The Amazing Spider-Man (known simply as Spider-Man for the second season) is an American superhero television series, based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is the second live-action television series appearance of a Marvel character. Spidey Super Stories aired three years earlier on The Electric Company. It originally aired on CBS in the United States from September 14, 1977 to July 6, 1979.
Though it was a considerable ratings success, the CBS series was cancelled after just 13 episodes, which included a pilot film airing in autumn of 1977.
Cast and characters
thumbnail|left|150px|The cast of Spider-Man.
Main
- Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
- Robert F. Simon as J. Jonah Jameson
- Chip Fields as Rita Conway
- Michael Pataki as Capt. Barbera (season 1)
- Ellen Bry as Julie Masters (season 2)
David White played J. Jonah Jameson in the pilot TV movie, but the character was recast for the series proper, played by Robert F. Simon.
Hilly Hicks played Robbie Robertson of the Daily Bugle in the pilot TV movie but the character was not retained in the series. Hicks played a version of Robertson notably younger than his comic-book counterpart.
Jameson's secretary Rita Conway is essentially Gloria "Glory" Grant of the comics, with a different name. The character was possibly renamed in partial tribute to comics writer Gerry Conway, who wrote for Spider-Man in the 1970s.
Production
150px|thumb|In the 1977 series, Spider-Man's wore reflective lenses
During the mid-1970s, Marvel Comics publisher and Spider-Man's co-creator Stan Lee, sold CBS the rights to produce a prime time live-action Spider-Man series, to be made by producer Daniel R. Goodman. Actor Nicholas Hammond was cast in the lead role, though all of Spider-Man's stunts were performed by the series's stunt coordinator, Fred Waugh.
Despite its storylines being set in New York City (the character's hometown), the series was mostly filmed in Los Angeles.
The series began as a backdoor pilot: a 90-minute movie known simply as Spider-Man which was broadcast on CBS TV network in September 1977, which was theatrically released internationally. In it, Peter Parker (as an intrepid university student) gains super powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. He uses those powers to get a job at the Daily Bugle, and to stop a con man who is covertly using mind control for personal gain.
The pilot garnered a 17.8 rating with a 30 share - CBS' highest rating for the entire year. However, citing concern over the pilot's relatively weak ratings in the lucrative adult-demographic (ages 18–49), The series ended up being the 19th-highest-rated show of the entire season, but CBS was reluctant to commit to giving the show a regular/fixed time slot for the 1978-79 season, as the series was expensive to produce and continued to underperform with older audiences.
The second season that consisted of seven episodes aired infrequently throughout the 1978–79 TV season. The series continued to do well in the ratings during its second season. due to the season two departures from more comic book-like storylines, and the lack of any recognizable "supervillains" from the Spider-Man comics.
The series yielded the first live-action depictions of Peter Parker's "spider-tracer" tracking/homing devices; they are prominently featured in several episodes throughout the series.
Directors
thumb|right|Shooting Spider-Man at Caltech from "The Curse of Rava".
- Tom Blank
- Cliff Bole
- Michael Caffey
- Dennis Donnelly
- Tony Ganz
- Fernando Lamas
- Joseph Manduke
- Don McDougall
- Ron Satlof
- Larry Stewart
- E. W. Swackhamer
Episodes
For their release in VHS format, several of the series's episodes were spliced together in pairs. "Night of the Clones and Escort to Danger", "A Matter of State and Photo Finish" and "The Con Caper and The Curse of Rava" were combined and presented as a single movie-length episodes. In order to smooth the jump between the two unrelated stories in each release, the production team filmed new bridging scenes set at the Daily Bugle and inserted them between the content of the two component episodes.