Spiderman- the 67 edition

[vajerzy]

I used to run home from grade school in 4th grade or so to watch these- they would come on at 3:00PM.

Been waiting for these cartoons to appear on TV- they're now on DVD!

Anyone buy this?? Going to buy this??

[Jazzmoose]

Something tells me that this is something that would be better left to my memory, if you know what I mean...

[jazzbo]

Never saw them. . . I was in Addis Ababa in 1967 . . . ! Every now and then I would get to see some Ethiopian TV at a neighbor's house. . . and the most interesting thing I saw was "Thunderbirds" (which is going to be a movie!)

[RDK]

Something tells me that this is something that would be better left to my memory, if you know what I mean...

I'll have to agree...

[Alexander]

I used to watch this early in the morning before school. I loved the theme song ("Spider-Man, Spider-Man - does whatever a spider can...") and the plots were pretty faithfully adapted from the classic Lee/Ditko issues. I remember the animation being painfully simple, however. The animators didn't bother to draw the webs on Spidey's costume (other than his mask). They also had one animated sequence of Spider-Man webslinging accross the city that they used over and over again.

I'd be interested in getting some opinions on this question: How do people (who think about such things anyway) rate this series next to other attempts at animated Spider-Man shows? Here are my recollections:

"Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends": This was on Saturday mornings during the early to mid 1980s. It featured Spidey teamed up with Iceman (he of the sixties X-Men fame) and Firestar (invented for the TV show). Peter Parker and his friends lived with Aunt May (voiced by the great June Foray) and (for some reason) had a crime lab in Peter's bedroom. It was aimed at a younger audience, but I remember some good guest appearences by other Marvel heros in later seasons (such as Captain America and the X-Men). For a while "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" was doubled up with an animated Hulk show, both of which were hosted by Stan Lee doing his "true believers" schtick.

"Spider-Man": This show was around during the early 90s, I recall, and ran on Saturday mornings on Fox. I didn't watch it every week, but I do admit to catching it every once in a while. I bit grittier than "Amazing Friends." It featured some decent acting and lots of Spidey continuity from the comic books (some of it mixed up. I recall the Hobgoblin being one of Spidey's main foes on the show, even though Hobby was inspired by the original Green Goblin. On the show the Green Goblin appeared AFTER the Hobgoblin had already been established). I actually liked this show a bit.

"Spider-Man Unlimited": I only saw this a few times, but what I saw sucked. For some reason Peter was living in a parallel earth where the High Evolutionary ran everything. The Green Goblin was a good-guy on this world and had a Russian accent. Don't ask. It was short lived, I believe.

"Spider-Man: The Computer Animated Series": I don't know if this is still around, but I caught a few episodes on MTV when it first came out, and I thought it had real potential. I know that Doogie Howser was doing the voice of Spider-Man/Peter Parker, MJ was voiced by singer Lisa Loeb, and Harry Osborne was voiced by Ian Zering (or whatever. The guy who played Steve on "90210," in any case). The web slinging was spectacular (it looked better than the first movie), and the acting was pretty good too. I lost track of it pretty quickly, however.

Then there was the live action Spidey series on TV in the 70s. I remember it as being pretty awful. Anybody remember this?

[Stefan Wood]

I'm buying this! A friend of mine had the complete series on videotape (from tv, bootlegged), and seeing it a few years ago hasn't tarnished my memory of it. The music, the animation, and the crazy storylines are still enjoyable. I always preferred the ones done before the series was cancelled -- Ralsh Bashki seemed to go nuts with the psychedelic art and the stories were tossed out the window -- but that and Johnny Quest and Speed Racer have always remained the best 60's animated series for me.