05-24-2017, 11:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-25-2017, 12:03 AM by JadePharaoh.)
It was the late '80s and Nintendo had well established a foothold in the video gaming market. One of their biggest runaway hits was Super Mario Bros, which took the gaming world by storm and is often credited with revitalizing a waning market in the industry. Naturally, merchandising was everywhere, and of course, an animated series would arrive as well in 1989, produced by DiC.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was one of many featuring the Mario Bros. series. While it was not the first (earlier animated series includes Saturday Morning Supercade, which featured Donkey Kong and Mario, as well as the Japanese OAV, The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach), it is the first animated series based on a video game that many of us that grew up in the American 80s remember. The Super Show was split into two parts; the first was actually a live action skit of Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, while the second part was an animated short about their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Princess Peach and Toad, and their battles against Bowser. The first half of the live action segment would end on a cliffhanger, followed by the animated portion, then the resolution of the live action part. In this series, Mario would be played by WWE's Captain Lou Albano in both segments, and Danny Wells as Luigi (sadly neither of them are with us today). The rest of the voice cast for the main characters is listed below:
Mario: "Captain" Lou Albano
Luigi: Danny Wells
Peach: Jeannie Elias
Toad: John Stocker
Bowser: Harvey Atkin
As I said, the live action portions focus on Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, and various comical slapstick that ensues. This often involves a lot of celebrity guest stars showing up as well. The animated portions are more based on the games, particularly Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2; Bowser is the main antagonist, but some of his minions include enemies from SMB2. Plus, Peach and Toad join Mario and Luigi in their adventures, and not necessarily in the "Damsel in Distress" role, either.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the first episode:
It might seem campy and ridiculous now, but for us as kids back in the late 80s, this was pretty awesome.
- While the Mario Bros. have always had some Italian inspiration, this series REALLY steamrolled their apparent obsession with pasta and other Italian foods into the ground. I would suggest a drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the Bros. makes a reference to it, but you'd probably be black-out drunk within ten minutes...
- "UH-OH" Count: 1
- Into the animated segment, a visually-impaired Birdo mistakes Toad for her baby and runs off with him; the others have to get him back.
- By the way, I call her Peach out of habit now, but this was the time when she was called "Toadstool" in North America (she was always Peach in Japan, but she didn't get called that here until Yoshi's Safari for the SNES in the mid 90s). Also, she's a red-head in the animated series (all of them; this one, SMB3, and SMW), even though the games eventually settled on her as a blonde by SMW.
- On a similar note, Bowser is almost always referred to as King Koopa. Actually, this one is faithful to the Japanese series, where he is known as Koopa almost exclusively.
- Also, in the games, Luigi has become known to have a more cowardly persona in comparison to his brother; I think this is where that might have originated and eventually became canon.
- I almost forgot Mario and Luigi's idiotic patty-cake dance. Sadly, this is far from the last time they do it...
- By the way, the show originally aired Monday-Friday afternoons. On Friday, however, the animated segment would instead be Legend of Zelda cartoon. I'm going to talk more about that one on a later post.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was one of many featuring the Mario Bros. series. While it was not the first (earlier animated series includes Saturday Morning Supercade, which featured Donkey Kong and Mario, as well as the Japanese OAV, The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach), it is the first animated series based on a video game that many of us that grew up in the American 80s remember. The Super Show was split into two parts; the first was actually a live action skit of Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, while the second part was an animated short about their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Princess Peach and Toad, and their battles against Bowser. The first half of the live action segment would end on a cliffhanger, followed by the animated portion, then the resolution of the live action part. In this series, Mario would be played by WWE's Captain Lou Albano in both segments, and Danny Wells as Luigi (sadly neither of them are with us today). The rest of the voice cast for the main characters is listed below:
Mario: "Captain" Lou Albano
Luigi: Danny Wells
Peach: Jeannie Elias
Toad: John Stocker
Bowser: Harvey Atkin
As I said, the live action portions focus on Mario and Luigi running their plumbing business in Brooklyn, and various comical slapstick that ensues. This often involves a lot of celebrity guest stars showing up as well. The animated portions are more based on the games, particularly Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2; Bowser is the main antagonist, but some of his minions include enemies from SMB2. Plus, Peach and Toad join Mario and Luigi in their adventures, and not necessarily in the "Damsel in Distress" role, either.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the first episode:
It might seem campy and ridiculous now, but for us as kids back in the late 80s, this was pretty awesome.
- While the Mario Bros. have always had some Italian inspiration, this series REALLY steamrolled their apparent obsession with pasta and other Italian foods into the ground. I would suggest a drinking game where you take a shot every time one of the Bros. makes a reference to it, but you'd probably be black-out drunk within ten minutes...
- "UH-OH" Count: 1
- Into the animated segment, a visually-impaired Birdo mistakes Toad for her baby and runs off with him; the others have to get him back.
- By the way, I call her Peach out of habit now, but this was the time when she was called "Toadstool" in North America (she was always Peach in Japan, but she didn't get called that here until Yoshi's Safari for the SNES in the mid 90s). Also, she's a red-head in the animated series (all of them; this one, SMB3, and SMW), even though the games eventually settled on her as a blonde by SMW.
- On a similar note, Bowser is almost always referred to as King Koopa. Actually, this one is faithful to the Japanese series, where he is known as Koopa almost exclusively.
- Also, in the games, Luigi has become known to have a more cowardly persona in comparison to his brother; I think this is where that might have originated and eventually became canon.
- I almost forgot Mario and Luigi's idiotic patty-cake dance. Sadly, this is far from the last time they do it...
- By the way, the show originally aired Monday-Friday afternoons. On Friday, however, the animated segment would instead be Legend of Zelda cartoon. I'm going to talk more about that one on a later post.