So, this is the Saturday
Smorgasbord for today, and to open things up, I will warn you ahead
of time. Although the third Saturday in the month is usually
dedicated towards cartoons, the first part of the entry will focus on
video games. When you read on, you'll understand why.
I mentioned this last week
in this space, but I've almost always been a loyal customer of
Nintendo and Nintendo related products. I did own a Sony PlayStation
and an Intellivision at some time, but for the most part, I've always
been a Nintendo fan. I owned the original Nintendo, the Super
Nintendo, and the Nintendo DS and 3DS. I just loved every single
video game released on the various consoles. To me, Nintendo was a
major part of my childhood (and remains a big part of my adulthood as
well), and I wil forever be a fan.
That's why when I heard
the news that former President of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi passed
away at the age of 85 after a battle with pneumonia, the video game
world mourned his loss. This is a man who spent practically his
whole life working for Nintendo. He joined the company in 1949 at a
time in which the company only focused on the manufacturing of
playing cards, and by the mid-1980s transformed it into one of the
most successful video game companies of all-time. Although he
stepped down from his role as president of the company in 2002, he
remained with the company until 2005. What makes Yamauchi stand out
in the crowd of CEO's in the business world is the fact that when he
retired, he refused to accept his retirement pension (which at the
time was worth at least ten million dollars US) because he felt that
the company could find a better use for the money! And, while he
retained a 10% share in all of Nintendo's profits, he used the
profits generated from sales of the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS and
built a cancer treatment center in Kyoto, Japan! Even with the
recent financial troubles that Nintendo experienced in the latter
part of 2012 in which Yamauchi reportedly lost a large fortune, he
still had enough money to ensure that his retirement was a
comfortable one.
His death on September 19,
2013 was a real loss to Nintendo, and the gaming world in general. I
know that my childhood was greatly impacted by his contributions to
Nintendo, and I for one am grateful for everything he did.
Granted, I don't think my
teachers felt quite the same way as I often did my homework at the
last minute as a result of a marathon gaming session. But,
hey...they didn't have to know that at the time.
So, for today's entry in
the blog, I wanted to pay homage to Hiroshi Yamauchi, as well as
Nintendo in general by doing a special blog on Nintendo.
But, considering that this
is supposed to be a blog on cartoons, can it be done?
I say...yes.
I'm not sure how many of
you actually are aware of this, but several Nintendo video games have
been made into animated cartoons. Years ago on TeleToon (Canada's
version of The Cartoon Network), there was a cartoon that was based
off of the successful Donkey Kong series.
If you watched Captain N:
The Video Game Master at all, you'd recognize some characters found
in Nintendo games. You'd recognize characters from Kid Icarus, Mega
Man, and Castlevania found in that cartoon.
And, let's be honest here.
Although Sega did create Sonic the Hedgehog, since Nintendo bought
out Sega a few years back, Sonic is considered to be a part of the
Nintendo family, and as such, we can include the two cartoon
variations of Sonic the Hedgehog that have aired over the years.
But for today's special
look back on Saturday Morning television, we're going to look at the
cartoon that started it all off. It remains the very first Nintendo
cartoon to ever air on television, and as of 2013, you can pick up
the entire series on DVD format.
Unfortunately, the one
beef that I have with the cartoon is that in the twenty-four years
since it first aired, it has not aged well. But as an eight year old
kid, I couldn't get enough of it. Though admittedly, I liked the
cartoon portion of the show than the live-action parts.
Imagine that, a television
show that combined cartoons with live-action.
I'm not about to keep you
hanging with baited breath any longer. Let's just take a look at the
intro of today's show.
Yes. We are going to be
taking a look at “The Super Mario Brothers Super Show”!
The show debuted on most
FOX stations on September 4, 1989 and ran for thirteen weeks with the
run concluding on December 1 of the same year. But what was
interesting about the show was that unlike most television cartoons
in which a season was equivalent to thirteen episodes, this series
ran for a total of sixty-five. That's because the show aired five
days a week instead of just once. Although the series only lasted
one season, the reruns continued well into 1991 – likely sparked by
the popularity of Mario games at that time.
(Truth be told, if I were
to ask a random group of people what they consider to be the golden
era of Super Mario was, they'd likely say the late 1980s and early
1990s. But I'll also state that Mario has seen a period of
renaissance beginning with the release of the New Super Mario
Brothers series.)
Now, as I mentioned
before, the show was a combination of live action segments and
cartoon segments. At the beginning of the show and the end of the
show were the live action components.
The way the live action
scenes worked were like this. As most of you know, Mario and Luigi
worked as plumbers in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
Somehow, both of them ended up sucked into the wrong pipe while on a
plumbing job, and they both find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom,
where they've essentially been rescuing Princess (I still refuse to
call her Peach) Toadstool from Bowser's clutches since 1985.
Well, the live action
scenes were set in the Mario Brothers plumbing offices in the heart
of Brooklyn. Mario was portrayed by WWE wrestler Captain Lou Albano
(1933-2009), and Luigi was played by character actor Danny Wells (b.
1941). And in each of their scenes, they would often be given a plot
outlined on a sheet of paper, and both Lou and Danny would have to
improvise their lines. Sometimes Lou and Danny would step out of
character and portray themselves on the show as well.
The show would also
feature special celebrity guests who at the time were huge named
stars in prime time television or star athletes. Below is a partial
list of some of the celebrities that appeared on the show.
Lyle Alzado (former
football player)
Brian Bonsall (Wesley from
Mr. Belvedere)
Donna Douglas (Elly Mae
from The Beverly Hillbillies)
Nicole Eggert (Jaime from
Charles in Charge/Summer from Baywatch)
Norman Fell (Mr. Roper
from Three's Company)
Magic Johnson (former
basketball player)
Cyndi Lauper (“Girls
Just Wanna Have Fun” singer)
Danica McKellar (Winnie
from The Wonder Years)
Eve Plumb (Jan from The
Brady Bunch)
Nedra Volz (Adelaide from
Diff'rent Strokes)
Vanna White (letter turner
on Wheel of Fortune)
TRIVIA:
This wasn't the first time Lou Albano would work with Cyndi Lauper.
He played Cyndi's dad in the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” music
video!
The show also had a few
crossovers with some other cartoons. Given that the cartoon was
produced by DiC Entertainment, naturally other DiC creations would
make an appearance. But, did you think that they would appear in the
live action segments? It's true!
Ernie Hudson appeared as a
character known as “Slimebuster”, a parody of the character he
played in the 1984 film “Ghostbusters”. Dic Entertainment would
have a hand in bringing the animated series based on the film to the
small screen.
And even Inspector Gadget
would make an appearance...though Don Adams wouldn't portray him.
This version was performed by Maurice LaMarche (who actually voiced
Chief Quimby in the cartoon's second year). “Inspector Gadget”
was also produced by DiC Entertainment, and if you watch the clip
below, LaMarche actually does a brilliant job doing “Gadget's”
voice.
Now, as for the animated
portions of the show? Well, depending on the day in which you
watched the show, you would see different cartoons.
If you were to watch the
show on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you would see an
animated version of the Super Mario Brothers. Given that the show
originally aired in 1989, the cartoons were based on the video games
“Super Mario Brothers” and “Super Mario Brothers 2”, as
“Super Mario 3” wasn't released in North America until February
1990.
(However DiC would later
produce separate cartoons for both “Super Mario Brothers 3” and
“Super Mario World”, which aired on NBC in 1990 and 1991
respectively.)
Although enemies from both
“Super Mario Brothers” and “Super Mario Brothers 2” appear in
the cartoons, we only see Bowser as the show's main antagonist. Keep
in mind that Wart was all a figment of Mario's imagination at the end
of the second game.
In addition to Mario,
Luigi, and Bowser, Toad and Princess (I still refuse to call
her Peach) Toadstool make appearances as well. And, hey, in some of
these cartoons, Princess Toadstool actually makes it through an
entire episode without being kidnapped! Must be a new record!
Now, that was what you saw
on Mondays through Thursdays. What about Fridays?
Well, lest you believe
that Super Mario was Nintendo's only creation at the time the show
aired, you would be wrong. Did you know that “The Legend of Zelda”
was released in 1986 and became just as popular as Super Mario?
This explains why on
Fridays, viewers were treated to an animated version of “The Legend
of Zelda”, where we would see Link and Zelda teaming up to wage war
against Ganon, who threatens the harmony of Hyrule as well as the
power of the Triforce. Although the Zelda series didn't have nearly
as many episodes of the series as the Super Mario series did, the way
that they were broadcast, you almost had to watch every episode in
order, or else you would be completely lost as to trying to
understand the plot.
Here. I'll post an
episode of the Super Mario series as well as the Zelda series below.
Which one do you like best?
Even after the series
wrapped up, the show found new life in syndication. In 1990, the
show was re-aired under the title “Club Mario”, with the
live-action Mario segments replaced with brand new ones featuring
“Nintendo obsessed teenagers”. As well, beginning in 1994, The
Family Channel began airing the animated series from The Super Mario
Brothers Super Show in a package deal with the Super Mario World
series (surprisingly enough, Super Mario Brothers 3 was left out of
the deal). The cartoons were broadcast under the title of “Mario
All-Stars” - coincidentally the same title as the Super Nintendo
compilation which saw four Mario games compiled onto one cartridge.
Ultimately, The Super
Mario Brothers Super Show was a forgettable entry in the world of
Saturday Morning Cartoons, and the program hasn't quite aged as well
as it probably should have. But you know what? I loved it. In
fact, it probably helped fuel my love for all Nintendo products for
ever and ever.
It certainly is a good
representation of the legacy that Hiroshi Yamauchi left behind.
Ultimately he wanted to create a product that brought fun to boys and
girls of all ages, and that's exactly what he accomplished.
Much like The Super Mario
Brothers Super Show did all those years ago.
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