The Amazing Spider-Man (TV series)

The Amazing Spider-Man is the first live-action TV series based on the popular comic book The Amazing Spider-Man, not counting Spider-Man's appearances on the educational The Electric Company series, and was shown in the USA between 1977-1979. It consisted of 13 episodes, which included a pilot movie in the fall of 1977. None of the episodes are available on DVD, but almost all of them have been released on VHS. Despite being set in New York City, the series was mostly filmed in Los Angeles.

Series run on CBS and criticism
The series began as a backdoor pilot in the form of a two-hour film known simply as Spider-Man which aired in September 1977. In it, university student Peter Parker gains super powers after being bitten by a radioactive spider and uses his new super powers to get a job at the Daily Bugle and stop a con man who is using mind control. In the pilot J. Jonah Jameson was played by actor David White and subsequently replaced with Robert F. Simon for the weekly series.

The series was then picked up for a limited series of five episodes, which aired at the end of the season in April and May 1978. This run of episodes debuted very well, with the first obtaining a 22.8 rating with 16.6 million viewers, making it the best rated program for the week on CBS, and the eighth best rated program for the week overall. The series ended up being the 19th best rated show of the season. However, CBS was reluctant to commit to a regular time slot for the 1978/9 season as Spider-Man was expensive to produce and lagged in the lucrative adult demographic ratings. Instead, CBS took the more cautious approach of optioning the episodes on a sporadic basis and deliberately placing it on the schedule to drain the ratings of specific competing shows at key times. Former Six Million Dollar Man producer Lionel Siegel took over production duties for the second season and made deliberate changes to attempt to grow the adult audience. These included dropping the character of Captain Barbera; adding the character of Julie Masters as a love interest for Peter; creating more down-to-earth plots; and toning down Spider-Man's powers slightly to make him more accessible. The second season of seven episodes was to air sporadically through the 1978-79 TV season. The show was officially cancelled after that. Reportedly, one of the problems was that CBS was cautious about being labeled the "superhero network", as it was airing other comic book content including The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America and Doctor Strange. Another problem was that in spite of the show's popularity, fans were highly critical of the series for the changes made to the comic book storyline and the lack of any real "supervillains".

In addition, Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee disliked the show, and was vocal about his dissatisfaction with it; he once said in an interview that he felt the series was "too juvenile" - a controversial statement given his credit as script consultant on each episode. The show has so far featured the only live-action appearance of Peter Parker's spider-tracer tracking devices, which are prominently featured in several episodes throughout the series.



Revival attempts
In the mid-1980s and early 1990s, two attempts were reportedly made to recreate an Amazing Spider-Man live-action television series. The first one would have had the original cast team-up with the cast from The Incredible Hulk television series.

This was part of a plan to have several television movies featuring the Incredible Hulk and various Marvel Comics characters (three had already been aired, the first with Thor, the second with Daredevil, while the announced She-Hulk did not appear in the third).

Reportedly, this attempt finally fell through when Bill Bixby died of cancer in 1993. A second attempt would have been an entirely new series that never got beyond preproduction because the networks wanted to make Spider-Man into a mutant.

Cast and crew
The only characters besides Peter Parker to appear regularly in both the television series and comics were J. Jonah Jameson and Aunt May. Joe "Robbie" Robertson (played by Hilly Hicks) also appeared but only in the pilot. A different actress played Aunt May each time she appeared.

In both these incarnations, J. Jonah Jameson's abrasive, flamboyant personality was toned down and the character was portrayed as more avuncular.

Regular cast

 * Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * David White as J. Jonah Jameson (pilot)
 * Robert F. Simon as J. Jonah Jameson (series)
 * Chip Fields as Rita Conway
 * Michael Pataki as Capt. Barbera (pilot and first season only)
 * Ellen Bry as Julie Masters (second season only)
 * Rosalind Chao as Emily Chan ( "The Chinese Web" only)

Directors

 * Tom Blank
 * Cliff Bole
 * Michael Caffey
 * Dennis Donnelly
 * Tony Ganz
 * Fernando Lamas
 * Joseph Manduke
 * Don McDougall
 * Ron Satlof
 * Larry Stewar
 * Matt Charette