Spider-Man

OK, so I'll admit maybe it could've included Liz and Flash and maybe it could've had have some more Aunt May. But as far as complaining about the animation and the fact that Spider-man "doesn't have all webs on his costume" is just ridiculous as the show had a very limited budget. Although.... One thing I didn't like was the voice acting, really no excuse for that Jameson was good, Betty Brant was decent but, that was really it. Spider-man sounded like an a man in his mid-30s so it definitely didn't deliver, and I want that "energy" from that Spider-man. The kind of energy that just gets you excited a good voice actor can do that, Mark Hamill's Joker did that. But in the end I actually thought the makers did a pretty good job with what the had to work with. It could've been a LOT worse. And also, this show gave us the classic Spiderman theme song that pretty much everyone knows. So all in all it pretty decent especially the 1st season, It's kinda a either you "Love' it or you "Hate" it show. However, I'm sure nostalgia could be maker true haters rate it higher

The thing that really made this show special was the music. Bachelor pad band leader Ray Ellis composed, and conducted a wide range of dramatic secret-agent-style cues for the first season, and these bits got reused to good effect in the following seasons. Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster contributed the theme song with its frenetic off-kilter drum riffs. Starting in season 2, the creators began dipping into the KPM music catalogue bringing to light ice-cool jazz gems such as Syd Dale's "The Hell Raisers" and David Lindup's "Stand By." Some of the same cues would later pop up in TV shows such as "Dallas." Paul Kligman's J. Jonah Jameson and Paul Soles' Peter Parker voice work was absolutely wonderful. It's hard not to imagine their voices when reading the comics.

The animation art is fairly dynamic, and resembles the work of John Romita who served as a consultant. Comic artist Gray Morrow even worked as one of the animators. Ralph Bakshi who would later become famous for "Lord of the Rings" and "Fire and Ice" took over as director in the second season. The most obvious mark of his influence was the dark multi-coloured clouds that appeared as backgrounds in some of the more psychedelic episodes.

Overall one of the more interesting animated series' of its time.

The problem with comic books today, is that they are waaayy too sophisticated for most kids to comprehend... I read Spiderman when I was 6 and 7 years old (I read it when I was older as well, but I will get to that) and I could follow the stories to some exent, but mostly I read it because the cartoon was soooo cool (much cooler than any later Spiderman incarnations)... the animation was quirky, the voices were very Shatnerian (I think I just invented a word, and I will now use it frequently), but it was fun and it made sense to a young mind.

Now, don't get me wrong about comic books, I really appreciated the more sophisticated stories when I was a teenager, but I have no idea how the medium will gain new fans when you cannot hope to get involved with them until you are at least a teenager (when such things are uncool)... and a lot of the material is too intense for young eyes anyway... maybe a line of comics for younger fans would be good. I dunno, but I feel bad that my kid will likely not have comic book heroes in his life to any meaningful degree... I just wish that cool shows like Bakshi's Spiderman were still on the air to fill in the gaps.

I grew up watching this series in the early 1970s, and I'm happy that someone finally placed them onto DVDs. The set of 6 discs is rather deep, with all the episodes filling the DVDs. It's rather thin on extras. But there are what, 3 hours per disc? And the episodes are in chronological order, from the first to the final episode.

Some of the episodes weren't digitally remastered, as most seem to have been, but heck, when I compare them to the VHS tapes I used to purchase at comic book shows where the tapes were recorded from UHF stations yielding poor reception, I won't complain. I'm just glad they're here. For the price, it's plenty of bang for the buck.

As for the episodes, Ralph Bakshi took over as producer midway through the run of the original episodes (his cartoons can be found about midway through the third DVD). Reading through postings on the net, people have said that Bakshi took over and operations moved from Canada to the US when it was cheaper then to produce the animation in the states... and some staff cutting was done while the episodes were still cranked out at a good pace. Hence, people claim, a good bit of regurgitation of characters and plot lines increased. FYI, the Canadian episodes had Spidey webbing in clear skies, while the Bakshi episodes introduced eerie, watercolored skies.

I'm a visual guy, and love the vibrant tones. Plus, it seems as though the music picked up a lot with the change. I just "dig" the way the music sounded. You can even hear a musician yelp every now and then in some jam sessions. So, I can't go Bakshi bashing. Usually, it's the networks that trim budgets, and Bakshi, I feel, had to make due. He did the best he could, I think, and I bet that if the budget had been fat, Bakshi would have had the animators take time and add depth and detail.

Hell I wasnt even really thought of when this show first came out. I use to watch it on Fox 5 in NYC with my dad when I was 3....that was about 20 years ago. This was definetly the best of the 60s Marvel cartoons. I preferred the first ones, I liked the Bakshi ones, but I liked the shorts because they mostly used the comic villains. The Bakshi ones didnt start using real comic villains towards the end. Fox Family occasionally shows it, but rarely. If you can find videos of this series at comic stores pick them up. This was a great show.