By Geno McGahee
I’m sick of people saying that there are no jobs out there. David Banner (Bill Bixby) has no problem finding jobs. He gets a new one every week. Sure, they are not great jobs but they are better than nothing. People have to respect that about Banner. Despite his problem, he still wants to work. I’m sure that he could get disability for his Hulk thing, but he wants to work.
Banner has found a job as a taxi driver in BEHIND THE WHEEL, and his boss is not having a good time, but she did star in the TV series GOOD TIMES as Florida. Back in the day you could look like a truck ran over your face and still get on prime time TV. Colleen (Esther Rolle) owns a cab company but she has these cartoonish goons that are putting her out of business. She inherited the company and plenty of debt and got a loan from those goons, but she can’t pay it back. Instead of beating her to a pulp and throwing her big ass into a river, they make trouble for all of her drivers, and she didn’t tell poor David that she has this issue. Freaking bitch. She sent him to his death! If he wasn’t the hulk, he would have died a taxi driver, and Colleen would have just got another fool behind the wheel.
Another issue I have with Colleen is when she hired David, he was questioning his own skills as a cab driver. She asked him if he could read a map. He said he could, but that wasn’t good enough for her. She had to get the slow guy over and show how he couldn’t read the map. When he took three hours to figure out what south was, she said: “very good. You’ve been practicing.” She only had him on the payroll to insult him.
One of Banner’s first customers is a pregnant woman that is in labor. He is nearly out of gas and pulls into a station but they refuse to sell him any gas. Bad move. The attendant slams the door on David’s hand and then throws him to the ground, and that was enough to bring the big green out. This is where the episode stars to lose it. For some reason, they used some silly score during the Hulk’s rampage. They were trying to make it light or funny, but the Hulk was fucking pissed off. That was disrespectful to the Hulk and took away from the scene.
The Hulk sighting leads to the arrival of Jack McGee (Jack Colvin). Now, why the hell doesn’t Banner just think of something that really pisses him off while he’s in the company of this pain in the ass and hulk up? Then he can throw him like a dart right into a brick wall and if he lives, he will just be sitting in a chair drooling for the rest of his days. Problem solved.
Banner is kidnapped and the bad guys try to kill him, but he hulks up and beats up all the goons…the end. He didn’t kill McGee, he didn’t rip Colleen’s arms off and beat her to death with them for exploiting the poor stupid guy she has working for her…that she probably short-changes every check. By the way, she also lies about a heart condition for sympathy. Banner, a usual good judge of character, seemed to like this cow. Shame on him. She was as bad or worse as the goons that were trying to kill him the entire episode.
BEHIND THE WHEEL is a mediocre episode. It follows the familiar formula but the score is piss poor on this one and the person in need of help is unlikable. I love the hulk, but this one is very forgettable. It was not what I would consider Good Times.
Rating: 5/10 – fuck you Florida.
