Spider-Man (partially found "Next Week" bumpers of ABC animated series; 1967-1970)
Title card from the cartoon.
Status: Partially Found
Spider-Man (commonly referred to as Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) was an American animated series based on the eponymous superhero from Marvel Comics. The series was handled by Grantray-Lawrence Animation for one season from 1967 to 1968, and then by Krantz Films for two additional seasons from 1968 to 1970.
History
Following the success of the Spider-Man comic book series, as well as Marvel's previous collaboration with Grantray-Lawrence the previous year in the form of The Marvel Superheroes, production was started on an animated series based on the Spider-Man character, featuring several supporting characters and villains from the comics while creating new ones specifically made for television. After Grantray-Lawrence Animation went bankrupt in 1968, production was turned over to Krantz Films, and Ralph Bakshi was named as the new director. A second and third season followed, featuring plotlines further departed from the source material, and an even smaller budget than before. The series concluded in 1970, and another cartoon based on Spider-Man was not made until 1981's Spider-Man.
When the show was originally airing, after the episode(s) had finished, brief bits of the stories that were set to air the following week would be teased. These featured narration from Spider-Man and occasional unfinished or deleted animation not seen in the aired episodes. Due to tighter production schedules, the second and third season opted for a series of rapid cuts from the first season over a lively tune, and Spider-Man would announce the title of the next episode and remind viewers to tune in the following week. These bumpers would occasionally be seen when the show was rerun on various networks over the next few decades but completely disappeared when reruns opted to use the newly remastered versions of the episodes from The '67 Collection DVD box set released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 2004. Many of these bumpers have not been seen for years, and many of them remain lost.
Availability
Only two bumpers have ever been released on home media. The bumper for "Swing City" was left intact with "King Pinned" on the 2003 Daredevil vs. Spider-Man DVD. The 2004 The '67 Collection box set included the bumper aired with "Phantom from the Depths of Time," although the advertised episode is "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" instead of the actual next episode, "The Evil Sorcerer."
On February 13, 2015, YouTuber COMIC GURU uploaded the bumper advertising "The Origin of Spider-Man." Two years later on April 20, 2017, COMIC GURU uploaded two compilations of bumpers from old airings on Fox Kids, covering most of the first season and the second season episode "Thunder Rumble."
List of Bumpers
| # | Episode title | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Power of Dr. Octopus / Sub-Zero for Spidey | Existence Unconfirmed | Premiere episode, existence of a bumper unlikely. |
| 2 | Where Crawls the Lizard / Electro, the Human Lightning Bolt | Lost | |
| 3 | The Menace of Mysterio | Found | |
| 4 | The Sky is Falling / Captured by J. Jonah Jameson | Found | |
| 5 | Never Step on a Scorpion / Sands of Crime | Found | |
| 6 | Diet of Destruction / The Witching Hour | Found | |
| 7 | Kilowatt Kaper / The Peril of Parafino | Found | |
| 8 | Horn of the Rhino | Found | |
| 9 | The One-Eyed Idol / Fifth Avenue Phantom | Found | |
| 10 | The Revenge of Dr. Magneto / The Sinister Prime Minister | Lost | |
| 11 | The Night of the Villains / Here Comes Trubble | Found | |
| 12 | Spider-Man Meets Doctor Noah Boddy / The Fantastic Fakir | Found | |
| 13 | Return of the Flying Dutchman / Farewell Performance | Found | |
| 14 | The Golden Rhino / Blueprint for Crime | Found | |
| 15 | The Spider and the Fly / The Slippery Doctor Von Schlick | Found | |
| 16 | The Vulture's Prey / The Dark Terrors | Found | |
| 17 | The Terrible Triumph of Dr. Octopus / Magic Malice | Found | |
| 18 | Fountain of Terror / Fiddler on the Loose | Lost | |
| 19 | To Catch a Spider / Double Identity | Lost | |
| 20 | Sting of the Scorpion / Trick or Treachery | Lost | |
| 21 | The Origin of Spider-Man | Found | Different announcer than all other bumpers. |
| 22 | King Pinned | Lost | |
| 23 | Swing City | Found | |
| 24 | Criminals in the Clouds | Lost | |
| 25 | Menace from the Bottom of the World | Lost | |
| 26 | Diamond Dust | Lost | |
| 27 | Spider-Man Battles the Molemen | Lost | |
| 28 | Phantom from the Depths of Time | Lost | |
| 29 | The Evil Sorcerer | Lost | |
| 30 | Vine | Lost | |
| 31 | Pardo Presents | Lost | |
| 32 | Cloud City of Gold | Lost | |
| 33 | Neptune's Nose Cone | Lost | |
| 34 | Home | Lost | |
| 35 | Blotto | Lost | |
| 36 | Thunder Rumble | Found | |
| 37 | Spider-Man Meets Skyboy | Lost | |
| 38 | Cold Storage | Lost | |
| 39 | To Cage a Spider | Lost | |
| 40 | The Winged Thing / Conner's Reptiles | Existence Unconfirmed | |
| 41 | Trouble with Snow / Spider-Man vs. Desperado | Lost | |
| 42 | Sky Harbor / The Big Brainwasher | Lost | |
| 43 | The Vanishing Doctor Vespasian / The Scourge of the Scarf | Lost | |
| 44 | Super Swami / The Birth of Micro Man | Lost | |
| 45 | Knight Must Fall / The Devious Dr. Dumpty | Lost | |
| 46 | Up from Nowhere | Lost | |
| 47 | Rollarama | Lost | |
| 48 | Rhino / The Madness of Mysterio | Lost | A webpage run by Kevin McCorry claims that the latter episode was advertised as "The Scorpion and the Spider."[1] |
| 49 | Revolt in the Fifth Dimension | Found | |
| 50 | Specialists and Slaves | Lost | |
| 51 | Down to Earth | Lost | |
| 52 | Trip to Tomorrow | Lost |
Gallery
See Also
- Spider-Man 4 (found unreleased video games based on cancelled Marvel film sequel; 2010)
- Spider-Man Safety Series (partially found direct-to-video animated educational series; 1990)
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series "Geldhoff" (lost storyboards of cancelled episode of MTV animated series; 2003)
- Spider-Man (lost Josh Keaton vocal performance of film-based superhero game; 2002)
- Spider-Man versus Kraven the Hunter (lost short superhero fan film; 1974)
- Spider-Man Trilogy (partially found deleted scenes of action-superhero films; 2002-2007)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (partially found deleted Mary-Jane Watson scenes of superhero film; 2014)
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (lost Josh Keaton vocal performance of 2D animated series; 2012)
References
- ↑ The Spiderman Page by Kevin McCorry Retrieved 25 Jan '24.