Spider-Man (1967 TV Series)

Spider-Man is an animated television series that ran from September 9, 1967 to June 14, 1970. It was jointly produced in Canada (for voice talent) and the United States (for animation) and was the first animated adaptation of the Spider-Man comic book series, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. It first aired on the ABC television network in the United States but went into syndication at the start of the third season. Grantray-Lawrence Animation produced the first season. Seasons 2 and 3 were crafted by producer Ralph Bakshi in New York City. An internet meme, commonly known as 1960s Spiderman, regarding the series has received an overwhelming amount of popularity. The meme consists of a screenshot taken at a random part of the series and adding an inappropriate and/or witty text.

Synopsis
The series revolves around the scientific-minded teenager Peter Parker who, after being bitten by a radioactive spider, develops amazing strength and spider-like powers. He decides to become a crime-fighting, costumed superhero; all the while dealing with his personal problems and the insecurities resulting from being a teenager. Spider-Man risks his life to fight super-powered criminals such as Mysterio and the Green Goblin; however, New York Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson views him as a criminal, and continually writes front page headlines declaring him as such.

The first season of the show dealt primarily with Peter working at the Daily Bugle as a teenage freelance photographer, thereby capturing his relationship with the gruff, demanding J. Jonah Jameson and shyly romancing Betty Brant over the reception desk, while Peter was often being called into action as his crime-fighting alter-ego. Peter's life away from the Bugle's newspaper offices and Aunt May's Forest Hills home were almost never dealt with in these early episodes, and he was also never seen at college-—although he would sometimes visit various professors he clearly knew (such as the opening of "Sub-Zero for Spidey," where he went to see a professor by the name of "Smartyr"). Still, the character design for young Parker was spot-on, combining the conceptualizations of both Steve Ditko (right down to Ditko's design of Parker's primary-colored blue suit, yellow vest, white shirt, and red tie) and John Romita, Sr., who served as art consultant for the show.

Season 1 contained mostly stories involving classic Spider-Man villains from the comic book series, whose captures were often punctuated by a note signed "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." Character creator Stan Lee served as story consultant for this season of the show. The Ralph Bakshi-helmed Seasons 2 and 3, however, almost entirely eliminated villains from the comic book as a cost-cutting measure, choosing to instead have Spider-Man face generic green skinned magical villains and monsters, thereby enabling re-use of stock footage from Rocket Robin Hood, another animated cartoon TV show Bakshi produced.

Timing
First-season episodes were in production about three months before their initial broadcast. For example, "Farewell Performance" was under the camera in late August 1967, as evident by the description of President Lyndon Johnson's 59th birthday in a newspaper clipping. This episode first aired on December 2, 1967. Ralph Bakshi's episodes were more rushed; an early second-season episode from the fall of 1968 ("Criminals in the Clouds") has a newspaper clipping from October 9, 1968.

Voice talent
The show's acting talent included Bernard Cowan, who was the dialogue director, narrator, and voice of some supporting characters. Paul Soles provided both the light, mild-mannered voice for college student/photographer Peter Parker and the much deeper, heroic tone for Spider-Man. Peg Dixon provided the voice of Betty Brant as well as other various love interests for Peter in later seasons, and Paul Kligman's distinctive, high-pitched voice was utilized on J. Jonah Jameson and several villains. Also appearing were Vern Chapman as Doctor Octopus; Gillie Fenwick as Dr. Smarter; Curt Connors, the Lizard, and the Vulture. Tom Harvey was the voice of Electro and the Sandman. Chris Wiggins was the voice of Mysterio. Carl Banas was the voice of the Scorpion. Len Carlson was the voice of the Green Goblin, Parafino, and one of the Fly brothers (Stan Patterson). Harry Ramer was the voice of Dr. Smythe, Dr. Noah Boddy, and the other Fly brother (Lee Patterson). Ed McNamera was the voice of the Rhino. Billie Mae Richards was Billy Connors and Max Ferguson was the Phantom.

Budget
In order to be more cost-effective, given the limited budget for the show, Spider-Man's costume for this series only has webbed areas on his head, arms and boots; the rest of his costume is plain (save for the spiders on his chest and back). Additionally, the series also relied upon re-used stock animation from one episode to the next, stock animation which included everything from Spider-Man swinging across the New York City skyline, to Peter Parker stripping off his white dress shirt to reveal his spider-suit (and putting on his mask) during his hidden transformations into the costumed superhero. Character movement was also kept to a minimum, though there was (arguably) more character movement here than in other Marvel-themed projects, such as The Marvel Superheroes, the character movement of which was once described as "like a comic book with the mouths moving."

The opening credits depicts a scene of robbers burgling a jewelry store. In the first shot, the sign reads "Fine Jewlery." Then in the next shot, it changes to the correct spelling ("Jewelry," US spelling).

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 in the third season with two episodes re-using almost the entire footage from two Rocket Robin Hood episodes as well as remaking previous episodes with minimal changes. In addition, footage from previous episodes was cannibalized almost in their entirety with minimal changes to present essentially the same plots; the episodes featuring The Vulture and The Rhino from the first season were reedited together as single episodes in the later seasons. Mysterio's appearance in the series differed from the first season to the third. In his first appearance, his mask was off periodically, and his head had pointed ears. In his second appearance, his mask and costume were the same as the previous episode, but the mask was never removed. In Season Three's "The Madness of Mysterio," he was never wearing his costume, but he had started carrying a cigarette-holder in his mouth, wore a smoking jacket, his skin was green, and his ears were no longer pointed; while the series' final episode simply reruns Mysterio's standard appearance in "The Return of the Flying Dutchman" episode as part of a clip episode.

An error on Spider-Man's costume appeared through Season 1. The spider on his costume (both front and back) was depicted with only 6 legs. By Season 2 new drawings of the costume showed an 8 legged spider, but reused footage from Season 1 maintained season one's error.

In addition, the second and third season episodes adopted a darker tone with darkly colored settings, psychedelic images, and atmospheric music. But while the reduced budget took its toll, Bakshi tried to delve further into Peter Parker's everyday life at college as a soft-spoken student, such as where he tries out for the football team, in "Criminals in the Clouds," only to fail miserably, and actually becomes a star pitcher for the baseball team in "Diamond Dust." Peter's romantic life also began to take shape as he started dating a variety of women who were either concealing secrets ("Home") or found themselves angrily waiting for him while Spider-Man saved the city from certain destruction ("Swing City"). Bakshi also provided fans with the first origin story for the character ever presented on TV, the aptly titled "The Origin of Spider-Man," which used entire chunks of Stan Lee's dialogue, not from the hero's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, published in August 1962, but instead from a drastically updated retelling in Spectacular Spider-Man #1, titled "In the Beginning," which was published in July 1968, only a few months before the episode was aired.

Theme song
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. The song's opening line, "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can," became almost as synonymous with the character as his costume. The 2002 and 2004 film adaptations have featured characters as buskers performing the song; Jayce Bartok and Elyse Dinh respectively. Both films also feature some version of the song at the very end of the credits: the 2002 adaptation featured the original 1967 recording while the 2004 film had a re-recording by Michael Bublé (also featured on the film's soundtrack). 2007's Spider-Man 3 features a performance of the song by a marching band at a public rally celebrating Spider-Man.

Meanwhile the incidental music from the series, with its jangling surf guitar, groovy brass lines and jazzy scoring, is highly regarded by fans and much sought after by soundtrack collectors. The 1st season featured an original score written by Ray Ellis, who also adapted the Bob Harris theme, in the same way John Barry utilized Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" in various 007 films, or Nelson Riddle utilized Neal Hefti's "Batman Theme" in addition to new material.

The Capitol tracks can also be heard on such earlier shows as The Untouchables, The Fugitive and 8th Man. Still other recordings came from the DeWolfe Library.

Broadcast schedule
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 10 a.m. Eastern 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 a.m. Eastern Time.

In 1977, the series was broadcast abroad, airing in several international markets for the first time. In the case of the Spanish and Italian versions, a completely different theme song was used, dubbed over original footage of the introduction. The song was written by composers Erick Bulling & Santiago and performed by Chilean singer Guillermo "Memo" Aguirre, aka "El Capitan Memo." This song was also released as a vinyl LP single. For the Italian version, the show's title there, L'uomo Ragno, was superimposed in large yellow type over the first two shots of Spider-Man swinging through the city.

The series has also aired on ABC Family, starting in 2002 as part of the network's Memorial Day weekend-long "Spidey-Mania" marathon, timed to coincide with the release of the feature film. However, it appeared that airings of the show were only limited to the special marathons in question, as it would not be seen again until a third "Spidey-Mania" marathon (to coincide with the release of Spider-Man 2) in 2004, the last time it was seen on ABC Family in the US. (The second "Spidey-Mania" marathon, aired in 2003, did not feature this series.) In addition, the show aired on Family in Canada until September 2007 when they took it off to make room for their fall schedule. The show is not known ever to have aired on the channel since.

The network was notorious for heavily editing footage so it could be more suitable for younger audiences; for example, J. Jonah Jameson's right hand, which usually held the cigar he puffed on, had to be manipulated—and removed altogether in some cases. In one episode, where Jameson originally held his cigar in his hand, he was manipulated to make an "okay" sign.

As of September 1, 2008, the series can be seen (unedited) in Canada on Teletoon Retro. A French-language dub could be seen on Radio-Canada's Saturday morning lineup well into the mid-2000s.

Episodes of the series have also been posted in the "Videos" section of Marvel's official website, Marvel.com.

The Spider-Man: The '67 Collection DVD set (see below) is currently available for streaming on Netflix in the United States.

Cast

 * Paul Soles – Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Vulture (second voice)
 * Peg Dixon – Betty Brant, Miss Trubble
 * Bernard Cowan – Narrator, Dr. Matto Magneto, Plutonian Leader (also dialogue director)
 * Paul Kligman – J. Jonah Jameson
 * Tom Harvey – Scorpion, Dr. Banas
 * Len Carlson – Green Goblin, Parafino, Stan Patterson/Human Fly, Bolton, Captain Ned Stacy
 * Vernon Chapman – Doctor Octopus (first voice)
 * Gillie Fenwick – Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard, Vulture, Pardo, Plotter, Professor Smartyr
 * Max Ferguson – Fifth Avenue Phantom, Electro, Vegio, Master Vine, Dr. Octopus (second voice)
 * Tom Harvey – Electro, Sandman, Baron Von Rantenraven, Dr. Atlantean, Dr. Stillwell, Mugs Riley
 * Ed McNamera – Rhino, Blackbeard, Vulcan, Executioner Of Paris
 * Henry Ramer – Dr. Noah Boddy, Grandini the Mystic, Henry Smythe

First season credits

 * Executive Producer: Robert L. Lawrence
 * Producer: Ray Patterson
 * Animation Directors: Grant Simmons, Clyde Geronimi, Sid Marcus
 * Story Direction: June Patterson
 * Story Material: Bill Danch, Al Bertino, Dick Robbins, Dick Cassarino, Phil Babet
 * Theme Song Written by Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster
 * Music Composed and Conducted by Ray Ellis
 * Animators: Hal Ambro, Robert Bentley, Dan Bessie, George Cannata, Herman Cohen, Howard Ellis, Bill Hous, Tom McDonald, Chic Otterstrom, Don Schloat, Ralph Somerville, Reuben Timmins, Harvey Toombs, Kay Wright
 * Backgrounds: Curtiss Perkins, Richard H. Thomas, Bill Butler, Mike Kawaguchi
 * Layout: Ray Aragon, Joe Asturino, Herb Hazelton, Jim Mueller, C.L. Hartman, John Ewing, Joel Seibel
 * Production Supervised by Robert "Tiger" West
 * Production Manager: Gene Meyers
 * Film Editor: Bryce Corso
 * Sound Editor: Hank Goetzenberg
 * Animation Checking: Rollie Greenwood, Dave Hoffman
 * Creative Consultants: Stan Lee (called "Smilin'" Stan Lee), John Romita, Sr. (called "Jazzy" Johnny Romita), respective story and art consultants
 * Re-Recording: Producers Sound Service
 * A GrantRay-Lawrence Production In Association With Steve Krantz Productions (Krantz Films), Inc.

Second season credits

 * Executive Producer and Animation Director: Ralph Bakshi
 * Assistant Director: Cosmo Anzilotti
 * Layout: Gray Morrow
 * Animators: Clifford Augustson, Douglas Crane, Frank Enders, Johnnie Gentilella, Martin Taras, Nick Tafuri, Terry Tarricone, Earl James
 * Backgrounds: Johnnie Vita, Richard H. Thomas
 * Production Supervised by Sylvia White
 * Production Manager: Jerry Schultz
 * Film Editors: Howard Kaiser, George Copeland
 * Animation Checking: Barbara Donatelli
 * Camera: Jerry Smith, Larry Hogan
 * Story Supervision: Ralph Bakshi
 * Story Material: Ira Turek, Lin Carter, Fred Halliday
 * Dialogue Director: Bernard Cowan
 * Music and Effects Editing: Hank Goetzenberg, Inc.
 * Theme Song Written by Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster
 * Music Composed and Conducted by Ray Ellis
 * Produced by Krantz Animation, Inc.
 * Distributed by Steve Krantz Productions (Krantz Films), Inc.

Third season credits

 * Executive Producer and Animation Director: Ralph Bakshi
 * Assistant Director: Cosmo Anzilotti
 * Layout: Gray Morrow
 * Animators: Clifford Augustson, Douglas Crane, Frank Enders, Johnnie Gentilella, Martin Taras, Nick Tafuri, Terry Tarricone, Earl James, Richard Hall
 * West Coast Animation Director: Grant Simmons
 * West Coast Animators: Robert Bentley, Ralph Somerville, Robert Taylor, Reuben Timmins, Kay Wright
 * Backgrounds: Johnnie Vita, Bob Owen, Richard H. Thomas
 * Production Supervised by Sylvia White
 * Production Manager: Jerry Schultz
 * Film Editors: Howard Kaiser, George Copeland, Richard Calamari
 * Animation Checking: Rena Smith
 * Color Checking: Barbara Donatelli
 * Camera: Jerry Smith, Larry Hogan
 * Story Supervision: Ralph Bakshi
 * Story Material: Ira Turek, Lin Carter, Fred Halliday
 * Dialogue Director: Bernard Cowan
 * Music and Effects Editing: Hank Goetzenberg, Inc.
 * Theme Song Written by Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster
 * Music Composed and Conducted by Ray Ellis
 * Based on an original character creation by Stan Lee
 * Produced by Krantz Animation, Inc.

Home video releases
Various episodes were released on VHS videotapes throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s. These were usually compiled with other Marvel Comics based characters' cartoons also. In the case of the early-2000s releases, these episodes were packaged with those from the 1990s animated series as bonus episodes. The final release to feature this was the DVD edition of Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock in 2004. During the late 2000s, Marvel rereleased the series as a video stream via the official site, free to watch.

DVD release
On June 29, 2004, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (whose parent company would acquire Marvel's assets five years later ) released the complete series on DVD in Region 1, with the set titled as Spider-Man – The '67 Collection. The 6-disc box set features all 52 episodes of the series as well as an introduction from creator Stan Lee. But the set later fell out of print, and copies came to command high prices on amazon.com.

On November 10, 2008, UK company Liberation Entertainment released the first season of Spider-Man (titled "The Original '67 Series") on Region 2 DVD.

Another UK company, ClearVision, later acquired the rights to region 2 release. 

Instant Streaming
The series became available for instant streaming via Netflix during the Summer of 2011.