The Amazing Spider-Man Live Action Series 1977
Spider-Man
was one of a number of Marvel characters optioned for television in the 1970s,
the other being the Hulk, Dr. Strange, the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner.
Worries over children trying to emulate their hero kiboshed the Torch series
(but ironically his optioning also meant he was missed out of the 1978
Fantastic Four cartoon); the arrival of the
overly similar Man from Atlantis killed
the Namor series; Dr.Strange only made it to a pilot. Of all of the characters,
only the Hulk achieved a long running series. Spider-Man, played by Nicholas
Hammond, made it to the screens but only lasted two very short seasons totalling
14 episodes overall. It wasn't helped by the total lack of credible threats
to face the superpowered hero.
It's noteworthy that a TV movie crossover was planned between this incarnation of Spider-Man and the Bill Bixby / Lou Ferrigno Hulk; though Universal Studios cancelled the project, it nevertheless suggests the series could be considered to take place within a single universe, and there's certainly nothing that prohibits this. However, for the moment at least, Marvel officially considers this a different reality, and the Official Marvel Handbook designates as Earth-730911 (compared to the Hulk series being Earth-400005 and the regular Marvel comics reality being Earth-616).
New characters
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Mandak |
Dr.Moon |
Rita Conway |
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So which mainstream Marvel characters have counterparts in this reality?
Lead characters: Spider-Man
Supporting cast, etc: J.Jonah Jameson; Aunt May Parker
Fellow heroes: None (but see comments above)
Villains: None
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