Spiderman And His Amazing Friends (1981-1983)

Yeah, I know I'm seriously dating myself here, but I can remember watching Spiderman And His Amazing Friends every Saturday morning when I was really little! It was my favorite cartoon show from my youth, and I was totally ecstatic to find out that reruns were showing on Jetix/Toon Disney! (I only just recently renewed my expanded basic cable service after several years without.)
My favorite episodes were the ones with the villains Videoman, Swarm, and the Arachnoid. I particularly liked the Videoman episode, where Videoman (brought to life by Electro) zaps Flash Thompson into Electro's Pong game (the pre-cursor to Tron??). Electro then torments Flash by forcing him to dodge the ball. "Everytime the ball hits you, I score a point! And when the score reaches a hundred...POOF! Ah-ha-ha-ha! How do ya like bein' on the other end of the game, ya smart-aleck punk?!" I mean, how sadistic can you get?!
So, are there any other veteran fans of the show out there?

 

I saw an episode with Dracula the other day. Hilarious!

BTW, why does Firestar look exactly like the comic book version of Mary Jane when she's not in costume?

 

I've seen a few of these on Jetix. Iceman was pretty cool in the episode I saw. It was a few months ago, but it was entertaining to some degree.

 

Does anybody else remember the episode Swarm? I think it would be a really cool idea to make Swarm the villain in a Spider-Man movie!
However, I understand the Swarm character from the comic books was somewhat different from the one on the show. I believe he was originally a German scientist by the name of Fritz Von Meyer who made the mistake of exposing a strain of killer bees to radiation from a meteorite or something, and they consumed most of his flesh. But he managed to gain control of the queen and the swarm become a kind of substitute flesh enveloping his skeleton.
I've never actually read any of the Spider-Man comics in which Swarm appeared. I just remember him on that Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends episode, and being seriously creeped out!
The Swarm that appeared in the cartoon was actually kind of a precursor to the Borg Collective in Star Trek: The Next Generation, in that he sought to enslave the human race by turning them into worker drones as part of his Universal Community Hive. "Individual thought brings chaos!" was one of his lines, in fact.
What do you think? How about Brad Dourif as the human Von Meyer, with a German accent and spectacles? That is, until he becomes Swarm, at which point he'll become CGI and Dourif could give the voiceover (albeit heavily distorted!)

 

I loved Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends! I wish they'd put it out on DVD.

One episode I doubt that's being shown on Toon Disney is one where Spidey,Iceman,and Firestar go on a Indiana Jones-like treasure hunt in South America for Nazi treasure,and the Red Skull is on their tails. The reason I say this is becuase the episode had Nazi imagery(Swaztikas,the characters watch an old newsreel with Hitler in it,etc.),so I don't think it'll be seen in its orginal format until if or when it comes out on DVD.

 

This was one of my favprite Saturday Morning Cartoons. I saw that Dracula episode recently too and I really didn't like it at all. Videoman was probably my favorite but I wonder how much I would still enjoy it now.

 

Yeah, I remember that one too. It's amazing how cheesy it looks today - of course, most children's shows from my childhood are cheesy.

 

I liked them all. They were cool episodes.

 

I loved the show and I was already a teenager when it came out.

 

I used to love this show when I was too young to realize how bad it was. First of all, who thought up the idea of mixing two second tier X-men characters along with Spider-man? Where did they get the money for all that space aged equipment when their apartment transformed? And did they ever actually use any of it?

The one saving grace is the episode where Firestar and Iceman had to go back to Xavier's mansion and met up with the X-men. I believe that was the first time that the X-men were ever featured in a cartoon before.

 

Yes, I remember watching the X-Men episode on VHS. Wolverine had a very weird voice.

But actually, that wasn't the first time the X-Men were featured in a cartoon. The characters appeared in various 1960s Marvel cartoon shorts (I remember seeing Magneto facing off against the Fantastic Four, for instance).

 

So...what does everybody think of my idea of having Brad Dourif play Swarm in a Spider-Man movie??

 

I had an episode of this on tape. I kept trying to find more but I didn`t understand that the show had been off the air for years

 

Actually Roland,they did do an episode that explained how Spider-Man,Iceman and Firestar (who was created for the show BTW,it was only later she was incoroporated into the comics) got together and how they got their equipment (It was a gift from Tony Stark,aka Iron Man).

Looking at the show today,it has some cheesy elements,but it's quite enjoyable for a show from that era,and with all the Marvel characters that guest-starred from time to time,the show is pretty much a Marvel Universe primer to first-time readers,like children. I know it helped me get familiar with the characters somewhat before I was reading the comics on a steady basis.

 

I remember watching the show, but I don't really remember the plots or anything. However, I have a vivid memory of the grand opening of a big toy store called Children's Palace by my house; Iceman was there and he was pretty cool.