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In the comic books, Banner's character is named Bruce Banner (from what I have read, "Robert Bruce Banner", though I'm not a diehard enough fan to know the origin of that) and he is a physicist.

I just started watching the 1978 show on Netflix, and the character's name is "David Banner", who is a physician/researcher.

Why was this change made? It doesn't seem like a trivial switch, and Stan Lee is credited as a consultant on the TV show, so it was not seemingly done to avoid any issues with copyrights.

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  • Incidentally, no one has answered the profession part of the question (as of this post, at least). Dr. Bruce Banner is a nuclear physicist, Dr. David Banner is a physician who also does medical research.
    – pleurocoelus
    Commented Jun 11, 2017 at 10:38
  • Except that I have no idea as to why his profession was changed. All I know is the opening narration: "Dr. David Banner, Physician/Scientist, searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths that all humans have. Then an accidental overdose of gamma radiation interacts with his unique body chemistry. And now, when David Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs."
    – pleurocoelus
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 13:28

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The show's Wikipedia page provides a couple of possible reasons for the switch:

Johnson changed the name of the Hulk's comic book alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, to Dr. David Banner for the TV series. This change was made, according to Johnson, because he did not want the series to be perceived as a comic book series, so he wanted to change what he felt was a staple of comic books, and Stan Lee's comics in particular, that major characters frequently had alliterative names. According to Lou Ferrigno, it was also changed because CBS thought the name Bruce sounded "too gay-ish," a rationale that Ferrigno thought was "the most absurd, ridiculous thing I'd ever heard." On the DVD commentary of the pilot, Johnson says that it was a way to honor his son David. "Bruce" ultimately became the TV Banner's middle name, as it had been in the comics. It is visible on Banner's tombstone at the end of the pilot movie, and that footage is shown at the beginning of every episode of the series.

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His name was originally just Dr. Bruce Banner. Then Stan Lee got confused and accidentally put Bob Banner in a few comics. He decided to call him Robert Bruce Banner from then so whichever he said would be right. People still knew him as mainly just Bruce though.

In the TV series they also knew him as just Bruce. The writer changed it to David in honor of his son instead. Now it has all gotten too complicated so he is just Bruce Banner and his job was different in the TV series because they didn't want to copy the comics. The TV series isn't accurate.

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    Welcome... do you have any sort of sources to support these claims? If so, please include them in your answer. As is, you're making some pretty extreme, unfounded statements.
    – Catija
    Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 19:34
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    Also, as @Catija has mentioned, this answer is largely unsubstantiated.
    – jonsca
    Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 22:12
  • (While that may have been a factor in their rationale for changing the name, it should be qualified (as in the other answer) that the thought of it being "gay sounding name" was an opinion at the time, not a fact, as you have asserted. As such, I have edited it out of your answer).
    – jonsca
    Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 22:17

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