SPIDER-MAN
(Syndication, September 12, 1981-March 30, 1982)
Marvel Productions
MAIN CAST:
Ted Schwartz – Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Nephilia/Dr.
Bradley Shaw
For the history of Spider-Man, check out the post here.
After the conclusion
of the 1967 Spider-Man series, outside of guest appearances on Spider-Woman Spidey took a decade-long break from starring in animation--and
Saturday mornings.
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| Poster for the original American live-action Spidey. |
In 1974, Spidey made his first leap to live action on the
children’s program The Electric Company, portrayed by
dancer Danny Seagren. On that show, Spidey’s comics roots were fully embraced
through comic pages bookending his sketches and by his speaking through word
balloons rather than verbally. In 1977, CBS
aired a pilot movie for Spider-Man (initially called The Amazing Spider-Man) starring Nicholas Hammond. The series ran
sporadically for 13 episodes until 1979 and was a radical departure from the
source material; featuring a new origin for Spidey that didn’t involve Uncle Ben
(named Max through dialogue), limited web-slinging, and none of the classic
villains. At the same time, Toei Company
produced a 41-episode
series in Japan starring Shinji
Todo. Spidey in name and costume only, it set the standard for all future
Toei productions by giving Spidey a giant robot, Leopardon, which he could
call to deal with giant versions of the monsters he fought.
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| Spidey makes his return to his own animated series. |
The radical departure of the live-action Spider-Man
series from the source material, coupled with the success of Superman: The Movie,
inspired Marvel Comics to seek greater
control over their intellectual property. Stan Lee was sent to California to
nurture the relationship between Marvel and DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises, which ultimately ended up a lot closer than anyone could have
anticipated. In 1981, Friz
Freleng left the company to return to his former job at Warner
Bros. Animation, and the studio was sold to Cadence Industries,
Marvel’s parent company. David
DePatie stayed on to head up the rechristened Marvel Productions.
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| The Black Cat plays for keeps. |
The first program to enter development was Spider-Man.
The character designs by Rick
Hoberg took a strong inspiration from comic book artist John Romita,
particularly from his work on the newspaper strip at the
time (on which Hoberg also worked for a year). Peter Parker’s (Ted Schwartz)
look featured the strip’s new hairstyle and usual outfit of slacks and a jacket
over a turtleneck (meant to hide the neck of Peter’s costume). It also
introduced the concept of Spidey’s mask being attached to the back of the
costume’s neck and being pulled on like a hood. The show itself maintained the
feel of the comics, focusing on Peter’s balance of his personal life as a
photographer for The Daily Bugle and caring for his elderly Aunt May (Linda Gary) with his
superhero life. Notably, Spidey’s early-warning spider-sense was represented by
his eyes glowing accompanied by a sound effect, rather than the wavy lines over
his head in the comics.
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| Romita's spider-fashion crosses over into the comics. |
Joining Spidey once
again was his supporting cast of Daily
Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson (William Woodson), his editor Robbie
Robertson (Buster Jones) and secretary Betty Brant (Mona Marshall). Various
classic villains made their return to the small screen including the insane Green
Goblin (series producer Dennis
Marks), crime boss Kingpin,
the mechanical-armed Dr.
Octopus (both Stanley Jones)
and the mutated Lizard (Corey Burton). New to animation was rival
crime boss Silvio
Silverman (Paul Winchell)
and the thieving Black Cat
(Morgan Lofting). Other
Marvel Comics characters also appeared on the show, including Captain
America (George DiCenzo),
Namor the Sub-Mariner (Jerry Dexter), and the X-Men villain Magneto (Michael Rye). Fantastic Four
villain Dr.
Doom (Ralph James) made
several appearances in an ongoing story arc throughout the series’ run.
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| Spider-Man with Firestar and Iceman in Amazing Friends. |
NBC expressed interest in the show, but felt it
needed an extra gimmick to make it appealing to audiences. That led to the
development of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which
was meant to be Marvel’s take on the Super Friends concept. It saw Spidey (Dan Gilvezan) paired up with original X-Man Iceman (Frank Welker) and new character Firestar (Kathy Garver). To save time and money, Amazing Friends utilized the same pre-production work as Spider-Man, resulting in
it looking and sounding the same. Many actually believed that Amazing Friends was a spin-off of the series, even though they were developed at the
same time and initially had no connection; although, they were retroactively
connected through the use of a flashback in an Amazing Friends episode.
NBC bought the concept.
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| Magneto switches from fighting mutants to swatting bugs. |
Spider-Man, instead, made its way to syndication in a
package that included the original Spider-Man
cartoon to bolster the episode
count. It debuted the same day as Amazing
Friends on September 12, 1981. The
series was written by Creighton Barnes, Doug Booth, Francis X. Feighan,
Donald F. Glut, Jack Hanrahan, Christy
Marx, Larry Parr and Jeffrey Scott, with
music by Johnny Douglas. It was animated by Korean company Dong Seo Animation and XAM! Productions. The intent of the series was to not only
showcase what Marvel Productions could do, but sell the rest of the Marvel
Universe as potential programs for network consideration.
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| The UK release of the series. |
The series was rerun
as part of Marvel Action Universe; a 1988-91 syndicated
programming block that featured various programs by Marvel Productions. It last aired in the late 90s as part of the UPN
Kids programming block
with other Marvel programs. In 2012, episodes were cut, edited and re-dubbed
into comical shorts as part of the Marvel Mash-Up
segments of Disney XD’s Marvel Universe on Disney XD
programming block.. Several episodes were released on VHS and Betamax by
Prism Entertainment as
part of the Marvel
Comics Video Library. No matter the subject matter of the release, each one
included either an episode of the ’81 or the ’67 series. The first episode was
also included in Best Film & Video Corp.’s Marvel
Matinee compilation VHS series. The complete series was released by Clear Vision in the United Kingdom under
the title Spider-Man 5000 in order to
differentiate it from other Spidey shows. In Canada, Morningstar Entertainment
released the episode “The Vulture Has Landed” in a set called Spider-Man vs. The Vulture and was paired up with two episodes
from the 1967 series. “Canon of Doom” was also released as a bonus feature of
the Fantastic Four vs. Doctor Doom set, which was later included in the Villains
Showdown box set. “Arsenic and Aunt May” was included in the Heroes box set. The Morningstar DVDs
were all mastered off of the VHS/Betamax copies released by. The United States
has not seen a DVD release as of this writing. Netflix
streamed the entire series between 2011 and 2013 before losing the rights. In
2019, it became one of the launch titles for the streaming service Disney+.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Bubble, Bubble, Oil and Trouble” (9/12/81) – Dr. Octopus commits
various strange crimes in order to upgrade his mechanical arms and steal the
world’s oil supply.
“Dr. Doom, Master of the World (9/19/81) – Dr. Doom plots to brainwash
various world leaders in order to be declared the master of the world at the
upcoming United Nations summit.
“Lizards, Lizards, Everywhere” (9/26/81) – The Lizard frees all the
reptiles in the Central Park Zoo in order to create an army and turn the city into
his own personal swampland.
“Curiosity Killed the Spider-Man” (10/3/81) – Black Cat uses the Bugle to issue a challenge to Spidey to
keep her from stealing the Maltese Mouse.
“The Sandman is Coming” (10/10/81) – Sandman steals radioactive soil
samples from NASA in order to make himself more powerful.
“When Magneto Speaks…People Listen” (10/17/81) – Magneto captures
communication satellites and power generators for a million dollars in ransom.
“The Pied Piper of New York Town” (10/24/81) – Mysterio uses his new
nightclub to hypnotize the patrons into his own private army to use on his
thefts.
“The Doctor Prescribes Doom” (10/31/81) – Dr. Doom makes another
attempt for the world by replacing world leaders with robot duplicates under
his control.
“Carnival of Crime” (11/7/81) – Ringmaster’s circus comes to town and
uses a special gas to rob banks and make people believe Spidey is the thief.
“Revenge of the Green Goblin” (11/14/81) – Norman Osborn escapes from
the mental institution and remembers he’s the Green Goblin, seeking revenge
against Spidey and J. Jonah Jameson.
“Triangle of Evil” (11/21/81) – Stuntman pits Spidey against deadly
stunts in a ploy to pay off damages to Jonah’s property caused by Spidey trying
to stop the Triangle of Evil’s robbery.
“The A-B-C’s of D-O-O-M” (11/28/81) – Dr. Doom partners with Goron and
uses his powers to enslave world leaders and steal a missile guidance system.
“The Sidewinder Strikes!” (12/5/81) – Cowboy villain the Sidewinder
robs a convoy of its valuable cargo and hides out in the local rodeo.
“The Hunter and the Hunted” (12/12/81) – Jonah hires Kraven the Hunter
to capture a sabre-tooth tiger for the Bugle’s
mascot, which ends up being the pet of Ka-Zar.
“The Incredible Shrinking Spider-Man” (12/19/81) – An ignored genius
becomes the Gadgeteer and steals a shrinking device he uses to shrink Spidey.
“The Unfathomable Professor Gizmo” (12/26/81) – Professor Gizmo robs a
charity cruise in order to draw out Spidey and force him to help Gizmo retrieve
a sunken treasure.
“Canon of Doom” (1/2/82) – Dr. Doom comes to New York to stop the
earthquakes they’ve been having, which were caused by Doom’s laser canon.
“The Capture of Captain America” (1/9/82) – Jonah honors Captain
America, which Red Skull uses as an opportunity to kidnap Cap, for which Spidey
is blamed.
“The Doom Report” (1/16/82) – Dr. Doom threatens the UN with a weather
device for full control while a Lateverian resistance movement plots against
Doom in New York.
“The Web of Nephilia” (1/23/82) – Dr. Bradley Shaw obtains blood
samples from Spidey and attempts to duplicate his powers, transforming himself
into a mutant spider.
“Countdown to Doom” (1/30/82) – Dr. Doom’s latest plot involves a
device attached to NASA’s rocket, which will move the Earth out of obit and
into a new ice age.
“Arsenic and Aunt May” (2/6/82) – Chameleon discovers Spidey’s
identity and disguises himself as Uncle Ben to give Aunt May a necklace to hypnotize
her into killing Spidey.
“The Vulture Has Landed” (2/13/82) – The Vulture kidnaps scientists in
order to gain control of a NASA space probe and mistakes Peter for one of them.
“Wrath of the Sub-Mariner” (2/20/82) – Sub-Mariner wreaks havoc on the
surface world in response to ocean pollution coming from Kingpin’s powerful
acid.
“The Return of the Kingpin” (2/27/82) – Kingpin manages to trick
Spidey into committing a series of crimes.
“Under the Wizard’s Spell” (3/6/82) – The Wizard forces Medusa to
steal an electronic device from a military base.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
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