The Amazing Spider-Man of the 1970s: The Original Series That was Made Without CGI

In September 1977, CBS debuted Stan Lee’s Spider-Man on television as a two-hour movie, later evolving into The Amazing Spider-Man series.

This marked Spider-Man’s first live-action TV appearance, airing on CBS in the United States from September 14, 1977, to July 6, 1979.

Australian actor Nicholas Hammond, known for his role as the young Friedrich von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

Unlike the original comic books, the TV series took a different direction by featuring more grounded and realistic adversaries, such as mind-controlling New Age gurus, cultists, and Latin American politicians, instead of the traditional villains like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.

Mary Jane Watson, a prominent character in the comics, was replaced by a reporter named Julie Masters as Peter Parker’s love interest.

The series was mostly filmed in Los Angeles, although the setting was meant to resemble Manhattan, which was not always convincing.

It focused heavily on Peter Parker’s personal struggles and his attempts to combat crime.

Stuntman Fred Waugh bravely took on the role of Spider-Man, performing daring leaps, flips, and building-scaling without the aid of modern CGI.

Waugh also filmed first-person footage of these stunts using a head-mounted “camera-hat.”

Despite its innovative approach, The Amazing Spider-Man series was short-lived, airing only 13 episodes before its cancellation in 1979.

CBS executives were concerned about the network airing too many superhero shows, which led to its premature end.

The cast of Spider-Man.

The series ended up being the 19th-highest-rated show of the entire season, but CBS was reluctant to commit to giving the show a regular/fixed time slot for the 1978-79 season, as the series was expensive to produce and continued to underperform with older audiences.

The second season that consisted of seven episodes aired infrequently throughout the 1978–79 TV season.

The series continued to do well in the ratings during its second season. CBS officially canceled the series soon after the season ended.

The chief reason for the cancellation was that CBS feared being perceived as merely a one-dimensional, superficial, “superhero network”.

It was already airing other live-action superhero series or specials at the time, including The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Doctor Strange.

The series yielded the first live-action depictions of Peter Parker’s “spider-tracer” tracking/homing devices; they are prominently featured in several episodes throughout the series.