Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was appointment television for me when I was growing up. I was a fan of the solo Spider-Man cartoon and remember thinking it was awesome that the new show featured Iceman as well. I probably would have preferred the Human Torch over Firestar but his rights were tied up at the time. I loved the way the series did not shy away from guest stars and by the end of its run, a good portion of the Marvel Universe had made appearances. That was a precursor to shows like Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold which have done a great job with universe-building. Another thing I remember is that each episode had its own title card at the beginning, something that Batman: The Animated Series would also use to great effect. It is beyond me why these Spidey series have not come to DVD/Blu-Ray yet... I know that I would snap up season sets in an instant if they were solicited! I used to have some grainy VHS copies, but it would be nice to see some crisp versions of these episodes (especially my favorite "Seven Little Superheroes") after so many years.
I reflect your thoughts and feelings here Ross...I loved this show...My favorite was 7 little super heroes and my second was the Black Knight episode....great stuff. Reminded me of some early Spidey comics. It was acually well done
ReplyDeleteDisney XD shows them early Sunday and Monday morning. I DVR them for my daughter and have most of them. Good memories
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely the best of the 1980's Saturday Morning offerings! Remember when Firestar fell in love with (Sunfire?) from Japan? A bit bittersweet actually since this was also the end of an era for saturday morning catoons. I think CBS (channel 2 in NYC) began running News instead of cartoons soon afterwards, and with the onset of cable, satellite tv, vcr's and nintendo, smc's were quite diminished by 1988/89.
ReplyDeleteI love the choices you made for this cover. Batman I believe is from a 1966 issue of the Brave and the Bold and the others are from the 70's. Still it all blends well together with the bright yellow background and little else this looks like a real cover from the late 70's.
ReplyDeleteWhile I had gotten out of the habit of watching Saturday morning cartoons at that time it was the end of their heyday as the anonymous said above. Of the big 4 broadcast networks only Fox did them into the 21st century. Now I believe Fox and another one are doing them but since the late 80's cartoons have been left to the cable networks. Oddly enough in the beginning it wasn't cable that had much to do with their slow demise. It was the daily syndicated ones like He-Man and the Master of the Universe and G.I. Joe that did it. Ratings went down as kids watched them when they went home from school and on Saturdays were outside playing sports.
This is a really successful cover - clean art, and nicely paired drawings. Even the placement of the logos works! Nice job!
ReplyDeleteSeries 1, 2 & 3 came out on DVD in the uk last year..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Man-Amazing-Friends-Complete-Season/dp/B003UA0RE6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317838383&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Man-Amazing-Friends-Complete-Season/dp/B003UAW8ZM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317838383&sr=8-2
cheap as anything too.. also been released in 2008.. i think in the US too but i'm not sure about there.. though if you think DVD = clean and Crisp, boy do you know nothing about old animation..
This series is now on streaming Netflix!
ReplyDeleteYup! It's been fun watching some of those episodes again!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you want to bet that Batman has evidence Ms. Lion is just the canine equivalent of a Flerken?
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