Superhero Week: The Amazing Spider-Man

Slide on back to the groovin' funkadelic 70's when a popular trend past bellbottoms, a recession on oil and DC and Marvel comics each had a foothold in TV and movies.  Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter, Isis with Joanna Cameron, The Incredible Hulk starring Lou Ferrigno, Bill Bixby and Jack Colvin.  Keeping this in mind, Marvel took one of its most recognized characters and placed it in the hands of E.W. Swackhamer director of tv pilots and episodes ranging from 27 pilots, 18 were placed on the air.  Titles such as: Bewitched, MASH, S.W.A.T. and Murder She Wrote to name a few.  Tackling a popular Marvel Comic book character and making it relevant to the audience of the day, Danchuck Productions distributed The Amazing Spider-man TV Movie through CBS in September 14, 1977. 
This hour and a half tv movie is to cover the life and transformation of Peter Parker to his costumed identity Spider-man.  Nicholas Hammond of the Sound of Music (Fredich), Eight is Enough, Falcon Crest tackles the dual identity in this TV movie to expand into two seasons of 5 episodes and a movie both seasons.

Okay enough of the information background.  So kids grab your tights, stock up on web fluid and film, this is The Amazing Spider-man.

hehe now to press ham on the window.

Spoilers can climb walls!...

 

We hearken back to 1977 were corduroy got turned into sports coats, and the LTD was the size of a PT boat.  A barrage of strange robberies by respectable citizens seems to be occurring across the streets of New York.   The police are baffled at the standings of these crimes and the newspapers and TV stations are informed by some unknown figure that he is holding a ransom on the city in the sum of 50 million dollars or he will have ten random New Yorkers commit suicide via his command.   Offhand, I was thinking hmm don’t look at it as losing several voters Mr. Mayor but housing opening up.  Budding scientist Peter Parker is hard at work attending an experiment involving radioactive materials, when a spider happens to be in this well constructed plexi-glass encasement.  I kid you not, that thing looked so flimsy they might as well been drinking their “radioactive material”.  Said spider vacates the chamber and bites Parker passing on its genetic material or abilities thus creating a human spider. OoOoOoo.    Our fledgling hero is attempt to pawn his less than interesting photos to Jonah Jameson (Veteran TV actor David White Have Gun-Will Travel, Saints and Sinners and Perry Mason) when the bulletin of the blackmailer comes piping in the room.  

Ha! I am like ninja in the shadows...only brightly colored.

Now to be far given the limited casting, it is necessary that Parker gets into these predicaments and scenarios to sell the hero aspect.  I about laughed myself into a stupor seeing the captain in charge of Homicide was the nutter JC from Sidehackers (Michael Pataki of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation and a reoccurring character on McCloud) and to be honest Hammond looks as nervous as a kid on pot for the first time but I digress.   My main issue was the heart of the matter.  Why does Parker become Spider-man if the first place, the storyline skipped having an Uncle Ben (Parker’s uncle not the rice) and his tragic death that could have been obverted if Peter had stopped a robber.  It was the crux of the character, the driving force that makes him the responsible man that he is.   The TV movie skips all that so in essence you are left wondering why this guy suddenly wants to help his fellow man by running around in tights, scaling buildings and web swinging all over NYC.  Admittedly the stunts were not bad even with the Chinese meat slappers as a Foley effect.  

What’s that you ask?  Never heard of this notion?  Foley artists are required to create necessary sound effects to enhance the movie or tv show.  Versus the traditional sound effect of a thrown punch which is a boxing glove against a bag, the meat slappers were two good sized paddles with steaks strapped to this that would be smacked together creating a more vicious sound.  While being a cool sound effect, still a waste of a couple decent NY strips you ask me.  

Morning jog...in tights...on a roof...don't be haters.

The superimposed or blown up pictures that Parker is crawling along was a relatively inexpensive and creative idea.  When it came to most of the wall-crawling that effect was used to super impose Hammond on the surface he was climbing.  The harness, rope and interface gear was rigged through his street clothes and often the costume to jerk Hammond up in the air force more of a wide angle shot and pan up with him.   All in all this was the first time we saw Spidey live and in color if you will.  I have found memories of this growing up but yeah even I have to poke fun at it.  Still I have to admit it is less camera jerky than say certain CGI infused films of the same name.   So if you pine over the Shaun Cassidy hairstyle or you just need some deep bass theme music with a little dash of orchestra, grab a VHS or DVD of the Amazing Spider-Man