he's got radioactive blood...

I may have mentioned this before, but there are a few tv show theme songs that get me viscerally.  this is one of them, the 1967 Spider-man theme song.



I love this show.  I like all "3" seasons, including the weird crap Bakshi did in the last chunk, since those are the ones I seemed to see ALL the the time when I was visiting relatives back in WV.  of course, it never aired in my neck of the woods at all in syndication (reruns of "I Love Lucy" seemed to be more important to programmers at channel 2)

so of course I would get up at 6 AM (which is when WDCA Channel 20 would always air the show on weekdays) every day on my summer vacation to watch my beloved hero.  and I never once remember seeing him fight any of the villains from his comic.

there are two episodes with the Lizard (sort of) but did I see those?  nope.  I got weird colored "specialists" who lifted NYC up off the Earth and into the sky.  the entire city, mind you.  and apparently someone thought this was such a good episode they did it over again with some changes in the dialogue.

not too mention sending Spidey to the center of the Earth, or into outer space, or just about anywhere they could think of.

but the first "season" is when they adapted most of the stories from the comics.  of course, there were some changes, such as the police actually liking our hero, but overall they were pretty faithful to the comics.

I also didn't get to see Electro, or the Sandman, or the Rhino.  I might have seen a costumeless weird colored Mysterio (what was the deal with people being purple or green?) but it just seemed like when I was in WV they had run through the "good" episode cycle and I was stuck with my hero in bizzaro land.

not that I minded too much, since I loved seeing him do the things a spider can.  at the time this was the only way to see him.

in the 80s Marvel released several video tapes with episodes of the show on them, and I finally got to see my hero in action against his rogues gallery of foes.  by then I knew a it more about Gantry-Lawrence Animation and their overall cheapness.  it's a lot easier to spot the same animation used over and over when you are 20 and wide awake.

I still love this show.  one of the great things about the Spider-man movies being such big hits is that we finally got the entire series out on DVD.

it's a great set to own, though it really proves you shouldn't watch more than 2-3 episodes at a sitting.

the animation is pretty smooth, the music is excellent and the backgrounds are pretty lush.  and this does have one of, if not THE best opening theme song ever written.

even my mom can sing it.