My Secret Identity



My Secret Identity was a Canadian live-action TV show that ran from 1988 to 1990. It starred Jerry O'Connell (who would become better known for starring in Sliders) as a teenager named Andrew Clements who accidentally gains superpowers and secretly uses them to help people. Contrary to the series title, though, Andrew never actually uses a secret identity - although he likes to pretend he's a superhero named Ultraman, he never wears a costume (except in a daydream sequence) and never uses his powers in public. The only other person who knew his secret was Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoat (played by Derek McGrath), Andrew's neighbor who accidentally gave the boy his powers while he was fiddling around with a homemade particle beam projector. Jeffcoat felt responsible for what happened and tried to restore Andrew to normal, despite the boy clearly loving having superpowers. Instead he mostly kept Andrew grounded on reality.

Andrew's powers included invulnerability, superspeed and levitation, but not superstrength or true flight, which Andrew really wanted to have. Instead, he had to use aerosol cans to help himself fly around! However, later in the series he would indeed gain greater strength and flight, but lost his invulnerability, after being zapped by a particle beam a second time.

The show never got much publicity, so remains pretty obscure to this day.

The series included instances of:
 * Ascended Fanboy: Andrew
 * Canadian Series
 * Cursed With Awesome
 * Fantastic Comedy
 * Freak Lab Accident: Something as simple as being hit by a beam.
 * Homemade Inventions
 * New Super Power: At the beginning of the second season.
 * One Sided Arm Wrestling
 * Power Nullifier: A dentist's X-Ray machine temporarily robs Andrew of his powers.
 * Samaritan Syndrome: In one episode, Andrew was a little too vigilant in fighting crime. What he originally thought would be a crime was instead something innocent (e.g. pulling a bank card out of a jacket, using a Heimlich Maneuver to stop choking, etc.)
 * Stock Super Powers
 * Suicidal Overconfidence: At one time, Andrew forgot about X-rays when he decided to show the superpower to his friend.
 * The Rashomon: In the series finale.
 * Weekend Inventor: Dr. Jeffcoat