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Shows : 1980's Cartoon

As an incentive to get a major television network to purchase a Spider-Man cartoon, Marvel Productions began producing a solo Spider-Man cartoon in 1981. The NBC network was interested but believed the concept needed some added elements to make it more accessible for a larger audience. Iceman and Firestar were added in the resulting show called Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

Marvel also decided to continue with the solo concept and packaged the new solo Spider-Man cartoon with the 1967 cartoon to syndicate it to television stations around the United States. Creators and designs were shared between the two shows of the 80s but the voice cast was different.

Spider-Man (1981-82) (Syndicated)
This cartoon followed the formula of the 1967 cartoon: Peter Parker lives with his Aunt May and is a photographer for J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. His responsibility to be Spider-man causes problems with his work, his studies, and his romantic involvement with Betty Brant. (26 episodes)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends Season 1 (1981-82) (NBC)
This series was new in concept: Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar all lived with Aunt May as borders while they attended college at ESU.. Peter and Bobby Drake shared a room that transformed into a Super Crime Lab and Angelica Jones had a pet dog named Ms. Lion. (13 episodes)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends Season 2 (1982-83) (NBC)
This season was included in the show titled The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man. It was a one hour show in which the first thirty minutes was composed of a new Hulk cartoon and the second half had new episodes of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. (3 episodes)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends Season 3 (1983-84) (NBC)
The final season was included in the show titled The Amazing Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. Again a one hour show, this time with the billing reversed from the previous season. New episodes of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends aired with reruns of the Hulk. (8 episodes)
If you're interested in these cartoon series, check out the brilliant Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Web Page as well as The 1981 solo Spider-Man Web Page. Both are graphically striking, rich in content examples of everything a good home page should be.

Note that according to Spider-Friends.com, there are five versions of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends which have aired on USA television to date:

VERSION A: The original, 24-minute cartoons as aired Saturday mornings on NBC uncut.

VERSION B: Episodes that were re-run after their original seasons on NBC until the 1985-86 season. Edited by 2 minutes. Stan Lee narrations were added to 1st season episodes.

VERSION C: The majority of the episodes were shown on the Marvel Action Universe (1988-89) but had no separate title screen. They ran around 20 minutes in length and the Stan Lee introductions were edited out.

VERSION D: Aired on the UPN network (1998-99) with one to two minutes of footage edited out of the episodes. Stan Lee narrations sporadically edited.

VERSION E: Aired on the ABC FAMILY channel (2002) with one to two minutes of footage edited out of the episodes. Stan Lee narrations sporadically edited.

Cast Information

Spider-Man solo cartoon (1981):

      Peter Parker/Spider Man   - Ted Schwartz
      Aunt May                  - Linda Gary
      J. Jonah Jameson          - William Woodson
      Betty Brant               - Mona Marshall
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981-1983):

      Peter Parker/Spider Man   - Dan Gilvezan
      Firestar/Angelica Jones   - Kathy Garver
      Iceman/Bobby Drake        - Frank Welker
      Aunt May                  - June Foray

Audio Files

MP3 format sound files.

VHS & DVD

Sorry, the scope of this site doesn't include information on finding Spider-Man on VHS, DVD, or any other video format. We can't even recommend anywhere else to try, it's just out of our domain.

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