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Spider-Man is an animated television series that ran from September 9, 1967 to June 14, 1970. It was originally produced in Canada and was the first animated adaptation of the Spider-Man comic book series. It first aired on the ABC television network in the United States but went into syndication at the start of the third season.
It featured the adventures of Marvel Comics most famous character and it has proven to be the most famous, as well as the final, production by Grantray-Lawrence Animation in Toronto, Ontario. Some Canadian talent was employed on the project, while animators from the United States were brought in at considerable expense and made up most of the crew behind the show. Grantray-Lawrence was contracted by Krantz Films, Inc. and Marvel Comics to yield 52 shows.
The show's acting talent included Bernard Cowan who was the dialogue director, narrator, and voice of some supporting characters. Paul Soles was both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Peg Dixon provided the voice of Betty Brant and various of Peter's love interests, and Paul Kligman's distinctive, high-pitched voice was utilized on J. Jonah Jameson and several villains.
After Grantray-Lawrence went bankrupt, the second and third seasons were produced at a dramatically reduced budget by Krantz Films under Ralph Bakshi. This cost cutting is most apparent with two episodes reusing almost the entire footage from two Rocket Robin Hood episodes as well as remaking previous episodes with minimal changes. In addition, the episodes took a darker tone with darkly colored settings and atmospheric music.
Spider-Man was initially broadcast in the U.S. on Saturday mornings on ABC. The first episode that aired was "The Power of Doctor Octopus"/"Sub-Zero For Spidey" on September 9, 1967. For the full run of the first season and of the second season, the show was seen at 11 am Atlantic Time. ABC's last Saturday morning broadcast of Spider-Man was on August 30, 1969, with 39 half-hour episodes (many with two separate stories) aired. The show went on hiatus until the following March, when a third season began a six-month run, from March 22 to September 6, 1970, on Sunday mornings, at 11:30 am Atlantic Time.
The entire series was released as Spider-Man: The '67 Collection on DVD in 2004.
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Theme song
In particular, the theme song of the show has become a popular standard. The lyrics were written by Academy Award winner Paul Francis Webster, while the music was composed by Bob Harris, Stu Phillips, and D. Kapross. The song begins "Spider-Man, Spider-Man / Does whatever a spider can". Variations on the song were used in the 2002 Spider-Man film.
It is very similar to the head of two popular 1960s boogies (Charlie Mingus's 1959 "Boogie Stop Shuffle", and Dave Brubeck's 1961 "Bru's Boogie Woogie") and probably based on them.
The song has been covered by:
Aerosmith for the soundtrack of the 2002 film adaptation (albeit with semi-altered lyrics). It is also notable that Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry performed a new theme song for the 1994 , playing the lead guitar track and speaking lyrics through a vocoder that loosly referenced the 1967 series' theme song, specifically the line "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, radioactive Spider-Man" and references to "radioactive blood" (changed to "radioactive Spider blood" for the 1994 theme).
The Ramones as a hidden track in the vinyl version of their 1995 album Adios Amigos! and their 1996 album Greatest Hits Live
Remixed by Norwegian group Ugress on their 2002 album Resound.
Actor Jack Black did his own version of the theme song in a part of a Spider-Man movie spoof on MTV.
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Episode list
SEASON 1
1A - The Power of Dr. Octopus
2A - Where Crawls the Lizard
2B - Electro the Human Lightning Bolt
3 - The Menace of Mysterio
4B - Captured by J. Jonah Jameson
5A - Never Step on a Scorpion
7B - The Peril of Parafino
9B - Fifth Avenue Phantom
10A - The Revenge of Dr. Magneto
10B - The Sinister Prime Minister
11A - The Night of the Villains
12A - Spider-Man Meets Dr. Noah Boddy
12B - The Fantastic Fakir
13A - Return of The Flying Dutchman
13B - Farewell Performance
14B - Blueprint for Crime
15A - The Spider and the Fly
15B - The Slippery Dr. Von Schlick
17A - The Terrible Triumph of Dr. Octopus
18B - Fiddler on the Loose
20A - Sting of the Scorpion
SEASON 2
21 - The Origin of Spider-Man
24 - Criminals in the Clouds
25 - Meance from the Bottom of the World
27 - Spider-Man Battles the Molemen
28 - Phantom from the Depths of Time
37 - Spider-Man Meets Skyboy
SEASON 3
41B - Spierman Vs. Desparado
42B - The Big Brainwasher
43A - The Vanishing Dr. Vespasian
43B - Scourge of the Scarf
44B - The Birth of Micro Man
45B - The Devious Dr. Dumpty
48B - The Madness of Mysterio
49 - Revolt in the Fifth Dimension1
50 - Specialists and Slaves
1ABC did not air Revolt in the Fifth Dimension episode with the rest of the third season possibly because of the incidence of death, spatial creepiness, and great psychedelia in that episode. ABC aired Sting of the Scorpion/Trick or Treachery in its place.
2This episode is only a rumour, apparently involving The Incredible Hulk and Mr. Fantastic.
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Trivia
The films Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 pay homage to the original TV series. This is especially notable towards the end of the second film, which was made identical to the "swing-off scene," displayed at the end of every episode of the first season. Several shots were approximated elsewhere in the films.
In the episodes "The Spider and the Fly" and "Trick or Treachery," the villains (The Fly Twins) are named 'Stan' and 'Lee.' This is an obvious reference to Stan Lee, one of the original creators of Spider-Man.
The episodes, "Phantom from the Depths of Time" and "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" were, for a large part, recycled animation from two episodes ("From Menace to Menace" and "Dimentia Five") of an earlier series, "Rocket Robin Hood." Therein, Spider-Man was substituted for Robin Hood on the animation cells.
The only webbed areas are his head. The rest of his costume is plain.
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