Superhero adaptations to TV and film have always been a mixed bag....some outstanding (Superman: The Movie, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy) while others...not so much (Captain America, Batman & Robin).
Still, even the bad superhero TV shows and movies had at least a moment or two of magic, when a character you've only experienced as a word balloon-spouting drawing is suddenly moving and speaking.
My very first moment of live-action magic actually pre-dates the era of big-budget superhero movies and even Marvel's first baby-steps onto late 70's network TV. I was too young to get in on the Adventures of Superman or Batman TV shows of the 50's and 60's, and our small town didn't broadcast their reruns, so I had to bide my time until PBS brought Spider-Man to their educational sketch comedy show The Electric Company in 1974.
Played by a guy named Danny Segren, Spidey was strangely mute and "spoke" only through pantomime and word balloons appearing over his head...which other cast members would pause to read along with the kid viewers. There was no mention of his Peter Parker identity, nor were there any references to the comic book's supporting cast. It was simply Spidey, the "Short Circus" gang of kids, and a variety of campy, low-wattage bad guys played by the adult cast.
At the time, I'd recently gotten hooked on comics, specifically Spider-Man comics, so you can imagine how exciting it was for me to see a "real-looking" Spider-Man on one of my favorite TV shows. Yeah, the plots were pretty simple and the fight scenes were nothing close to the knock-down, drag-outs of the comics...but as I said earlier, it was still quite a thrill to see a live-action version of a favorite hero.
So, from that era of modest, pre-CGI superheroics,
I present the first live-action Spider-Man.
(Watch for cast member...and future Oscar-winner...Morgan Freeman as the school's home ec teacher!)
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