Interview with John Semper, Jr. on Spider-Man

Hi, this is John Semper Jr., the head writer

and producer of Spider -Man the Animated Series,

and you are listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Welcome to the GeekCast Radio Network latest

interview. I am your host, Mike TFG1 Blanchard.

This interview will be featured on GeekCast Radio's

flagship podcast. It will be featured on Tooncast

Classic and Tooncast Beyond. Ladies and gentlemen,

it is November 19th, 2014. 20 years ago to the

day, one of if not the best Spider -Man animated

series cartoons came on television. Twenty years

ago, I'm too old. And this evening I have with

me Mr. John Semper Jr. Hello, sir. Hello. How

are you, Mike? I'm doing well. How are you, sir?

I'm fine. I'm getting over a little bit of a

cold, but otherwise I'm extremely excited about

the anniversary coming up. Yeah. I can't believe

it's been 20 years. It just blows my mind. It

seems to me like it was just yesterday. And I

have no idea where the last two decades went.

You've been probably locked up in Doc Ock's laboratory

the whole time. Probably. Alright, so getting

some background on you, sir. Where did you grow

up and did you always want to be in the television,

writing, producing industry? I always wanted

to be involved in cartoons because when I was

a kid, as is the case with a lot of people my

age who ended up working in television and film

and fantasy and science fiction. I was a huge

fan of Disney and I wanted to be a Disney animator.

That seemed like the most wonderful thing in

the world to me. So I always had a strong interest

in animation from probably age five, six. I used

to draw. Fast forward to You know me coming out

here I knew that one of my specific targets I

mean, you know, I I'd sort of been I'd done a

little animation on my own when I was in High

school and college and things of that sort and

I'd become something of an animation Historian

I used to write articles about animation Somewhere

in my teen years. I became a big comic book fan

Because Marvel was just getting going as the

Marvel that we know today When I was going to

junior high and high in fact you know those number

one issues were actually selling on the newsstand

in the subway When I was on my way to school

So it all kind of You know eventually converged,

but when I came out here when I came out here

meaning came out to LA I knew that I wanted to

investigate pursuing a job in animation. So it

was definitely a target for me. I don't know

that I necessarily thought about TV per se, but

that was the best way in was through the huge

amount of animation that was being produced for

Saturday morning television. So that definitely

became a target for me in terms of what I wanted

to do. Absolutely. Now, since we are mainly here

to talk about Spider -Man, we'll get to that

in a second, your newest project, War of the

Rocket Men, what can you tell us about that?

Well, I found myself organizing a reunion event

to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Spider

-Man series. going to put on a panel, we did

put on a panel at Stan Lee's Kamikaze Expo, which

is kind of a mini comic book convention. It's

getting larger and larger. It's nowhere near

as large as the San Diego Comic Con, but it's

getting pretty big here in LA. And a good buddy

of mine, Pat Jankiewicz, who's an author, he

said to me, why don't you do a panel here at

the... at the kamikaze expo which was excellent

because it meant that we none of us would have

to travel we're all here and um fortunately i

have remained friends with pretty much all of

the main cast of spider -man they're all good

friends of mine uh which is just a wonderful

gift so i called them all up and they all agreed

to do it and then i thought well all this energy

that's going to be directed toward Us and the

anniversary and it's kind of a shame that we

don't have anything new to promote I Mean ideally

wouldn't it be great if Disney had said, you

know, John We want you to do a sequel to your

series and then we could have gone out and promoted

that But unfortunately, I did not get that phone

call. So I thought well, wait a minute. Why don't

we just Why don't I just come up with something

new and get everybody involved? And I asked them

all and they all said very enthusiastically.

Yes, we want to do something You know new with

you And I was very pleased that they did that

and so I came up with a project that's really

for me a dream project I've always had a huge

interest in the Republic serials of the 30s and

40s and 50s I think that especially the serials

of William Whitney and John English. I think

that they're amazing just incredibly well directed

and Brilliantly done the special effects by the

Lideckers working with very little money and

yet they came out with They came up with some

amazing effects that look incredible on screen

in the very pre -digital era so I've always loved

those kinds of serials and those kinds of films

and I've always been intrigued by the rocket

man character who later became known as commando

Cody when they recut all that stuff and brought

it to television and and I thought well, why

don't I just merge my you know, just We're living

in this wonderful era where you can pretty much

do whatever you want You know, there's there's

Kickstarter and Indiegogo and places like that

and and I so I you know It really was just a

no -brainer. I have this wonderful cast and I

wanted to do this idea. It's very much going

to be in the spirit of the old Rocketman serials.

The piece of artwork that I've generated so far

very much looks like Rocketman. It'll probably

change. The design of the characters will probably

change away from that. But for right now, it

conveys the feeling and the spirit of what I

want to do. So we're going to do a Kickstarter.

or Indiegogo at the beginning of next year. I'm

building up awareness and building up the audience

right now. And for anyone who's interested, you

can go to www .waroftherocketmen .com. And we

also have a Facebook page which is facebook .com

forward slash war of the rocket men. Very easy.

Awesome. Yeah, I will have all these links in

the post, ladies and gentlemen, so you can click

on all those as well. You've also done a number

of other works over the years. You were a writer

on the Adventures of Chuck and Friends most recent,

well, not most recently, but a couple of years

ago. You did Pink Panther and Pals in 2010, Static

Shock. You were a writer on four episodes of

that series. What was it like? I'm gonna ask

the age -old question. I pretty much think I

know what the answer is, but I got to ask it

anyway What was it like going from doing spider

-men and Marvel stuff to going over to do a DC

character? And are you Marvel or DC as far as

your favorite? Well when I was Very young and

having an interest in comic books I read mostly

DC But then when I was in high school and as

I said, you know traveling the subway and buying

comics Every morning at the subway kiosk, which

I'm sure they don't have anymore I became a huge

Marvel fan and I would have to say that that

really trumped my interest in DC so that I became

very much a Marvel fan and a big fan of Stan

Lee's and all the early guys, Steve Ditko, Jack

Kirby, Johnny. Is it Ramita? I've never really...

I've never... Romita, I don't know. Yeah, no

one ever knows, but I used to say Ramita. So

anyway, Johnny... Johnny Ramita, if that's the

correct pronunciation. You know, all those guys,

Wally Wood, Don Heck, all those guys. I really

fell in love with those comic books. And so I'd

have to say that those... And Spider -Man was

my favorite comic. So for me to have ended up

controlling his universe for, you know, two,

three years was... just a dream come true. As

far as going from Spider -Man to anything else,

going from Spider -Man to Static Shock wasn't

that much of a transition because Static Shock

really is the black Spider -Man in a way. He's

a young kid, he's in high school, and he has

this secret super identity. So that was a pretty

easy transition. Moving over to Warner Brothers

just in general Was easy because I knew everybody

over there. I had worked my first gig as a staff

writer was at Hanna -Barbera and what I discovered

Many years later going over to Warner Brothers

was that the entire staff all the people at Hanna

-Barbera even the maid You know the cleaners

the cleaners were all the same people who had

worked at Hanna -Barbera So it was really every

time I turned a corner. I saw a familiar face

And it was a huge reunion. Every time I got into

an elevator with someone, it was somebody I hadn't

seen in 10, 15 years. So that was kind of a neat

transition. That was a nice time. And then seeing

Mr. Barbera. Mr. Hanna had passed away, but Joe

was still alive. And I'd run into him, and he

remembered me. And that was kind of cool. So

yeah, it was fun. Speaking of your Hanna Barbera

days, Stuff like which it kind of surprises me

because I'm a fan of this and not a lot of my

other friends are that not a lot of people like

Scrappy. Sadly, sad to say not a lot of I love

Scrappy do. I think, you know, people say, oh,

he's just put in there for the kids and blah,

blah, blah. He's annoying. Puppy power sucks

and all this and all that and everything else.

And I'm like, no, that was cool. You know, Scrappy

was the kid that wanted to jump in and you you

needed that. kind of a personality because scooby

and shaggy were always such damn frady cats i'm

sorry to say they are that's their character

sure and you needed somebody like scrappy to

come in that wasn't afraid of it uh... you know

so just looking at this you've worked on the

new scooby -doo mysteries uh... you've worked

on thirteen ghosts of scooby -doo well that was

especially fun because we had vincent price on

that show. Talk about that. What was that like

and how much as on this, it says you're doing

stories, so you wrote two episodes on that, right?

Yes, I did two episodes on 13 Ghosts. How much

of the writers got to interact with the voice

actors at that time? Well, being at Hanna -Barbera,

during that era and that was the early eighties

was probably the best possible way that you could

get into the business because all of the people

in that building had been in the business. They

were the ones that had made the cartoons that

I had watched as a kid. So the building was full

of history and full of names of people that I

had watched on TV. People who'd worked at Disney.

I mean I could tell you millions. I I don't want

to Regale you with too many tales, but it's it's

it was just a fascinating time So anyway getting

started there was spectacular I honestly have

to say I had never been a huge scooby -doo fan

prior to writing on scooby -doo But that is where

my career started. So You know, I owe a lot to

scooby But the cool thing was you would write

a script and you were invited in to the recording

sessions now You were not really encouraged to

say a whole lot It was not a situation where

the writer was terribly actively involved in

much of what went on But you were invited in

you know, there were recordings going on every

day You would get to sit in and watch your stuff

being recorded The director at that time was

a very very fine director Gordon Hunt We just

did a tribute to him recently at Rob Paulson

did attributed one of his talking tunes podcasts

at the improv Gordon directed every cartoon.

So he was doing several sessions a day Gordon

is also a theater director of great note and

he is a theater teacher, an acting teacher, and

he is probably, in a lot of ways, equally as

well known for being the father of Helen Hunt.

So Gordon was really, watching him direct the

actors and watching the actors perform the scripts

was a tremendous education, as was every other

aspect of being in that building. I mean... Guys

would guys were there who had worked for Disney

They had worked for you know with Bill and Joe

when they were at MGM doing the Tom and Jerry

cartoons Herb Spence was there Ray Patterson

was there. These are guys who had worked on Tom

and Jerry Alex Lovie was there Alex was the guy

who who drew he created the visual Woody Woodpecker

You know Walter Lance created Woody Woodpecker,

but he turned to Alex to draw him up And Alex

was the guy that did that. I remember once I

had a Disney calendar on my wall, which reprinted

a lot of old images from the cartoons, drawings

as well as frame blowups and everything. And

there was a drawing, an actual animation drawing

from Clock Cleaners, which is a famous Mickey

Donald and Goofy cartoon, classic 1930s cartoon.

There was a there was a guy working at Warner's

at Hanna Barbera named Chuck couch Very old guy

and he came shuffling into my office now. I had

never spoken to Chuck really I never you know

had any reason to speak to him so so for him

walking into my office was kind of a shock to

begin with and he's peering at the wall and he's

getting closer and closer and he looks at this

this drawing that was part of the Disney calendar

and After a while, he kind of shakes his head

and he goes Yeah, I think that's one of mine.

And that's the kind of thing that would happen

at H &B. It was an amazing time. I wish I had

taken more pictures, quite frankly, because I

don't have really very many pictures of my time

there. But all those guys were real animation

history. Yeah, they were. Alright, so let's talk

about this 20th anniversary Spider -man the animated

series premiered November 19th 1994 as I said

with night of the lizard. Yes You know, I I've

gone back and I've watched the series over and

over the last few years and It really does still

hold up. There's a couple of animation things

that I know animation aficionados will kind of

oh the red bleeds through too much or this happens

here too much or the 3d animation doesn't work

with it because there are a couple of times where

spidey would it would be a 3d model animation

right when he's swinging through the city and

it doesn't match up with the honestly i don't

care the stories were written so well and honestly

and i've said this before on on this podcast

and and many of my other ones that i do Spider

-Man the animated series, Iron Man, Fantastic

Four, 94, all of those shows at the time were

what actually made me go out and seek out comics

as a 12, 13, 14 year old kid. uh... because before

then you know as you know five six seven eight

years old i was transformers he man mask sheer

a thunder like sir i the the only for me as a

young kid the only exposure i had the superheroes

was you know when superman the movie came to

deep not dvd uh... vhs uh... or when batman sixty

six reruns were on television or when the Super

Friends were on TV and you worked on Super Friends

too, didn't you? Yes, I did. Yeah. You know,

so I mean, the Marvel age of animation in the

90s is really what like I used to go into Walden

books and just search their racks for for books.

And even back in the 90s, you know, comics today,

they're expensive. Back in the 90s, you could

get a Spider -Man issue for a buck twenty five

or less. And I'm sure, obviously, back in the

50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, they're a lot cheaper

than too. But I mean, just this whole series,

from the voice cast, to the animation, to the

stories, I couldn't even, just off the top of

my head, three of my favorite stories are The

Alien Costume, Secret Wars, and Spider Wars.

All good stories. That's good to hear. Absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. How much dictation did Marvel

give you guys? Like when you created the series

Bible, what did they say that you had to include?

Did they tell you anything that you couldn't

do? Well, this will shock you. Marvel had virtually

no oversight over me. Really? Yeah, none and

I'll tell you why. Because Marvel was in a state

of complete and total disarray and on the verge

of bankruptcy. And it was a particularly bad

time for comic books. Most of the comic books

at that time, if I may say so, were pretty awful.

Marvel was very desperate at that time. and they

were, you know, they were doing all these crazy

things, you know, the clone saga and killing

off Aunt May and all this desperate stuff as

opposed to just writing good comics. It was almost

as if they had kind of forgotten, they'd lost

their way. And what happened was that when the

series, when... Marvel Films Animation was formed,

which was a completely standalone company that

was affiliated, if I'm remembering this correctly,

was really affiliated with New World. Avi Arad

was going to roll out, he had gotten a toy license

to Marvel. And basically, the comic books were

not going to be able to... Support the toy line.

I mean the comic books at that time were so we're

being so unsuccessful That they really weren't

gonna propel a toy line. So the whole purpose

of the TV shows was to Was to make his toy line

be a success, which it was not a bad business

strategy perfectly viable business strategy.

So all of his attention and all of our attention

was on making the shows great and Marvel at that

time was really not You know their reputation

the publishing side their reputation was not

So great that they were you know that they really

had anything to say about what was going to make

a cartoon show great so I Got some notes at the

very beginning I barely remember. I don't know

that I got any notes on the Bible, but I might

have gotten a few notes on the first script.

But very quickly, Abhi did this really wonderful

thing, which is he just completely disconnected

me from them. He told them they weren't going

to have anything to do with the cartoon show,

and he told me they weren't going to have anything

to do with the cartoon show, and that was that.

I had an unprecedented and tremendously wonderful

amount of control over everything that I ended

up doing on Spider -Man the Animated Series.

Now, having said that, the series, the thing

about whenever I read stuff on the web, and you

know, You gotta take it with a grain of salt.

This is the best Spider -Man show, or that's

the best Spider -Man show, or the other one's

the best Spider -Man show. Look, the fact of

the matter is that when we did Spider -Man the

animated series, it was the most important thing

in the Marvel Universe, period. And it was the

most important thing simply because the entire

success or failure of the toy line rested on

the shoulders of this series. So whether or not

Toy Biz made any money was directly related to

whether or not these shows were any good, or

in fact whether or not they got on the air, because

that was initially the first big issue. And I'll

get into that in a second. But it just simply

was the most important thing on the planet. And

I don't think any other Spider -Man show since

ours has had that kind of pressure on it. Because

they've all come in the wake, first of all, they've

all come in the wake of ours. So they've all

come after hours. And then many of them have

come in the wake of the movies. which are clearly

the most important thing in the universe. The

last couple of series have come out after the

movies, and so it's very hard for a cartoon show

now to be the most important thing in the Marvel

Universe, but we were. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is that there had never been

Unless you go back to the Grant Ray Lawrence

cartoons, which are basically now what we would

call motion comics, there had never been an animated

show that had been absolutely 100 % true to the

Marvel comic book from which it had been based,

from which it had derived. We knew that... with

Spider -Man, we were going to attempt to do that

and it had never been done before. And it had

certainly never been done before with Spider

-Man. So there was a whole lot of stuff that

had to be figured out that I think people take

for granted now. Like for instance, was Peter

Parker going to have an interior monologue? Now,

it's very easy in retrospect to go, well, of

course, you know, but the fact of the matter

is that when you're me, and you're trying to

figure the show out and You're trying to figure

out what is going to serve you best dramatically

It's it's a toss -up, you know, it's You don't

know whether you want him talking that much or

whether you know Or is he going when he when

he does interior monologue is there going to

be reverb? Versus when he's saying dialogue or

is he just simply going to talk dialogue and

never have an interior monologue Or is there

going to be a narrator? All of these things have

to be worked out and they'd never they'd never

been worked out before. So there was a lot of

hard work that went into this first time out.

Now, subsequently, you know, a lot of these things

have been worked out on my show and then in the

movies. And so when someone comes along now and

does a Spider -Man show, there's precedent. They

can point to something and say, well, let's do

that. That works. We didn't have that precedent.

I couldn't point to the Ralph Bakshi show and

go, hey, that really works, because that show

was incredibly primitive. As much as I enjoyed

it when I was a kid, that was a very primitive

show. And the same with the Spider -Man and Friends

kind of thing. Very enjoyable shows for what

they were. But we were going to do something

that was, for the first time, was going to really

reflect the Marvel universe. Right. Absolutely.

Talk a bit about I'm noticing looking on here

on IMDB and looking at the different seasons

of the show that I pretty much, yeah, seasons

two through five for the most part are all like,

it's almost like a book. Yes. You know, chapters

one through 14 for each of those seasons. Yeah.

Talk about the process of... Titling and and

doing arcs like that. I mean sure nowadays in

television and in some cartoons we do have like

an overarching story for an entire season, but

just the fact that It the title to me reads like

a chapter in a book Yeah, so talk about the process

of how those kinds of things worked back then

Well, the process was that I was told not to

do it, and I did it. And I was much beloved for

having gone contrary to certainly the network's

wishes. That's another thing. Again, when I read

about some of these later Spider -Man shows and

how wonderful they are, the fact of the matter

is that there had to be a lot of... I really

had to fight really hard to... to do things like

that, because again, there hadn't been any precedent.

There was a little bit of precedent with the

X -Men show. The Lee walls, Eric and Julia were

doing a really wonderful job with the X -Men

show. And there was some continuation, there

were some multi -part stories. But on Spider

-Man, Remember Stan came to me once and he said,

you know, John I always want to do something

called the spider -man diaries and and at the

beginning of the episode spider -man will say

I never I'll never forget the time I fought the

Green Goblin and You know and then We'll have

the adventure and then at the end he says and

and so that's how I defeated it and he'll close

the book and I thought well the problem that

I have with that is That there's no jeopardy

because you know if he's telling you the story

and he survived it And it's in a book. It's in

his diary Then you know that he came out. Okay,

you know and and I don't I just don't think that

that kind of a framing device is going to work

I mean, you know, I I understood that it was

certainly an approach but The best thing that

happened for you spider -man fans you young kids

was that I had started out as a young kid myself

reading the comic book as I said you know I'm

originally from Boston so I'm a kid in Boston

I'm reading the comic book picking it up every

month at the kiosk you know in the subway and

I was riveted at these continuing stories I mean

there hadn't been anything like that in comic

books and I thought to myself well there really

isn't anything like that on Saturday morning

so I have an opportunity to replicate for you

youngsters what I experienced when I was reading

the comic book and That absolutely dictated to

me that we needed to do continuing storylines

So that's the first thing it just felt more Marvel

to me now in the first season of spider -man

I wasn't able to do that for various reasons

When things get started Everybody wants their

hand in it and it's a very difficult time And

there's a lot of you know, there's there's just

a lot of bickering and a lot of a lot of ego

clashing and so the easiest way to get through

that first 13 Was to just acquiesce to the you

know Everyone's desire to simply tell one story

then another story then another story then another

story and that was okay with me I tend to not

be a very combative personality and you know

in most cases so That went along just fine, but

then when the next 13 came along a Couple of

things happened the first was that Everybody

now had a new toy to play with which was all

the footage that was coming in You know, there's

there's a nine -month gap between writing a show

and then seeing film So for the first 13 we pretty

much wrote that blind I don't think we saw a

single bit of film during the writing of the

first 13 and Then by the time the second 13 came

around the film started to come in. So all the

egos moved into the editing room And they're

all battling with one another over how the thing

was gonna look And and the the new toy was no

longer the stories now, you know that now it's

work, you know Because it's work you know, hand

it off to that writer guy who's in charge of

that. So they kind of left me alone. And then

Avi was cool because, you know, I went to him

and I said, I kind of want to do these continuing

stories. And he basically said, yeah, fine. You

know, at that point, we had established a pretty

good rapport. And so he let me. And for me, that's

when the fun of the show began. Now, sometimes

I'll read on the Internet, People say, well,

everything fell apart after the first 13. Well,

no. If you were a kid and you were following

it, as I think kids are capable of doing, I think

the stories got deeper and richer. And I think

the relationships got more interesting. We had

a lot of, I thought the romances were kind of

fun to play with. And all of this was really

much more the Marvel experience. than the first

13. So I really think the show took off. My favorite

arc is when he's got the six arms. And, you know,

and then the Punisher shows up and he's dealing

with the Punisher. And I had brought Karl Potts

in to make sure that we were, you know, dealing

with the Punisher 100 % correctly, because Karl

had had a successful run doing the Punisher in

the comic books. I actually think we did the

Punisher better than he's ever been done ever

in that in that run But I mean there are a couple

of episodes in there where I still watch it and

I can't catch my breath There's so much cool

stuff going on so Yeah, and then and then I've

always loved having long interesting stories.

You know, I don't do anything short. I'm not

a guy who can make short films because I like

long, involved, complicated stories. And when

we got to things like Six Forgotten Warriors

at the end and Secret Wars, you know, it just

doesn't get any better than that. And I don't

think anybody's been able to do that since. So,

yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, you know going back

and looking through the list of the episodes

like I can't think of one that I don't enjoy

in one way or another like I'm sure if I put

my analytical hat on and You know really dig

into it and see if I can find anything that kind

of makes me go What were they thinking there?

I'm sure I could find something but just looking

through the episode list and remembering watching

this as a kid and and You know Even watching

it now it really really still holds up after

all this time. Well, you want to know something

funny? First of all, I told my writers and this

was my mandate with the show was to Always surprised

the viewer so that you would never really be

able to settle in and say I know what I'm gonna

see this episode or I know what I'm gonna see

when I turn on spider -man There was always gonna

be something interesting and different and unexpected

going on So that's the first thing what happens

now when I look at it and there are episodes.

I haven't seen in 20 years I'm pretty pleased

with how tight it is and how well it holds together.

I had a phone conversation some months ago with

a gentleman, an actor by the name of Chris Cooper.

Chris is an Academy Award -winning actor. He

is now playing Norman Osborn in the new run of

movies, so he is eventually going to be the Green

Goblin. I guess he'll be the Green Goblin in

the next movie. I haven't seen the latest Spider

-Man movie, so I don't know. Maybe he was the

Green Goblin in the most recent one. No, he wasn't.

They focus on Electro. Okay, well, then his Green

Goblin run hopefully will be coming up. And we

were talking spider -man. I've known Chris for

years Way way way way way back. So it was just

so amusing to have him on the phone Being a good

friend and to be sitting and talking spider -man

with him Because he's you know, he's he was coming

to grips with the Norman Osborn character And

I recommended a few episodes of my series that

he could watch Before I recommended them There

was one in particular that I watched and I was

just astonished at how well Done it was I had

forgotten, you know you get in the middle of

production and your your head so involved that

you almost don't appreciate what you've done

and I had I'd completely forgotten the story

even though I'd come up with the story and It

was just so tight. It was a really great episode

Stuck right in the middle. It never would have

you know been one of the ones that I would have

thought Hey, this is one of my favorite episodes,

and I wish I could tell you which one it is But

I still can't really remember it, but it was

one of the ones where Norman was kind of in the

nether world and Harry was now the Green Goblin

Okay, okay, and you know I looked at it, and

I thought Damn, we were really good. We did a

really good job. I Maintain that the only reason

that the show is still on the air as it is sporadically

on Disney XD is Because of the stories, you know

the show comes on and right away you see that

it's not an high -def It's it's got that square,

you know image ratio Mm -hmm. It's not widescreen

And the animation, let's face it, it isn't always

the best compared to the kind of animation that's

being done today. But I think the stories are

better than anyone else's, quite frankly. I think

the stories hold together very well, and that's

what I was responsible for, so I'm really proud

of that. Now, again, take this with a grain of

salt, because it's IMDB. According to them...

Avia Rat actually wrote one episode. Do you remember

which episode that is, or is that just false?

It's just false. I mean, I think it's got me

writing three the last time I checked. There

was one time I got on... This is great, because

you're giving me an opportunity to rant and rave

about this. Every time I get on Wikipedia, I

see strange names in the executive producers

column. The last time I got on there were two

women listed in the executive producers column

as well as Stanley and Aviarod They usually get

Stanley and Aviarod right and then and then strange

names appear for years on IMDB and on Wikipedia

it would there were three names. It was Stanley

Aviarod and then a guy named Stanley Liu Li you

And I would think to myself Who the hell is that?

Because you know I was there doing the show and

I don't have a clue who that human being is and

Recently I was going through the credits and

I saw the name Stanley Liu Li you and He was

a guy apparently who produced the 3d backgrounds

that had been used, you know, very, very sparingly

in some of the episodes. For him to be listed

as an executive producer along with Stan and

Avi is ludicrous, because he was a guy who produced

an element. You know, he wasn't there in the

offices. I never met the man. I think the only

person who might have had anything to do with

him was Bob Richardson. So, you know, look, the

team was Stan Lee, Avi Arad, executive producers.

John Semper Jr. producer, Bob Richardson supervising

producer, John Cawley production coordinator.

That's the team. So wherever you see these other

names get added or whoever the hell these people

are, they were not in the room. I never knew

these people. And just to clarify, Bob Richardson

was, as supervising producer, Bob Richardson

was primarily the person who pulled all the elements

together. And he was primarily, you know the

in charge of the animation and getting the production

shipped and The look and the style and the feel

and all of that kind of thing of the show So

that's that was Bob's domain. My domain was the

writing. Okay, right So anything having to do

with the writing that's me Anything having to

do with the animation and and and whatnot. That

was Bob. Yeah, I mean it's like you guys are

two sides of a quarter. I mean, you're on one

side, he's on the other, which is great. I want

to talk about two more things, and then we'll

kind of wrap this up. I'm going to save the man

for last, but let's talk about the voice cast,

because I have been dying to interview some of

these people. I know this is going to... I'm

going to try not to sound... Too much of a creeper

here, but I've had a crush on Jennifer Hale's

voice since I was 14 years old. Well, who has?

As the black cat. Who hasn't? Who hasn't had

a crush on that voice? Yeah. And on her, Jennifer's

really a gorgeous, wonderful lady. She is. Yeah.

But you've got Christopher Daniel Barnes, you've

got Roscoe Lee Brown in this. Yeah. It boggles

my mind that J. Jonah Jameson and Granny Goodness

are the same guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah really boggles

my mind I was just hanging out with him about

two weeks ago. I was I was oh, please tell me

you recorded that for your podcast I did that

was why I was here. I was He did a little tribute

for the panel discussion and then I also did

an interview with him for the podcast Oh, wow.

Talk about Linda Gary for a little bit, because

she was the voice of Aunt May, and sadly, she

passed away in 95. Yeah, she passed away right

in the middle of production. Linda was diagnosed

fairly early on. You know, when I first met Linda,

she was just robust and healthy and big, huge,

you know, head of red hair, flaming red hair,

curly red hair. gorgeous and wonderful and generous

and a Really lovely lady and then as we moved

into production her cancer was discovered and

She underwent chemo And she just got weaker and

weaker and weaker and you know, she was showing

up in a wheelchair eventually And I would always

write a few lines for her just just have Just

to have her have work and be able to be amongst

us I'd always give Aunt May a few lines. And

then one day, I wrote the usual four lines for

Aunt May, and then word came that Linda wasn't

gonna be able to make it. In for that session

and and that was it, you know Then we we all

kind of knew because she would come in I think

the very last time she came in she was really

very unhealthy and she was very out of it and

she was just barely able to get the you know,

the three four lines out and we all wished her

well and But she was really not in very good

shape. So yes, we lost Linda And and we lost

a few people during the course of production

because initially Alastair Smythe's father, what

was the, Spencer Smythe, Spencer Smythe. That

was Edward Mulhair. And I had grown up watching.

That was Devin Miles, are you kidding me? Yeah,

that was Edward Mulhair, yeah. Oh my God, I never

knew that. And when I was a kid, he was on a

TV show called The Ghosted Mrs. Muir, which was

based on the classic movie. uh... so that was

kind of a thrill for me and i think at that time

he was the voice of kit right on uh... i don't

know he was uh... no no no he was devon he was

the the old yes he was devon miles he was that

he was the friend to wilton night who after wilton

passed basically was the one that gave michael

his missions here you go okay well he yes so

he was he was You know in our cast and I remember

vividly him being there and then He was gone.

He died before we We finished the series and

a number of people passed away Philip Abbott

was the voice of Nick Fury and He passed away.

I think before we were done with the series and

Yeah, I mean it was really it was weird, but

you know we had so many great old classic actors

people who had just had amazing careers and that

was one of the fun parts of doing the show was

I never knew who was going to walk in the door

next and sometimes I'm a big Star Trek fan. So

naturally I requested I wrote roles for all the

Star Trek people So we had Nichelle Nichols and

George Takei and we had major Barrett Roddenberry,

you know with whom I later had a business relationship

and we had Tim Russ and you know, and that was

mostly just me being a Trekkie and saying to

our casting person, hey, get that person, find

out if you can get that person. And at that time,

it was not so common that a lot of these screen

actors were being sought out to do cartoon roles.

So for them, it was really just fun and the fact

that they didn't have to learn lines and stuff

like that. So yeah, no, it was a great cast.

I was very lucky. Let's talk about the man because

Stan the man Lee How much was he there every

day or how much input did he not necessarily

input? But how much involvement did Stan have

since technically it was a character he and and

Jack created yeah, let's let's Let me say right

up front that I get really tired of Stan bashing

people who bash Stan He is a good and dear Yeah,

well and and and you're a good guy That's why

I'm here Stan is is a really amazingly talented

man and as a fan of the comics from you know

for me from age 14 15 And a fan of his What he

brought to comics was Just you know, it's it's

it's unmeasurable And and I'm talking about him

specifically the artists I have great admiration

for to the Ditko's and the Jack Kirby's of the

world but you know Stan really is a great writer

and a great idea person and You don't get Marvel

without Stan, you know all these people who want

to claim well No, Jack Kirby really did this

and Steve Ditko really did this No, you don't

get Marvel. You don't get what we have without

Stan. As far as Stan's input on this show, it

was very substantial in the first 13. I don't

know that he necessarily wanted it to be. I think

one of the reasons why he dragged me in because

I came in at the specific request of Stan. I

was brought in because Stan wanted me and Stan

wanted me because he trusted me and he trusted

me because we had worked together. years earlier

in a different company called Marvel productions

and he and I had become very close during that

period of time so He kind of brought me in because

I think he wanted to actually walk away from

the very difficult birthing process that the

show was going through but Avi very much wanted

Stan involved so with a certain amount of reluctance,

I think Stan did end up devoting a lot of day

-to -day time on the series in the first 13.

I think after the first 13, Stan pretty much

is no longer involved with the series. Well,

except for one very important role at the end.

We'll talk about that in a minute. That's true.

That's coming up. He really didn't have anything

to do anymore with the day -to -day. Now, the

funny thing is, because I was watching a couple

of episodes earlier today. I was watching Night

of the Lizard and I watched Sting of the Scorpion.

I can tell you Stan's lines. I mean, I remember

when we were going through the script reading,

and we would do these really elaborate table

reads where I was there, Stan was there, Avi

was there, Tony Pastor, our voice director was

there, Bob Richardson was there, and we would

all fight and argue and discuss and dissect each

and every one of the scripts. Over hours and

hours and hours of meeting and and and you know,

sometimes Stan would just say look We're gonna

do this and he'd start crossing lines out and

he just write the dialogue in I still have some

of the scripts where he you know wrote his dialogue

in and I remember those lines because you know,

they're economical and they're to the point and

they're they're right You know, those are those

are good lines So he had a lot of input in the

first season first 13 And then One of the most

amazing things I mean I didn't know at the time

obviously because let's face it 1995 we didn't

have the internet yet right and you know nowadays

we can look pretty much anybody up that's been

in any of these shows and whatever else and going

back and watching the end of Spider Wars the

the very last episode we see that spider -man

goes to the real world where the guy in the suit

is just an actor who plays him on television

and it's I Don't want to be analytical about

it, but when I really think about it, it's very

tongue -in -cheek Yeah, putting him in the real

world putting him in the real New York and yeah,

and you know lo and behold he goes and you know,

he meets Stan Lee and the coolest thing about

this and I'm just tearing up just even talking

about it and I wasn't even you know I had nothing

to do with the show at all. The coolest thing

about this is his wife is Madame Webb. How did

you guys pull that off? Well, that was all me.

That was all me. First of all, the whole plot

for that was me. And I got to tell you, I had

to fight because ... Certain people in the production

were very hot and bothered about the fact that

Spider -Man was leading up to this big challenge

because you know it I mean the whole Madame Web

thing and she was preparing him for something

and No one knew what it was Because it was my

invention right and that made a lot of people

very unhappy Not a lot of people. That made certain

people very unhappy. But I knew what I had in

mind for the big payoff. I wrote... I put Madame

Webb in the show for Joan Lee to play. She was

the voice I had in mind. Now, Madame Webb came

from the comic books, but she was not a character

that anybody really would have ever done anything

with. I remember when I proposed to Abby that

I wanted to use Madame Webb. His pretty much

exact words to me were I can't make a toy out

of a friggin old broad So so one of my favorite

one of my most cherished toy biz toys is the

madam webb action figure because he did actually

end up making a toy out of building. And I got

a huge kick out of that. But that was all me.

I mean, the fact that I plucked Madame Webb from

comic book obscurity and gave her this very big

role. And I knew, because I am a huge fan of

Stan's, and I'm also a good friend of Stan's,

I knew that I wanted to end the series with an

appearance by Stan. That was completely my idea.

And it was to me very important now. It wasn't

just a gimmick because really and I've said this

before in interviews When you've got your hero

Looking at his creator and saying You know, I

understand that you created me or at least in

this dimension you created me But I've kind of

grown beyond you, you know, I'm I'm bigger now.

I'm I really like myself. For me, that really

was the end of the saga. When the hero accepts

who he is and likes what he's done and likes

who he is, then that's really the end of the

hero saga. And it's really the end of Peter Parker's

saga because you never get Peter liking himself

in the comic books. That's just not part of who

he is. But I figured, well, this is probably

the last episode. Peter's going to turn to his

creator and say, Hey, Stan, I like myself now.

I'm a different person than the guy you created.

So it really did have a purpose. But it also

was kind of fun. It was sort of like, back in

those days, it wasn't so common to have Stan

be a character in something. Now he's in all

the movies, and he does his own cartoon shows

where he's a character. you know in in the power

entertainment stuff i know this is more of it

but my favorite marvel movie appearance of him

is when he drinks though the tainted hulk serum

uh... no i i i just thought that was such a great

way even though you left it on a cliffhanger

Yeah, you know true believer, you know, it's

like And then come to find out you have nothing

to do with unlimited and unlimited tried to pick

up where It tried to be what you know a continuation

of yours. It tried to be that I mean obvious,

you know starting off on earth and then obviously

going into The the ultimate kind of universe

kind of thing and yeah still had most of the

same cast at least Chris and Jennifer, because

Jennifer ended up being Liddy Vermin. Well, I

never really paid much attention to Unlimited.

I saw the first episode and that was it. I don't

even think I made it through all of the first

episode. I don't want to talk bad about somebody

else's show or anything, but it's... It was an

interesting thing. I think my favorite part about

the show was the new suit because he could do

so much more. But yeah, who knows? Well, you

know, it's funny. I think each show that has

come after mine has done some things interestingly

and right and some things wrong. And I unlimited

to me seemed very lightweight. coming after our

show. Our show was very dramatic and then Unlimited

seemed more like a more like a kiddie show kind

of like the one that's on now which feels very

lightweight to me too. The one that's on now,

Unlimited Spider, whatever it's called, Ultimate

Spider -Man. I've only seen all of season one,

I haven't watched anything further. It's not

that I don't want to, it's just I don't have

the time to. What I did like about it is how

they worked out the internal monologue where

he pops out of the scene. I thought that that

stuff is hilarious in that show. Yeah, I think

I you know, the thing about that show is I think

it's a very enjoyable show it's just a very different

show and I'm glad that I'm not writing that show

because That's not really the spider -man I grew

up with I think what they're doing is they're

creating a new spider -man for a new generation

And a new way of telling a story and that's perfectly

legitimate. I'm glad I got to lay down On you

know on film on 65 half hours the spider -man

I grew up with That's the guy, you know in the

60s when I was reading the comic That's who I

grew up with and so I got to lay that guy down

for 65 wonderful episodes and now you know, they

can go do whatever they want and It'll serve

whatever purpose they need for it to serve. So

One last thing before you go, I know this has

kind of gone over the time we agreed upon, but

anyway. You recently on your Spider -Man the

Animated Series Facebook page posted an image

of yourself along with Alfred! Yes. Ephraim Zimbalist

Jr. Right. I, again, this is another one of those

things where I had no idea. I knew I loved Doc

Ock's voice, but I had no idea it was Alfred.

Well, let me let me, you know, I'm glad you brought

up the Facebook page and let me talk about that

for one second. OK, good. The question I always

get is when is Spider -Man going to come out

on DVD or when is Spider -Man going to come out

on Blu -ray? Well, the reality is that Spider

-Man is available on DVD and is available on

Blu -ray, believe it or not. I have a page, I

have a website that is www .CartoonSpiderMan

.com. So it's www .CartoonSpiderMan .com. Now,

on that page I have a section called Home Video.

It provides links to all of the different ways

that you can obtain all 65 episodes. I have no

vested interest in this It's just you know people

are always asking me that question when's it

gonna come out? The fact of the matter is you

can get a hold of the series on blu -ray on DVD

on video on demand which I highly recommend Through

Amazon or iTunes, okay what you won't get in

any of these ways Are dvd extras what we come

to regard as dvd extras. Okay, so you won't get

any artwork. You won't get any You won't get

any stuff. You won't get any photos. You won't

get anything like that That's what my website

is going to do Okay, so if you're if you buy

one of those dvds and then you go to my website

cartoon spider -man .com I'll have all the background

stuff that you would normally get on DVD extras.

For some odd reason, Disney does not wanna do

a formal release. I mean, wouldn't we all love

a deluxe package of all 65 episodes with director's

commentary, you know, commentary by me, commentary

by Bob Richardson, commentary by Avi if they

can get him to do that. You know, I mean - Or

Stan. Or Stan. Wouldn't it be great to have that?

I don't know why Disney doesn't seem interested

in doing that, but they're not. What I'm going

to do is on my page and in my podcasts, I'm going

to have interviews with all the people involved,

all the people that I can get a hold of who are

involved. I have all my actors who are going

to do interviews. I'm probably going to do some

commentary to go along with some of the episodes.

It's permanently going to sit on my webpage.

A lot of it's going to appear on the Facebook

page, which is www .facebook .com forward slash

making of Spider -Man the animated series. I

could not get any other title that hadn't already

been taken. So it's forward slash making of Spider

-Man the animated series. And all of those pictures

are going to turn up initially on the Facebook

page and then sit permanently on my website.

So there you go. Don't know what it is. This

would be the last thing. I don't know what it

is about Disney They put out X -Men they put

out Iron Man. They put out the Incredible Hulk.

Yep. They put out fantastic They've put out basically

everything. Yeah, except Spidey. I always feel

like they're doing that just to piss me off quite

But I you know, I think that there were some

rights issues that needed to be ironed out At

least before Marvel before Disney bought Marvel.

I think there was some conflict between Marvel

and Sony over my series in particular Now so

there there shouldn't be any more since Disney

owns Marvel right exactly I don't I really don't

understand why they haven't released it so But

you know I'm taking matters in my own hands,

and I'm celebrating the 20th anniversary on my

own and You know because people like you who

because of people like you who really? Enjoyed

the series and got the series understood what

we were doing and appreciated what we were doing

for which I am tremendously grateful I always

read articles about myself where I'm told and

people talk about how horrible or arrogant I

am and this that and the other The people who

work with me seem to think I'm just fine And

yeah, and I always want to make the point that

I'm tremendously grateful to the fans For all

of the wonderful support that they have given

us over 20 years You know this old 20 year old

show Still seems to resonate with people and

I'm the most grateful person on the planet. Yeah,

absolutely Alright folks all the links that John

has mentioned throughout the interview will be

In the post so you can go to every single one

you can go to his cartoon spider -man .com you

can go to the Facebook page for spider -man the

internet series making of spider -man the internet

series You'll be able to go to the war of the

rocket men page and all that stuff I'll have

all the links in the show notes. You can check

all the stuff out that he's got going on Thank

you so much for for doing this has been a blast

Mike. Thank you for having me on I appreciate

it. Thanks. Who is that exotic lady? Oh her she's

my ride It's been great meeting you. Take care

of yourself. You too, Spider -Man! Farewell and

good luck! Wow, I wonder how I'm supposed to

get down from here. I suppose I could wait for

the Fantastic Four to drop by and give me a lift.

That Stan Lee, he's quite a guy. I think he's

truly special. Well, Madame Webb, where to now?

Face front, true believer!