were terrible, but it did add to the show when needed. People from Brooklyn can move to southern California.

[@robvangessel3766]

@@paanne1013 But they ALL sounded like New Yorkers. Cliches from West Side Story! In Los Angeles. I totally agree, tho, that Ralph's special ed kids were important for plots and character arc. They just needed better conception, and in some cases better actors. The other problem was Michael Pare's character being underwritten. In the otherwise brilliant pilot episode, he's whining about how Bill Maxwell looks down on him like "garbage". But without background - like a neglectful or abusive parental upbringing - we no reason to sympathize with him and he IS acting like garbage. I sided way more with Bill than I did Pare.

[@paanne1013]

@@robvangessel3766 - I picked up on that watching the first episode and don't know why they chose some of the "kids". There are lots of local southern California young actors that would have done well...like some surfer kids.

[@paanne1013]

Michael Pare was the only one who was from Brooklyn, NY in real life, so he would have been okay if it had just been him with the accent.

[@STANDFAST-tm6ny]

I think a reboot with William reprising the roll would be epic.

[@kathymonahan7594]

William katt is a great actor loved him in the two hour perry mason shows

[@billloomis4975]

Mom's a big fan of Perry Mason, I remember seeing him on the reunion movies. I think I saw him on the 3rd movie before I realized who he was.

[@paanne1013]

He played Paul Drake Jr. in 9 of the Perry Mason movies...it is worth watching them.

[@thiagopereiradossantos588]

I love this show , I hope that it's possible to recreate again

[@paanne1013]

It would never be the same.

[@steveconn]

He looks very good (funnily frustrating he could never master a decent flying posture).

[@paanne1013]

That was part of the comedy of the show, but I think if the show had lasted, he would have mastered it.

[@Zzzk23]

Thank you for the upload

[@kathrynbellerose6216]

Good actor. Don’t know about what his dad looked like but is mom was a beautiful woman. She was the legal assistant on Perry Mason.

[@paanne1013]

He looks a lot like his father, but has a lot of his mothers features too, and yes, she was a beauty. His father was Bill Williams (his birth name was: Herman August Wilhelm Katt) and you can google him.

[@MissterX]

It's a double edged sword for me, Dallas one of my favorite shows was the reason Greatest American Hero (another of my favorite shows) was cancelled.

[@vassa1972]

I sort of remember that show

[@purefoldnz3070]

very interesting. I didn't know that he had been offered another two seasons of the show. I wonder why they didnt offer him a movie instead.

[@peecee1384]

Suggestion : Add date (year) of interview to title

[@paanne1013]

It has to be sometime after 2010 because both Robert Culp and Stephan Cannell died in 2010. But a date would have been nice. If Culp and Cannell died in 2010 and they had a memorial for Cannell...it would make William Katt about 60 years old. At the end of the interview he says "it was just afew months ago that they had the 1 year memorial of Stephans death. So he is 60 here and looking good.

[@Nancie680]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@avlisk]

Believe it or not, George isn't at home. . .

[@dennisdonnelly7794]

Good show but I think it was the greatest TV theme song

[@soeffingwhat]

Yes, brilliant song, a key part of the show.

[@DanielKing-dk5nr]

We need a NEW superhero, this being into a movie would be amazingggggggggggg. That suit would have the best powers.

[@wagneferreira2679]

Show de bola

[@FACTSONLIT]

I hope they do a re-boot!! Please do a re-boot!! And make the suit exactly as the original but with a MAN of Steel texture to it!! Let's bring back Greatest American Hero!! Star Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling

[@keepingitreal71]

Love this show and wish that he could have done a show that helps out disabled kids... Otherwise... Still a great show.....

[@kevinkaatz883]

Brando couldn’t have done a better job than this cast

[@kayedeedid]

he mentions how exhausted he was after 3 years and never saw his family. Well, he was 5 years old when his mom got cast as Della Street in Perry Mason. It was supposed to last 18 episodes and she was wrangled in for 9 seasons. She had three kids between the ages of 8 and three when the show started. At the same time, his dad was doing Kit Carson on television so both parents are out there working the same crazy schedules that TV shows work. And back then they did 30-40 episodes a year not the piddly 15-20 they do now.

[@paanne1013]

She had a smaller part in Perry Mason and I would bet she did a lot of her parts in a few weeks, then were edited and added to the shows. Try working 10 plus hours a day 6 days a week, see how you do. I went to a live taping of a comedy show in Los Angeles back in the 70's...they explained to the audience that the show would not make sense to us because it was filmed by scenes in the same place, then they would edit them into the finished shows...not all the same shows. Like kitchen scenes were all done together, then the living room scenes, etc. So his Mom may have had her parts all done together, in the office as the secretary.

[@frankwc0o]

Too me it was not comedy. Never seen it that way. Well then again, I was a kid.

[@annehajdu8654]

To me

[@matthewcarlson103]

7-11-22 Greetings and God's blessings. My mom used to make a long walk to Rockford West High School everyday with this actor's mom. This actor's name is William Katt. His mother was Della Street on Perry Mason. This actor's mother's real name was Barbara Hale. First please let me make some warnings about "superheroism" : This actor , Mr. William Katt in his role in The Greatest American Hero wore a cape like Superman. The man who portrayed Superman on television when I was a child and when William Katt was a child which he mentions watching everyday in the latter part of this 30-minute video was Mr. George Reeves. George Reeves shot himself in the head when he was only 45 years old. Christopher Reeve , another Superman actor completely severed his spinal cord in a horse riding accident when he was 43 years old. Superman actor Christopher Reeve's name is the same as George Reeves except without the final "s" at the end. It's spelled Reeve. Christopher Reeve portrayed Superman four times on the big screen starting in 1978. 1978's production of "Superman : The Movie" was the most expensive movie ever produced at the time. Christopher Reeve's co-star , Canadian Margot Kidder , who played Superman's girlfriend character Lois Lane committed suicide in 2018. In 1996 Margo was found disheveled in a backyard in Los Angeles in what she called , aside from Vivian Leigh's during filming the famous film Gone with the Wind , the biggest nervous breakdown in Hollywood history. Christopher Reeve died in 2004 at the age of fifty-two nine years after very nobly and publicly convalescing with his completely severed spinal cord. I believe that George Reeves' and Margot Kidder's suicides and Christopher Reeve's publicly tragic and poignant spinal cord injury and death was for Jesus' testimony. Jesus does not want Superman rivals. There is nothing of Christian faith in Superman or any superheroe series. They are only rivals to Christ and substitutes. Please take advantage of knowing about these tragedies and worship God. With the tragic and public deaths of these Superman actors , including Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane played by Margo Kidder , Jesus is showing us that He only is God. Jesus will not tolerate Superman or other superhero rivals. Because of George Reeves' portrayal of Superman on TV , I like a million other baby boomer boys tried to fly like Superman. We Baby Boomers trying to fly like Superman should have been repenting to Jesus the true Superman. Jesus will tolerate no rivals. George Reeves , Mr. Christopher Reeve , and Ms. Margo Kidder lost their lives after portraying Superman to prove that Jesus will tolerate no rivals with miraculous type powers. When I asked her directly my mother said William Katt's mother , actress Barbara Hale wasn't super popular in high school. Mom said that Barbara Hale was just an average friendly school girl. I asked my mom that because people that become stars quite often are very popular in school. Barbara Hale became popular for the famous character role of Della Street and less so for her own celebrity. Perhaps Barbara was trying to live a quiet life at home off the screen. Every lawyer in America over 65 or 70 years old remembers Barbara Hale who was TV lawyer Perry Mason's secretary Della Street. In Wikipedia Barbara Hale is listed as the second cast member in the Perry Mason TV show. I didn't find out about my mother's relationship with Barbara Hale until Barbara Hale died in January of 2017. My mom kept asking me about the news related to Barbara's death and then it finally came out that as my mom put it she used to make a long walk to High School with Barbara. I can't remember if Barbara was in the news with an illness before her death. The memory makes me want to cry now and makes me want to offer my mother died later that same year. Love you Bill. The fictional Perry Mason show had a large cultural impact with people that became lawyers and judges and African-Americans. It shows the power of TV and perhaps a word to the wise about what I'm saying about Superman. In the case of African Americans who were mostly excluded from the legal system it was their way to learn about our legal system. In the case of prospective lawyers and eventually judges the power of TV made an impact on them. William Katt's mother Barbara Hale started out in Show Business in a film with Frank Sinatra. I just looked at some photos of her with Frank Sinatra in 1943. Barbara Hale was a very pretty in those photos. I had not noticed how pretty Barbara Hale was in 1943 before today. This man's mother Barbara Hale married TV's Kit Carson , William Katt's father. William Katt's father's stage name was Bill Williams. Bill Williams was born with the good old German name : Herman August Wilhelm Katt. Wilhelm became Williams for the stage name father and William for the first name of the son. William received the Katt name his dad was born with and kept it both for his personal and stage name. The Adventures of Kit Carson from 1951 to 1955 are too far back for anybody under 70 years old to remember. A person can KZbin episodes of The Adventures of Kit Carson now. Kit Carson was more of an authentic Western. My mother's parents were from Italy so I guess my mother helped get Barbara Hale acclimated enough to Italian Americans to work with Frank Sinatra early in her career. Cut that hair Junior. Blessings , Brother Matt Italian supplement: This man's co-star on the Greatest American Hero , Ms. Connie Sellecca , was born Concetta Sellecchia in the Bronx , New York to Italian parents , Primo Sellecchia and Marianna (Acampora) Sellecchia. Apparently Connie is 100% Italian. Connie Sellecca doesn't look overly Italian if I may put it that way. Before World War II Rockford Illinois , for most of the last century the second biggest City in Illinois , was literally 40% Italian and 40% Swedish. My father's father was from Sweden. Again blessings on everybody. Love everybody.

[@soeffingwhat]

do yourself a favour pal, stay off the drugs and stop over-thinking this stuff. Your "god" and your "jesus christ" would be laughing their heads off at the stupid OTT crap you're writing. Superman and TGAH are FANTASY MADE CHARACTERS, and if your "god" exists I'm sure he knows that. Ok? Now run along and stay off the drugs.

[@deborahklinlger8565]

Your reasoning in the beginning of the comments is very farfetched. To think that JC somehow had to do with the Superman actors is juvenile at best. Please don't insult our intelligence with your crazy thoughts on why George Reeves & Christopher Reeves & Margo Kidder's deaths were bc JC couldn't bear anything taking away his power or away from his being a super being. It's crazy ass reasoning. It's a bizarre theory. And makes no sense to me.

[@soeffingwhat]

@@deborahklinlger8565 I don't think that guy (or girl, but I'm guessing its a guy) believes it either. People like that are essentially desperate for attention and use the net to post stuff which they wouldn't dare say to anyone's faces. They are total hypocrites in reality. Just thought I'd say that.

[@drbonesshow1]

He couldn't make the suit sag in the right place to get the attention of the ladies... if you catch my drift.

[@paanne1013]

You are the only one making negative comments here...that says a lot about you, an inferior person who sits alone 24/7...a sad and pathetic person.

[@drbonesshow1]

Now he looks like an old woman.

[@sandella11]

I think he looks pretty good. Not a fan of his hair...but his face is cute.. he just needs a haircut.

[@johnflynn9619]

But, he was a Handsome Actor in his day.

[@paanne1013]

You are a Jerk and a Troll and very Jealous.

[@paanne1013]

What do you look like? I would bet not so good looking and a very jealous person. Mr. Negative...said it in another one of your negative comments, you are the only one making negative comments here.

[@paanne1013]

@@johnflynn9619 - It depends on how old you are, I think he has aged well.

[@chuckfrost5624]

Television was for the most part pretty bad around this time, but this show was really bad. In fact this show was so bad that it was unwatchable. A very talented and intelligent actor, Robert Kulp, from I Spy was in this garbage, the ultimate insult for such a great actor.

[@thecomicdrill]

Shows during that time were so much better than the filth ridden crap today. Love this show.

[@capjackson3796]

Negativity detected. The show is great! Negativity negated.

[@echozgus]

Go away please this show was fun

[@robynheavner4689]

I don't agree with you! The show was great! Bill Katt is a favorite, so is Bill Culp and Connie Selica! Well I'm sure alot of people disagree with your comment! God bless❤✌🎭

[@paanne1013]

Why are you here watching if you think the show was so bad? You like to make negative comments, kind of like a Troll.