Spider-Man is a 1981âÂÂ82 American animated TV series based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is the second Spider-Man cartoon, following the 1967 series.
The series featured Peter Parker having to balance his alter ego crimefighting with his responsibilities as a university student, a part-time photographer for the Daily Bugle and caring for his elderly Aunt May Parker.
While Spider-Man fights his usual enemies, six episodes have him contending with Doctor Doom.
Note: Neil Ross would reprise his role as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin for the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon series.
Walter S. Burr was the voice director for the series.
In late 1979, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises began pre-production on a new Spider-Man animated series. Following the dissolution of DePatie-Freleng and the subsequent formation of Marvel Productions in 1980, production of the proposed series was resumed by the new studio. The solo Spider-Man series was Marvel Productions' first project.
According to Dennis Marks, producer and story editor of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, the series was wholly funded by Marvel Comics partially with the intent of gaining NBC's interest in a Spider-Man property from Marvel Productions. NBC agreed to purchase a new Spider-Man based series incorporating their requirements for Saturday morning network programming, resulting in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, which first aired on September 12, 1981. Although the solo Spider-Man series had also been completed by the end of 1981, it did not air that year.
It was determined that the series would be offered as a syndication package alongside the 1967 Spider-Man series. This decision resulted in certain aspects of the series being deliberately patterned after the 1967 series, including the presence of Betty Brant â a regular character in the 1967 series but largely written out of the comics by late 1979 â and visual elements such as Peter Parker's civilian costume of a blue jacket and yellow turtleneck sweater from later episodes of the 1967 series.
The majority of the series' 26 episodes were directed by Art Vitello, who also laid out and directed the opening title sequence for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Four or five episodes were produced before Vitello was assigned to the project; he later edited those earlier episodes to address quality issues, though they do not fully reflect the standard of his subsequent work on the series. Before Vitello's involvement, continuity errors and excessive use of stock footage were common.
Artists Larry Houston, Rick Hoberg, and Hank Tucker worked with Vitello on the series. Larry Houston had been with Marvel Productions from the studio's inception, working on the solo Spider-Man series as its first project before continuing with subsequent Marvel Productions series. Houston recalled inserting references to other Marvel characters into the series, including a scene in which a television visible in the background was changed from showing a soap opera to depicting members of The Avengers â specifically Scarlet Witch, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Vision â battling an unnamed enemy.
Among the production details documented by Korkis in Comics Feature #22 was the storyboarding of the episode "Arsenic and Aunt May" by Larry Houston, who ensured that several key poses in the episode's final confrontation were exact restagings of Steve Ditko's artwork from Spider-Man's debut in Amazing Fantasy #15.
Writers who contributed to the series included Donald F. Glut, Christy Marx, and Larry Parr, among others; episode-level writing credits are listed in the episode table above.
The character design for Peter Parker (as well as other supporting characters including Aunt May and J. Jonah Jameson) was quite faithful to the comic books of the period and hearkened back to the illustrations by John Romita Sr. of the young hero in Spider-Man's newspaper strip adventures from the 1970s. Due to network constraints and demands from parents, characters such as Spider-Man were not allowed to make a fist to strike an opponent, but the show's creators managed to conceal these issues with a focus on action and relatively fluid animation.
Much like the Spider-Man newspaper strip of the late 1970s, Peter Parker's character design did away with the 1960s crew cut for a more modern hairstyle during this time, which the character continued to be portrayed with through the 1980s and early 1990s. Likewise, Parker abandoned the conservative suit and tie of the 1960s comics and previous animated series in favor of dark blue straight-legged linen pants.
Peter's mask was connected to his costume at the back of the neck, like a hood which he would pull over his head when he changed into Spider-Man.
Although the series had been completed by the end of 1981, it did not air that year. The earliest known trade advertisement for the series, published in March 1982, offered it for syndication alongside episodes of the 1967 Spider-Man series by ARP Films, describing it as "New for '82." A contemporary article in Comics Feature #22, cover-dated December 1982, confirmed that the series had still not aired at the time of writing, describing it as "The Animated Spider-Man Series You May Never Get to See." Early sales of the series into syndication appear to have been sluggish, as ARP Films returned to the annual NATPE convention in March 1983 to offer the series again, still described as new. The series is known to have aired in at least some markets by 1983âÂÂ84, though the fragmented nature of syndicated television distribution means no single national premiere date can be established.
ARP Films had distributed Marvel's animated properties since 1968, initially under an agreement with Krantz Films, Marvel's previous animation partner. A new distribution agreement was reached in September 1976, under which ARP held rights to distribute Marvel's animated properties, with a separate commission-based agreement covering the 1981 Spider-Man series specifically.
Beginning in 1981, Marvel began licensing its animated properties for home videocassette distribution through third parties, a decision ARP disputed as a violation of their exclusive distribution rights. Among the home video releases that ARP disputed was the Marvel Comics Video Library, released by Prism Entertainment beginning September 17, 1985, which included eleven episodes from this series alongside episodes from other Marvel animated properties. Prism also released a standalone compilation of four Doom saga episodes entitled Dr. Doom Conquers the World during the same period. ARP confronted Marvel with their videocassette distribution claim in 1982, and the resulting dispute mounted throughout the mid-1980s, ultimately leading to legal action commenced by ARP in July 1986, claiming that Marvel had licensed its animated properties for videocassette distribution in violation of ARP's exclusive rights. Marvel attempted to terminate the distribution agreement on November 12, 1986, and again on September 2, 1987, the latter date subsequently upheld by the courts as the agreement's termination date.
Following a six-week jury trial, the jury found that ARP held videocassette distribution rights under the 1976 agreement and awarded ARP $1,220,000 in damages for Marvel's breach of contract, while also awarding Marvel $137,000 for ARP's own contractual breaches. The termination of the ARP agreement allowed the series to achieve its first wide broadcast distribution as part of the Marvel Action Universe, a syndicated cartoon block that premiered the weekend of October 1âÂÂ2, 1988.
The series' identical on-screen title to the 1967 Spider-Man series it was syndicated alongside created practical difficulties in differentiating the two series for prospective buyers and viewers alike. For distribution purposes, the series was offered under the title "New Spider-Man" by 1983, a designation consistent with the series having been marketed as "New for '82" in trade advertisements the previous year.
By 1992, the series was being offered under the title "Spider-Man 5000" by New World Television at the annual NATPE convention, a reference to the series' production code of "5000," as distinct from the production code "6000" assigned to Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The "5000" designation never appeared on the series' title screen and was solely a distribution identifier. It was subsequently adopted as the official retail title for the series' UK DVD releases by Clear Vision in 2010, to avoid confusion with other Spider-Man DVD titles then available.
The series is commonly referred to by fans and researchers as the "1981 Spider-Man cartoon" or "1981 solo Spider-Man cartoon" to distinguish it from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, which premiered on NBC on September 12, 1981, the same year the solo series was produced but before it achieved broadcast distribution.
As was the case with Amazing Friends, the series was later re-aired in the late 1980s as part of the 90-minute Marvel Action Universe, a syndicated series that was used as a platform for old and new Marvel-produced animated fare (the newer programming featured ', Dino-Riders and on occasion, ', which was intended to serve as a pilot for a potential X-Men animated series). The show was last rerun in the United States in 1998 as part of the UPN Kids Action Zone block alongside several other Marvel shows.
Episodes of the series were released on VHS and Betamax by Prism Entertainment as part of their Marvel Comics Video Library, the first eighteen volumes of which were released on September 17, 1985, with a further six volumes released in 1986. Eleven of those volumes contained episodes from this series. Prism also released a standalone compilation tape entitled Dr. Doom Conquers the World, which combined four episodes of the Doom saga â "The Doctor Prescribes Doom", "Canon of Doom", "The Doom Report", and "Countdown to Doom" â into a single feature. According to Larry Parr, the writer of the Doom saga episodes, this compilation was at one point intended for theatrical distribution in Europe and domestic television movie syndication.
GoldStar Video released one episode of the series on VHS in 1991:
Best Film & Video Corp. released ten individual episode tapes and one compilation under the title The Amazing Spider-Man between 1991 and 1995:
In Canada, Morningstar Entertainment released the episode "The Vulture Has Landed" on DVD in the set entitled Spider-Man vs. The Vulture. The set also contains "The Vulture's Prey" and "The Dark Terrors", both from the 1967 Spider-Man TV series. Morningstar also released "Canon of Doom" (on the Fantastic Four vs. Doctor Doom set, included in the Villains Showdown Gift Set that also includes "Spider-Man vs. The Vulture"), although the episode is the Bonus episode on the disc. "Arsenic and Aunt May" was also released in the Heroes box set. All the Morningstar DVDs were mastered from VHS/Betamax copies that were released by Prism Entertainment in 1985 as part of their Marvel Comics Video Library series.
In April 2008, Liberation Entertainment secured the home media rights to select Marvel shows from Jetix Europe in select European territories, including Spider-Man.
In 2009, Clear Vision took over home media rights, and released the series on DVD on four volumes in the United Kingdom, released on June 7, July 5, August 2, and September 6 of 2010 respectively, with a triple pack releasing in 2011, and a complete series release following on March 11, 2013. The company also released the show's four DVD volumes in Germany. To avoid confusion with other Spider-Man DVD titles, Clear Vision released the show on DVD under the name Spider-Man 5000.
The series was available for streaming on Netflix from 2011 to 2013. The series became available on the Disney+ streaming service at its U.S. launch on November 12, 2019.