Today, I’m looking to see what you think is the coolest heroic entrance on a TV series.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
You know the routine, it’s a big moment in an episode, the heroes are in trouble and then suddenly, out of nowhere, someone shows up to save the day!
My pick is the dramatic reveal at the conclusion of Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Giles shows up to stop Dark Willow when she is about to kill Buffy. Dark Willow says, “And there is no one in the world who is powerful enough to stop me” and then Giles blasts her with some magic of his own and states, “I’d like to test that theory.”
Since Giles had left the show by this point, it was a major moment.
An honorable mention would be Quantum Leap‘s “M.I.A.” where Sam shows up to save his partner from being ambushed…
Okay, so that’s my pick (plus a bonus pick). How about you?
And feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at brian@popculturereferences.com! Thanks to Wayne for this suggestion!
The episode “Safe,” from “FIREFLY,” has a heroic entrance moment which is so iconic that TV Tropes named a trope after it. Mal and the rest of the crew show up to save Simon and River from being burned at the stake. That is another Joss Whedon show, of course. He just liked those moments.
For a less “easy” choice, I’ll go with “The Newlywed Game” from the last season of “THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO.” The plot involves Ralph and Bill seemingly being tasked with going on missions for the U.S. government on the day of Ralph’s wedding to Pam. It all turns out to be a very complicated Soviet plot, and the normally mellow Ralph Hinkley is not thrilled that it happened on his wedding day. The show usually was a satire of superhero tropes and Ralph therefore usually did not look terribly heroic by design. But by the climax of this episode, Ralph is using the suit to break into the “secret” facility to stop the bad guys. With Mike Post’s instrumental version of the theme playing, Ralph pushes open the doors to the main villain’s office, George Reeves/Superman style. It just felt different, like you knew this time Ralph was pissed.