The Amazing Spider-Man (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = "The Amazing Spider-Man"


caption =
format = Crime
runtime = 1 hour
creator =Comic Book:
Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
Writers:
Alvin Boretz
Robert Janes
Michael Michaelian
Stan Lee
Steve Ditko
starring =Nicholas Hammond
Michael Pataki
Robert F. Simon
Ellen Bry
Chip Fields
Irene Tedrow
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = 1977
last_aired = 1979
num_episodes = 15
preceded_by = "Spidey Super Stories"
followed_by = "Spider-Man (tokusatsu)"
imdb_id = 0076975
tv_com_id = 896|

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the first live-action TV series made to the popular comic book "The Amazing Spider-Man" and was shown in the USA between 1977-1979. It consisted of 15 episodes. Despite being produced by Columbia Pictures Television (and the modern Spider-Man movies being produced by Columbia Pictures), none of the episodes are available on DVD but some of them have been released on VHS.

eries run on CBS and criticism

The series aired on the CBS television network along with live action television series based on the comic book characters of The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America and Doctor Strange. The "Amazing Spider-Man" series had solid ratings throughout its run, but CBS was leery about being labeled the "superhero network" and fans were highly critical of the series [ [http://marvel.toonzone.net/retrospective/hulk/ Marvel Animation Age: "The Incredible Hulk In Animation - A Retrospective" (Part One)] : "A Spider-Man pilot drew huge ratings, resulting in The Amazing Spider-Man being made into a prime time series of 15 episodes – despite how poorly everyone reacted towards it. None of the charm of the Spidey comics were to be found in the show – Spidey himself was practically mute, the villains were typical, clichéd baddies and none of Spider-Man’s supporting cast beside Aunt May and a rather mild J. Jonah Jameson appeared. Spider-Man himself was merely some clown in a costume – none of the angst, wit was present and nor was the character relatable."] for the changes made to the comic book storyline and the lack of any real "supervillains". The only characters besides Peter Parker to regularly appear in both the television series and comics were J. Jonah Jameson and Aunt May. Joe "Robbie" Robertson (played by Hilly Hicks) also appeared but only in the pilot. To add insult to injury, Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee disliked the show, and was vocal about his dissatisfaction with it; he once said in an interview that he felt the series was "too juvenile" - a controversial statement given his credit as script consultant on each episode. Despite criticism of the series as far removed from the source material, the show has so far featured the only live-action appearance of Peter Parker's spider-tracer tracking devices, which are prominently featured in several episodes throughout the series.

Revival attempts

In the mid-1980s and early 1990s, two attempts were made to recreate an "Amazing Spider-Man" live-action television series. The first one would have had the original cast team-up with the cast from the "The Incredible Hulk" [ [http://www.incrediblehulktvseries.com/FAQ/HulkFAQ5.htm#A13 The Incredible Hulk TV Series Page, FAQ , item #13.] "Another interesting tidbit. In 1984, a few years after THE INCREDIBLE HULK had left prime time, there was an effort made for a new INCREDIBLE HULK adventure that would also feature Nicholas Hammond reprising his role from the CBS Spider-Man television series. Spider-Man star, Nicholas Hammond, recounted the TV movie that almost was in a recent interview with SFX Magazine: quote|I used to know Bill Bixby quite well in those days, we first met on "Rich Man Poor Man", a series I did in the 1970's with Bill and Nick Nolte, and we were friends up until his death. Anyhow we used to speak on the phone once in a while and we talked about the problems The Hulk series had ran into and why Spider-Man didn't work. Bill asked me during one of these conversations would I play the part again. My response was only if I could have more control over the character, I wanted to make him more humorous and was interested in doing more of the physical stuff. I felt one of the problems with the series was that the Peter Parker Applied and the Spider-Man, who was played by a stuntman, were so opposite and lots of the believability of the character was lost. Bill liked my ideas and said that he would let me know if anything came up (he had some good connections within Marvel and later New World). About three weeks to a month later, I got a phone call from Bill saying that he had spoken to Ron Satlof ("The Deadly Dust") and he was close to setting up a deal with Columbia Television to start work on a project which featured both Spider-Man and the Hulk. Bill was going to direct, and I was to have writing credits with Stan Lee and Ron Satlof. One of the main problems early on though, was Universal Television weren't prepared to let Columbia have use of the Hulk character and this took a while. Eventually Bill phoned again saying that both networks came to a deal to co-produce the Tele-Movie with Universal having the rights to screen. Things started moving quickly and we got most of the Technical crews from both original series on board and the movie had air date of spring 1984. I was very excited because work had been tight, and as Bill said, this could open doors on the acting front. I also loved the character. Bill was also keen to do it because his private life was in something of a limbo and directing the movie would have really taken his mind of things. The most impressive thing about the movie was to be the costume I was going to wear. It was to be the Black costume used in the comics around this time and it looked a lot better than the one in the T.V series. Just as everything was running smoothly, Bill phoned again. "Hi its Bill, Nick. I've got some bad news and some good news. The project has been canceled, Lou is unavailable, Universal won't do the movie without Lou." Lou Ferrigno was in Italy making a Hercules movie and wouldn't be available to make the movie and weren't prepared to wait for him. Personally, I have always thought that this was Universal's own way of canceling the project. If they had just left it to Columbia, it would have got made easily. I was a bit upset because I was looking forward to doing it again and the script was good, and I never got the chance to work with Bill. A shame really.] television series. This was part of a plan to have several television movies featuring the Incredible Hulk and various Marvel Comics characters. This attempt finally fell through when Bill Bixby died of cancer in 1993. A second attempt would have been an entirely new series that died in preproduction because the networks wanted to make Spider-Man into a mutant.

Cast and crew

Regular cast

* Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* David White as J. Jonah Jameson (pilot)
* Robert F. Simon as J. Jonah Jameson (series)
* Chip Fields as Rita Conway
* Michael Pataki as Capt. Barbera (pilot and first season only)
* Ellen Bry as Julie Masters (second season only)

Directors

* Tom Blank
* Cliff Bole
* Michael Caffey
* Dennis Donnelly
* Tony Ganz
* Fernando Lamas
* Joseph Manduke
* Don McDougall
* Ron Satlof
* Larry Stewar

Episode guide

eason 1

*(1) ""The Amazing Spider-Man" (Airdate: 4/19/1977). University student Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and decides to uses his super powers to stop a new age guru that is turning law abiding citizens into criminals through mind control. This pilot TV-movie was released theatrically overseas and saw VHS releases in the 1980s by CBS/Fox Home Video (and later, reissued on its Playhouse Video label) and in the 1990s by Rhino Home Video. A CED videodisc version (CBS/Fox) and a laserdisc version were also released. All versions are out of print.

*(2) and (3) ""Deadly Dust Part 1 & 2" (Airdates: 4/5/1978, 4/12/1978). Upset that their professor has brought a small amount of plutonium onto campus in order to give a class demonstration, three University students decide to steal the plutonium and build a bomb in order to illustrate the dangers of nuclear power. However, the international businessmen and arms dealer named "Mr. White" has his henchmen steal the plutonium so that he can detonate it in Los Angeles, California where President Jimmy Carter will be giving a campaign speech. "The Deadly Dust" saw video release as a "movie version" in the 1980s by CBS/Fox/Playhouse, and in the late 1990s by Rhino Home Video. Also released theatrically (and on videotape) in Europe under the the title "Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978)"

*(4) ""The Curse of Rava" (Airdate: 4/19/1978). Members of a religious cult, led by the telekinetic Mandak, plan to steal a Rava religious icon from a museum and in the process frame Mr. Jameson for attempted murder. "The Curse of Rava" was spliced together with "Con Caper" to form "Con Caper & The Curse of Rava" which was available on VHS from Prism Home Video (in the mid 80s) and Rhino Home Video in the late 90s.

*(5) ""Night of The Clones" (Airdate: 4/26/1978). A scientific convention is being held in New York City and a controversial American scientist has figured out a way to clone human beings, only to have his evil clone twin escape, and clone an evil Spider-Man. "Night of the Clones", and the episode following it, "Escort to Danger" were spliced together to make "Night of the Clones & Escort to Danger" which was available on VHS from Prism Home Video (in the mid 1980s) and Rhino Home Video in the late 1990s.

*(6) ""Escort To Danger" (Airdate: 5/3/1978). While visiting New York City, the daughter of a recently elected pro-democracy Latin American President is kidnapped by those that seek a return of a fascist dictatorship. "Escort to Danger", and the episode before it, "Night of the Clones" were spliced together to make "Night of the Clones & Escort to Danger" which was available on VHS from Prism Home Video (in the mid 1980s) and Rhino Home Video in the late 1990s.

eason 2

*(7) ""The Captive Tower" (Airdate: 9/5/1978)Thieves steal ten million dollars from a new high-tech security building and uses its computers to trap the people inside. The plot of this episode is similar to the film "Die Hard". Since there were no other hour-long episodes which which to combine it into a 2-hour movie, this episode is the rarest-seen of the series, the only reruns being on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 1990s. This is also the only episode that didn't get a VHS release.

*(8) ""A Matter of State" (Airdate: 9/12/1978). NATO defense plans are stolen and held for ransom by terrorists. Julia Masters accidentally gets a photograph of the ringleader of the gang and now Spider-Man has to protect Masters, while also trying to get the defense plans back. This episode has been released on VHS as "Photo Finish & A Matter of State" by Rhino Home Video, but is now out of print.

*(9) ""The Con Caper" (Airdate: 11/25/1978). An imprisoned politician is released and poses as a reformed humanitarian dedicated to prison reform in order to stage a break out of some prisoners and steal a hundred-million dollars. This episode has been released on VHS by Prism Home Video (in the mid 1980s) and Rhino Home Video (in the late 1990s) as "Con Caper & Curse of Rava."

*(10) ""The Kirkwood Haunting" (Airdate: 12/30/1978). Peter Parker is sent to the estate (complete with its own zoo) of a wealthy widow and longtime family friend of Mr. Jameson. The widow claims that she is being visited by the ghost of her dead husband and he is telling her to donate all her money to the group of men that are acting as objective investigators of paranormal phenomenon. This episode has been released on VHS by Rhino Home Video spliced together to make "Wolfpack & The Kirkwood Haunting" but is now out of print.

*(11) ""Photo Finish" (Airdate: 2/7/1979). While doing a story on a rare coin collection, the coins are stolen in a robbery with one of the thieves wearing a wig to appear to be the coin collector's bitter ex-wife. The photo that Parker has of the cross-dressing thief will falsely frame the ex-wife and Parker is willing to go to jail in order to protect the innocent and break out of jail as Spider-Man to bring the thieves to justice. This episode has been released on VHS as "Photo Finish & A Matter of State" by Rhino Home Video and was previously released by itself (in its original one-hour format) on a LP-speed cassette from low-budget label Star Maker Home Video. Both versions are out of print.
*(12) ""Wolfpack" (Airdate: 2/21/1979). When a greedy Sorgenson Chemical representative learns that University students have developed a mind control gas, he uses the gas to take control of the students and even some soldiers to commit various crimes. This episode has been released on VHS on Rhino Home Video as "Wolfpack & The Kirkwood Haunting", but is now out of print.

*(13) and (14) ""The Chinese Web" (Airdate: 7/6/1979). The final episode (a 2-hour special) has an old college friend of Mr. Jameson fleeing China (where he is the Minister of Industrial Development) to live with his Chinese-American daughter because the Chinese government has falsely charged him with being a spy during World War II. While Peter Parker tries to prove the man's innocence he must contend with a henchmen of a British-Hong Kong businessman who will do anything to get a new Minster of Industrial Development that will ensure that his firm gets a lucrative business contract with China. The two-part series finale has plenty of action, a new female love interest (played by Rosalind Chao), extensive footage of Hong Kong and even exposition on its history and traditional religious beliefs. This movie-length episode has been released in its full version (released overseas as "Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge") by Fox Home Video (in the early 1980s) and Rhino Home Video (in the late 1990s).

ee also

*"The Amazing Spider-Man"

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0076975|title=The Amazing Spider-Man
*Tv.com show|id=896|title=The Amazing Spider-Man
* [http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/526/526713p1.html 2004 IGN Article on Spider-Man on Television]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/22/1023864515050.html An interview from 2002 with Nicholas Hammond about the first Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire]
* [http://homepage.mac.com/markrathwell/Spidey Webpage dedicated to the television series]