Spider-Man (1967 TV series)

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Spider-Man
Spider-Man, as depicted in the 1967 Saturday morning cartoon.
Genre	Animation, Adventure
Creator(s)	Stan Lee (comic book), Steve Ditko (comic book), Grantray-Lawrence Animation, Krantz Films, Inc., Ralph Bakshi
Starring	Paul Soles
Country of origin	Canada,  United States
No. of episodes	52
Production
Running time	approx. 0:22 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	1967 – 1970
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Spider-Man is an animated television series that ran from September 9, 1967 to June 14, 1970. It was originally produced in Canada and was the first animated adaptation of the Spider-Man comic book series. It first aired on the ABC television network in the United States but went into syndication at the start of the third season.

It featured the adventures of Marvel Comics' most famous character and it has proven to be the most famous, as well as the final, production by Grantray-Lawrence Animation in Toronto, Ontario. Some Canadian talent was employed on the project, while animators from the United States were brought in at considerable expense and made up most of the crew behind the show. Grantray-Lawrence was contracted by Krantz Films, Inc. and Marvel Comics to yield 52 episodes.

The show's acting talent included Bernard Cowan who was the dialogue director, narrator, and voice of some supporting characters. Paul Soles provided both the light, mild-mannered voice for college student/photographer Peter Parker and the much deeper, heroic tone for Spider-Man. Peg Dixon provided the voice of Betty Brant as well as other various love interests for Peter in later seasons, and Paul Kligman's distinctive, high-pitched voice was utilized on J. Jonah Jameson and several villains. The first season of the show dealt primarily with Peter working at the Daily Bugle as a teenage freelance photographer, perfectly capturing his relationship with the gruff, demanding J. Jonah Jameson and shyly romancing Betty Brandt over the reception desk, while often being called into action as his crime-fighting alter-ego. Peter's life away from the Bugle's newspaper offices and Aunt May's Forest Hills home were almost never dealt with in these early episodes, and he was also never seen at college -- although he would sometimes visit various professors he clearly knew (such as the opening of "Sub-Zero for Spidey"). Still, the character design for young Parker was spot-on, combining the conceptualizations of both Steve Ditko (right down to the primary-colored blue suit, white shirt, and red tie) to John Romita Sr. who served as a consultant for the show.

However, there were concessions. In order to be more cost-effective given the limited budget for the show, Spider-Man's costume for this series only has webbed areas on his head, arms and boots; The rest of his costume is plain. Additionally, the series also relied upon stock re-use animation from one episode to the next which included everything from Spider-Man swinging across the New York City skyline, to Peter Parker stripping off his white dress shirt to reveal his supersuit (and putting on his mask) during his hidden transformations into the costumed superhero. Character movement was also kept to a minimum.

After Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, the second and third seasons were produced at a dramatically reduced budget by Krantz Films under Ralph Bakshi. This cost cutting is most apparent with two episodes re-using almost the entire footage from two Rocket Robin Hood episodes as well as remaking previous episodes with minimal changes. In addition, the episodes adopted a darker tone with darkly colored settings, psychadelic images, and atmospheric music. But where the reduced budget took its toll, Bakshi tried to delve further into Peter Parker's everyday life at college as a soft-spoken student (such as where he tries out for the football team in "Criminals in the Clouds" only to fail miserably, and actually becomes a star pitcher for the baseball team in "Diamond Dust"). Peter's romantic life also began to take shape as he started dating a variety of women who were either are concealing secrets ("Home") or found themselves angrily waiting for him while Spider-Man saved the city from certain destruction ("Swing City"). Bakshi also provided fans with the first-ever origin story for the character ever presented in any medium (the aptly-titled "Origin of Spider-Man") which literally used entire chunks of dialogue from Stan Lee's comic introduction for the wall-crawling hero in Amazing Fantasy #15.

Spider-Man was initially broadcast in the U.S. on Saturday mornings on ABC. The first episode that aired was "The Power of Doctor Octopus"/"Sub-Zero For Spidey" on September 9, 1967. For the full run of the first season and of the second season, the show was seen at 11 am Atlantic Time. ABC's last Saturday morning broadcast of Spider-Man was on August 30, 1969, with 39 half-hour episodes (many with two separate stories) aired. The show went on hiatus until the following March, when a third season began a six-month run, from March 22 to September 6, 1970, on Sunday mornings, at 11:30 am Atlantic Time.

The entire series was released as Spider-Man: The '67 Collection on DVD in 2004.

Contents 1 Episode list 2 Theme song 3 Rocket Robin Hood footage 4 Homage 5 Trivia 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Episode list

SEASON 1

• 1A - The Power of Dr. Octopus
• 1B - Sub-Zero for Spidey
• 2A - Where Crawls the Lizard
• 2B - Electro the Human Lightning Bolt
• 3 - The Menace of Mysterio
• 4A - The Sky Is Falling
• 4B - Captured by J. Jonah Jameson
• 5A - Never Step on a Scorpion
• 5B - Sands of Crime
• 6A - Diet of Destruction
• 6B - The Witching Hour
• 7A - Kilowatt Kaper
• 7B - The Peril of Parafino
• 8 - Horn of the Rhino
• 9A - The One-Eyed Idol
• 9B - Fifth Avenue Phantom
• 10A - The Revenge of Dr. Magneto
• 10B - The Sinister Prime Minister
• 11A - The Night of the Villains
• 11B - Here Comes Trubble
• 12A - Spider-Man Meets Dr. Noah Boddy
• 12B - The Fantastic Fakir
• 13A - Return of The Flying Dutchman
• 13B - Farewell Performance
• 14A - The Golden Rhino
• 14B - Blueprint for Crime
• 15A - The Spider and the Fly
• 15B - The Slippery Dr. Von Schlick
• 16A - The Vulture's Prey
• 16B - The Dark Terrors
• 17A - The Terrible Triumph of Dr. Octopus
• 17B - Magic Malice
• 18A - Foutain of Terror
• 18B - Fiddler on the Loose
• 19A - To Catch a Spider
• 19B - Double Identity
• 20A - Sting of the Scorpion
• 20B - Trick or Treachery

SEASON 2

• 21 - The Origin of Spider-Man
• 22 - King Pinned
• 23 - Swing City
• 24 - Criminals in the Clouds
• 25 - Meance from the Bottom of the World
• 26 - Diamond Dust
• 27 - Spider-Man Battles the Molemen
• 28 - Phantom from the Depths of Time
• 29 - The Evil Sorcerer
• 30 - Vine
• 31 - Pardo Presents
• 32 - Cloud City of Gold
• 33 - Neptune's Nose Cone
• 34 - Home
• 35 - Blotto
• 36 - Thunder Rumble
• 37 - Spider-Man Meets Skyboy
• 38 - Cold Storage
• 39 - To Cage a Spider

SEASON 3

• 40A - The Winged Thing
• 40B - Conner's Reptiles
• 41A - Trouble with Snow
• 41B - Spierman Vs. Desparado
• 42A - Sky Harbor
• 42B - The Big Brainwasher
• 43A - The Vanishing Dr. Vespasian
• 43B - Scourge of the Scarf
• 44A - Super Swami
• 44B - The Birth of Micro Man
• 45A - Knight Must Fall
• 45B - The Devious Dr. Dumpty
• 46 - Up From Nowhere
• 47 - Rollarama
• 48A - Rhino
• 48B - The Madness of Mysterio
• 49 - Revolt in the Fifth Dimension¹
• 50 - Specialists and Slaves
• 51A - Down to Earth
• 51B - Trip to Tomorrow
• 52 - Unknown Title²

¹ABC did not air Revolt in the Fifth Dimension episode with the rest of the third season possibly because of the incidence of death, spatial creepiness, and great psychedelia in that episode. ABC aired Sting of the Scorpion/Trick or Treachery in its place.
[1] ²This episode is only a rumour, apparently involving The Incredible Hulk and Mr. Fantastic.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Theme song

Main article: Spider-Man theme song

The theme song of the show has become a popular standard. The lyrics were written by Academy Award winner Paul Francis Webster, while the music was composed by Bob Harris, Stu Phillips, and D. Kapross. The song begins "Spider-Man, Spider-Man / Does whatever a spider can". The 2002 and 2004 film adaptations have featured characters as buskers performing the song; Jayce Bartok and Elyse Dinh respectively.

At the end of the credits of the movies, the original Spider-Man theme from the TV show is played. Meanwhile the incidental music from the series, with its jangling surf-guitar, groovy brass lines and jazzy scoring, is highly regarded by fans and much sought after by soundtrack collectors.

[edit] Rocket Robin Hood footage

The episodes, "Phantom from the Depths of Time"^[1] and "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" were, for a large part, recycled animation from two episodes ("From Menace to Menace" and "Dimentia Five") of an earlier series, "Rocket Robin Hood."^[2] Therein, Spider-Man was substituted for Robin Hood on the animation cells.

[edit] Homage

• The films Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 pay homage to the original TV series. This is especially notable towards the end of the second film, which was made identical to the "swing-off scene," displayed at the end of every episode of the first season. Several shots were approximated elsewhere in the films.

[edit] Trivia

• In the episodes "The Spider and the Fly" and "Trick or Treachery," the villains (The Fly Twins) are named 'Stan' and 'Lee.' This is an obvious reference to Stan Lee, one of the original creators of Spider-Man.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Spider-Man (1967) at the Internet Movie Database
• Spider-Man (1967) at TV.com
• WFMU Essay on the search for Spidey's Background Music
• Wallopin Websnappers! - Paul Sole's personal memories of the series
• 67 Spider-Man @ Marvel Animation Age
• Spyder-25 - Detailed description
• Spiderfan description
• retroCRUSH tribute
• The Spiderman Page - Written by Kevin McCorry

v • d • e Spider-Man
Publications	Main continuity: Amazing Fantasy • The Amazing Spider-Man The Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) • Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man • Astonishing Spider-Man • Spider-Man Family Other continuities: Ultimate Spider-Man • Marvel Adventures Spider-Man • Spider-Girl • Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Spider-Man: Reign
Television	Spider-Man (1967) • Spidey Super Stories (1974, live action) • Amazing Spider-Man (1978, live action) • Supaidāman (1978 - Japanese) • Spider-Man (1981) •Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) • Spider-Man (1994) •Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) • Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003) • The Amazing Spider-Man (2008)
Films	Spider-Man (2002) • Spider-Man 2 (2004) • Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Other topics
Fictional history of Spider-Man • Spider-Man supporting characters • Spider-Man villains • Spider-Man's powers and equipment • Video games • Alternate versions of Spider-Man • Spider-Man in other media