"Spidey Super Stories" is a recurring live-action skit on the original version of the Children's Television Workshop series The Electric Company.

Overview

Episodes featured the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, provided to the Children's Television Workshop free of charge, and was played (always in costume) by puppeteer and dancer Danny Seagren. It premiered during the first show of The Electric Company's fourth season (1974–1975), which was given the production number 391. It predated the pilot film of the series The Amazing Spider-Man by three years, becoming the first recorded live-action rendition of Spider-Man, and was the first recorded live-action rendition of a Marvel character in any medium since the Captain America serial of 1944. (There was a live stage show travelling the country in 1972/1973, "The Bullwinkle Show", produced by Jay Ward/Fun Time Productions, featuring costumed cartoon characters, including Spider-Man, which was the first entertainment featuring a live-action Spider-Man)

Stories involved the masked superhero foiling mischievous characters who were involved in petty criminal activities, although sometimes the crooks would commit more serious crimes such as assault or larceny. The cast of The Electric Company played the roles of the various characters in each story, with another serving as narrator. In many of these sketches, in keeping with Stan Lee's writing style, viewers were addressed as "true believers".

Unlike other live-action and cartoon productions of Spider-Man, this version of the web-slinging hero did not speak out loud, instead communicating only with word balloons (having a similar role to Clarabell the Clown of Howdy Doody), in order to encourage young viewers to practice their reading skills. Due to the series' budget limitations, comic book panels were interspersed through each skit in lieu of special effects.

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1975–76

1976–77

In other media

Comics

From 1974 to 1982, Marvel Comics published a comic book called Spidey Super Stories, which was aimed at children ages 6–10. A total of 57 issues were produced, the first 15 of which were written by Jean Thomas (previously writer of Night Nurse). Jim Salicrup succeeded her as the series writer, and most issues were drawn by Win Mortimer. Thomas and Salicrup remarked that the comic was subject to an exceptionally high level of editorial scrutiny, as staff from both Marvel Comics and the Children's Television Workshop reviewed the stories to ensure they were faithful to the Electric Company and Marvel Comics casts, featured age-appropriate content and reading level and gave significant roles to female characters.

Film

A variant of Thumper, an original character, makes a brief visual cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as a prisoner in the Spider-Society headquarters. A variant of The Wall was also supposed to appear, but he was cut along with many other villains and Spider-Man/Woman variants.

Record

Spidey Super Stories also appeared as a special vinyl record in the 1970s licensed by Children's Television Workshop to Peter Pan Records. Included on the record are two stories from The Electric Company: "Spidey Versus Mr. Measles" and "The Queen Bee". Other stories include Spidey versus an evil toy-wielding criminal called the Jester in "The Last Laugh", The Purple Pirates and Evil MacWeevil in "The Leader of the Pack" (which includes a cameo of Fargo North, Decoder), and Spidey's origin story. Three other stories feature Spidey with members of the Short Circus, and Pedro and his guard-plant Maurice fighting the Mole Man in "20,000 Feet Under the Ground"; and the group tackling more traditional Marvel Comics villains in "Deadly is the Doctor Called Doom" and "Spidey Versus the Sandman". Due to the lack of a visual presentation, Spidey/Peter Parker would speak with audibly, as voiced by Jim Boyd. However, the album's artwork featured the traditional Spidey-talking technique of having his words in word balloons. Elements such as Spidey's spider-sense and the spider-tracer are used in these stories as well.

References

  • Danny Seagren at the Internet Movie Database, with episode listing