It’s kind of interesting that all of the 1970s Spider-Man appearances were in live-action. It’s true, the Sam Rami films were not the first time our favorite wall crawler was performed by a physical actor…with the budget of a 1970s television show. I hope you’re not expecting much out of these shows.
However, I think each add something interesting to the character in their own way, in different approaches with different actors. We’ll be looking at three different shows with five different intros between them. They’ve become infamous in their own ways but I rather enjoy all of the shows we’re looking at. The intros…depends on the one we’re looking at. So here we go.
First up, as you can guess from the comic cover, is Spidey Super Stories, a segment that appeared on the original version of PBS’s The Electric Company. No word powers or whatever the remake shoved in there. This was just a series of sketches, and some of the actors went on to do other things. Most notably are Morgan Freeman, who played EZ Reader, and Rita Moreno, who not only played a little girl and the failed film director, but for us kids of the period “HEEEEYYYY…YOU…GUYYYYYYYYYYS!” is burrowed into our brains. We’re not talking about that intro, we’re talking about Spidey’s intro. I can’t find the intro without the full version or an episode of the show, so here’s a sample episode with the second intro, as performed by the kid-packed “house band” the Short Circus (I think that’s them anyway).
Yeah, don’t expect ANY of Spidey’s rogues galleries. While the tie-in comic would feature appearances by other Marvel characters as well as the comics in the Electric Company magazine (my first introduction to Mary Jane Watson by the way), none of them entered the show. Funnily enough, there was a failed superhero called The Blue Beetle, but no connection to our friend Dan Garret or Ted Kord. I wonder if the Children’s Television Workshop was even aware of him? Even the outfit doesn’t match up. There was also Letterman, the hero of a series of animated shorts narrated by Joan Rivers. Somehow he always had the right letter on his varsity sweater to save the day.
Back to Spidey. He also wouldn’t appear as Peter Parker in the show, despite being in the tie-in comics. The word/thought balloon gimmick was also used in every episode as was the webbing effect and some excellent jumping skills by dancer and Muppeteer Danny Seagren, though there weren’t many puppets in this show. Villains included The Wall, a living wall, the Thumper, a crook who ran around dressed as Napoleon and hit people with her boxing glove because she didn’t get a yellow pony…yes, I’m completely serious. I don’t lie to you people! I embrace the crazy.
That net got a lot of use. No, the same actress, Lea Chamberlain, didn’t play every villain. Each of the show’s actors managed to get into the game as the villain or one of the victims. This was the original theme song, and the full version was release on record. It’s not worth looking up. Look up the shorts, though. They’re silly. Yes, the comic had the Thanos copter and we’re all disappointed it didn’t show up in Avengers: Endgame. Moving on.
In 1978 a TV movie would also give us a live-action Spider-Man, after the success of The Incredible Hulk. The Amazing Spider-Man went on to have a few seasons and two intros. Here’s the first one.
The theme song comes from the TV movie…and it’s frankly underwhelming. The visuals don’t help. It’s clips from the movie and maybe that season, with a weak shot of the actors in webbing for their cast credit. None of Spider-Man’s usual villains would have worked in the available budget (trust me, Sandman was impossible) so he just fought regular criminals misusing science. The pilot movie just had a dude brainwashing people. They did, however, do their version of the original Clone story, because Peter cannot escape clones no matter where he goes, even if they aren’t of him.
Thankfully the intro would get a serious revamp for the next season.
Ah, that theme song is so beautifully 1970s and I love it. I wish it would make a comeback somehow, but sadly this show gets ignored. It doesn’t even get to take part in the Spiderverse from what I’ve seen, or at least not in any major way. However, I swear the 90s Fox Kids cartoon totally used Nicholas Hammond as their design for Peter Parker. Wait until we get to that one and tell me I’m wrong. This season, simply Spider-Man, would replace J. Jonah Jameson, the only other comic character to make it to the series. (Aunt May had a cameo in the TV movie and Uncle Ben isn’t even mentioned.) Here we get to see his tie to the character, the fact that the black girl, Glory Grant, was the secretary rather than just being there. The police captain was replaced by Julie Masters, photographer for a rival newspaper and potential love interest. Or at least the girl Spider-Man had to save like she was Lois Lane. Both weren’t smart enough to keep from getting in over their heads.
This is a better use of the show clips, while giving us an idea of what each character did in the show. I don’t know why the show suddenly decided to have Spidey’s webshooters and utility belt (where he keeps spare web fluid cartridges and tracking devices…there’s also a spider-themed spotlight on the buckle in the comics and some animated versions) on the outside of his outfit. It still works better than the Japanese version of this huge device on his wrist.
Yeah, you knew we had to end on this one.
I have to admit, that’s a catchy theme song that grabs your attention. Still using a lot of stock footage, though more original footage than its American counterpart. This is NOT a faithful adaptation by any means. He has that huge device that fires “spider-string”, which looks more like rope than the webbing used by either US show in this article. He has a giant robot. Outside of losing his mentor, motorcyclist Takuya Yamashiro doesn’t really have a lot of bad luck unless you count a device being slapped on your wrist by a dying alien, which injects you with a superpowered chemical. I hate needles. It seems all the bad luck would be saved for later manga Spider-Man Yu Komori. Everyone here loves Spider-Man…except for the aliens whose plan to destroy the planet he keeps foiling.
I’ve only seen a few episodes but this does give you a good idea of what he fights and how. The robot costume would be damaged at some point, forcing them to use stock footage, but it was the beginning of a short-lived partnership between Toei and Marvel. Battle Fever J was originally intended to be based on Captain America…which is really weird when you remember Cap was a hero from World War II comics and despite focusing on the Nazis wasn’t against taking out a Japanese soldier or two. That would be heavily reworked, though there is a character named Miss America with a different costume from her Marvel comic counterpart. This would also eventually lead to the sentai genre of Japanese superheroes, so thank Spider-Man and Stan Lee for creating the Power Rangers!
Next time we’re back to animation with two Spider-Man shows from the 1980s.
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