Spiderman made his first ever live action televised appearance as shorts between 1974 -1975 on the children series Electric Company with the moniker ' Spidey Super Stories'. The character took a more adult and family friendly position debuting in a primetime slot on CBS. The Amazing Spiderman began airing in September 1977 and shared superhero billing along with the Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno's Incredible Hulk also on CBS.
Stan Lee who was the publisher for Marvel sold the rights to CBS and was acting producer, but felt the character was portrayed too juvenile on the series and was not as happy with the final product. Juxtaposition to the backdoor pilot movie for Doctor Strange which Lee was a strong supporter of. Strange did not get picked up as series and Spiderman gained decent ratings but slowly declined as air dates was sparse out, the series aired 2 episodes in its second season as it got cancelled notably by creative differences in direction, and production costs.
The pilot and the series was based in New York as far as story, but was filmed mainly in Los Angeles, this was painfully obvious with the repeat stock footage of the Rosslyn Hotel, where Spiderman would repeatedly swing from; production did not hide the large landmark marquee. Running in syndication at the time was the morning 60's cartoon which help gain the younger demographic audience, CBS did not get the 18-49 yrs of age demographic as it was hoping. Though the ratings made the series the 19th highest series in all of primetime that season.
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| J. Jonah (David White) |
The pilot touched on quickly of Spiderman's origins as he slowly comes to grip with his new abilities, and struggles to find a job within the Daily Bugle. Featuring veteran actor David White as J Jonah Jameson who would only appear in the pilot before being replaced. The first episode has Spiderman trying to foil a man with a device to control the minds of people, the villain has ransomed the city of New York in exchange to save 10 random upstanding citizens from suddenly taking their own lives. Peter Parker the alter ego is a university science student who comes across displaying naïve looking mannerisms but is very self aware and intelligent. Parker coincidently shows up taking photos at crime scenes bringing attention to him as the only common element to a string of mind controlled heists. For its time; the television production was considered high budget and perceived high quality in effects and stunts, utilizing various camera cranes and helicopter shots as the series would progress with a couple of elaborate aerial shots (not used in the pilot).
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