1970s Spiderman live action show

[EnriqueH]

I *loved* this show as a kid and have a lot of fond memories of watching this show on Saturday afternoons.

My favorite was "The Deadly Dust", which I would watch over and over and over. I went through a phase where I would watch it DAILY.

I also remember Night of the Clones, The Chinese Web and the Rava episode quite a bit.

I thought Nicholas Hammond was a great Peter Parker and Spiderman too.

Too bad that Hulk crossover never happened.

 

[DWF]

Saturday afternoon? When I saw the show it was a prime time series. And it's Spier-Man two words. Deadly Dust was a great one though Robert Alda was a real James Bond styled villain with two very different henchmen.

 

[Captaindemotion]

The pilot got a theatrical release and my aunt and uncle took my brother and me to see it in the cinema. I enjoyed it but even then I could tell that it wasn't as spectacular as the Superman films, for instance.

The tv series aired on prime time on UK tv and was must see tv for me. I liked Hammond in the lead, even though I thought he was too old to play Peter Parker. The guy playing JJJ was good, as I recall, but I don't think he had the distinctive look of the comic character.

The show lacked Spidey's colourful rogues' gallery. Was this budgetary or so as to avoid comparison with the 1960s Batman, I wonder? Or a bit of both.

I don't remember many of the individual episodes other than one with clones and one with Kung-fu-using villains. Possibly due to the generic nature of the villains, who were usually ordinary criminals.

I'd watch it again if it aired on tv but mostly for nostalgia value.

 

[Pauln6]

Ha ha - I thought it was terrible because they used none of the iconic villains at all. I realise that the same could probably be said for Wonder Woman but since I never read those comics, I didn't know any better and I loved her show.

 

[DWF]

The show was a low budget one but if you wanted to see Spidey face off against comic book styledd villains there was the Electric Company version.

 

[Christopher]

I liked the show as a kid, but only because I had no familiarity with the comics' Spider-Man. If I had, I'd have seen how totally inadequate the show was. It removed the Uncle Ben backstory, the single most crucial element of Peter Parker's journey. It dropped Aunt May (and Robbie) after the pilot, and otherwise used none of Spidey's supporting cast except Jameson, who was turned into a much softer, more avuncular figure. And it mishandled the spider-sense, changing it from a heightened sensitivity to immediate threats to Peter/Spidey himself into a generalized psychic awareness of plot-specific crises happening somewhere in the general vicinity. Basically the only thing it didn't get wrong was the costume, which was certainly an imperfect translation, but pretty good for '70s TV.

Still, in my childish naivete, I found it moderately entertaining. I liked Nicholas Hammond in the lead, and I really liked Dana Kaproff's funky musical score in the second season.

The show lacked Spidey's colourful rogues' gallery. Was this budgetary or so as to avoid comparison with the 1960s Batman, I wonder? Or a bit of both.

Really, if you look at the history of live-action superhero adaptations prior to the '80s, the Batman show was the exception to the rule in using established comics villains -- and even it used only nine villains from the comics (Riddler, Penguin, Joker, Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Clock King, the one-shot villains False-Face and Eivol Ekdal, and the semi-original character Mr. Freeze, based on a one-shot villain named Mr. Zero) versus over twenty original villains. Most adaptations of comics used only the heroes and created their own villains. (The first Captain America serial didn't even use Steve Rogers or his powers!) The only minor exceptions other than Batman were the second Kirk Alyn Superman serial, which used Lex Luthor, and the '70s Wonder Woman series, which used '40s-era comics antagonists in its first two regular episodes (Baroness Von Gunther and Fausta Grables) but no comics foes thereafter. So The Amazing Spider-Man was par for the course in using only original villains.

 

[hux]

I adored it.

Today's films rely too much on CGI and it all seems fake to me. Watching Spider-Man climb the Empire State Building is still kinda impressive to be honest. Yeah, sure, it's a dude on a wire but that dude genuinely is on the actual Empire State Building

Maguire and Garfield's Spider-Man both look like they're climbing imaginary walls. Sometimes it's even like a cartoon. Hammond's Spider-Man might be slow but he's actually climbing those buildings (and the funky guitar music makes up for any slowness)

 

[Christopher]

Today's films rely too much on CGI and it all seems fake to me. Watching Spider-Man climb the Empire State Building is still kinda impressive to be honest. Yeah, sure, it's a dude on a wire but that dude genuinely is on the actual Empire State Building

Wow, he really was! The show was filmed in LA -- I didn't remember that they'd gone to NYC for location work. That was impressive.

I did like the climbing stunts back in the day, although I eventually realized that you could often see the winch atop the building that was pulling him up. And he never really did anything other than crawl up or crawl down. You may criticize the movies' CGI, but at least it captures Spidey's preternatural agility in a way the '70s series failed to do.

The Japanese Spider-Man series, which was nearly contemporary with the Hammond show, did some really good stunt work. It also had Spidey climbing the sides of skyscrapers, although it often used mattes/split screens to hide the winch or whatever. And being a Japanese show from the same producers as Super Sentai (Power Rangers), it had good martial-arts stuntwork and a lot of agile climbing and jumping on things that outdid the American show's stunt work. I think it was basically spider-style kung fu. Japanese Spidey actually moved in a spidery way that felt very authentic to the comics character, even though everything else about the show was inauthentic (like Spidey's race car that flew and joined with his giant battle robot Leopardon).

 

[RAMA]

Loved it as a kid. My sister and I awaited the next episode eagerly. Nostalgia nothwithstanding it's pretty crappy looking stuff and the music in the clip...so 70s generic i had to turn the sound off.

I recall when a local department store had Spiderman come for a visit and I was so excited. I think the suit actually looked better than the one on the TV show!

RAMA

 

[Cyke101]

The Japanese Spider-Man series, which was nearly contemporary with the Hammond show, did some really good stunt work. It also had Spidey climbing the sides of skyscrapers, although it often used mattes/split screens to hide the winch or whatever. And being a Japanese show from the same producers as Super Sentai (Power Rangers), it had good martial-arts stuntwork and a lot of agile climbing and jumping on things that outdid the American show's stunt work. I think it was basically spider-style kung fu. Japanese Spidey actually moved in a spidery way that felt very authentic to the comics character, even though everything else about the show was inauthentic (like Spidey's race car that flew and joined with his giant battle robot Leopardon).

Thanks to Spider-Verse, now when people say "70s Spiderman Live Action Show," these days I assume we're talking about this show first rather than the Hammond one.

I remember one of the internet complaints of the Raimi/Dafoe Green Goblin costume was that it looked like a monster suit from Power Rangers. My, how things come around!

 

[tomswift2002]

I've got an episode of this series on VHS that I had picked up at a pawn shop years ago, but I haven't watched yet as I need to transfer the tape to another shell, but I just haven't got around to it yet. But considering that the show was released completely on VHS and Betamax in the 1980's, and then again in the 90's, its surprising that it hasn't been put onto DVD or Blu-Ray yet, as the home video rights were cleared decades ago.

 

[arch101]

I can remember begging to stay up and watch this. Wasn't really a Spider-Man fan but, in the '70s, we were starved for anything genre on TV. I don't think I've seen it since. Hey, Netflix!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Today's films rely too much on CGI and it all seems fake to me. Watching Spider-Man climb the Empire State Building is still kinda impressive to be honest. Yeah, sure, it's a dude on a wire but that dude genuinely is on the actual Empire State Building

Wow, he really was! The show was filmed in LA -- I didn't remember that they'd gone to NYC for location work. That was impressive.

I did like the climbing stunts back in the day, although I eventually realized that you could often see the winch atop the building that was pulling him up. And he never really did anything other than crawl up or crawl down. You may criticize the movies' CGI, but at least it captures Spidey's preternatural agility in a way the '70s series failed to do.

Still, the mind rejects what it knows is entirely artificial (CG Spidey FX) and tends to accept a real subject of substance performing a stunt (70s Spidey). The Hammond Spider-Man (or his stunt man) did not perform all of the wildly acrobatic moves of the 2000s movies, but it was compensated with modified, semi-martial arts moves, reverse jump stunts (simulating a super-powered leap to a high level) and other practical work.

The second main title sequence featuring Spider-Man climbing a wall plays as realistic in a way none of the movies accomplished.

even though everything else about the show was inauthentic (like Spidey's race car that flew and joined with his giant battle robot Leopardon).

It really has to be seen to be believed.

 

[DWF]

Some of scenes of Spider-Man going up a building were blue screen work, you cna see the poor matte lines around in those scenes. Like all of Universal's shows they had a library of visual effect shots which were used and reused. The Chinese Web I think was the only one late in the series that contained some enw shots.

Really the newer movies gave the filmakers freedoms that were available in the '70s. And to me Spider-Man is better able to match scenes that before could only have been created in a comic book. Of course it took millions of dollars and decades of CGI research. Visual effects on shows like Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk and The Greatest American Hero were as good as could be done at the time given technology and money available at the time.

 

[JD]

They've actually had episodes of the Japanese Spider-Man live action show on the Marvel website, at least once, possibly twice. They first put them up years ago, possibly around the time either the third Raimi or first ASM movie came out, and then I think they put at least one or two episodes back up briefly when Spider-Verse stared. I just looked and apparently they've already pulled them again.

 

[Cyke101]

even though everything else about the show was inauthentic (like Spidey's race car that flew and joined with his giant battle robot Leopardon).

It really has to be seen to be believed.

Marvel.com used to host those episodes, but they've unfortunately been taken down. I'm hoping they go back up, especially in light of the recent Spider-Verse crossover in the comics (which also means that this version of Spidey teamed up with our tried and true Peter Parker!).

Here's Marvel.com's trailer when they announced they were hosting the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MxGtH-2duM

I lovelovelove that he fought Japanese-style monsters, rather than the usual human/metahuman foes, though it would've been nice to see Japanese-versions of the classic Rogues Gallery eventually. The show lasted for only one season, as shows in that country tend to have a different lifespan and approach than American TV. Leopardon, his giant robot, helped revolutionize Japan's live-action superhero genre; the Spidey toys were very popular, and if it wasn't for Spidey, the Power Rangers wouldn't have had giant robots (or perhaps even exist -- the franchise might've gotten cancelled had it not been for the introduction of giant robots in their 3rd series).

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Some of scenes of Spider-Man going up a building were blue screen work, you cna see the poor matte lines around in those scenes. Like all of Universal's shows they had a library of visual effect shots which were used and reused. The Chinese Web I think was the only one late in the series that contained some enw shots.

Are you saying Spider-Man was a Universal show? It was actually produced by Charles Fries / Dan Goodman productions. About climbing FX, the chroma key shots were largely used in the pilot movie, but it left much to be desired, so all following episodes used numerous live shots of stuntman Fred Waugh climbing various buildings, including a helmet camera to show point-of-view climbing.

Leopardon, his giant robot, helped revolutionize Japan's live-action superhero genre; the Spidey toys were very popular, and if it wasn't for Spidey, the Power Rangers wouldn't have had giant robots (or perhaps even exist -- the franchise might've gotten cancelled had it not been for the introduction of giant robots in their 3rd series).

Well, giant robots from Japan have been around for some time before that Spider-Man series; from the animated Gigantor to the live action Giant Robo (syndicated in North America as a series & the cobbled together film, Voyage into Space), and other productions which were very popular. That said, even if the Spidey series did not use them, giant robots were as natural to use in Japanese children's series as cop dramas on U.S. TV.

 

[Admiral2]

The thing I remember most from the series were the web stunts. Peter Parker only had this one klunky web shooter and you can tell the web shooting effect was some grip off screen pulling a length of gauze out of it really fast. And Spidey never did a web swing more complicated than arcing a couple of feet in one direction.

Still watched every episode of the series. It was just fine for me...

 

[Zaku]

Let's talk about the BEST SPIDER-MAN FiGHT SCENE OF ALL TIME!!!

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFzA_JNzXUQ[/yt]

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I used to love that so much of the series used locations in Los Angeles; during the rooftop fight, you can see the metal girder sign for the Hotel Rosslyn, which was in downtown L.A.--only a few minutes from where I lived as a child (when the series was in production). Fun times.