Spider-Man has been through many hardships, and has fallen to the bottom more times than he can count. There are strong contenders for the worst moment of his life. When Gwen Stacy died. When Uncle Ben was shot. When Mephisto cancelled out Peter’s marriage with Mary-Jane. Killing Mary-Jane with radioactive sperm.

All of these are good choices. But none of them are right. You see, the greatest tragedy in Peter Parker’s life is the death of Grantray-Lawrence Animation.

I’m sure almost all of you are familiar with the 1967 Animated Spider-Man show. Apart from the numerous memes, such as pointing Spider-Men and The Boys, the 1967 Show also blessed us with the iconic Spider-Man theme. However, I’d also bet that most people on this subreddit have never watched the show. I have not even finished it yet myself, but I am halfway through the second of three seasons, and if you have seen the show, then you probably know what I am going to talk about.

Season 1 of Spider-Man is the iconic season. The memes, the themes, the visible seams, they’re all there. Spidey versus his greatest foes, such as Green Goblin, Electro, Doctor Octopus and Vulture. Peter Parker is surrounded by an iconic cast including the likes of J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, and Aunt May. The colours are bright, the fights are fun, and while the animation is cheap, it’s got a certain level of heart to it. This is the season you came to the show for. Criminals rob banks or kidnap innocents, and Spider-Man stops them in style with quick wit and clever thinking.

However, after the first season of the show, the animation company making it, Grantray-Lawrence Animation, went bankrupt in 1968.

Out steps Grantray-Lawrence Animation.

In steps Krantz Films.

Krantz Films changed the show on so many levels. I’ll try to list as many as I can.

• Season 1 had 20 x 20 minute episodes, each episode divided into two, 10 minute, completely separate parts. Krantz started making fully 20 minute episodes, although the split episodes somewhat returned by Season 3.

• The music experienced a change. They kept some of the old music, especially the theme, intro and outro, but the jazzy, exciting music of Season 1 was largely replaced by some late 60s, early 70s bluesy-type elevator music.

• The city changed. Gone was the clear blue sky, the single-colour buildings, the bright skyline. Things got much darker, with the sky looking like someone painted it on LSD.

• Your favourite characters are probably gone, except for some minor appearances. The most notable appearances you get are Aunt May and Kingpin. Both of them only appear at the start of the season; Kingpin for only Episode 2. JJJ and Betty Brant also appear for an episode or two.

• Season 2 is technically a prequel. Season 1 was solely about Peter Parker working as a photographer for the Daily Bugle. Season 2 follows Peter’s school days, showing him trying to get with girls and talking with dumbass friends and bullies. Technically he joins the Daily Bugle at the start of the season but you’d be damned if you thought it was going to actually show up again.

• The show got a little more… sexist? Betty Brant was the primary female character of Season 1 and is joyously silly. She, Peter and JJJ have a fun relationship. Season 2 ditches these characters and instead we get the “girls at school,” often portrayed as stereotypes, falling for jocks left, right and centre. There’s even a shot in Phantom From the Depths of Time where a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot has a woman almost with her pants down, the animators showing a little too much crack. It’s just… weird, and a little gratuitous.

I suppose the biggest thing to take into account is that when Krantz films comes in, the shows budget is left in desolation. Executive Producer Ray Bakshi was, to put it mildly, a cheap bastard, and would recycle more animation than they had in Season 1.

Season 1 was pretty tame with its recycling of footage. You’d see the same swinging animations from episode to episode, but rarely would you see each animation more that twice per episode. It’s all about the action in Season 1 - nobody wants to sit and watch Spider-Man slowly swing for several minutes.

Well Krantz Films decided you should. It may be the longer episode runtime, or maybe it’s purely budget related, but you should prepare yourself for a lot of Spider-Man swinging in Season 2. They go so far as to reuse the same animations several times in a single montage.

But the swinging animations are the tip of the iceberg.

Take the following Season 2 Episodes - Episode 5: The Menace From the Bottom of the World, and Episode 7: The Moleman. They’re pretty much the exact same episode, except they put some dialogue at the start to tell you that the villain Spidey caught in Episode 5 must have escaped and is doing the exact same thing with the exact same hostages.

Also, take two more episodes, from Seasons 2 and 3. Episode 8 of Season 2: Phantom From the Depths of Time, and Episode 10 of Season 3: Revolt in the Fifth Dimension. Here’s where Bakshi really gets cheap.

Bakshi had also been working on an animated show called Rocket Robin Hood, which was essentially sci-fi Robin Hood. He figured it would be much easier just to recycle certain episodes from that show, splice out a few characters, and replace them with Spider-Man.

Phantom From the Depths of Time is especially idiotic. It starts with Spider-Man swinging through New York, before suddenly showing a distant island where an alien looking thing commands giant robot cockroaches that freeze and snatch the island’s residents. Spider-Man steals a jet from God knows where, shows up, has his jet ripped apart, kills a rhino, confronts the alien king in his castle, leaves (alien is never seen again), finds another jet, crashes into a now living mountain, frees the people, and flies back to New York in a third jet that looks suspiciously like the one that got destroyed at the start of the Episode. It’s batshit insane.

The show was ended after three seasons, which is surprisingly long for a dirt cheap animated show in the sixties. I feel like it should also be noted that Stan Lee was a consultant in Season 1. He was not in Season 2.

I suppose, having just watched said Episode, I’m just writing this because I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed that a nearly sixty year old show made with no money for kids does not appeal to me anymore. In all seriousness, I may have exaggerated the opening paragraph, but I hope that if anyone had even read this, you’ve come away with a slice of Spider-Man history you were unaware of: the Downfall of 1967 Spider-Man.

I’m still gonna watch the rest of the show, but damn, am I gonna watch it and think about how it isn’t Season 1.

It looks a lot like spectacular because of the head, but he never wears this in the series

Example: The Amazing Spider-Man = Spider-Man 4 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 = Spider-Man 5 Spider-Man Homecoming = Spider-Man 6

Richard seems 11/12 which is surprising since it means Peter and MJ could've had him when they were 22 (since Peter is 35 here) possibly straight outta college - Assuming they both went in this timeline.

May also appears to be about 8/9.

Hey everyone. Got a question about the timelines.

What do you think has happened in Tobey's and Andrew's universes in the time between their movies and the no way home appearance?

They haven't talked much about what happened in their careers as Spider-manS except for what we already saw in their movies.

Is it possible that they had a boring simple life after what their movies narrated?

Maybe Andrew Garfield's spider-man actually had a fight with the Sinister six?

Let me know your theories and thoughts!

Got a free poster and was almost brought to tears man. This is my favorite movie and finally seeing it on the big screen surrounded by Spidey fans was a surreal experience.

https://preview.redd.it/amqjt2xun6wc1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=22e85a841d4a4005b7babf73ae171376ac527c8d

https://preview.redd.it/2fjnr76dn6wc1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=985bc87a1a8306737eb63a17921130d63d7c8b90

It also helped that I hadn’t watched this one in a few years, which helped make it feel fresh while familiar. Really put in perspective how truly wonderful this movie is, not having the most intense bias.

I saw thw re release tonight at my local Cinemark, and it was packed. That's why I was wondering what it was like the opening night in 2004?

What was the audience reaction like? Was it silent or did fans go crazy at scenes?

What was the reaction to Willem Dafoe's cameo towards the end? Were you or other people shocked?

What was the reaction to the hospital Massacre scene? Were people terrified or did they react positively?

How packed was it? Was it huge because of the success of the first movie?

Love spiderman and want to start reading the comics but I don’t know where to start? Do I have to buy all the comics? If so where can I buy? Where can I read them? I know there’s a lot of comics so which one do I read?

I never realized until today just how many of these there are

I never got to see this in theaters cause i wasn’t born yet. More than 18 years after the release date, I finally got the opportunity to see Tobey’s best movie.