Fast Lane

David (Bixby) is driving to New York in a second hand car that unbeknown to him, is filled with over a million dollars in mob money. Two former racing car drivers (Lyons & de Broux) now working as auto mechanics, discover the contents and devise a plan to carjack Bixby en route, steal the booty and finance their return to motorsport. Naturally not everything goes to plan as mob middle-man (O'Neill), double-crossing enforcer (Doubleday) and a hard-luck waitress (Carroll) whom David picks up for the ride, complicate matters.

Good supporting cast with Carroll's blonde mop-top hitch-hiker providing the feel-good sub-plot as she makes her way to reunite with her young daughter, while veteran Dick O'Neill is bullied and harassed by perennial movie bad-guy Frank Doubleday ("Escape from New York"), who resembles a younger, leaner Klaus Kinski - maniacal stare included. Alex "Incredible Melting Man" Rebar makes a brief, more robust appearance here, as the head thug who roughs up O'Neill.

After being repeatedly punctured by a cacti bush, Bixby undergoes his first metamorphosis, and the subsequent car-lifting climax makes for a memorable "Hulk-out" moment. Usual plot holes aside, this multi-dimensional storyline is certainly among the best of the series, with another fitting - albeit bittersweet - conclusion.

This one took me by surprise. The opening sequences, with their funk music and story of a has-been race car driver turned mechanic who stumbles upon a stash of mob money in the trunk of a car he's working on, had me convinced this would be a solid but by-the-numbers episode. In a sense it is, in that you have all the usual elements: drama, heart, human interest, and the contrast of the calm collected David and his raging alter ego. But it doesn't play out the way you'd expect, and it's consistently excellent on every front.

To get to a job interview at a lab, David takes a job driving someone's car up to New York. It's funny; the first time I heard of this strange-but-true job was in a 1960s Hulk comic in which Hulk sidekick Rick Jones takes the very same job, and similarly becomes a criminal pawn because of it. Cue road trip pursuit, roadside fights, and a waitress who hitches a ride with our hero.

It's a pretty standard setup, sure, but again, it doesn't unravel as you expect, and it's surprisingly compelling. The waitress's estrangement from her young daughter is handled with convincing tenderness and the villain of the episode, despite being a standard issue mobster, is genuinely scary, giving great intensity to the climactic scene.

A favorite scene of mine is when David calmly talks an angry trucker into backing down. Just a wonderful demonstration of how the greatest hero is one who keeps his cool and chooses peace even when he has the power to knock your block off. Yet the whole episode is superb. Watching it a second time prior to writing this review, I find my opinion of it has only improved.

David Banner(Bill Bixby) is hired to drive a used car from L.A. to New York, unaware that its trunk holds over a million dollars in mob money that two unscrupulous mechanics(played by Robert F. Lyons & Lee deBroux) had discovered, and devised this cunning plan to get away with the money without taking the fall, are after, not to mention the mob enforcers who want it back, Also around is a stranded woman named Nancy(played by Victoria Carroll) who wants to see her child again, so David agrees to help here, until the villains close in on him... Mostly an extended chase episode still works fine, with good performances, including Dick 0'Neil.