Series cast summary: | |||
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Paul Soles | ... | Spider-Man / ... 52 episodes, 1967-1970 |
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Peg Dixon | ... | Betty Brant / ... 52 episodes, 1967-1970 |
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Paul Kligman | ... | J. Jonah Jameson / ... 52 episodes, 1967-1970 |
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Bernard Cowan | ... | Police officer / ... 20 episodes, 1967-1970 |
Student Peter Parker is bitten by a spider while witnessing an experiment in radiology and finds that the radiation has transferred the properties of the spider (ability to scale walls and swing on webs) to him with a strength proportional to his body. Peter now has super spider powers and is so preoccupied with their possibilities that he fails to help the police stop a thief, who later robs the house of Peter's guardians, Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and kills Ben. Furious, Peter tracks down the culprit at a warehouse, and, on seeing the man's face, Peter realizes that if he had acted earlier to help stop the crook, Ben would be alive now. So, Peter vows to use his new powers to fight crime, as the super-heroic Spider-Man. Written by Kevin McCorry <mmccorry@nb.sympatico.ca>
Although the animation was terrible by today's standards, this series had a style that was very much in keeping with the 60's Spider-man comic books. There were a standard set of shots with Spidey swinging along buildings, or coming right at the screen, which they used over and over and over again.
Some of the episodes were taken right from the comic books(such as the one where Jameson sends a robot with his face on it after Spider-man--it even used lines directly from the comic). Others were rip offs of shows from Rocket Robin Hood(in particular the "Dimentia Fiiive!!!" one). These were the worst ones because they tended to meander and frequently had these psychedelic background skies that were really depressing to stare at.
It was a good show for laughs--intentional and otherwise. Whenever I read a Spider-man comic--I think of J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker, and Spider-man with the voices they have in this series.
Note: the music was actually pretty good--very fast moving--and of course the title song with its memorable lyrics: "Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can, can he swing from a web? Take a look overhead, hey there, there goes the Spider-man!"
Once you hear that song--you'll never get it out of your head.