I couldn’t help myself. Knowing that The Incredible Hulk comic book and TV series is being made into a feature film, I began to relive some of my childhood memories. And those memories include the chilling and sad music created by Joe Harnell, composer of soundtracks such as The Bionic Woman, “V" and too many other projects to name. So as promised in the last article, I bring you the exclusive interview with Joe Harnell who created the disturbing yet soothing music for The Incredible Hulk TV Series.

Below the interview you’ll find the continuation of The Incredible Hulk fans’ views on the comic book vs. the TV Series. I’d love to hear from more of you! Feel free to post on the newsgroup newsguy.writers.scificapsule ! Also, be sure to visit the newsgroups rec.arts.sf.tv and rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe to post and respond to messages regarding The Incredible Hulk! And, if you’re daring, head over to Kiss My Heart at http://www.kissmyheart.com and take The Incredible Hulk TV Series vs. Comic Book Poll!

Now, a little insight into the man called Joe Harnell. He was kind enough to call me on the phone for the interview. He is the most well-mannered and delightful person to deal with. His family is of the highest priority, including his lovely wife, Alice. As a surprise, Joe put the phone down and began playing “The Lonely Man," the sad music from The Incredible Hulk, on his keyboard. This brought back a flood of memories as I remembered watching the show and hearing that music every time Dr. David Banner (played by Bill Bixby) was walking away  rom the camera.

IR) What was the process you went through to write the music for The Incredible Hulk TV series? Did you read the script and come up with the tracks or did you write music in advance and someone picked out which pieces would fit certain spots in the script?

JH) The process was that I would read the scripts and do anything I could to get a jump on the personality of the show; not only the people involved, but what the point of the drama was. And on that basis, all of the music was custom-made. I didn’t say, “Oh I can use this other piece that I have in the drawer." Because, quite honestly, there is a drawer, but it would take too long to filter through the drawer to find something appropriate. Therefore, everything was custom-made. It’s the responsibility of the composer to make things fit.

IR) Did you use a full orchestra?

JH) For The Hulk, it generally was, but there were times when a jazz score would be appropriate, or, for example, in one of the shows there was a huge string ensemble because of the personality -- it was a very romantic speaking. But generally, it was a large orchestra which is anything more than 20 pieces for the studio. My orchestra was 36 people. From week to week, some of the musicians might not be available so then I’d go to the second stringers. They were all marvelous players. The performance is so good the first crack that if there’s another reason to do another take it might be the engineer’s fault, it might be the microphone placement, it might be that the instrument has an specific line that we want to hear better. It’s one of the few arts that are so precise. Heading click-tracks. Click tracks are what the players wear over their ears. Everybody has a pair of earphones. In that set of earphones there’s the constant reference to the precise tempo. It’s an electronic sound. It’s unobtrusive and variable. The beeps of the click track are based on where the particular moments in the film come. Precisely at 28.006 second.

IR) Is there any pressure writing music for a weekly TV Series?

JH) The pressure for a weekly television show is not serious if there are three or four minutes of music in the episode, which is often the case with a lot of the dramas like “Law & Order." The work creatively may take two hours. But work on a show that has 24 minutes of music -- you can do four minutes of composition in a day – so on The Hulk, it was stressful. I had such a great learning experience. Every show had a different take on life and the various social problems. So I had a great talent to work with and was able to project a lot of interesting things in the music. I used influences by some of the old classical composers and then there were some ethic-orientated episodes that I did interpretations of Pink Floyd. So I did a lot of research. I always had time to do that during the summer on hiatus. I would see the scripts and start to make the dots on the paper. I did use computers toward the end of the show but just as an adjunct to the acoustic instruments. The time parameters would be different. It wouldn’t be the same tempo and the same time duration; sometimes it was 18 seconds or 42 seconds – so the time parameters were always different so it would come out just perfect. When you’re spending $1.08 a second on the scoring, you don’t have time to say, “Let me try that again." That was one of the reasons why I always played the tune on the piano myself, because within the boundaries within each bar line, I could move the tempo within very musical ways, so you’d have no idea there were “click click click’s" going on in my head.

IR) When you wrote the musical piece "The Lonely Man," did you know at the time that it was going to be the most well-known piece of music out of the entire series?

JH) No, of course not, but what I did know is what made it special. For me, I somehow identified with the rage and horror and terror that the character David Banner felt when he became the Hulk. We all have a little piece of this to one degree or another. If you want to kill a cop, it’s not a good idea to do it, but if you do it you’ll get in trouble. The thought won’t get you in trouble. What made it special is that the piece is quiet, gentle and it isn’t violent. It’s very sad. That’s the charm of it. I was very moved by it and I think everyone else was including Kenny (Johnson) and the writers; they seemed to be very touched by it. After all the insanity and craziness, to have this character walk off looking for the place where he’s going to have some peace and serenity…

Candidly, it used to make me a little sad that the adults didn’t watch the show because it’s a comic strip. It’s a green monster! So a lot of my pals would look down my nose at the fact it was kind of childish. I didn’t see it that way, and of course the fact that it did accomplish what working for a living as a composer is supposed to do – give me a substantial income. The fact is, I had an opportunity to learn, to each week figure out what would make the music instinctive. That was the goal.

IR) Do you have anything to say to the Incredible Hulk fans?

JH) I bless and thank the fans for loving something that’s not generally associated with kids. It’s a very basic human response to not only enjoy living but also the despair of not feeling like you’re ever going to be good enough. It’s very touching now, all these years later, to have mail coming out of my ears from 20 and 30 year olds who are fans, and I can’t help but feel a great sense of gratitude.

Thanks, Joe! For those of you who wish to write to Joe, feel free to email me your email address and I’ll send you the instructions. You can email me by clicking on “Email the
Author" below.

Below is the continuation of how the fans feel about The Incredible Hulk. The questions
are:

• When did you become a fan of the Hulk?
• Do you prefer the TV Series or the Comic book?
• Are you looking forward to the movie? Why or why not?
• Which one character (either in the series or the comic) is your favorite and why?
• What is your favorite episode of the TV Series (if applicable) and why?
• What issues of the comic is your favorite (if applicable) and why?

Bryan Kennedy’s Hulk website is at http://www.bryanshulkpage.com. He first became a fan of the TV show about 15 years ago. “I never much cared for the comic book but I enjoyed Bill Bixby’s acting." Bryan is looking forward to the movie: “I do believe that Bruce Banner and The Hulk are interesting characters and would make a watchable feature film." Bryan’s favorite character is David Bruce Banner because “I believe the humanity and compassion he showed, even during the worse of his trials and tribulations, makes viewers want to be a better person. Or, at least, hope that more people could be like that character." Bryan’s favorite episode of The Incredible Hulk is “The First" because “To see Banner come so close to a cure and have it slips through his hands because he cared for others so much was very sad. Plus, seeing an evil creature helped you to like the character even more." Bryan also mentions that “I don’t read the comics much, but I did enjoy the issue(s) when the title changed to ‘The New Incredible Hulk.’"

Savage Jay, whose handle in part tells how much the Hulk helps a person with disabilities in dealing the typical daily stereotypes and prejudices, became a fan from watching the original 1977 TV Hulk movie. “I prefer the comic book because when I began to reading the comic, the Hulk was the classic dumb, green Hulk which I still do identify with. For me and as a person with cerebral palsy, a barely articulate Hulk that was and is seeking love and acceptance by the human race is more appealing than a roaring primitive outgrowth of a man like the TV series. Yes. I am looking forward to the movie because according to reports, the movie will portray the Hulk more in a favorable light, perhaps, more accurately than any live-action film in the Hulk's 40 year history." As for Savage Jay’s favorite character, it is of course “The Savage Hulk. The answer is this. In the Hulk's history, no Hulk captures the anguish and pain of being different so eloquently like the classic dumb, green Hulk. That's why it attracted me to him." Jay’s favorite TV episode is “’Married.’ The episode was well done and although the Hulk was a outgrowth of David Banner, it showed the accurate portrayal of his compassion towards a friend who just died." As for the comic book issues, “These are The Incredible Hulk #234-237. Those show how much the Savage Hulk is willing to go to rescue an old friend including destroying a city."

Charlie Martin started with The Hulk “in the early 90s, around the time that Peter David's grey Hulk was there to stay. I started actively collecting when Paul Jenkins came aboard." Obvious choice: the comic book. Charlie’s looking forward to the movie. “I love the crew that's working on it (Ang Lee, David Hayter, Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte), and I like the fact that Ang Lee has plans on using the original comics as reference." Charlie’s favorite character is the Hulk himself. “The Hulk, preferably the grey one. I think that he most accurately reflects the dark side of Banner and the Jekyll/Hyde aspects that Stan Lee based the character on." Charlie doesn’t remember the name of his favorite episode, but “there was one show where Banner tried to cure himself with a serum that ended up releasing his ID, creating a darker Banner. He then unleashed the Hulk as a weapon, going into bars and picking fights, harassing women, etc." Charlie’s favorite comic is "’Return to Las Vegas,’" by Peter David. I absolutely love the gangster element that Peter David gave to the Hulk, and it's just a fun storyline. I also like ‘Snake Eyes,’ by Paul Jenkins, which reintroduced the grey Hulk, and ‘Dear Betty,’ also by Paul Jenkins, which contained what is probably the best battle that the Hulk has ever been in." You can check out Charlie’s website at www.uvm.edu/~chmartin !

Cesar Huerta is yet another Hulk fan. He became a fan of the series when he was a little kid and prefers the comic book over the television show. He’s looking forward to the special effects in the new movie. His favorite characters are the Hulk and Betty Ross. What’s Cesar’s favorite TV episode? “Geez, I don’t remember the TV series… I was just a four year old kid! I love the Peter David run on the Incredible Hulk comic book."

Rahul Malhotra “was a small child when the TV series came out, so that piqued my interest, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Hulk until around issue 390, during the PAD run. I prefer the comic book. The Hulk has gone through many changes over the years in the comic whereas the TV show simply had the angry Hulk. The comic book has the Hulk surrounded by interesting characters (Betty Ross Banner, Rick Jones, General Ross, Doc Sampson, etc.), whereas the TV show had McGee. Finally, the TV show was limited by their budget and special effects of the time. Thus, their Hulk was a wimp compared to the Hulk in the comics. The TV show could not show a fraction of the destruction Hulk caused in the comics." Rahul is definitely anxious to see the movie: “Special effects are at the point where they can make a computer-generated Hulk that looks good, and can do some real damage. Furthermore, Marvel has shaped up their movie-producing skills. Prior to Blade and X-men, any movie about Marvel characters was really awful. (Punisher, Captain America, Fantastic Four, etc.) While I have not seen Blade, many have told me it was very good. I really enjoyed X-Men and Spider-Man, and so have hope for Marvel's ability to make movies." Rick Jones is Rahul’s favorite character: “He's the normal guy who hangs out with superheroes (and has now become one). In spite of all he has gone through, he still has a great sense of humor." “I liked the first movie," Rahul continues, "’The Incredible Hulk Returns.’ I liked the way they did Thor. Plus, I was young and impressionable when I saw it." As for the comic book, “I liked all of the Peter David run, but I especially liked the Mr. Fixit storyline and the storylines where the various Hulks fight for control. I liked the Mr. Fixit storyline because it put Hulk in a very human setting, and he was a mean, tough guy. I liked the storylines where the various Hulks fight for control because I suppose I like seeing people fight themselves. Two specific issues that are probably my favorite make up the limited series Future Imperfect. This in-continuity story has the future Hulk turn into the Maestro, the ruler of a radiation-free zone in a post-nuke America. Rick Jones of that time period calls the then-current Hulk to the future to topple the Maestro. It is a great series, for it explores the Hulk's inner demons in new ways, and again has the green guy fight himself. A sequel to this was David's novel, ‘What Savage Beast.’ This was my favorite Hulk story ever."