After the popular primetime series ended, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno returned to their classic roles in three post-series telefilms. The final of the three,
Death of the Incredible Hulk, is owned by Fox and was
released on DVD in 2003, and is still available. The other two,
The Incredible Hulk Returns (with Marvel-ous guest hero Thor) and
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (with co-hero Matt "Daredevil" Murdock teaming with Banner/Hulk to fight none other than John Rhys-Davies as Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk).
Returns and
Trial have had an interesting DVD history, with both first coming to disc from a company called Top Ten New Media in 2002. Both were supposedly available in the USA, but I actually had to get my own copies from a Canadian online retailer at the time. These were bare-bones releases with bad transfers, and although both
Returns and
Trial can be found used through Amazon today, neither is recommended for your collection.
In May 2003 the two telefilms were
released by Anchor Bay in a terrific 2-DVD set, with much better transfers and filled with a number of extras. This release is certainly the best choice, and is the most recommended version to get. It can still be found from time to time, or
ordered new from Amazon for around $10 street price.
This version is difficult to find, though, and Anchor Bay is mainly selling off current stock. For those of you who want to own these, but don't want to track down that edition, Anchor Bay is preparing a new single-disc, no-extras release of
The Incredible Hulk - 2 Full Movies: The Incredible Hulk Returns & The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. This scaled-back version will cost only $9.98 list price, and will be out on
May 13th.
That's a couple of weeks prior to the
reported (but still unannounced) early June release by Universal of the 3rd season set and, separately, the 4th season set from the main show (the fifth and final season will come out before the end of the year). It's also just a month prior to the June 13th theatrical debut of Edward Norton's
new Hulk film. With all that Hulk-mania going on, it shouldn't be hard to find this new release with
Returns and
Trial at any number of places. Here is the front and rear package art for the new version of Anchor Bay's release:
