Firestar predates Harley Quinn as the only character to ever be made for a comic book cartoon first, before being written into regular comic continuity later
Firestar predates Harley Quinn as appearing on a comic based cartoon before being introduced in an actual comic, but Black Mantis predates Firestar in that respect as well. He first appeared in one of the Aquaman cartoon shorts ,before being introduced in the comics.
"Tony Stark set them up with their James Bond-style headquarters." Hmm, sounds a lot like how MCU Peter and Tony get along in Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
yes. me too. we burned as many as we could around 10 years ago before the copy guards came to satellite. we had around 4 discs. I couldn't believe that was it.
I loved this cartoon as a kid. It was a bug reason as to why spiderman was, and to this day remains, one of my favorite superheroes. Also, my crush on Firestar definitely influenced my love of redheads! 😊
Great video. Used to watch Spider-Man and his Amazing friends all the time as a kid back in the 80's. This was a FUN cartoon that I pretty much looked forward to on Saturday Mornings.
I'm pretty sure MJ was used as a model for Angelica. Bobby Drake's brown-haired in the comics, but they gave him blonde hair in the cartoon to differentiate him from Peter Parker. If they were able to go with the Spidey / Iceman / Torch line-up, who knows what they'd have done, since Johnny Storm's blonde and all...
The series is awesome with the show having 3 main superheroes! What made it even more exciting for me as a kid is when they would include different superheroes in some of the episodes such as Iron man, Dr Strange, and the Chameleon.
Here's the thing. You can't watch this show with the same preordained mind after watching newer incarnations. If you're late to the party. In order to enjoy this, you have to be receptive to its charm and silliness. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends was created during an era with different standards and narrative than what we have now. Take it for what it is.
This one of my favorites growing up as a child of the 80's, its also the first time I had heard Stan Lee's voice. . . . . it made me a True believer . . . Thanks for the memories Stan . . EXCELSIOR!
9:10 "Along Came Spidey". S2E2. I remember that cartoon made me openly weep. I remember, at eight years old, having never felt such a combination of vindication and guilt as when Peter realizes that the same thug he's caught is the same thug he let slip past him. Incidentally, many years later, while playing Marvel RPG (tabletop), my character encountered The Shocker, who was rampaging thru NY. After my character poked fun at his name, Shocker's anger got the best of him; it didn't end well, since this character (who had energy-based powers) wound up microwaving Shocker inside his own suit.
I'm sure this had an animated Stan Lee do a monologue at the end (might have been the beginning) of each episode. For me, that's where I know Stan Lee from. When I first saw his cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy, I was like "Hey! It's Stan Lee! I don't think I'd even seen his real face, just his animated one from Amazing Friends, yet I still recognised him!! RIP Stan. :(
Yeah right on Welker is a badass in his own right... But you know that when I read a spidey comic its always this Spider-Mans voice that plays in my mind...
Some ppl critisize him in SM&HAF for simply dubbing his Fred voice in SCOOBY DOOBY DOO. But I think there are pointed diff's. At worst, Bobby's voice is a more evolved Fred's voice.
When I was a child, I thought Gremlins was the scariest movie ever made (back then I didn't understand all the zany comedy in it. I think it's good, now that I'm an adult). I'd get scared every time the movie was on television or I'd see images and toys of Stripe. Imagine my shock when I found out that the Gremlin I'd been so terrified of for all those years was also...Ice Man...and Baby Kermit from the Muppet Babies! Frank Welker, baby!
Bro nice VF-1J in the display case! :O) STILL LOVE THIS SPIDERMAN CARTOON. Takes me back to shag carpets, Ice Cream cones cereal, and my Trouble bubble with Major Blood on saturday mornings.
This show was awesome...you had to be there, back in the 80's this was all we had and it may seem a little lame compared to today's standards, but they had great team ups...it was like which hero is the Spidey Friends gonna team up with next, I still remember that was the talk of school Monday mornings. By 1981 I was already into comic books and this was a great treat, My Saturday mornings were not complete until I saw Spiderman and his amazing friends, the X-men episode against the Juggernaut was sum of the best Saturday morning TV EVER!!! (don't forget the HULK cartoon came on right after this)
There were two temporary adaptations of the spider-friends in the ultimate comics. Liz Allen was Firestar though and the Human Torch actually made it onto the team. To bad it was cut short by Peter's death. What always bothered me about it was that Kitty Pryde was around but never actually on the team.
@Impossible Pie...yes, u are so right SAVED BY THE BELL was the beginning of the end. That and cable TV, what was the point of Saturday morning cartoons when you had a whole network dedicated to cartoons...everyday was saturday morning if you wanted it to be.
It used to piss me off when one of my sisters would throw a fit when I was watching this when she wanted to watch smurfs. I hated those little blue things.
@@OliveOyl12590 Each area in the USA was different in the 80's. Where I lived there was only one station that had cartoons on saturday, one had news, and another had soaps. Local programming was based on what local stations bought to air, and it was different everywhere. When FOX first went on air they dominated the cartoon line up in my area so much that the other stations like ABC, NBC, and CBS all dropped their cartoon line up because the local FOX bought all cartoons. Some people had macross/robotech and other places never saw it. Channel programming was a wild west back then.
OliveOyl12590 I was about to say the same thing!😕 In fact, where I lived, the eastern-midwest (the last of the mid-west going east), I believe the SMURFS followed SM&HAF. Obtw, we didn't get the solo, 1981 SPIDER-MAN.
I was the perfect age when this came out in 1981, 7th grade. I have to admit that VideoMan was actually a favorite of mine as his was a two part cartoon, a very rare thing in the early 80's. Also, it did come out only 9 months before the release of TRON, which had been in development at Disney for over a year by that point. Your analysis is exactly right, it was one of the first and probably best transitional cartoon from the 1980s.
One of my all time favorites as a kid...it still makes me think of scrambled eggs and toast, which is what my mom would cook for me on saturday mornings to eat while watching the show. Also, Firestar was one of my first childhood crushes...could you blame me with shots like the one at 5:33?
I loved this cartoon as a kid! I didn't read comic books so this was the major well from where I got my Marvel comics knowledge back in the day. Like Superfriends was for DC. I also loved Superfriends, but watching the 2 series now, Spidey and his Amazing Friends seems to hold up a bit better, it's more watchable, maybe Challenge of the Superfriends or Galactic Guardians is on par with it. Also fun to note: the party "rock and roll" music used in Amazing Friends was also used in Transformers as generic rock music (played by Jazz mostly) until they started playing Cold Slither. And the first Halloween I remember, I was 4 years old and my mom dressed me up as The Incredible Hulk.
There's a MIDI version of the song Drawkcabi mentions on this page: www.angelfire.com/music2/TFMidis/TFMusic.html. It's the first song listed called "Blaster's Jam".
Drawkcabi Yup! That "rock and roll" generic music was the first thing I noticed in Transformers. I was like.."hey, they copied the Spider-Man show!" My older brother just rolled his eyes and told me to shut up. Again....good times.
Thanks for making this. I used to watch a Spider-Man cartoon as a kid, but I couldn't remember which version it was. Whenever I looked for it I could only find the 60s version; now I know that it was this one. It was amazing to watch the clips in your video because they brought some very vague memories back to the surface. I had no conscious memory of the horror episode, but seeing this brought it all back.
Um, Spidey was dark in the 60's and 70's. We had Harry Osborne doing drugs and dying from them in the 70's, Gwen's death and Norman Osborne getting impaled by his own glider, Parker wanting to give up being Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man Issue 50 Spider-Man no more. The 90's cartoon was amazing, way better than this one. But to each their own. But to say comic books weren't always dark espeically the Spidey Books is just plain wrong, I'm sorry.
I LOVED this show when I was a kid. It was a Saturday morning staple for me. I was 8 when it first came on, and at the time the only comic books I read were the Marvel Star Wars books. This series, along with Superfriends, get me to pick up a superhero comic and the rest is history. Still collecting today!
Very informative. I grew up in the 70s so the 67 Spiderman was my one and only Spiderman cartoon. Spiderman and his friends looks like fun. I'd heard of this cartoon but had no idea so many marvel villains appeared. I might purchase the UK version of the dvd, I've got a few UK versions of US Dvds recently.
miss lion was not Aunt May's dog, in the episode called "The Origin of spiderman and his amazing friends" miss lion belonged to Firestar, it's how Spiderman figured out her ID
Still need to see this show. My sister showed my then 4 year old nephew an episode of Amazing Friends and decided not to show any more because at his age he still found it quite scary. Great video Mike!
I used to get up extra early on Saturday mornings to make sure I wouldn’t miss watching Spiderman and his Amazing Friends back when the show was new! Spiderman has always been my favorite Superhero since I was an extremely young child! Having a cartoon series where Spiderman teamed up with Xmen characters like Iceman and Firestar was better to me than DC’s Super Friends! I absolutely adored this cartoon! There were so many cameo Marvel characters and villains that showed up during the course of the show! This cartoon helped solidify me becoming a life long Marvel fanboy! When Toys R Us released their exclusive Spider Friends 3 pack action figure set, I made sure to pick that one up! If only Mattel had released those three action figures back when the show was new, I would’ve been the happiest of campers! At least now I can revel in the fact that I have the Spider Friends in my collection! I just loved Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and I find myself watching it every so often!
I was lucky enough to get a High quality copy of the series from Comic-Con earlier this year! I still remember watching this every Saturday morning on KYW channel 3 here in Philadelphia.
This may sound weird, but Iso LOVED the voice of Dr. Doom from that one episode that I always used that voice whenever I read a comic with him in it. It was totally what Doom should sound like to me (but I also like the voice of Dr. Doom from Hanna Barbera’s Fantastic Four). When they do the voice of Dr. Doom in the movies, I’m a bit disappointed by it because they don’t give Doom the same type of voice like from the Amazing Friends episode. That to me just sounds more regal and “above human”, which Doom...as the ultimate villain...is. Maybe what I said may sound corny to anyone reading this, but that’s how I saw the world of superheroes and comics in my head.
I loved this show. As for toy tie ind in the 1970's. I did have a Spider-Man web shooter. It was a wrist mounted dart gun. With a string ties to the suction cup dart. It shot at most 10 to 15 feet.
Aw man, THANK YOU for reminding me of this one. I remember seeing a few episodes but I think at that time, especially with team up shows, I thought it was too corny for me. But I do remember that Doctor Doom episode and I thought it was awesome. He was crafty, quite unlike most TV villains back then. Also, thanks for explaining how Peter was able to afford their awesome superhero hangout. And I agree, this was an underrated show like the Spider-Woman cartoon. I'll be waiting for that feature as well. ;)
The original Secret Wars action figure line was one of my favorite toys during the time when Spiderman and his Amazing Friends was on the air. Does anyone know how much these figures are going for now? I’m still missing several and I think I’m finally going to finish collecting the rest of the set.
Fantastic tribute. One of my childhood favorites. I missed a lot of episodes back then because I had soccer games Saturday mornings. As to why Doom is in the credits, he may not appear much in this series, but in the concurrent solo Spider-man series he was the lead villain, appearing in 5 episodes over which his scheme slowly builds. I think that is the first U.S. cartoon I can think of that had that kind of multi-episode story arc.
One of my favorite shows ever, I waited each week for it (and would get bummed out if I missed the cool opening music). It was fun getting to piece together what this Earth's hero/villain situation was. And even not having watched it regulalrly in forever, it still has its lasting effect; before this, Nicholas Hammond's voice was what I heard when reading Spidey's comics. This one from then on (though the 90's show briefly superceded it). Ice Man of course is always going to be Frank Welker. PS: "Memory Forensics", nice phrase. Seeing this I realize that the majority of my memories are able to be honed in within two or three months of the date based on the comics I bought (which are usually vivid recall, sometimes more than the story in it itself) or closer if based on the Saturday morning cartoon.
You HAD to be seated in front of the TV five minutes before the show started and WAITED for the theme music! No UA-cam back then. That was half the thrill right there!
One of my earliest SuperHero memories. It must have been when it was airing, but not first run as it would have been on AFN when I lived in Germany as a kid. So, it holds a special place in my heart. Also, The Hulk (cartoon and Bill Bixby), Electric Comany, Super Friends, Linda Carter's WW, Plastic Man, etc, etc
I so remember this show on Saturday morning! I saw most of the episodes, and remembered really enjoying it with me cereal lol. I actually loved Iceman's super power ! Great video retroblasting!
I remember seeing that episode with the swastikas being rerun on UPN during the 90s (when they also had a new Hulk cartoon) and being very surprised that they were allowed to show that.
At the Chicago Comic Con in 1986, Stan Lee was the featured guest. He spent a hour on "Spider Man and his Amazing Friends". And he hated it, at first. He thought Spidey should have been a solo hero, a loner. Teaming with Iceman and Firestar were NBC mandates. But the more he was allowed to play with the concept, he grew to love the show. Ms. Lion was based on Stan's and his AMAZING wife (his words at the panel) late dog. The panel was two and a half hours long. And I was a DC fan at the time. The man COMMANDED every ones attention in that room. He left us hanging with every word. I didn't really become a Marvel fan after that, but I had great respect for him.
Firestar appears in xmen comics so I'm not so sure they created her just for the tv series. It's possible the Marvel people thought that Firestar would make a good substitute since they couldn't use Human Torch.
The first time I saw this, it was leading up to Spider-Man 2 coming out. To promote the film I think it was ABC Family had a week long marathon of every Spider-Man show from the 60's one up to Spider-Man Unlimited. As a huge Spidey fan growing up, it was a great time to be alive. Thanks for reminding me of this piece of Nostalgia!
Wow. we've had them released on dvd over here in England since 2008. You didnt mention how marvel had since made firestar a marvel comics character back in 1985 uncanny x-men #193. I didnt realise the cartoon version was first but I knew she was never an x-man at the time. I think she has been since though.....not sure which X book.
This was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon right along with The Incredible Hulk. I used to wake up early on Saturdays just to make sure I didn't miss a thing. Each of the major networks had their own line up of cartoons, there was Garfield, The Smurfs, The Littles, and a bunch of others I can't remember at the moment. In the late eighties the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took over Saturday mornings but in the early eighties it was all about Spiderman, his amazing friends and the Hulk.
"When comic books weren't always dark & dour". Thanks, I think comic books got that way when the 'collectors'/'speculators', got into the act! When comic books like "Spider Man's first appearance, in comics", fetched record prices. Or "Action Comics #10" (Superman's debut), went for $1M Dollars!
in the early 80's before G.i joe or thundercats even voltron...this is the most action packed cartoon almost reflect the 70's superfriends were good but this is more towards that kind of crowd at that time
I remember playing the last year of MARVEL's AVENGERS ALLIANCE on FB when we got a notice telling us the game was being canceled and I was screaming "they can't do this!! We have Bobby Drake and Peter and we still need Firestar to complete the SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS trio!". Ha!
***** Dear sir that can't be true the 90s x- men cartoon rocked.I hated the 1989 pilot episode, thank the comic book gods it was never made into a full fledged series.
Ryan Fry I have to side with Melinda and/or Michael on this one. Something about the art style of 90's X-Men always rubbed me the wrong way, while the classic Marvel Productions look of Pryde of the X-Men was spot on, IMHO, as was the casting. Michael Bell as Cyclops... it was essentially Duke with the visor, and it worked, dammit! (Though they seemed to carry over the interpretation of Logan as Australian from his initial animated appearance in Amazing Friends)
DataCab1e okay I respect your right to your opinion. However just like the 90's version of the x- men rubbed you the wrong way .The shitty 1989 version really pissed me off royally. I love the 90's x-men cartoon because it had decent storylines,a great voice cast and the character designs were second to none.And please don't get me started over that crap Australian version of wolverine lol,all in all it is a complete abomination to my eyes and ears .
I loved this show when I was little, and still do! I wasn't even alive when it first came out, my parents just showed it to me and my siblings when we were younger and we all fell in love with it. I loved how exciting the stories were, the team's cheer "Spider friends, go for it!", their nicknames for each other were funny, and I was in LOVE with Firestar and how brave, strong, confident, smart, sassy, and beautiful she was. In fact, when I was five years old I was Firestar for Halloween.
***** Funny thing is that I was reading an interview that David Prowse gave for a magazine and he said that he and Morris Bush (Dengar) would often audition for the same roles. I remember Prowse saying that Bush was a former boxer and in the scene in Episode IV where Darth Vader is stepping on the then deceased Obi-Wan's robe, it was actually Morris Bush subbing in for him.
Being a kid in the 70s an 80s was the best time for cartoons and Sci fi programmes. My Saturday mornings in the 70s started the day off with space 1999 :)
Just for clarification, Ms. Lion was actually Angelica Jones' dog but Aunt May seem to be paired up with her mostly through the series. See episode "The Origin of the Spider-Friends" season 3 (episode 21 of 24 total.).
Hey Michael, isn't this a Sunbow production as well? I always loved how some of the music score would show up in GI Joe episodes. Man, i can remember exactly where I was watching this on Saturday morning. I dug Zorro too, great times... ♡RB
chrisedelic77 Sunbow was the animation wing of Hasbro, but SMahAF was the beginning of Marvel Productions, which *I think* had something to do with TF and G.I. Joe, due to the comic tie-ins. This explains the similar art style.
It's crazy that this hasn't been released in the US yet !! Yes, you can watch it on Netflix, but Netflix doesn't keep their content forever (which I found out the hard way as I was binge watching Lexx and they removed it when I was only halfway through.) This show (along with Superfriends) got me into comics and I still love it to this day. I have the Toy's R Us three-pack and the Ms. Lion that was packed in with Mary Jane. I'm glad I bought them at the time, because that set is now around a $100 on Ebay. p.s. I know it's inappropriate, but Michael, you are still dreamy !!!
Loved your video. I think of the past too. Ain't a day that goes by that I wish I had a time machine. I miss the late 70's early/middle 80's massively. The days when Jim Shooter was running Marvel, etc. Glad I stumbled on your video. Long live the past!!!!
Agreed with most of that. Back to simpler times, it was probably one of my first cartoon memories, being born in 1981. It was rerun in the UK well into the late 80s and maybe beyond. One thing not mentioned is the theme tune, which i think is damn good! Cheers.
Yeah, but you have to recognize the pattern: Frankie Raye as the female Human Torch and Jean Grey as Phoenix, female redheads with firepowers were a thing at Marvel
Firestar predates Harley Quinn as the only character to ever be made for a comic book cartoon first, before being written into regular comic continuity later
Zing!
Puts on Spider-Woman costume from ABC.
Firestar predates Harley Quinn as appearing on a comic based cartoon before being introduced in an actual comic, but Black Mantis predates Firestar in that respect as well. He first appeared in one of the Aquaman cartoon shorts ,before being introduced in the comics.
The Wonder Twins?
@@k-dawgbroadcasting5444 And H.E.R.B.I.E., the FF's robot member
"Tony Stark set them up with their James Bond-style headquarters." Hmm, sounds a lot like how MCU Peter and Tony get along in Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Was blown away when I heard there were only 24 episodes. Seemed like there were more as a kid.
CBS had Fat Albert for 12 years and only had 56 epidodes.
Depending on your network station rotation some where definitely played less...
@A dudes thoughts A shame these cartoons are no longer on Saturday mornings; they made getting up early worth it.
yes. me too. we burned as many as we could around 10 years ago before the copy guards came to satellite. we had around 4 discs. I couldn't believe that was it.
Lmao 😂 I love this! I never thought of the show like this before. I love your commentary. Great job!!
You definitely should consider a look at the 1982 Incredible Hulk animated series. I still have a huge fondness for that show.
I loved this cartoon as a kid. It was a bug reason as to why spiderman was, and to this day remains, one of my favorite superheroes. Also, my crush on Firestar definitely influenced my love of redheads! 😊
With that poppin' body, who can blame those dudes for being hot on the trail of Firestar
you are so right lol
She was a smokeshow....literally, lol.
I loved Ice Man’s transformation. It was great to see him do the same in the feature films and create his slide!
Great video. Used to watch Spider-Man and his Amazing friends all the time as a kid back in the 80's. This was a FUN cartoon that I pretty much looked forward to on Saturday Mornings.
***** Thanks Shawn!
Ever notice Bobby and Angelica look like comic book Flash Thompson and Mary Jane?
I think that was intentional, although Flash Thompson did appear on the cartoon. I like how he called Peter "Puny Parker".
I'm pretty sure MJ was used as a model for Angelica. Bobby Drake's brown-haired in the comics, but they gave him blonde hair in the cartoon to differentiate him from Peter Parker.
If they were able to go with the Spidey / Iceman / Torch line-up, who knows what they'd have done, since Johnny Storm's blonde and all...
@iaagp True. That's a pretty good visual shorthand for the designated flamethrower. As we see in the cartoon.
I honestly never really noticed that.
Not sure on the Bobby and Flash scenario, since Flash was on the show. Angelica and MJ, yes since she's the only female lead.
This, Hulk and Dungeons and Dragons was Saturday Morning
For me.
Top 3 indeed
Same
Firestar still hasn't been given the live action treatment.
The world still turns and superheroes are still a bankable form of entertainment. I'd say there's still time for it to happen.
My favorite Cartoon as a kid. I can still sit down and watch this.
I forgot that Firestar is SMOKIN HOT
Literally..🔥🔥🔥🔥
yes lol
Despite the criticisms, this cartoon sounds really fun to watch - like you said, back when comics were actually fun! I'd love to see this series!
The series is awesome with the show having 3 main superheroes! What made it even more exciting for me as a kid is when they would include different superheroes in some of the episodes such as Iron man, Dr Strange, and the Chameleon.
Star wars made everything a little darker.
Veritech Girl It's actually a great cartoon. For any decade.
eLJaybud Do you mean the 1985 STAR WARS t.v. cartoon on ABC?
chris brunette Dnt forget Thor & The Black Knight.
Here's the thing. You can't watch this show with the same preordained mind after watching newer incarnations. If you're late to the party.
In order to enjoy this, you have to be receptive to its charm and silliness. Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends was created during an era with different standards and narrative than what we have now. Take it for what it is.
Paulie Didn't I say I loved it? I think I did...
I was talking generally. It wasn't towards you
ah
Thus why I said "if you're late to the party".
Obviously you're not so..
Always good to know that. I hate being late for 1980s stuff, since I lived through it and all.
I remember seeing this show back in the 90s on UPN on sundays. Always thought it was awesome. I really like how the X-Men made cameos in the show.
Im 46 years old. You just took me back to my childhood and I thank you for it man.
Wow, its been forever since I saw an episode of this toon, but at 4:36 memories of 'creepy unibrow guy" just came flooding back ^_^
This one of my favorites growing up as a child of the 80's, its also the first time I had heard Stan Lee's voice. . . . . it made me a True believer . . . Thanks for the memories Stan . . EXCELSIOR!
Same here! First time I ever heard Stan Lee's voice too!
The Gary Oldman professional clip was just pure genius. Lol
Why oh why has this not gotten an official dvd release? Growing up in the late 80s it was still being rerun
9:10 "Along Came Spidey". S2E2. I remember that cartoon made me openly weep. I remember, at eight years old, having never felt such a combination of vindication and guilt as when Peter realizes that the same thug he's caught is the same thug he let slip past him.
Incidentally, many years later, while playing Marvel RPG (tabletop), my character encountered The Shocker, who was rampaging thru NY. After my character poked fun at his name, Shocker's anger got the best of him; it didn't end well, since this character (who had energy-based powers) wound up microwaving Shocker inside his own suit.
Ewww. Did your character say "Shocker, the heat is on!"?
I'm sure this had an animated Stan Lee do a monologue at the end (might have been the beginning) of each episode. For me, that's where I know Stan Lee from. When I first saw his cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy, I was like "Hey! It's Stan Lee! I don't think I'd even seen his real face, just his animated one from Amazing Friends, yet I still recognised him!! RIP Stan. :(
4:46 Holy cow, Iceman is Frank Welker! Was Frank in EVERYTHING during the 70s and 80s?
Yeah right on Welker is a badass in his own right... But you know that when I read a spidey comic its always this Spider-Mans voice that plays in my mind...
And then Mel Blanc and Don Messick passed away and Frank got REALLY busy...
Some ppl critisize him in SM&HAF for simply dubbing his Fred voice in SCOOBY DOOBY DOO. But I think there are pointed diff's. At worst, Bobby's voice is a more evolved Fred's voice.
When I was a child, I thought Gremlins was the scariest movie ever made (back then I didn't understand all the zany comedy in it. I think it's good, now that I'm an adult). I'd get scared every time the movie was on television or I'd see images and toys of Stripe. Imagine my shock when I found out that the Gremlin I'd been so terrified of for all those years was also...Ice Man...and Baby Kermit from the Muppet Babies! Frank Welker, baby!
I'm surprised that it was not touch upon that Firestar (Angelica Jones). Bore a striking resemblance to the character Mary Jane Watson?
Jeffrey Coogan it was in a Spidey comic series.
Laughed out loud at the unexpected classic Gary Oldman line from The Professional. Well played, sir.
I always thought Firestar was a cool character I wish Marvel would do more with the character
She needs the live action treatment soon.
Despite being born in 2001, this was the first spider-man show I ever watched. Even now I remember swarm, oh god. "Swarm, SWARM."
Bro nice VF-1J in the display case! :O) STILL LOVE THIS SPIDERMAN CARTOON.
Takes me back to shag carpets, Ice Cream cones cereal, and my Trouble bubble with Major Blood on saturday mornings.
This show was better than the original Spider-man cartoon IMO.
"No Venom, no Carnage, back then when it was fun"... well... it had a Nazi episode... with Hitler...
Plus, the early Venom issues wen't exactly dour reads.
I do think later on Venom and Carnage made the comic more fun as we had alien like stories and even getting Flash as a Spider-Man as well called Venom
Hogan's Heros was good fun.
MforMovesets 🙂
eLJaybud Rem', it had only been 36yrs since WWll ended. It's been more than 37 yrs since SM&HAF 1st aired.
This show was awesome...you had to be there, back in the 80's this was all we had and it may seem a little lame compared to today's standards, but they had great team ups...it was like which hero is the Spidey Friends gonna team up with next, I still remember that was the talk of school Monday mornings. By 1981 I was already into comic books and this was a great treat, My Saturday mornings were not complete until I saw Spiderman and his amazing friends, the X-men episode against the Juggernaut was sum of the best Saturday morning TV EVER!!! (don't forget the HULK cartoon came on right after this)
There were two temporary adaptations of the spider-friends in the ultimate comics. Liz Allen was Firestar though and the Human Torch actually made it onto the team. To bad it was cut short by Peter's death. What always bothered me about it was that Kitty Pryde was around but never actually on the team.
Oh how I miss Saturday morning cartoons....everyone thank Saved by the Bell for ruining Saturday morning....THANKS Saved by the Bell!
Impossible Pie Thanks Zack!
Saved The Bell should have been animated.
Impossible Pie fucking zach and that geek. I forgot his name
@Impossible Pie...yes, u are so right SAVED BY THE BELL was the beginning of the end. That and cable TV, what was the point of Saturday morning cartoons when you had a whole network dedicated to cartoons...everyday was saturday morning if you wanted it to be.
Arguably, Congress should shoulder more of the blame; what with their stupid E/I mandates and all...
This was one of my favourite cartoons as a kid. I was gifted the entire series on DVD (I'm in the UK), and still love to watch it :)
It used to piss me off when one of my sisters would throw a fit when I was watching this when she wanted to watch smurfs. I hated those little blue things.
Someone should have told her since Smurfs was on for freaking two hours at a time she could wait 30 minutes.
Both the Smurfs and Spiderman and his Amazing Friends were on NBC. What were his sisters complaining about?
@@OliveOyl12590 Each area in the USA was different in the 80's. Where I lived there was only one station that had cartoons on saturday, one had news, and another had soaps. Local programming was based on what local stations bought to air, and it was different everywhere. When FOX first went on air they dominated the cartoon line up in my area so much that the other stations like ABC, NBC, and CBS all dropped their cartoon line up because the local FOX bought all cartoons. Some people had macross/robotech and other places never saw it. Channel programming was a wild west back then.
OliveOyl12590 I was about to say the same thing!😕 In fact, where I lived, the eastern-midwest (the last of the mid-west going east), I believe the SMURFS followed SM&HAF. Obtw, we didn't get the solo, 1981 SPIDER-MAN.
La la la la la la
I was the perfect age when this came out in 1981, 7th grade. I have to admit that VideoMan was actually a favorite of mine as his was a two part cartoon, a very rare thing in the early 80's. Also, it did come out only 9 months before the release of TRON, which had been in development at Disney for over a year by that point. Your analysis is exactly right, it was one of the first and probably best transitional cartoon from the 1980s.
Video man was one of mine too
Hardees restaurants here in Tennessee also had happy meals for kids based on this show back in the 1980s.
One of my all time favorites as a kid...it still makes me think of scrambled eggs and toast, which is what my mom would cook for me on saturday mornings to eat while watching the show.
Also, Firestar was one of my first childhood crushes...could you blame me with shots like the one at 5:33?
gusbaker4u No, Gus, I can't blame you. I had the same crush.
I loved this cartoon as a kid! I didn't read comic books so this was the major well from where I got my Marvel comics knowledge back in the day. Like Superfriends was for DC. I also loved Superfriends, but watching the 2 series now, Spidey and his Amazing Friends seems to hold up a bit better, it's more watchable, maybe Challenge of the Superfriends or Galactic Guardians is on par with it.
Also fun to note: the party "rock and roll" music used in Amazing Friends was also used in Transformers as generic rock music (played by Jazz mostly) until they started playing Cold Slither.
And the first Halloween I remember, I was 4 years old and my mom dressed me up as The Incredible Hulk.
There's a MIDI version of the song Drawkcabi mentions on this page: www.angelfire.com/music2/TFMidis/TFMusic.html. It's the first song listed called "Blaster's Jam".
Drawkcabi Yup! That "rock and roll" generic music was the first thing I noticed in Transformers. I was like.."hey, they copied the Spider-Man show!" My older brother just rolled his eyes and told me to shut up. Again....good times.
I remember the music being in the TFs and G.I. Joe. Same applied to the voice actors and writers as both shows were Marvel/Sunbow productions.
Thanks for making this. I used to watch a Spider-Man cartoon as a kid, but I couldn't remember which version it was. Whenever I looked for it I could only find the 60s version; now I know that it was this one. It was amazing to watch the clips in your video because they brought some very vague memories back to the surface. I had no conscious memory of the horror episode, but seeing this brought it all back.
Um, Spidey was dark in the 60's and 70's. We had Harry Osborne doing drugs and dying from them in the 70's, Gwen's death and Norman Osborne getting impaled by his own glider, Parker wanting to give up being Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man Issue 50 Spider-Man no more. The 90's cartoon was amazing, way better than this one. But to each their own. But to say comic books weren't always dark espeically the Spidey Books is just plain wrong, I'm sorry.
Thanks, Stan.
Thanks Mike/Melinda/Team, for this.
I LOVED this show when I was a kid. It was a Saturday morning staple for me. I was 8 when it first came on, and at the time the only comic books I read were the Marvel Star Wars books. This series, along with Superfriends, get me to pick up a superhero comic and the rest is history. Still collecting today!
Very informative. I grew up in the 70s so the 67 Spiderman was my one and only Spiderman cartoon. Spiderman and his friends looks like fun. I'd heard of this cartoon but had no idea so many marvel villains appeared. I might purchase the UK version of the dvd, I've got a few UK versions of US Dvds recently.
miss lion was not Aunt May's dog, in the episode called "The Origin of spiderman and his amazing friends" miss lion belonged to Firestar, it's how Spiderman figured out her ID
Dude! Thank for sharing this past! It’s all the stuff I grew up with and more!! Keep it going please!
Still need to see this show. My sister showed my then 4 year old nephew an episode of Amazing Friends and decided not to show any more because at his age he still found it quite scary. Great video Mike!
I used to get up extra early on Saturday mornings to make sure I wouldn’t miss watching Spiderman and his Amazing Friends back when the show was new! Spiderman has always been my favorite Superhero since I was an extremely young child! Having a cartoon series where Spiderman teamed up with Xmen characters like Iceman and Firestar was better to me than DC’s Super Friends! I absolutely adored this cartoon! There were so many cameo Marvel characters and villains that showed up during the course of the show! This cartoon helped solidify me becoming a life long Marvel fanboy! When Toys R Us released their exclusive Spider Friends 3 pack action figure set, I made sure to pick that one up! If only Mattel had released those three action figures back when the show was new, I would’ve been the happiest of campers! At least now I can revel in the fact that I have the Spider Friends in my collection! I just loved Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and I find myself watching it every so often!
When I was 5 I watched re-runs of this show and I'm twelve now
I wish they would have continued that 1980s X-men cartoon. Wolverine had an Australian accent and Storm was hot.
I still remember the strange accent. "Now its MY Tehrrnn"
video man was classic he was one of the hardest villains to fight in SAF and he had a cool link to the arcade games back in the 80's
I was lucky enough to get a High quality copy of the series from Comic-Con earlier this year! I still remember watching this every Saturday morning on KYW channel 3 here in Philadelphia.
This may sound weird, but Iso LOVED the voice of Dr. Doom from that one episode that I always used that voice whenever I read a comic with him in it. It was totally what Doom should sound like to me (but I also like the voice of Dr. Doom from Hanna Barbera’s Fantastic Four).
When they do the voice of Dr. Doom in the movies, I’m a bit disappointed by it because they don’t give Doom the same type of voice like from the Amazing Friends episode. That to me just sounds more regal and “above human”, which Doom...as the ultimate villain...is. Maybe what I said may sound corny to anyone reading this, but that’s how I saw the world of superheroes and comics in my head.
I loved this show. As for toy tie ind in the 1970's. I did have a Spider-Man web shooter. It was a wrist mounted dart gun. With a string ties to the suction cup dart. It shot at most 10 to 15 feet.
Aw man, THANK YOU for reminding me of this one. I remember seeing a few episodes but I think at that time, especially with team up shows, I thought it was too corny for me. But I do remember that Doctor Doom episode and I thought it was awesome. He was crafty, quite unlike most TV villains back then. Also, thanks for explaining how Peter was able to afford their awesome superhero hangout. And I agree, this was an underrated show like the Spider-Woman cartoon. I'll be waiting for that feature as well. ;)
Wilson Tortosa Don't worry, there will one day be a Spider-Woman video review!
The original Secret Wars action figure line was one of my favorite toys during the time when Spiderman and his Amazing Friends was on the air. Does anyone know how much these figures are going for now? I’m still missing several and I think I’m finally going to finish collecting the rest of the set.
Fantastic tribute. One of my childhood favorites. I missed a lot of episodes back then because I had soccer games Saturday mornings.
As to why Doom is in the credits, he may not appear much in this series, but in the concurrent solo Spider-man series he was the lead villain, appearing in 5 episodes over which his scheme slowly builds. I think that is the first U.S. cartoon I can think of that had that kind of multi-episode story arc.
"You have to fight either Dracula or Big Foot 2B legit." lolz awesome. Great video. Miss this series.
One of my favorite shows ever, I waited each week for it (and would get bummed out if I missed the cool opening music). It was fun getting to piece together what this Earth's hero/villain situation was. And even not having watched it regulalrly in forever, it still has its lasting effect; before this, Nicholas Hammond's voice was what I heard when reading Spidey's comics. This one from then on (though the 90's show briefly superceded it). Ice Man of course is always going to be Frank Welker. PS: "Memory Forensics", nice phrase. Seeing this I realize that the majority of my memories are able to be honed in within two or three months of the date based on the comics I bought (which are usually vivid recall, sometimes more than the story in it itself) or closer if based on the Saturday morning cartoon.
You HAD to be seated in front of the TV five minutes before the show started and WAITED for the theme music! No UA-cam back then. That was half the thrill right there!
One of my earliest SuperHero memories. It must have been when it was airing, but not first run as it would have been on AFN when I lived in Germany as a kid. So, it holds a special place in my heart. Also, The Hulk (cartoon and Bill Bixby), Electric Comany, Super Friends, Linda Carter's WW, Plastic Man, etc, etc
"Here I come to help my chum cause he was dumb." 11:55 Haha!
One more rhyme and it would be rated R.
I totally forgot about the Swarm episode. That was one of my favorites.
First time visiting your page, and this is a fantastic video, very in depth and fun!
I so remember this show on Saturday morning! I saw most of the episodes, and remembered really enjoying it with me cereal lol. I actually loved Iceman's super power ! Great video retroblasting!
I remember seeing that episode with the swastikas being rerun on UPN during the 90s (when they also had a new Hulk cartoon) and being very surprised that they were allowed to show that.
this deserves release on dvd or a streaming site. Disney step it up. Revive the show as well-- there needs to be a reunion movie.
I never realized there was only 24 episodes, however it does explain how I know the episodes so well. I watched the show whenever I could.
Loved the Swarm episode. Loved this entire series. One of my top 3
The swarm episode pisses my wife off thats why i love it and i crank the volume up😜
thank for this video alot of my friends dont understand why i loved this cartoon so much but you eplained it perfectly . thank you very very much!
Spider Man And His Amazing Friends was my favorite cartoon growing up. Thanks for the memories! 🕷🔥❄👍👍😄
At the Chicago Comic Con in 1986, Stan Lee was the featured guest. He spent a hour on "Spider Man and his Amazing Friends". And he hated it, at first. He thought Spidey should have been a solo hero, a loner. Teaming with Iceman and Firestar were NBC mandates. But the more he was allowed to play with the concept, he grew to love the show. Ms. Lion was based on Stan's and his AMAZING wife (his words at the panel) late dog.
The panel was two and a half hours long. And I was a DC fan at the time. The man COMMANDED every ones attention in that room. He left us hanging with every word. I didn't really become a Marvel fan after that, but I had great respect for him.
Firestar appears in xmen comics so I'm not so sure they created her just for the tv series. It's possible the Marvel people thought that Firestar would make a good substitute since they couldn't use Human Torch.
The next Spiderman movie should be based on this cartoon
This was one of my fave cartoons growing up in the '80s. Thank You for making this.
The first time I saw this, it was leading up to Spider-Man 2 coming out. To promote the film I think it was ABC Family had a week long marathon of every Spider-Man show from the 60's one up to Spider-Man Unlimited. As a huge Spidey fan growing up, it was a great time to be alive. Thanks for reminding me of this piece of Nostalgia!
awaasproductions You're welcome!
Wow. we've had them released on dvd over here in England since 2008. You didnt mention how marvel had since made firestar a marvel comics character back in 1985 uncanny x-men #193. I didnt realise the cartoon version was first but I knew she was never an x-man at the time. I think she has been since though.....not sure which X book.
This was my favorite Saturday morning cartoon right along with The Incredible Hulk. I used to wake up early on Saturdays just to make sure I didn't miss a thing. Each of the major networks had their own line up of cartoons, there was Garfield, The Smurfs, The Littles, and a bunch of others I can't remember at the moment. In the late eighties the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took over Saturday mornings but in the early eighties it was all about Spiderman, his amazing friends and the Hulk.
"When comic books weren't always dark & dour". Thanks, I think comic books got that way when the 'collectors'/'speculators', got into the act! When comic books like "Spider Man's first appearance, in comics", fetched record prices. Or "Action Comics #10" (Superman's debut), went for $1M Dollars!
Ah the good ol' days of cartoons. Thank for the trip down memory lane, keep up the great work.
JediDB Will do! Thanks for supporting us!
in the early 80's before G.i joe or thundercats even voltron...this is the most action packed cartoon almost reflect the 70's superfriends were good but this is more towards that kind of crowd at that time
I remember playing the last year of MARVEL's AVENGERS ALLIANCE on FB when we got a notice telling us the game was being canceled and I was screaming "they can't do this!! We have Bobby Drake and Peter and we still need Firestar to complete the SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS trio!". Ha!
Spiderman here is voiced by Bumblebee while Megatron/Fred Jones voices Iceman. Let that sink in for a while on how awesome it is.
Ice man is frank welker
@@spazeparanoids7345 Ahhh yeah!
I also like that xmen pilot that came out in 1989.
Jono Fade Me too. I was hoping that they would have kept it going.
Jono Fade I would have given anything for that version of X-Men to keep going. I wasn't wild about the eventual 90s series.
***** Dear sir that can't be true the 90s x- men cartoon rocked.I hated the 1989 pilot episode, thank the comic book gods it was never made into a full fledged series.
Ryan Fry I have to side with Melinda and/or Michael on this one. Something about the art style of 90's X-Men always rubbed me the wrong way, while the classic Marvel Productions look of Pryde of the X-Men was spot on, IMHO, as was the casting. Michael Bell as Cyclops... it was essentially Duke with the visor, and it worked, dammit! (Though they seemed to carry over the interpretation of Logan as Australian from his initial animated appearance in Amazing Friends)
DataCab1e okay I respect your right to your opinion. However just like the 90's version of the x- men rubbed you the wrong way .The shitty 1989 version really pissed me off royally. I love the 90's x-men cartoon because it had decent storylines,a great voice cast and the character designs were second to none.And please don't get me started over that crap Australian version of wolverine lol,all in all it is a complete abomination to my eyes and ears .
I loved this show when I was little, and still do! I wasn't even alive when it first came out, my parents just showed it to me and my siblings when we were younger and we all fell in love with it. I loved how exciting the stories were, the team's cheer "Spider friends, go for it!", their nicknames for each other were funny, and I was in LOVE with Firestar and how brave, strong, confident, smart, sassy, and beautiful she was. In fact, when I was five years old I was Firestar for Halloween.
This was my favorite show as a kid and was what got me into comics a few years later. Great job on the video Michael.
Chris Michalec Thanks Chris!
👍😍👍😍👍😍👍😍👍😍👍😍
I loved the origins episodes. That’s where I first saw the X-Men come to life. Great video! You covered a lot here!!
Ms. Lion belonged to Firestar not Aunt May
Bingo!
"Dengar, such a great guy." I almost spit out my morning coffee. Hilarious.
***** Funny thing is that I was reading an interview that David Prowse gave for a magazine and he said that he and Morris Bush (Dengar) would often audition for the same roles. I remember Prowse saying that Bush was a former boxer and in the scene in Episode IV where Darth Vader is stepping on the then deceased Obi-Wan's robe, it was actually Morris Bush subbing in for him.
***** Sorry! Hopefully it wasn't great coffee!
***** No chance of that. It was instant coffee: Nescafe. One of the biggest downsides to living in Europe.
HAHA!
Being a kid in the 70s an 80s was the best time for cartoons and Sci fi programmes. My Saturday mornings in the 70s started the day off with space 1999 :)
Fuck super powers, that living room was the bomb.
Best Spiderman cartoon ever I loved it I was 3 years old in 1981 when it premier ed
Just for clarification, Ms. Lion was actually Angelica Jones' dog but Aunt May seem to be paired up with her mostly through the series. See episode "The Origin of the Spider-Friends" season 3 (episode 21 of 24 total.).
Hey Michael, isn't this a Sunbow production as well? I always loved how some of the music score would show up in GI Joe episodes. Man, i can remember exactly where I was watching this on Saturday morning. I dug Zorro too, great times... ♡RB
chrisedelic77 Sunbow was the animation wing of Hasbro, but SMahAF was the beginning of Marvel Productions, which *I think* had something to do with TF and G.I. Joe, due to the comic tie-ins. This explains the similar art style.
DataCab1e Spider-man and his Amazing Friends definitely shared some of the same background music as GI Joe and Transformers.
It's crazy that this hasn't been released in the US yet !! Yes, you can watch it on Netflix, but Netflix doesn't keep their content forever (which I found out the hard way as I was binge watching Lexx and they removed it when I was only halfway through.)
This show (along with Superfriends) got me into comics and I still love it to this day. I have the Toy's R Us three-pack and the Ms. Lion that was packed in with Mary Jane. I'm glad I bought them at the time, because that set is now around a $100 on Ebay.
p.s. I know it's inappropriate, but Michael, you are still dreamy !!!
Loved your video. I think of the past too. Ain't a day that goes by that I wish I had a time machine.
I miss the late 70's early/middle 80's massively. The days when Jim Shooter was running Marvel, etc.
Glad I stumbled on your video. Long live the past!!!!
+Roy Prince Oh yeah, the Jim Shooter era was my personal favorite at Marvel Comics. So many great runs during his tenure.
Agreed with most of that. Back to simpler times, it was probably one of my first cartoon memories, being born in 1981. It was rerun in the UK well into the late 80s and maybe beyond. One thing not mentioned is the theme tune, which i think is damn good! Cheers.
No mention of how Firestar is clearly Mary Jane with super powers or did I miss that?
Yeah, but you have to recognize the pattern: Frankie Raye as the female Human Torch and Jean Grey as Phoenix, female redheads with firepowers were a thing at Marvel
Given the pitch of the audio I'd say your bootleg had a PAL source. Thanks for another fun video!
TreadwellJay GOOD CATCH, TJ! It's that dreaded 4% PAL chimpmunkification that has me hoping for a legit, and PROPER (non-PAL-sourced,) DVD set.
Cool post bro, you brought back a lot of memories. BTW how funny is that 7 Little Super Heroes episode? hehehe
Hey yeah when did Mysterio get a Ha Star Wars budget bam