To start off with, there's no question that this TV Movie "Pilot" was a failed attempt at Captain America. I give the writers credit for "trying" to make an updated version of the Comic Book Superhero, but frankly, the origin story of this hero doesn't work as an update.

If Captain America never existed and this was the first we'd heard of him, it would be a lot more tolerable. But you can't take a legend and then tarnish his history by almost completely rewriting the original origin.

That being said, this show owes more to "The Six Million Dollar Man" than it does to Captain America. There are a lot of similarities to that story (as previously mentioned by another reviewer here). Reb Brown, while looking good as the hero, certainly was just too "nice" of a guy to play the part. The hero had no "edge." Squeaky clean doesn't necessarily work for Captain America.

Len Birman's Dr. Simon Mills seems to be a combination of both Oscar Goldman and Rudy Wells (both from "The Six Million Dollar Man"). At any rate, I will say that Birman did an excellent job in his part and is the best performance of everyone involved by leaps and bounds. He plays it totally serious and with a conviction that actually made me believe in some of this stuff. He really is a gem in this.

My favorite part of both "Captain America" TV movies though has to be the music by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. They composed a terrific theme that is extremely catchy. It almost seems to foreshadow Post's theme for "L.A. Law," composed almost seven years later.

Stan Lee, shame on you! This is the true origin of the Cap!

Reb Brown..I've previously judged you solely by Space Mutiny, but I began to see the light of realization that he's done other movies providing amusement and entertainment. Unfortunately, Captain America comes up short in that department, but the whole 70s made for TV look gives it charm in a B grade good kind of way.

On the plus side, Reb plays Steve Rogers as a laid back, good hearted guy from Cali. Add hilarity points for the very haphazard process for how Steve becomes his alter ego. Sheesh, the guy is an artist who loves to drive up and down the coast. Look at the can of worms you've opened up you baddies! The first half involves Steve reasoning (a lot) with Simon and dealing with a bizarre twist of events. The second half includes semi-action scenes including the testing of Cap's new toys and finally taking a stand against these bullies who've been giving Steve trouble from the get go.

Ignoring the fact that this was a pilot for a canceled series, and if it's not taken too seriously, this is an enjoyable romp where sides of beef and oil slicks have never been deadlier. Come to think of it, if Reb wasn't in this one, then you really would have yourself a real stinker. Thankfully, there's a second helping of Captain America goodness in 'Death Too Soon'.

At the time, Universal had success with the "Incredible Hulk" starring the late Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as "The Hulk" (the latter had both cameos on the 21st century versions by Ang Lee and Louis Leterrier...), and seeing that another studio produced "Spiderman" on TV, they wanted to try a modern version of Captain America.

As I remember, while the version presented showed Cap riding his bike, wearing an helmet instead of the cowl mask and a transparent shield, I was rather deceived as I thought that they would revived a "Six Million Dollar Man" clone instead of a superhero series.

The story had only limited action, but only at the middle and the end of the TV movie. The rest was overly long, focusing on why Steve Rogers had to follow up this strange agent all along the story.

I don't blame Reb Brown here, he did what he could. For just 2 TV movies.

At least this version was OK over the 1991 version, but not compared to 2011 version which caught the essence of Cap.