"Spider-Man - The '67 Classic Collection" DVD Talkback (Spoilers)

[Spider-Man]

Do you think the prices will drop on these sets? Everywhere I go it's still too expensive for me to pick up. I'd like to get the set even though I wasn't a big fan of the show. I do see that alot of people here really like the set and I would definitely like to see the new transfer since I'm so used to the old one.

 

[Spider-Friends]

Do you think the prices will drop on these sets? Everywhere I go it's still too expensive for me to pick up. I'd like to get the set even though I wasn't a big fan of the show. I do see that alot of people here really like the set and I would definitely like to see the new transfer since I'm so used to the old one.

I think it will be a long time before there is a manufacturer's price drop. They spent money to get these episodes looking this good and I haven't heard of any other show sets getting drastic price reductions.

Of course, the price will gradually drop for used copies on Ebay but I really hate for you to buy it that way. Buying a used copy will not increase the number of units sold and I would LOVE for this set to sell a large number to insure that there will be more Marvel cartoon sets from Buena Vista!

BTW, I borrowed my nephew's copy of SPIDER-MAN VS. DAREDEVIL. It has the episode "Kingpinned" from the 67 show on it which was obviously not remastered: WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!

EDITED TO ADD: I just checked AMAZON.COM and the 67 set is now down to $44.99 with FREE shipping!

 

[Spider-Friends]

From his website, Mark Evanier has the answer of what happened to the interview he did for the DVD set:

Lastly, a number of folks have written to ask me why there are no special features (like, say, the interviews they did with Stan Lee and me) on the new DVD set of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoons. This one, I can answer. A little documentary was prepared but didn't get finished and approved in time to make it onto the set...which, I gather, had a very strict release schedule since they wanted it to coincide with the new movie. No word on whether that mini-documentary will ever appear anywhere.

 

[Spider-Man]

Lastly, a number of folks have written to ask me why there are no special features (like, say, the interviews they did with Stan Lee and me) on the new DVD set of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoons. This one, I can answer. A little documentary was prepared but didn't get finished and approved in time to make it onto the set...which, I gather, had a very strict release schedule since they wanted it to coincide with the new movie. No word on whether that mini-documentary will ever appear anywhere.

That's a shame to hear. From what I read on a couple Spider-Man sites the interview was pretty good. The set is still pretty pricey and I can't find it for less than $56 dollar Canadian. I am hoping with a little patience it will dip under the $50 mark. Are there any extensive reviews of the set online?

 

[Stu]

I reviewed it for my site, http://marvel.toonzone.net/spideytas

I've also read a review for the set on www.ign.com

I still haven't made my way through the set, the 2nd/3rd season episodes are simply a chore to watch now...

 

[Helena Wayne]

I reviewed it for my site, http://marvel.toonzone.net/spideytas

I've also read a review for the set on www.ign.com

I still haven't made my way through the set, the 2nd/3rd season episodes are simply a chore to watch now...

You said it. There were some great eps in Season 2/Season 3, but some of them are complete duds. I love the 'Home' episode, but 'Pardo Presents' is plain stupid, and 'Cloud City of Gold' was just boring. I haven't worked my way through discs 5 & 6 yet, but I was surprised by how much I was bored with some of these. I don't fault the release of these, since the completist in me wants them all, but I haven't seen the show in over 10 years and I was astonished at how much I loved some of these and how much I couldn't wait until some of them were finished... ho hum...

Ed

 

[Chris Wood]

You said it. There were some great eps in Season 2/Season 3, but some of them are complete duds. I love the 'Home' episode, but 'Pardo Presents' is plain stupid, and 'Cloud City of Gold' was just boring. I haven't worked my way through discs 5 & 6 yet, but I was surprised by how much I was bored with some of these. I don't fault the release of these, since the completist in me wants them all, but I haven't seen the show in over 10 years and I was astonished at how much I loved some of these and how much I couldn't wait until some of them were finished... ho hum...

Ed

Are those later episodes at least unintenionally funny like the SuperFriends? Or are they completely dull? I don't know if I want to buy the whole set if so much of it is subpar.

 

[Helena Wayne]

Are those later episodes at least unintenionally funny like the SuperFriends? Or are they completely dull? I don't know if I want to buy the whole set if so much of it is subpar.

No, a lot of it isn't subpar, at least to me. I'm just expressing my surprise since I was so gung-ho over this set and thought I'd love every episode. It's been at least 10 years since I've seen these shows (probably even more, like 15) so my memory was hazy. Sometimes the memory of liking a show is what we're enamoured with rather than the show itself. But that isn't the case here. There are definitely a lot of eps on this set that make it worth the purchase. There are just some stinkers as well, at least in my opinion, but we all have different tastes and you may end up liking the eps I dismissed as boring in my earlier post.

In any case, don't hesitate to buy this. It's worth the investment.

Ed

 

[angilbas]

Sometimes the memory of liking a show is what we're enamoured with rather than the show itself. But that isn't the case here. There are definitely a lot of eps on this set that make it worth the purchase. There are just some stinkers as well, at least in my opinion, but we all have different tastes and you may end up liking the eps I dismissed as boring in my earlier post.


Ed

I like Cloud City of Gold. Its music, which sounds like 1950s horror stock, enhances this ep's genuine suspense. Bold colors make the scenery eye-catching. The plot elements (like devil-tailed bats gathering in an attack formation) are preposterous, but fun. And the animation, though cheap, isn't entirely limited (at one point, foreground stalagmites move faster than the background ones to give the scene a 3-D effect ... and the bats' tails wave menacingly as they prepare to dive).


-Tony

 

[Helena Wayne]

I finally got done watching ALL of the episodes on this DVD. Man, I had no idea how much stealing from other episodes this show did, especially for Season 3. I can take recycled shots of Spidey swinging and all, but come on, recycling stories that only appeared a season before? That's really bad.

But you know what? I wouldn't part with this set for anything. This show was such an integral part of my childhood and there's enough gold in the set to make up for the lemons.

Thanks Buena Vista!

Ed

 

[Hypestyle]

... I've got all of them on vhs.. but a dvd set would be super-convenient.. yeah, I'll pick it up somewhere eventually..

 

[Helena Wayne]

... I've got all of them on vhs.. but a dvd set would be super-convenient.. yeah, I'll pick it up somewhere eventually..

Yeah, I recommend that you do, if only for storage space. The thought of all 3 seasons on VHS must be quite a space taker, although it's better than nada. The quality is better than anything I've seen on TV as well, although about 5 eps seem a little washed out. Guess the show aged in more ways than one...

Ed

 

[Hypestyle]

I'll pick up the set eventually.. though I am disappointed that there is not much commentary..

Bakshi is apparently bitter over being mistreated.. unless there was a big check involved, he probably wouldn't have participated anyway..

though it would have been nice to get Stan Lee, John Romita, and some contemporary comix creators who don't hate the show to comment...

 

[Batman]

I like this Dvd & many of the episodes in it althought it could have been better with more Speical Features.

 

[jermainemack]

Spider-Man The 67 Collection Talkback

I still have it on all 6 DVD set that I have at the mall in SC on my vacation in one of my favorite Spider-Man The 67 Collection and I watch all 52 episodes of Spider-Man when it ran on ABC from 1967-1970 atfer 3 seasons when Grantray-Lawrence Animation/Krantz Films made that show back in the 60's and I still have that at on DVD!

 

[Weibart]

We've already got a talkback for this collection, so I'm going to merge this thread with it.

 

[Hypestyle]

"The Big Brainwasher"

pete actually drives a car in several eps... neat, compared to the comics.. or the current toons...

 

[Stu]

I remember reading a comic where the Human Torch taught him to drive the Spider-Mobile.

Really.

I also read a later issue, in which the Invisable Woman asks him to take the wheel, and as soon as he stops, he's shaking, telling her he's never drove before.

 

[Trevor]

I picked up this collection back in 2006, one of my first TV-on-DVD purchases after I got out of college (when this was released in 2004 I was just heading to college, so I wasn't able to afford it then). But I wasn't prepared for the video quality of this set. Shure I had the DVD's of the 90's Spider-Man series mainly because I had wanted to see the episodes from this series, and I had noticed that on the "Daredevil" and "Doc Ock" DVD's I noticed the video quality was very good for this series, while the episodes on the Ultimate Villain Showdown and "Green Goblin" DVD's looked like they had been covered with the black exhaust that the Goblin's glider was emitting in the 67 Goblin episode on the Return of the Green Goblin DVD, and the video was very grainy and dark, and the audio sounded like it was coming through a speaker that someone had wrapped a couple of coats around.

But when I popped, I think it was the second disc, to view The Origins of Spider-Man episode I was just blown away by the video quality. This was not the same episode that had been shown in constant repeats and that had been used on the Ultimate Villain Showdown DVD and how many VHS Marvel Collections. Even the audio was really sharp and crisp.

But by far, back in 2006, I found that the most cleaned up episode that I could see on the set was the Goblin episode that had been a bonus on the Return of the Green Goblin DVD. It no longer looked like I was trying to see through the Green Goblin's poorly tuned engine exhaust and I was able to see details that had been obscured in the old transfers just from generational loss either due to the original film master being handled quite a bit, or even from the tape master being who-knows-how-many-generations-away from the original tape master that was probably on 3/4 tape in the 70's.

As for bonus content---that was the only major downside to this set. Aside from the note from Stan Lee, I was suprised that there were no audio commentaries or even interviews with Stan Lee or some of the voice actors and illustrators (with bonuses I'm sort of comparing this set to how Warner Brothers issued the old 1966 How The Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000 with an audio commentary by animator Phil Roman and Cindy Loo-Who voice actress June Foray, plus the 1994 TV special edition).

Anyway, hopefully, now that Disney owns Marvel we will see this collection re-released on DVD and released on Blu-Ray.

 

[Trevor]

I was watching the first episode of this show the other day and it’s still amazing how well this show holds up, and even these 480p transfers (even though it was Remastered in 1080p, but I don’t think those HD versions have been aired or streamed anywhere—-they sure haven’t seen Blu-Ray) from 2004 still look good 16 years later. Of course, it would be nice if these shows were reissued on Blu-Ray, since it’s a shame that this show is still in 480p. But for now, in 2020, the 2004 Disney DVD is the Best Quality for this series in NTSC markets (Morningstar released some episodes in 2008-2010 on DVD, but they were sourced from the 1985 Prism Marvel Library Betamax/VHS collection—-but from their sound it they appear to be from Betamax, but Morningstar used a low-quality, mono Betamax player, even though the tapes were recorded in Hi-Fi).