DR 31 Burglary AKA "The Crimson Crusader"

Wizard Boy, Captain Lightning, Commander Jupiter and the Crimson Crusader.  all made up names for this episode of Dragnet which features a "superfan" (the word is used in the show) who steals movie memorabilia about his heroes.  all the names of the heroes have been changed, but given the time period (1969) it's pretty easy to guess who the main hero Stanley Stover (Tim Donnelly) was trying to be.

Stanley then adopts the identity of the Crimson Crusader in a very colorful outfit and promptly gets caught by the Friday and Gannon.  they come down pretty hard on the poor kid (he's 23) who at first states he IS a superhero, and then becomes a "collector" and then we find out he's the fat superhero nerd that lives inside many people.  the cops actually express a great deal of sympathy for the kid.  there but for the grace of God...

I saw this episode once as a kid, and this is the second time I've seen it.  I was always very intrigued by the names of the superheroes (I missed the whole point of the episode, actually, but I was about 8 or 9, sue me) and my brother and I wrote them down for future reference.  at that age the world of superheroes was still wide open to kids.  I had recently discovered the Tower Line of comics so who knew if there were more superheroes out there that I'd never heard of? 

I'd still like to see "Captain Lightning vs the Martian Devils".