Spider-Man: The Animated Series Season 1 Review

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination! Hi, this is John Semper jr. The

head writer and producer of spider -man the animated

series and you are listening to the geek cast

radio network New York City, if only everything

down there was really as peaceful as it looks

from up here Hello and welcome to episode 68

of to cast beyond brought to you by the geek

cast or radio network I am one of your hosts

TFJone Mike and joining me once again as he was

in our Extact -tastically yours, episode 67.

Eduardo, hello. Hey, thank you for having me

back. That's right, that's right. Hell, we got

a hell of a lot of attention off of episode 67

from at XTAS on Twitter. It's the, uh, it's Julie

and Eric. I'm sorry, Julie and Eric. I don't

remember the last names. It's the two people

that were writers or, uh... Producers on x -men

the animated series, and I'm hoping that we can

get to interview them at some point So that was

really cool. We get a lot of retweets out of

them from episode 67, but today We're gonna be

web swinging along with spider -man and his amazing

friends. No wait that that's no no we're gonna

be Spectacular spider -man no that's not right

either. We're gonna get the unlimited spider

-man no wait We're gonna be ultimate spider -man

Either face it listeners. You've just hit the

jackpot because today we talk about the epically

awesome spider -man the animated series from

1994 Season one for Spidey TAS. Oh boy. I Actually

two years ago because two years ago was the 20th

anniversary of Spidey TAS. I talked with John

Semper jr. For the first time and Man, was that

a fun interview? That was awesome talking to

him So much fun that the restraining order is

only 200 yards instead of 400? I don't need a

restraining order because I don't stalk celebrities

You know, I send them a request for an interview

if they say yes great if they say no, okay No,

so You know, I'm no Sheldon. Thank you. There's

no There's no need for this uh... but that's

what they're going to have you tested well i

think my mom did have me tested i did test is

crazy so there's probably issues there but anyway

uh... so spider -man the nineteen ninety -four

evidence series this was the series this at last

times uh... x -men animated series these were

the two series that actually got me into wanting

to read comics i remember I used to go to the

Walden bookstore in the Kingston Independence

Mall in Massachusetts, Kingston, Massachusetts,

and I would just grab the comics off the racks

and read them and put them back. Kind of like

how borders and books a million and Barnes and

Noble are today, but it's one of those things

where back then it was like it wasn't that frowned

upon as it is now. But yeah, no, the Spider -Man

The Animated Series was... the show that made

because for me like in retrospect I still love

and will always love Batman the animated series,

but as a 13 14 year old at 93 94 what trying

to watch that show And I've told this story before

my stepmother saw me watching it one day my then

my now ex -stepmother And she said oh, that's

too violent. You can't watch that turn TV off

just never Never let me watch it again. So I'm

like, okay. Well, whatever Yeah, thank God you

weren't watching like anime on tsunami or something

Yeah, yeah, that's true. She's a short show her

Akira. Let's see what she would have said then

Yeah, I don't even know. That's a whole other

bag of worms. So Spider -Man the animated series

is really what kind of wanted me to get into

comics back then. And I, as a kid, I never really

got into comics that much. I mean, I knew of

comics and all that, but I never really got into

them full time until I was 32? Yeah. 2012 was

the first time I really dove deep into comics.

But growing up, Spider -Man the animated series,

this show was amazing. The voice cast, the stories,

just everything about it. It is. And I know everyone

has their favorite, whether it's the Dan Gilvizan

Spider -Man, whether it's the Josh Keaton spectacular,

whether it's the Drake Bell. Ultimate or even

some people love what is supposedly supposed

to be the sequel series to this Unlimited, Spider

-Man Unlimited. This to me is the, this will

always be the definitive Spider -Man cartoon

for me. What is your experience growing up with

this series? Well, I mean, yeah, I love this

series too. And see, for me, I was a comics fan

since before 94, definitely. I mean, I grew up

on this stuff. So it was kind of just like with

X -Men, you know, seeing this stuff on TV and,

you know, seeing some of the characters that

I grew up with, you know, on TV and brought to

life was, you know, was just a joy for me, especially

with something like Spider -Man, which kind of

opened up to the greater Marvel universe. So

it was kind of cool seeing Spider -Man and Punisher

at the same time on screen together. Absolutely

So we're gonna go through and talk about just

season one what surprises me about this show

and this is at a time where You know, we were

just coming out of the big 80s the big syndication

era of you had to have 65 cartoon half hours

for one season For syndication so that you know

you know you look at he man you look at Shira

while she really had 93 episodes But you look

at he made you look at thundercats you look at

Voltron. You know all those Yeah, GI Joe transformers

all that stuff And looking at you know looking

now at spider -man and even x -men to a certain

extent as well these two cartoons The first season

for Spider -Man is only 13 episodes. It's like

a cartoon of today, except it was 22 years ago.

I mean, as far as having the certain episode

number, because most cartoons nowadays are a

13 episode first season, or whatever it is. I

didn't realize this entire show was just 65 episodes.

I thought it was way more than that. Actually,

yes, so did I. I thought that season one was

more episodes and then re -watching it to record

for this, I was like, wait, we're done? That

can't be right. It was just really weird to have

that. Yeah, it was just so... so strange, but

it's one of those shows that it has resonated

so much and the stories play out so well and

the voice cast does so well. I know that recently

John Sember Jr. had started a, I think he did

an Indiegogo, I don't remember, one of those

campaign... Fundraising campaign things for his

new project called war of the rocket men and

he basically What he did was he basically said

hey look the entire cast of spider -man the animated

series at least the ones that are still living

You know reunited and everything else and he

got Christopher Daniel Barnes and Jennifer Hale

and and all those people back together again

to do this new project that he was doing and

That was one of the things that we talked about

in the interview and plus just how well Spider

-Man 94 holds up, honestly. I know a lot of people

say, oh, but the red, it bleeds, it bleeds. Well,

you know, that's the way animation was in the

90s. There were a lot of colors that bled. It

wasn't just the red. It wasn't. For season one,

we have episodes like, it starts off with Night

of the Lizard. Night of the Lizard was the pilot

episode, the first episode here. And it's basically

the story of Kirk Connors becoming the Lizard.

What did you think of this opening rewatching

it 20 years later? You know what? Not a bad place

to start. And it is interesting that we just,

we simply just have an episode of, okay, we'll

have Spider -Man fighting the Lizard. We didn't

have the origin all over again. Yeah, we didn't

have this was this was the lizard story not Peter

Parker and the lizard so, you know Peter already

around but It's also interesting because nowadays

you would think that the first episode you introduced

this broader arc this broader story But this

can be watched on its own Yeah, you know, you

don't have to worry that this is episode one

of some Long arc that you're gonna have to stick

around for Right, now see, that's the cool thing

as the seasons progressed, they actually started

doing that after season one. But season one essentially

is, most of it is one -off episodes. There is

an overall continuity to it, but like you could

sit here and watch The Sting of Scorpion or Craven

the Hunter. you know something like that just

to get those characters obviously you have to

watch the alien costume all three parts in the

hobgoblin part one and two but I just love the

overall tone of the first season the overall

tone is it sets it up well and you said about

not having to rehash the origin yeah the origin

is essentially told in the opening animatic in

the opening you know in the opening theme so

you don't need a whole origin story episode you

don't need you know, to focus on how Peter got

the powers. You know, I believe he's - He's an

iconic enough character that we all know the

story. You know, a nerd in high school, goes

to science exhibit, spider in radiation thing,

spider land on hand, bites hand, Peter goes ouch,

goes outside, next thing you know, he's climbing

walls and going, what the heck? I mean, we don't

- that's it, that's it, that's all we need. That's

all we needed. We didn't need - I mean, as cool

as it was in 2002, we did not need Go Web Go.

Yeah, but that's a whole other bag of spiders.

For season one, you have the cast in this show

is just amazing. They really, really are. If

you look at them. No offense to J .K. Simmons.

He did an awesome performance in the Tobey Maguire

Spider -Man movies. Right. But when I read a

comic and I see Jolly Jonah Jameson, the voice

that pops up in my head is Ed Asner. Yeah. Nowadays,

because I've seen J .K. do so many versions of

J. Jonah Jameson, it's him. when i read a comic

but in the old days all as i can think of was

ed asner and i know ed you know 2002 ed asner

was way too old to play him but you know jk did

in a dozen such amazing job with him and i think

he's a great he was a great live action uh jona

jamison Yeah, well I think he really embodied,

especially in that first movie, in the first

Tobey Maguire movie, he really embodied the spirit

of the 94 animated model of JJJ. But looking

at the cast, we have Christopher Daniel Barnes,

like I said before, Jennifer Hale, Roscoe Lee

Brown as Kingpin. Awesome Kingpin, by the way.

Yup, one of the best. He was he'd for the longest

time. He's been my default kingpin voice as well.

Although right now I'm toggling back and forth

between him and Vincent D 'Onofrio Yeah, depends

on the comic I'm reading like if it's Frank Miller

daredevil. I'm hearing Vincent if it's another

comic I'm hearing Roscoe Lee Brown Yeah, absolutely

Let's see I I didn't know this at the time You

know when I was a kid watching this but seeing

that Roscoe isn't was because I think Roscoe

has passed away since since this but He was an

african -american actor. I had no idea I just

knew the voice of kingpin and the fact that the

character had always been white But when Michael

Clarke Duncan came on the scene, I know everyone

oh 2003 daredevil blah blah. I don't care Michael

Clarke Duncan reinvented that role for a generation

at the time and again i was skeptical when they

announced the new daredevil tv netflix series

saying oh who's gonna play kingpin and then of

course my skepticism went away when oh hey it's

uh it's it's detective goran from criminal intent

i'm like yeah that works yeah that that works

a lot uh we also have uh rodney salzbury as joe

robbie robertson We have Saratoga Ballantine

as Mary Jane Watson we have Tila of all people

we have Linda Gary was Aunt May and that was

one of the things people go back and live I'll

have I'll relink the interview to the John Semper

Jr. interview I actually when I found that out

that it was Linda Gary voicing out May he actually

talks about that in the interview Was surprised

at that that that was like I never knew who voiced

out me I just knew that I liked her voice in

this series, but finding out that it's T love

from the universe When I heard when I found out

it was Lynn when I find out it was her I was

like, wait a minute. Wait, that's Teela. Yeah,

it's like my my brain was trying to make the

connection it just wouldn't it was like wait

that's whoa holy cow yep we also have Gary Imhoff

or Imhoff as as Harry Osborne Joseph Campanella

was Kurt Connors slash the lizard Maxwell Caulfield

was Alistair Smythe Nick Jameson was Morbius

we got Neil Ross Bill Ross of all people. Commander

Keith from Voltron was Green Goblin. Commander

Keith, Shipwreck from G .I. Joe, and Springer

from Transformers. Yep. We also have Jim Cummings

as Shocker. Although he was obvious, I mean,

the minute he spoke it was like, yep, there's

Jim Cummings. Yep, there's Darkwing Duck. You

got Rachel Gull slash Sark from Tron, David Warner

as Herbert Landon. And this I did not know for

the longest time because I'm only used to hearing

his Alfred voiced, his Alfred voice. Ephraim

Zimblis Jr. was Dr. Octopus. Yeah, no, I think

by the second time I heard his voice I was like,

Alfred? Yeah, yep another cool about this yeah

Sadly did another cool part about this animated

series is you have Haka's area as Eddie Brock

Any Brock is just Moses lack You also still with

the chip on his shoulder all Yeah, pretty much.

You also have the Joker himself, Mark Hamill,

as the Hobgoblin, which is interesting. Solid

Snake, David Hader as Captain America. Who else

is in this? Greg Berger was Mysterio, so we got

Grimlock from Transformers being Mysterio. That

was the other voice I recognized, because he

didn't use Grimlock for Mysterio, but he used

one of his... Standard voices. Yeah, so yeah

when I heard that I recognized him I Believe

I yeah, I did I recognized astro train as Nick

Fury Jack angel was was was wasn't Nick Fury

Townsend Coleman was silver main so you got Michelangelo

from the turtles being silver main and the tick

Go spoon somewhere else tick um you got uh martin

landau as the scorpion slash matt gargan that

was kind of shocking like looking at this cast

people it's just amazing it really is i mean

ed gilbert as dormammu uh what's the other one

on here um paul winfield as black marvel you

know just oh man just the whole cast for the

entire series was absolutely amazing some of

my out of the 13 episodes probably my favorites

are it has to be the alien costume three -parter

oh yeah that was the first time I'd ever seen

the whole venom black suit spidey thing And the

other one would probably have to be... I'm trying

to think here. Probably the first episode with

Mysterio. After a while, Mysterio kinda... I

think after season one, episode five, The Menace

of Mysterio, after I saw that... I was fine,

I was great, and then I started seeing Mysterio

pop up everywhere in comics. I read, what was

it, Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil. I've never

done a podcast on that comic, but right at the

beginning of when I was getting into comics in

2012, I... I'd ask people, you know, what's some

good Daredevil stuff? Oh, Kevin Smith's Guardian

Devil is good, and it turns out that it's Mysterio

as the villain of that. I'm like, you've gotta

be kidding me. Like, Mysterio to me has turned

into nothing but a giant trope of, oh, hey, let's

use the illusionist, or let's use the guy that

uses illusion cubes, or what? I don't know. Well,

what I think is worse is that after a pretty

awesome performance in Guardian Devil, you know,

it ends with, you know, spoiler alert, it ends

with Mysterio committing suicide. Yeah. And then

for a while there, they tried to have like a,

this apprentice. Right. I think the guy's real

name was Daniel Burkhart. They tried to have

Burkhart doing the Mysterio bit. Then they introduced

another Mysterio in this miniseries. And then

it's like, oh, the original Mysterio seems to

be back. And it's like, OK, what? It's just,

okay, first of all, I'm confused now, who's supposed

to be Mysterio? And number two, are you telling

me because somebody has a Jonesing to have the

original back, we're just gonna say, okay, you

know that part where you committed suicide, let's

just ignore that and say it's the typical comic

thing of faking his death. Yeah, let's just DC

it and, you know. Yeah, just say it's, well,

not even DC it, let's just say, okay, it was

a fake out, you know. Hey, it's comics! What

was cool to me about the voice cast is all the

distinctive tones and and care like I mean these

people a lot of these people I don't see today

in the voiceover industry like I don't I don't

know maybe I'm not that in tune to current cartoons,

but Like I don't see Christopher Daniel Barnes

having you know Yeah, I think I think he was

last I heard the ultimate spider -man cartoon

I think that their own version of the spider

verse story. Yeah, they did have I believe they

did have Dan Gilvesian and Christopher Daniel

Barnes come back Yeah, some alternate universe

spider -man not yeah, then not the ones not the

ones that they voiced Originally, it's not like

ultimate spy right up with amazing with the amazing

friends spidey they had I think I think Dan voiced

I think he was 2099 I think yeah, he was 2099

because it was super dark and just completely

different from his amazing Yeah, and then and

then I think Christopher Daniel Barnes voiced

like a medieval spidey or something. No, I think

he was no are No, he was Noir in the game, that's

what it is. Right, yeah, no, no. He was... I'm

thinking of Shattered Dimensions. I'm thinking

of a game, that's what it is. Yeah, see, that's

the thing. I'm trying not to get confused with

that either. But yeah, they did bring them back.

It's... You know, Christopher Daniel Barnes,

I know he was in... I know before he did Spider

-Man, he was Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid.

Yeah, that's true. When I saw that he was the

voice of Spider -Man and I heard his voice, I'm

like, huh, Prince Eric is Spidey. I think my

little sister got a kick out of that. Talk about

having two secret identities. For me, I think

when I think of the voice cast, I think of guys

like Neil Ross, Greg Berger, Jim Cummings. I

think Jim Cummings is still working. Some of

the classic guys that we grew up with, and even

some people that were active about 15, 20 years

ago, up to 10 years ago, I'll see their name

in the credits, but it's under other voices.

They don't seem to be getting the, and truth

be told, I think this is kind of sad, that they

don't seem to be carrying these things anymore.

Instead, it's like getting people who are not

naturally voice actors. Like Chris Rock Sorry

or going or going into the TV thing. There's

a show I think it's I think it's I forget if

it's a Disney or Cartoon Network, but it's called

like wander over yonder That was Disney Everybody's

nothing are all wandering under got canceled.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing I mean, yeah, they

have you know, the the main characters voiced

by Kenneth from 30 rock and essentially it's

Kenneth from 30 rock is this alien with the with

the floppy hat and it's right and sometimes i'm

just like why you know it says why you know why

not why not get mike bell and bill ratner and

jennifer hale and jim cummings and get get all

that group you know because i mean that's i mean

jim keeps jim keeps fairly busy because he's

constantly poo uh He does other Disney voices

as well. So I mean Disney does keep Jim Cummings.

He's barely busy Although there's something I

think Bill Ratner has been doing Announcing work.

Yeah, so he's still working and but yeah guys,

but as far as Spidey's concerned I think I think

Jen Hale Jennifer Hale still working Yes, she

Well, most people know her now as FemShip from

the Mass Effect games. But yeah, it's always

nice to see these people come back and do certain

things. I remember, like I said two years ago,

seeing the... because John put up... I don't

remember the link off the top of my head. He

has a whole website of all various Spider -Man

stuff. He put up the 20th anniversary panel they

did a couple years ago. And it's just so nice

seeing all of them back together again. But this

show specifically, with the stories and the episodes,

I know a lot of people don't like when the 2D

animation mixes with the 3D animation for the

buildings, but I thought it added something to

it. Like, you know when Spidey is swinging sometimes,

it'll turn to that 3D shot, and I didn't see

a problem with it. I thought it was really cool

that they would do something like that to show

definition of his action instead of just... It

wasn't too jarring. I mean, there were times

where it did seem obvious, but it wasn't so jarring

that it took you out. Yeah. What are some of

your favorite episodes from season one season

what definitely the three -part alien costume

Yeah, especially I got one of the things I got

to give kudos is that? the show introduced characters

like like Norman Osborn Felicia Hardy And Eddie

Brock and then introduced them as their own People

so then when we had the thing like for example

with the alien costume when we had Eddie Brock

become venom Yeah, some of us who had read the

comics are like, oh I've been waiting for this

and then others you actually got invested in

this guy So when he became a super villain, it's

like, whoa, holy moly Right. Yeah, not to mention

also being able to take something like spider

-man's black costume and condense that into only

Yeah, you know three half -hour episodes well

done, you know, I mean I keep thinking if this

was nowadays We'd probably spend an entire season

with Spidey in the black costume. Venom thing

being the, you know, the finale. But this time

it's like they were able to just get the basic

parts together. And we got we did have a full

story. If there's anything that if there's anything

about the alien costume episodes that I'm kind

of, you know, have little regrets, it's that

I've always been a fan of how Venom was portrayed

in like his first few appearances in comics.

In the sense that he had this very weird sense

of honor, you know He hated spider -man and would

probably want to like kill him by ripping him

to shreds But he was the type of thing that if

he was having a full -blown Fight with spider

-man in the middle of a crowd and it looked like

a baby was gonna be in danger He'd stop save

the baby give the baby to his mother and then

just be like where were we? because you know

as far as he's concerned no no spider -man is

evil but that baby's innocent the baby cannot

be harmed yeah you know and I'm sorry some of

that didn't come off but well I think the reason

why it didn't come off is how they wrote Eddie

yeah because Eddie is the second half of the

sim Eddie is the the host body for the symbiote

And it basically fed off of his anger and jealousy

and basically fed off his emotions. So with his

emotions already being set up about like the

whole scene where where it's like Peter Parker

made me lose my job, my health, my apartment,

you know, you know, that whole descent into and

what you're saying will actually come into those

things that you say you want. Will actually happen

as the series progresses it doesn't happen right

away, but it you know it needs like and Forgive

me cuz I'm not jumping ahead, but I don't remember

if this character is in the comics later in the

series He meets dr. Kafka Ashley Kafka, so I

don't know if she was a pre -existing character

if she was something that was here just for this

year I actually think I I think it's one of those

things where she kind of debuted simultaneously

Okay, so Eddie meets her and basically meeting

her changes his whole life and his whole outlook

so he get he does get a little softer but well

until it's an it's an interesting variation about

how he gets the symbiote because i know in the

comics he's praying in a church because he was

contemplating suicide and then this one you still

have the church but spidey who was still feeling

like short -tempered and you know not exactly

friendly neighborhood webbing him up and then

the thing just kind of oozing over him yeah i

mean i gotta say i you know even though yeah

you don't have that whole sort of uh sense of

honor or like somewhat religious background.

I still like the cartoon version of his origin

better than the the Topher Grace Eddie Brock

who... Okay, so we have to bring this up. We

have to talk about this a little bit. Yeah, well,

you know, you have the Topher Grace Venom, you

know, you have the Topher Grace Venom where the

origin is Eddie Brock is in a church telling

God that he wants Peter Parker smited. It's like,

um, I'm sorry, what? Yeah, so you you you you

brought up spider -man 3 because I was going

to eventually Going from Because we're talking

about the alien costume so we have to bring up

other versions of the alien costume so going

from 94 to 2007 yeah, yeah Oh my god, that movie

is nine years old, damn! Going from 1994 to 2007

when Spider -Man 3 came out, I know everybody

and their mother hates the movie, I get it. There

was too many villains, too much bad writing,

I get it. Tobey Maguire basically just... just

stopped really acting well. uh... but the cool

thing for me with that movie is not as though

it was better or told for grace or any of that

kind of stuff about it is how for me they took

so one of those producers somebody on that movie

watch these three episodes and saw how the animators

in these three cartoons used the alien costume

whatever the hell it's supposed to be. Because

when that shit attached to Peter Parker in Spider

-Man 3, I thought it was this three -parter just

coming to life. Because it just looked amazing

how that goop looked like it was coming to life.

And I do know that... Sam Raimi has said he grew

up with classic Spider -Man and all that, and

he wanted to be more classic than anything else,

and that's fine and great. But when I saw that,

I was like, oh, this is very cool. And I remember

seeing those promotional trailers and stuff,

not the full trailers, but just the TV spots

of him waking up on the building and looking

around and just seeing that black suit in live

action on Spider -Man himself was just so cool.

The rest of Spider -Man 3, eh. Who cares if Lowell

from Wings was Sandman? Nobody. Okay. What? Well,

no, I, you know, honestly, I thought that, at

first I thought the casting choice was, honestly,

Lowell was, Lowell from Wings is Sandman that

I, honestly, I'm not mad at him. I'm not mad

at him, I'm mad at the writing. The writing had

been better, it probably would have been a cool,

he probably would have done a great job, but

it's just the writing on that movie. Yeah, don't

get me wrong. Venom, I think, yeah, Venom needed

to wait. It was kind of cool seeing the whole

symbiote flow over Peter, but just... I can't

this is like this is like subject for another

podcast especially. Oh, yeah, absolutely Like

I need prep work because And I don't see I don't

necessarily blame any of the actors in spider

-man 3 Yeah, but you know though spider -man

3 is essentially transformers revenge of the

fallen is really what it is but you know it's

one of those things where the writing could have

been a hell of a lot better but certain aspects

of that movie certain looks and things you know

reminded me obviously the alien costume the alien

costume episodes were just so cool within this

series like those three mentioned to jump to

another episode Nick Fury earlier right that

episode day of the chameleon I like that one

too Yeah, that one's a good one. Yeah, and I

got to give I actually got to give you know We

spoke about voice acting. I got to give kudos

for the idea Where in all of chameleons appearances

when he's his standard self? He's never spoken

Right. I mean have you did you notice that you

know, like in like in day of the chameleon? He

the only time he spoke was when he was disguised.

Yeah. Yeah in character and it just it To me,

I think that added, as cheesy as his standard

costume was in the animated series, I thought

the fact that he never spoke added this really,

it added this interesting layer to the character.

It kind of reinforced this idea that he's somebody

who becomes other people. So why would he have

his own voice? Because that's not what he's about.

Yeah, absolutely. Now the cool thing about this

and this is something that I this is a story

I will tell all the time Like now when talking

when talking about this series specifically It

took me a while to learn That the theme song

including the lyrics were done by Joe Perry of

Aerosmith The rest of the music would explain

the metal quality of it Yes, the rest of the

music the orchestral background stuff was done

by Shuki, Levi and Ham Saban so Saban brands

yay Which those guys those two Levi and Saban

I had no idea they did most of the the he -man

stuff, too Yeah, like all the he -man music is

I actually have that released from online records.

Anyway, the the theme song specifically done

by Joe Perry Because I'm originally from Massachusetts

and so is Aerosmith My mom used to date a guy,

but you know when she was still alive. She stayed

a guy that He owned the dry cleaners in Marshfield,

Massachusetts and Joe Perry was a regular customer

of my ex's dry cleaners So that was just so I

never actually saw Joe come into the store, but

I mean Yeah But that is always a story I tell.

But the music in this... This is one animated

series. This and X -Men both are two animated

series that definitely need CD soundtrack releases

from La La Land Records because it would just

be awesome to have that music on disc. Oh yeah.

I noticed that there were two versions of the

Spider -Man theme. The one with the lyrics that's

in the opening. And then, I could swear that

the closing music was the Spider -Man theme,

but minus the lyrics. I think so. It's probably

an instrumental, most likely. But I mean, it

works as an instrumental, and it's actually seriously

metal when you have the... Well, most of the

instrumentals for... for cartoon shows from the

80s and 90s were for the closing shows. You know,

you look at Transformers, G .I. Joe, He -Man,

Thundercats, that kind of stuff, that was all

just instrumental music, whether they had a song

opening or not. And the same thing for the 90s.

So yeah, Spider -Man Season 1, again, I just

can't believe... How short it is that it's only

13 episodes I'm not complaining about it But

because I remember the because this is one whole

continuous thing as these five seasons go along

so I Just remember it folding nice day of the

chameleon folding nicely into the first part

of neogenic nightmare in in season 2 and I so

far I've actually oh I I was on a Spider -Man

kick a few months ago and it just got added and

the whole series just got added to Hulu Plus.

So I'm like, hey, let's watch. And I'm like on

season three, episode one at this point. So we're

all set for the season two podcast. But yeah,

I mean season one, it was set up so well. The

writing is so well done. Absolutely love it.

Don't know what else we can say about it. It's

just so damn good Yeah, I I mean not as I did

notice that it's it wasn't as dark or serious

as as x -men Yeah, you know it was a little dark

moments in it, but yeah It wasn't as you know

it had a lighter in in general. It had a lighter

tone that yeah then x -men the animated series

Yeah, oh absolutely, and I think that's because

most of the spider -man stuff I mean spider -man

comics since they began in 62 have had various

light and dark tones, but overall You know the

whole schtick of spider -man is he's he's a kid

just trying to make it kind of thing and it's

it's You know he's kid you know I It's not like,

you know, X -Men where, you know, Jean Grey and

Cyclops are 20 slash 30 -somethings who, you

know, Cyclops can't keep his Emonas to himself.

Well, then again, when, you know, then again,

when you have to wear glasses or goggles all

the time, lest you vaporize what you're looking

at, you know, that... Yeah, that's true. That

could cause someone's mood to sour. But yeah,

what did you... Here's an interesting question

that I wanted to ask. What did you think of Peter

Parker's outfit, like at least in season one?

He had like this horizontal striped kind of green

shirt. You know, it's like I got to admit, it's

yeah, it's not it's not Parker with the sweater

vest and the bow tie. But and yeah, no glasses.

But it's still to me, it's still worked. I mean,

he wasn't dressing. I mean, he's supposed, he's

not, he's a nerd, he's a geek. He's not supposed

to be one of the popular people, so the outfit

that he wore when he was in Spider -Man, I think,

kind of reflected that. And I think as the series

goes on, we will see him in various other clothing,

but he'll always have that green and that teal

and purple thing, or whatever it is. I like it,

it's alright. sad thing is when I was a kid my

mom used to I'm sorry folks no parents ever 30

years ago or even today should dress their children

in horizontal striped anything yeah yeah I'm

not a fan of horizontal stripes although if there's

anything that I do want to um if there's anything

I do want to continually criticize my parents

for it wasn't so much the clothes it was the

fact that For the longest time I had a bowl cut.

Would you like a spoon with that bowl? The biggest

problem is there were times that made my ears

look big. Oh boy, yep. And I know we're all over

the place here folks, but for me, the haircut

I always wanted was after I saw a certain 1990

movie as a 10 year old, I saw Dick Tracy. I'm

like, yep. I want to flat top the rest of my

life because I love flat top. Okay, so Spider

-Man, the animated series, season one. It's just

so damn good, even after all this time. The animation

is very well done. The stories are just so...

You can tell that John Semper Jr. and his writing

team had... Amazing time and you know, like I

said when I talked to him he told me that you

know He basically grew up on the early spider

-man comics and you can tell that he This is

his love letter to spider -man. I've got a couple

of questions here On the on the like how does

the show stack up? And one of them is how does

the show compare to other shows within the same

franchise? Well, I already listed earlier so

we got We had spider -man 67 which I've never

I don't think I've ever seen Maybe one or two

episodes of spider -man 67. We got amazing friends.

We got Unlimited we got the MTV 2003 version

with Neil Patrick Harris as spider -man That

was 3d all kinds of wrong It was kind of they're

trying to capitalize on the first movie MTV tries

to capitalize on anything. Then we got Spectacular

Spider -Man and we got Ultimate Spider -Man is

the current series. For me personally, I have

not seen all of Spectacular Spider -Man. I know

I want to eventually, but the way that that had

been released on DVD, I'm hoping that seeing

is how Hulu now has a lot of the Marvel stuff

on there. I'm hoping they eventually get that

because they have This show was spectacular done

by Greg Weissman. Yes. And that explains it.

It's like, and now we figured out why it's having

such a tough time. It's apparently the the universe

says it out for Greg Weissman as far as cartoons

written by him. Well, plus it was a Cartoon Network

show. And as we all know, they're, you know,

they're Cartoon Nazis Cartoon Network. All right,

so we got this one. We got 67, his amazing friends,

unlimited, ultimate, spectacular, that's six.

Out of the six, how does this stack up to the

other five? Freak. Well, okay, of the ones I've

seen, I would stack it up. I would stack it up

as number one. Yep. I've seen little pieces of

ultimate Spider -Man, and hey, it's not a bad

show. Spectacular! Yeah, I mean, it's Greg Weissman.

He's good, you know really good I just kind of

wish he would have been able to finish all the

you know, all the stuff that he had planned 67

I did see it as a kid and I know I saw it as

a kid. That's that's all I know You know just

a blur amazing for spider -man and his amazing

friends and the spider -man cartoon from the

80s I mean, yeah, they're 80s. They're not bad.

They're just pure 80s. And although I got to

give Spider -Man and his amazing friends props

because that's how we got the X -Men. We also

had other Marvel characters show up. So, you

know, I give it a little thumbs up for that.

But, but yeah, this this would definitely be

like the top, like the number one slot. Yeah,

same for me. Alright, how would you say it stacks

up against shows in the same superhero genre?

So, Spider -Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk,

X -Men, Batman, Superman, Justice League, Batman

Beyond, that kind of stuff. Oh, Lord. That's...

Okay, now that starts to get a little tough.

If we keep it in the Marvel wheelhouse... Okay.

I put it at number two. X -Minute number one,

Spider -Man at number two. And then the other

three, it's kind of tough. I think it would probably

be fantastic for Hulk Iron Man. Ooh. See, for

me, the top five would be... Spider -man well

technically spidey and the x -men spider -man

and xtas would tie for number one because I love

them both for separate reasons But if I'm really

forced to put the five categories spider -man

number one x -men number two I Have to say iron

man number three Fantastic Four, number four,

and Hulk, number five. Hulk was just so horrible.

Well, I think first season was pretty good. Second

season, once they decided to make She -Hulk like

a sidekick, that's where it got lost. Yeah. That's

where they lost it. Yeah. Well, you know. Avengers

United they stand that don't even that's not

even in the same league that was just that's

about on par but it's what is on par as lunatics

I never saw that and there's a part of me that

is perfectly okay with that I can send you a

link and destroy your childhood. I don't think

I'll destroy my childhood at most. What'll happen

is I'll try to find somebody who worked on that,

just stare at the person and ask for explanations.

Can I do this again? Why? Why? Who asked for

this? Because I didn't ask for this. Did you

ask for this why'd you ask for this I didn't

ask they were trying to be edgier and they were

trying to go street and Don't just just my advice

is don't don't ever do that Yeah, don't ever

do that. Don't don't don't don't don't please

it's like if I'm if I'm in a meeting and somebody

goes But but can we go edgy I'd be like Please

tell me you just did not say that. Please don't

do that. I hate it when people say that. It's

like, no, no, we can't go edge. There's a comic

that I read all the time. It's called, it's by

Tom Zahler. It's called Long Distance. It's a

four issue mini -series comic story all wrapped

up into four issues. It's about this couple who

are in a long distance relationship and... The

guy that's in the relationship, Carter, he says

he works for his own ad agency kind of thing.

So he does ads, like print ads and that kind

of stuff. And he's a comic artist. So he's like,

yeah, the client sent all this stuff back. How

am I supposed to draw this six -year -old more

edgier? And I'm like, oh god. So the final question

we have on the ballot here is, which show? from

a previous decade, is this show most comparable

to? For Spider -Man the Animated Series, uh,

just on merits of being an action cartoon, I

would say it's comparable to Thundercats, Voltron,

He -Man, pretty much any of the action cartoons

of the 80s. What about you? Yeah, I mean, truth

be told, I would not... I would... not really

compare it to anything per se, but if you put

a gun to my head and said, make a comparison,

I'd say, okay, yeah, the stuff of the 80s. If

anything, just like with X -Men, the animated

series and Batman, just taking things and then

kicking it up a notch. Like, okay, we started

at this place, now it's gone up. Absolutely.

That's pretty much how I would put it. It's improving

on what came before. Yeah. Alright, so we gotta

give the season a rating on a scale of zero to

five stars. What would you rate season one? Season

one, I would say three and a half to four. Alright.

For me, I would have to say... Probably, yeah,

I'm probably right there with you. I'll go four.

I really did enjoy it once it got to the alien

costume stuff. I thought that was great. There

are certain things about it that I don't really

care for that I didn't really mention, but stuff

like the whole scorpion episode, that's one of

my least favorite episodes of season one. Just

cuz I know JJ's an ass and he's supposed to be

an ass But he's more of an ass in that episode

than almost the entire rest of the series. Yeah,

I can I don't know if any of the other cartoons

have done this but I would really love to see

somebody in a spider -man adaptation Doing like

an interpretation of this scene from early in

the spider -man comics where Jameson is alone

In his office like nobody's there and he actually

admits that his hatred is petty Yeah, he actually

has this moment of clarity where he's like, what

am I doing? Right. Um, I'm just you know, god

help me. I'm just being this hateful sob Is this

really what I want to do? Like it's this tiny

little moment where he's thinking about You know,

maybe this is maybe I'm wasting my time You know

this brief fleeting moment where you know, maybe

JJ will just stop being such a jerk, but it's

like nope Didn't last but you know, um, I kind

of wish we'd have something like that, you know

Yeah, I'm saying am I I'm getting too old for

this. Why am I spending my my time like this?

Yeah uh... for the when and where kind of stuff

uh... i don't think i could be wrong i don't

think disney has ever done this i know they do

this with x -men x -men has gotten a complete

series dvd set uh... it's not yet i don't think

spiderman is ever i think spiderman has gotten

like maybe a couple scott single he's yeah he's

done like one off dvds right now as of this recording

July 19th 2016 it is on Hulu Plus so if you guys

You know use streaming services if you use Hulu

Plus if you pay $11 .99 a month for ad free Hulu

You can watch all 65 episodes completely legal

And not have to find it through other Unmentionable

means so there's that We're gonna take a quick

break Come back to close the show and tell you

what's coming up next on Tooncast Beyond after

this. Okay Michael, if we're going to tackle

this podcast thing, we've got to do something

really special. It has to be cool. daily in audio

form and undetectable by radar, something that

screams summer. I know, let's do a Phineas and

Ferb review podcast. We'll call it the Podcast

Organization Without a Quillacronym or Pauka

for short. What do you think? I think if we're

not careful, Candice is going to bust us. You

can find Pauka on the GeekCast, Radio Network,

iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all of the other

methods you find podcasts. Okay then, carry on.

Found you, Spider, at last. We are back here

on Tooncast Beyond Episode 68. Final thoughts

on Spider -Man the animated series, sir? Well,

hey, it's definitely an animation classic, and

it needs like a proper multi -season DVD release.

Yep, you know get Christopher, you know get Christopher

Daniel Barnes at Asner, you know and anybody

you can do some commentary do some interviews,

you know heck call You know call up anybody who's

left alive who did the comics, you know and do

like a compare and contrast Yep, absolutely for

me. I I love season one But for me, it's really

the whole, I view the series as a whole most

of the time because all the stories are just

so interconnected after season one. But season

one's especially, I just absolutely love it.

It was the first time, actually it... I fell

in love with her a little bit more once the Black

Cat story happened, but I am sorry. Felicia Hardy,

Jennifer Hale as Felicia Hardy, oh my god. There

was, I mentioned earlier about John Semper Jr.'s

Indiegogo thing for his War of the Rocket Men

project, bringing back all the original casts

that are still around, and Jennifer Hale was

one of them. He did a YouTube ad, or a YouTube...

promo thing with black cat and harry osborne

so jennifer hale and uh... what's his night gary

i'm off uh... where gary walks in and she's gonna

she or she's talking about doing the black cat

voice in the sexy black cat voice and she actually

calls up stan lee we don't actually here stand

but she calls him up and and uh... you know Has

him come over move her couch or whatever else

and she at the end of the promo she says oh Thanks,

Dan. She kisses him and he faints she goes. Oh,

I guess the kiss was a little too much I'll have

to send you that so you can listen to it, but

it's just one of those things where oh Jennifer

Hale is Felicia Hardy the black cat that was

that was the epitome of of vocalization for me,

so Just absolutely love that. We will be doing

seasons 2 through 5 at some point. Spider! Thank

goodness. You're only stunned. Blast! He got

away! Because of you! What were you thinking?

You risked both our lives for this? I couldn't

let an innocent creature be destroyed. Don't

you care about anybody anymore? That's just the

problem. I don't think I do. Wait! I don't know

why you want to be a crime fighter, but take

my advice. In the end, you'll regret it big time!

I wish I could tell him why I want to be a crime

fighter. it's not just for me so yes folks uh

sexy black cat for me it's always been jennifer

hale it'll always be jennifer jennifer hale i

can't even talk at this point um uh just can't

hear it just can't oh the outtakes for this episode

are gonna be hilarious folks uh the podcast but

jennifer hale hale wake up There yeah, there

we go Jennifer Hale there we go enunciate there

we go as Felicia Cardi the black cat was the

first superhero female crush I really had at

the age of 14 and her sexy black cat voice was

just Absolutely amazing as you can tell by how

this podcast has kind of ended it always leaves

me tongue -tied the comic I was talking about

was the return of the black cat story, which

I forget the issue numbers of the amazing Spider

-Man run that that collects, but that's what

I was talking about. So if you want like another

really nice looking sexy black cat picture, there's

I can't remember the issue right off the top

of my head. I'd have to dig into my comic boxes

for this, but there is a 90s Spider -Man story

where the black cat kind of. helps helps spiderman

out but at the time she unveils her new costume

and she's kind of balancing on the parker's couch

you know has it tilted over a bit and she's showing

how well the costume helps her balance and that's

that opening splash page is just like hi yeah

hi there it's like boring hello hello kitty cat

yes purr for us please Um... So, thank you for

joining us here on Tooncast... Tooncast Beyond.

No, this is not Tooncast Classic. Tooncast Classic

has been dead for five years. Tooncast Beyond,

there are several ways to get in contact with

us. We'll leave feedback for the show. Visit

the website, theallnewgeekcastradio .com. Stop

on by and check out our all -new format of our

main page and all the cool stuff our new theme

affords us. Be sure to leave the show's feedback

in iTunes. Please do this. Follow us on Twitter,

at Tooncast Beyond is the show Twitter you can

follow. Well, it's supposed to be pronounced

White Balloon King, but it's spelled W -H -T

-B -L -L -N -K -I -N -G. Because Twitter limits

the amount of letters you can use in your ID.

Darn it. Yeah, they do. Darn it. You'd think

that they'd be, you know, they've been around

for, what, eight years now? Nine years now? You'd

think that they'd... Stop doing that, but anyway.

Become a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook .com

slash GeekCast or Radio Network. Call the voicemail

line. Tell us the show you're leaving the message

for and your name. There is a five minute time

limit you can call. 502 -526 -5821. Yep, Jennifer

Hale. You can call him at any time. Thankfully

I have my own Jennifer for that now. Oh, there

you go. I have a Trish, so you have Black Cat,

I have Hellcat. Oh, what a combination. So what

have you got coming up? Anything you want to

pimp out? You know, actually, yeah, there are

things I want to pimp out, but I'm kind of under

a gag order, but I do have stuff coming up. Cool.

I just finished a run on stage for a version

of Macbeth called Maxbeth, which was the classic

Shakespearean Scottish play but set in Mad Max

times We we killed it. I mean we had full crowds.

Everybody seemed to love it I gotta be honest

ever since we stopped there weekends where I'm

like, I want to be on stage again Yeah, I can

imagine that sounds awesome We hope you enjoyed

this episode of to cast beyond. I wish you'll

join us next time. I don't be giving you our

thoughts In episode 69, TV's Mr. Neil is going

to join me for Striperella the series. Because

it only hit one season. You did that on purpose.

Well, okay, so Tooncast Classic, the original

Tooncast Classic podcast, episode 69 was Johnny

Bravo, so I had to find some way to get a female

version of a 69 in here. And of course I did

that on purpose. And of course now I'm gonna

get a bunch of iTunes reviews saying that we're

sexist. Ugh, god. iTunes people. Anyway, so yeah.

Stripperella, the series, because it only had

one season. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with...

Eduardo and Friar. Thank you for listening. Until

next time. Keep swinging on those webs, folks.

And maybe more. Catch you later, Spider.