An appreciation: The late Paul Soles’ voice was part of the experience…
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UPDATED 6/2/21: Voice actor Paul Soles died May 26 at the age of 90. His work was central to the appeal of the 1967-70 Spider-Man cartoon and to this day, when I pick up an old Spidey comic, it’s Soles’ voice that I hear when I read the web-slinger’s words and thoughts — whether he’s in costume or not. Seems like a good time to re-present this piece, which first ran on the show’s 50th anniversary in 2017. Dig it. — Dan
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Batman may be my favorite superhero but if push came to shove, I think I’d have to say that the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon is my favorite animated series of all time.
Not the best, mind you. That honor would go to Justice League Unlimited. But no show, not even Filmation Batman, presses my nostalgia buttons quite like the often slipshod, sometimes maddening Spidey cartoons produced by Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films from 1967 to 1970.
Spider-Man premiered on ABC-TV on Sept. 9, 1967 — so the show is celebrating its 50th anniversary. My initial inclination was to post a Top 13 episodes list but as I started putting one together, I realized it wasn’t something I was capable of doing. Part of the reason, as I’ll explain further below, is that there are episodes I haven’t seen in years or perhaps ever, and I wasn’t really eager to binge-watch them. But more importantly, the overall experience of watching the show for me supersedes any specific installment, though I definitely have my favorites.
It’s that experience that I want to celebrate here with 13 GREAT THINGS ABOUT THE 1967 SPIDER-MAN CARTOON:
1. To this day, Spider-Man ’67 is my prime Spider-Man, my favorite above all others, whether it be movies, comics, you name it. I know this makes me weird but it happens to be the case so I can’t apologize for it. Much of that has to do with it being my first Spidey and the one that most influenced my love of him when I was a kid. (I had more Spider-Man toys than any hero save Batman.)
I only had a relatively small stack of Spider-Man comics (circa 1973-4 or so) but the cartoon was one of those things I lived for.
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2. I used to watch it on Channel 5 after school in New York but it often proved elusive: In those pre-VCR days, sometimes it would air in that half-hour before school ended so I’d just miss it, to my frustration. (Though “sick” days came in handy!) Other times it was off the schedule completely and I’d have to try to find it on a UHF station and squint through the snow, catching only the ghostly image of Spidey swinging through the city. Other than Bugs Bunny, no other cartoon loomed as large for me, for as many years as Spider-Man did.
Look at that choice at 5 p.m. Bastards. (H/T Garage Sale Finds)
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3. That theme song is great, sure. But you know what’s better? The incidental music, which is TREMENDOUS. Across all the seasons, it’s a mix of snippets by a bunch of composers, including Ray Ellis, Syd Dale, Kenny Graham, David Lindup, Alan Hawkshaw, Johnny Hawksworth, Johnny Pearson and I’m guessing others. Many of the cuts were engineered for generic TV use. Sadly, there’s no soundtrack available but I’ve been able to make my own extensive playlist by hunting around the web. (Google it.) A good number of the tracks can be found on iTunes if you search the KPM music library. This video is a wonderful collection:
4. Overall, I prefer the lighter, earlier episodes featuring Spidey’s comic-book villains. They’re closer to the source material, obviously, with a number of them based on the comics, as I found out years after I first watched them. I’m also of the mind that their shorter run times really help these episodes move.
5. Because, my lord did they pad episodes with Spidey swinging … and swinging … and swinging … and sometimes even more swinging. So many of those snippets are awesome. But, y’know, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing…
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6. That said, I think my favorite episode is Menace From the Bottom of the World, one of the Season 2 episodes that bear little resemblance to the “real” Spider-Man. Manhattan buildings have been dropping out of sight and Spidey investigates. He enters a subterranean world of hungry, flying creatures; acid-trip caves; and a cubist compound populated by blue giants and loose-limbed ape people. Turns out, said ape people are being duped by a human disguised as one of them. He’s finally unmasked as an average crook. For reasons that go unremarked upon, he has green skin. The episode zips from exciting to creepy to hilarious and it’s all aided by the, ahem, note-perfect musical cue choices and psychedelic color palette.
Menace From the Bottom of the World (H/T SpiderFan.org for this and other frame grabs)
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7. Speaking of strange bits of character “casting,” why did Mysterio look like Mr. Spock when he tooks his helmet off in Season 1’s awesome The Menace of Mysterio?
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8. Of all the Season 1 villain episodes, I think I dig Where Crawls the Lizard the most, though anything with Green Goblin and Electro are in there too. And of course the multi-villain extravaganza To Catch a Spider is fantastic. I also dig The Spider and the Fly. Love the outfits on the twins.
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9. You should check out J.J. Sedelmaier’s piece on where Spidey’s animation fits into cartoon history. (Click here.) Of course, the most famous animator to work on the show was Ralph Bakshi, who’s chiefly credited with bringing that ominously offbeat feel to the show after Season 1. The Origin of Spider-Man, the first Season 2 episode, acts as a sort of reboot of the series. It’s a note-for-note adaptation of the most recent comics version. But there’s more to it, because Bakshi and co. utilize that signature unsettling style.
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10. Which leads us to the infamous Revolt in the Fifth Dimension, the Spidey cartoon so unhinged that ABC wouldn’t run it. I’m guessing you know how the episode was basically a repurposed Rocket Robin Hood episode with Spider-Man dropped into it. Well, it definitely lives up to its bizarre reputation — and I really dig it. But I think I Phantom From the Depths of Time was even more discomforting, with its gigantic robot beetles. Come to think of it, that was also a Rocket Robin Ripoff. Hmm, maybe I oughta track down that series. I’ve never seen it.
Revolt in the Fifth Dimension
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11. When I read a Batman comic from the ’60s, I hear Olan Soule’s voice. When I read a Batman comic now, I hear a combination of Kevin Conroy, Christian Bale and, well, myself. When I read a Spider-Man comic, it’s Paul Soles all the way. And as much as I love J.K. Simmons, nobody has done J. Jonah Jameson’s voice better than Paul Kligman.
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12. I missed Peter’s personal life on this show. We got the Bugle all the time and we’d see Pete at school or with friends, but I really would have loved for Gwen, M.J. (especially) and Harry to be recurring characters. We got some Aunt May — just enough for my liking.
13. Can someone please give me a rational explanation for why I sit here, writing this on the show’s 50th anniversary, that there’s no commemorative Blu-ray set? This show, which remains so memorable that filmmakers still use its theme in the movies, deserves that comprehensive treatment. Still, I’m awfully glad I grabbed the DVD set when I had the chance in 2004. It’s great not having to rely on those Channel 5 programmers anymore. Because getting to watch Spider-Man whenever I want is one of those 21st century joys that take me back to the 20th.
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MORE
— Dig the SPIDER-MAN ’67 Cartoon Action Figures That Never Were. Click here.
— The ’67 SPIDER-MAN Cartoon Has More Going For It Than You Think. Click here.
September 9, 2017
Memories of youth that will never go away.
May 27, 2018
Reading all these enthusiastic points has made me want to watch it all too (I grew up watching it the 70s just as you did). An SE Blu-ray is a great idea, I’d get that!
May 28, 2018
Glad to be of service, Paul!
September 9, 2017
Just curious when Spider-Man is swinging in the city what is he swinging from as he is above the buildings.
September 10, 2017
Sky hooks.
September 10, 2017
That is one hell of an afternoon lineup in that TV Guide, Dan! It included almost every great kids show made up to that time.
I only started reading Marvel Comics a month before the Spider-Man show premiered but I had already accumulated a pretty healthy collection for an 8 year old. Spidey and Daredevil were my favorite characters but I also had some Fantastic Four, Avengers and Tales of Suspense.
I remember that I woke up an hour before Hanna Barbera’s FF show premiered so I read DD #s 30-32 to kill the time. I enjoyed the FF show immensely but I couldn’t wait for Spidey immediately after it. Sadly, the first thing I noticed when the theme song began was the lack of webbing on the body of Spidey’s costume. I was so disappointed they did a half-assed job on his costume that I couldn’t get past it to fully enjoy the show.
I still watched every first season episode (I couldn’t handle the psychedelic second season), and I now have the DVD set, but I will forever be bothered by that webless costume.
September 10, 2017
‘To him, life is a great big bang up, wherever there’s a hang up, you’ll find the Spidermaaan’. Just the greatest comic TV animation show theme ever. Enjoyed your musings, thank you Dan Greenfield although for me, the clumsy, awkward, but Jack Kirby- saturated Cap, Thor, and HULK cartoons will always be my first love. They were just so… earnest, and followed the original comic book story line ( and so a new way to relive and celebrate the comic one had already read) and were a new way to communally enjoy. It was as if show business had stepped in to acknowledge what we already knew, that these Marvel comic things were.. special. All hail Spidey, the villains, the music, the art direction and the ideas behind it. Most of all, that theme song. Face Front!
September 10, 2017
BTW, a band called Volume – The Amazing Spider-Band did a note-perfect recording of the music from this show, getting some advice from Ray Ellis along the way. If you can find that CD, it’s well worth buying. I’ve got one and it remains my favorite Spider-Man music, regardless of several other composers’ efforts to usurp the position over the years.
September 19, 2017
Ray Ellis was so talented. His music for the Star Trek animated series was also great too! Thanks for sharing the tip. I’m going to look for the CD.
September 13, 2017
I have the 2004 release and I think it looks great. I can’t imagine that it would look that much better in Blu-Ray.
October 30, 2017
Great article. I was born in 93 so I didn’t have the pleasure of watching the show as it was newly airing.
I would watch the show as a kid when it aired on Teletoon here in Canada. It’d air in the evenings and again in the middle of the night. I loved the iconic theme song, the basic plots, Paul Soles voice and the 60’s feel-and-look.
I too am hoping for a Blu-Ray release, or for it to be at least put up on Netflix.
I also believe Paul Soles is the only canadian to portray Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
September 12, 2018
I guess the Canadian voice actors are part of the reason this show was always on T.V. in Canada. I was born in 1965 and for the first 40 years or so of my life I can’t remember a time that it wasn’t on at some point. I think it seemed to vanish from the airwaves in the early 90’s and I missed it’s comforting sounds dearly. Thank God it came out on DVD. I do miss the the bridge sequences though, “thrills, chills, and pills,” etc.
October 31, 2017
TILL THIS VERY DAY-I LOVE THAT CARTOON-I DOWNLOADED EVERY EPSIODE THEY HAD ON YOU TUBE TO PUT ON MY HARD DRIVE-ALTHOUGH I DO HAVE THE 2004 DVD RELEASE-WHEN I TRAVEL-I STILL LIKE TO SIT BACK AND WATCH THOSE CLASSIC EPISODES-PAUL SOLES WILL ALWAYS BE MY FAVORITE SPIDER-MAN VOICE-IF U LOOK AT THE MOVIE-“THE INCREDIBLE HULK”,LOOK VERY CLSOELY AND PUAL SOLES MAKES A SPECIAL APPEARNCE AS THE RESTURANT OWNER WHO GIVES BRUCE A PLACE TO HIDE OUT IN THE BEGIINING OF THE FILM ONCE HE RETURNS BACK TO THE U.S.LONG LIVE THE 1967 SPIDERMAN CARTOON.AND YES THE BACKGROUND MUSIC WAS ALWAYS JUST FUNKY!!!!!
October 31, 2017
Awesome article. I was born in 1962 so these were my first introduction to Spider-Man. I started reading the comics soon after. The thing that was disappointing about the DVD set was the missing “scenes from next week” that used to end every show. Also, they are missing the clips of Spidey crawling on his web during the mid-point commercial breaks. Hopefully a blu-ray release would include them.
August 12, 2018
Bet you realize by now, MJ DOES get an episode! And whallopin’ web-snappers, it’s an adaptation of a true ASM storyline, with the Kingpin’s Brainwashing.
The padding you mention makes binge-watching nearly unthinkable, but the music, the music- oh! I’m crazy for Johnny Pearson’s “Powerdrive”- I like that piece that originated in the Marvel Superheroes cartoons, too. “The Eyelash”- as found in the 2nd season ep. 2 car chase- is a real killer, too, along with “Latin Beat” and Syd Dale’s awesome “Rescue Squad.” It seems a lot of these tunes are influenced by George Russell’s Space Jazz album from ’58. Anyway- this has been my kick two weekends in a row. Take care, stay swingin’- Lue Lyron
September 12, 2018
One of my All Time fav cartoons.. I share many of your sentiments on it. I also heard Paul Soles’ voice whenever I read the comics. Also had the best soundtrack of Any cartoon ever. I still vividly recall and occasionally hum some of the music. Thanks for sharing this!
September 12, 2018
As for the music there is a soundtrack on Trunk Records: http://trunkrecords.com/turntable/spiderJazz.shtml
February 3, 2019
Hey Dan, I just found a soundtrack of Spidey’s music from 1967. It’s called Spider-Jazz. It’s only on LP and I’ve only seen it on Amazon. Have fun!
January 22, 2020
One of my top 10 tv shows of all time
October 8, 2020
Outstanding commentary…born in ’71, and this was a staple cartoon as far back as I can remember. Excellent storytelling! Love the TV Guide exerpt as well, it’s amazing how that brought back an instand flood of memories (the channel icons, the descriptions, the show type). Thank you for posting this.
-Andrew
October 10, 2022
I was born in 72 and truly miss those days. As well as Marvel Superheroes. I loved the “limited” animation, lol!
July 14, 2023
I loved 11db11’s capture of the music from the first year of the show. Finding original masters may be like the holy grail, and this collection remedied a huge hole for me. . After several listens, I found the need to edit a 32 minute jazz suite out of the 68 minutes of audio. I also reduced the amount of dialog (you may notiee where I cut a couple bars or a chorus here or there>) I’ve also done some audio-restoration– some multi-band compression and some EQ for a more natural sonic profile. (For my ears)
I cut a video to go with it, but the current owner is not letting clips go onto youtube without a fight, so I ended up having to use a kaleidoscope filter to make it unrecognizable.
Feel free to check it out if you are interested. No harm, no foul if you are not.