Alice in Disco Land

David gets a blast from the past when he encounters teenager Alice, a girl whom he knew years back when she was little. He sees she's having trouble with alcohol and feeling suicidal and decides to intervene on her behalf, needing the Hulk to save the day. Reporter Jack McGee shows up and David winds up getting in trouble with the owners of the bar he's currently working at.

This is what "The Incredible Hulk" does very well; confronting a social issue while maintaining the struggle David goes through by helping others while trying to stay under the radar. The Hulk action here is minimum but there's a great disco feel throughout here and the final showdown is fun, accompanied by a disco-theme version of "The Lonely Man" piano theme.

Overall a solid Season 2 episode from the series.

David Banner (Bixby) now working as a bar-tender in a fashionable disco recognises Alice (Wilkes) as a youngster he met years before, who's now struggling with addiction and associating with unsavoury characters caught up in minor crime and mobster activity.

This episode's highlight is the scene in which David is manhandled and then locked-up by the disco owner's thugs, then emerges as the Hulk to the surprise of the dancing crowd as he strides onto the strobe-lit dance-floor to re-claim Alice whose being subdued against her will by the thugs. I was a little disappointed that big Lou didn't get down and boogie to a disco heave in front of the stunned patrons, instead, distracted by the glitter ball, he takes off. Missed opportunity.

I recognised Wilkes as one of the more prominent stricken teen sailors from "Jaws 2" while brawny Brion James ("48 Hrs", "Enemy Mine") plays one of the thugs who dances with disco Hulk. Not a bad entry paying homage to the disco era in vogue at the time.

Once again a silly title hides a truly excellent episode. Working as a bartender at a disco, David recognizes the joint's teen dancing star as Alice, who he knew as a little girl. Seems she's been running away from home ever since the last time David saw her - when her father died - and her mother's not dealing with the problem.

There's a lot being explored here: runaways, alcoholism, lost innocence. It's all confronted effectively, with minimal After School Special pontificating. Donna Wilkes is perfect for her role, falling somewhere between cute girlhood and sexy womanhood, and playing the intense hostility of a teenage runaway alcoholic while maintaining the viewer's compassion. David wants to help her, and you root for him all the way.

One of the best surprises of the episode is Louie, Alice's dancing partner and boyfriend. He's not good to Alice at all; he's insensitive, jealous, occasionally cruel, and gives less than zero support for her when she tries to give up alcohol. Yet the ep doesn't play him as a straight-up villain. Indeed, it goes out of its way to inform us of how much more important his dance contests with Alice are to him than they are to her. It's a poignant warning that you don't have to have villainous motives to treat other people like dirt.

To top it off, there's a good dose of McGee in here, and Alice's frequent quoting of Alice in Wonderland actually works for some odd reason. This one doesn't hit quite all of the right notes, but it's consistently moving and entertaining.

David Banner gets a job as a bus boy at Pandemonium Disco, and meets a runaway teen, Alice (Donna Wilkes) whom he knew as a child. She was his late friend's daughter and he was her Godfather. David has fond memories of taking care of Alice as a girl, and reading to her from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

Now, however, Alice isn't doing so well. Virtually abandoned by her wealthy mother, she is adrift and alone. Aside from being a great disco dancer, Alice is also an alcoholic. She can't go a day without drinking, a fact that David gently reminds her of.

When David attempts an intervention, however, the disco's ganger owner, Ernie (Marc Alaimo) thinks that Banner is compelling her to testify in a Federal case against him, and sets out to punish him. But Ernie hasn't counted on the fact that David can transform into the Hulk.

The hulk, like usually, turns up twice, once when saving by Alice from jumping off a roof and the other time is at the pandemonium disco where its denizens are grooving it down on the dance floor, shaking it but not breaking it- well, the hulk breaks it.

But it's the moving story of Alice, a teen alcoholic, that takes centre - of course, David, who recognises her as his godfather, helps, gets her to get help, but she expresses that she needs to control this urge to drink. To control her urges- something that Banner understands really well. It's a great episode, strong in all aspects.

David Banner(Bill Bixby) finds himself forced to take a job working in a bar/disco for an unscrupulous man(played by Marc Alaimo) who sells drinks to minors, one of whom, named Alice Morrow(played by Donna Wilkes) David used to know many years ago as the young daughter of a deceased friend. Now an alcoholic, Alice teeters on the edge of collapse, as David must do all he can to help her, even as his boss plots to get rid of him thinking he is an undercover policeman... Nicely written episode is marred by that hideous music(a sign of its times!) but still tells an intelligent and thoughtful tale about alcoholism.