First viewed : September 1981
This was the first live action rendering of Spider-Man with the over-intense Nicholas Hammond playing Peter Parker / Spider-Man. The pilot film was released as a feature film in Europe in 1977 and I remember going to the cinema to see it. The ensuing series was cancelled in 1979 in the US after two seasons of five and seven episodes . It was actually popular but not with the desired audience ( i.e. adults ). ITV used it to fill out the Friday night schedule in the autumn of 1981.
I thought it was OK but suffered from the same problem as The Incredible Hulk ; the budget wouldn't stretch to providing Spidey with appropriate adversaries so instead of facing Dr Octopus or the Green Goblin you just had run of the mill megalomaniacs with martial arts-trained heavies to overcome.
My main problem with this fiasco was that it was set in LA, instead of Spider-Man's proper home of New York. Obviously this meant far less of the skyscraper skyline for Spidey to swing around and pretty much ruined a big part of the character.
ReplyDeleteLike with the Hulk show, it also suffers from the technology not being able to show off any approximation of Marvel's exciting comic book action. Not long after you saw this, maybe 18 months, I'd be jumping round the house as a two year old in a Spider-Man outfit after seeing the contemporary animated series.