Spider-Man

I love superhero films and TV shows and this was a great cartoon.

The animation may not be as great as the mid-1990's cartoon series but the stories were fun. My favourite episodes were "Return of the Flying Dutchman" and "Neptunes Nose Cone."

All of Spidey's main foes were in this-including my favourite Mysterio (the guy with the fishbowl for a helmet). And Peter Parker was so likeable in this show.

One more thing-I just loved the theme tune for this show and it is the best theme tune out of all the Spider-Man cartoon shows.

Will somebody please release EVERY episode onto video sometime?

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.

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 music, the mood, the voice acting - everything was great, and some of it is timeless. Some of it is dated, true, but it is the best cheesy fun out there! I can't think of the voice of Spidey or JJJ without thinking of this show - which had AMAZING music - very moody and fun! Try it and love it!

With the hype of the new movie to come out next year, some fans are skeptical about it being faithful to the original (ie: organic web-shooters). However, I like to point out to them that there is a presentation of the Amazing Spider-Man on film or TV that is faithful to the original comic book. That is the 1967-1970 animated series of Spider-Man.

The first season contains the classic villains the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus and the Vulture and the background is a sky-blue motif. I think that it resembles the Steve Ditko Spider-Man comics. And the 2nd and 3rd seasons are more weird and bizarre with villains that consist of space aliens, wizards, cavemen and the background is a more dark, night-time theme. These are my favorite even though the production budget was slashed considerably for them.

Who can forget the 2nd season's "The Origin of Spider-Man"? Or the psychedelic and horrific "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension"? If you prefer more light-hearted shows, you can watch J. Jonah Jameson's comic-induced rantings from the first season as Spider-Man continues to frustrate the newspaper despot. The fact that there are two different sides to this series (1st season VS 2nd & 3rd seasons) is what makes it so fondly remembered today. If all the episodes were like the 1st season, people would easily dismiss it as a typical 1960's animated fluff. If all the episodes were just like the 2nd and 3rd seasons, it would also be discarded as weird psychedelia. The combination of the two styles perfectly portrays the evolution of Spider-Man from early 1960's innocence to the dark and forboding 1970's Spider-Man comics by John Romita and Gerry Conway.

Another strength to this series is the background music which complements the eye-pleasing visuals. Despite the repeated use of the same animation, one never really gets tired of it. The theme song that accompanies the opening and closing segments of the show is very famous and the majority of the non-Spider-Man viewing and reading public will recognize it.

My recommendation: 10 out of 10.