What Was the Weirdest TV Show From Your Childhood? The Spider-Man Trailer Just Reminded Me of a Couple of Mine.
The second trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming was recently released. Seeing the new costume made me think back to all of the other live action versions of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
I immediately thought of this...
I clearly didn't notice this as a kid.... but why is his crotch discolored?
Because I am a child of the 70s and a huge Spidey fan, Tom Holland is the 6th actor I have seen don the red and blue tights.
I am old enough to have seen each of these first run.
That's right, there have been 5 previous live action Spider-Man projects. Three of these from the 1970s are pretty obscure.
One, The Amazing Spider-Man, is simply typically bad 1970s television...
I watched this show every week... because we only had 4 channels.
But the other two are completely hilarious and amazing (if you are in the right frame of mind).
The first live-action Spider-Man actually appeared on a PBS show called The Electric Company. This show was intended to be the next step up from Sesame Street. A puppeteer named Danny Seagren played Spider-Man but never spoke. The Spidey Super Stories were shot like live frames from a comic book. Instead of the characters speaking, the show used word bubbles to trick kids into reading. It definitely worked on me.
I am 45 years old. Before today, I had not seen these shows in approximately 40 years... and yet they left such an impression on me that I had a vague recollection of several villains and plots from this show.
One involved a "villain" called "The Yeti". As far as I could remember, this dastard ruined people's day by sitting on their ice-cream in order to cool off. I wish I were kidding... but I am not. (After watching the video, I confirmed my recollection)
By the way, can you name the EXTREMELY famous actor who appears in this clip?
I must admit that I did not remember the following episode, but I stumbled upon it while searching for other videos. In the following episode, Spider-Man fights a villain called "The Sack". Do you know what the villain is? You guessed it, a giant paper bag.
I cannot believe I tuned into The Electric Company every day in hopes of catching one of the 29 "episodes" of this show. The world was truly a much different place before cable television.
The second was a very unique Japanese version of Spider-Man. From 1978-1979 a Japanese company called Toei signed a deal with Marvel that allowed each company to use the other's intellectual property. The result was a Japanese Spider-Man who shared little more than the costume design with his American counterpart. In this version, a young motorcycle racer witnesses a spaceship crash. The racer finds the last survivor from the planet Spider who gives the man his super powers. In his quest to defeat Professor Monster, this Spider-Man gets to use a spaceship which transforms into a giant robot (didn't everything in 1970s Japanese entertainment?)
It was incredibly wise of the producers to provide the captions for "Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow!" otherwise I would have been totally lost!
"Why do you, why do you... turn into a giant robot?" (Because it was the 1970s and robot transformation was a requirement for every kids show from Japan.)
Yeah this show was nuts.
I'm not sure if I should apologize or say "you're welcome" for exposing you to that.
What is the strangest show you remember from your childhood?
As a reward for making it to the end of this post, here is the new Spider-Man:Homecoming trailer.
The weirdest thing was when Gomer Pyle became an android.
The Lost Saucer - 894X2RY713, I Love You (Pilot) - Sid and Marty Krofft
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwJlmdgIxyg
Wow. Just wow. I had never even heard of this. The theme alone is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. The effects. The laugh track. The Jim Neighbors!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I think Sid and Marty Krofft were out of their minds on acid. There were others.
Since you liked this one so much, I'll venture another.
It's Gilligan (Bob Denver) in space.
Far Out Space Nuts - Episode 2 - The Crystallites - Sid and Marty Krofft
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSpvmdwj1Z0
Oh yeah. On something for sure. No one in a natural state comes up with this. No one.
I had no memory of Morgan Freeman being on the Electric Company.
He also played a character called "easy Reader". He was actually a regular.
Oh, thinking about this is too fun! Here's one (it featured a series of shorts if you've never seen it, and you can pretty much take your pick from them for weirdness lol :
Alright another new one! I had not heard of this one. Here's the video I checked out. Oh man those are some creepy puppets!
Oh God!! I forgot about this, lol! There were so many shorts...the one that sticks out in my mind has to do with a dog and this white bar treat that I thought looked like something delicious, haha!
here's my childhood tv show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(TV_series).
not mentioning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Rin_Tin_Tin and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorro_(1957_TV_series)
I don't know if that UFO show made it to America. It looks like I would have loved it as a kid. I used to watch Rin Tin Tin reruns. I think on Sunday morning at my grandma's for some reason. Oh and Zoro too. I think Zoro and Buck Rodgers reruns would come on back to back. I loved it! Thanks.
Morgan freeman and I remember the electric company
I was thinking about Land of the Lost. I remember dad then an uncle.
@hanshotfirst, thank you for the trip my friend
Oh yeah! Maybe Chaka is that Yeti's child.
Anddd another:
This one I recognized right away. Snorks! I was too old for this one but remember it as one of the Smurfs ripoffs.
I didn't watch a lot of TV in the 80s, but this was weird.
Oh yeah. That is WEIRD! Super creepy! The green bird... I can't unseen that.
Thank you! This is exactly what I was hoping for.
Wow! I'm just realizing why I thought the re-runs of Red Dwarf looked so familiar on Netflix! It's from Zoobilee Zoo. Go figure!