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| Nothing like the voice of the greatest tag-team manager of all time coming from your favorite video game character to clue you in to the fact you're in for something special |
“Hey, paisanos! It's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!”
- Mario
This is a section of the blog titled "Super Mario Beyond", where we'll cover parts of this franchise that don't belong to the main series of platformer video games!
And this first entry in "Super Mario Beyond" is the 1989 animated/live-action TV series: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
The Facts
Air Date: September 4-December 1, 1989
Channel: First-run syndication
Executive Producer: Steve Binder, Andy Heyward
Episodes: 65 (130 total segments)
Currently Available On: WildBrain's Cartoon Super Heroes YouTube Channel
What's the Deal
It's a half-hour variety show based on Nintendo's two biggest NES franchises! Every weekday, you'd get two halves of a live-action Mario Bros. segment (starring Captain Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi), with a short cartoon in the middle!
Monday through Thursday, the cartoon was “The Super Mario Bros.”, (loosely based on Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2) about Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool traveling to all sorts of specifically-themed lands, looking for a way to free the Mushroom Kingdom from the evil King Koopa.
On Fridays, you'd get another 2-part live-action Mario Bros. segment, but the cartoon in the middle would be “The Legend of Zelda”, chronicling the attempts of Link and Princess Zelda to keep the Triforce of Wisdom away from the sinister sorcerer, Ganon.
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| This show is the reason I have an NRBQ vinyl framed on my living room wall |
Background/Development
DiC Entertainment approached Nintendo of America with a proposal to adapt their games into television, and while NoA turned them down at first, they eventually accepted, requiring DiC to pay extensive royalties, which was rare for the time.
The show was originally conceived as “The Super Mario Bros. Power Hour”, and was to have segments based on Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid (starring a male Samus), California Games, and Double Dragon.
There was some artwork made for this early stage of the show, with a more exaggerated and surreal style that kinda resembles DiC's later Nintendo-based series, Captain N: The Game Master, with some elements, like Bowser and Luigi, looking more like they do in the games.
There was even an early piece of concept art that made it onto an officially-licensed TV tray at the time.
Due to the fact that the Super Mario Bros. games were kinda light on story and characterization, Andy Heyward had the idea of most episodes focusing on parodying a specific genre.
Despite this, DiC executive Robbie London stated that the staff appreciated the creative freedom that came with the thin source material, and that Nintendo rarely interfered with the creation of the show, pretty much allowing them to do what they wanted.
Every animated segment would include a cover of a popular song, such as Steppenwolf's “Magic Carpet Ride” in an episode involving magic carpets, Carl Douglas' “Kung Fu Fighting” in an episode parodying martial arts films.
Early VHS releases included these musical numbers, but ever since the early 90s, all rereleases include generic instrumentals instead (which kinda hurts the show a bit. My favorite episode has Mario proudly proclaiming “I'm bad!” which doesn't work without Michael Jackson's “Bad” playing)
The cover of “Jungle Love” by the Time in one episode replaced the first “Oh-we-oh-we-oh” in the chorus with “Mario-we-oh-we-oh”, which was a cute gag.
The live-action segments featured a lot of guest star appearances, like magician Harry Blackstone Jr., actress Nicole Eggert, Wheel of Fortune co-host Vanna White, NBA legend Magic Johnson, Ernie Hudson (parodying his role in Ghostbusters) and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!
- Captain Lou Albano no doubt used his connections to get
WWFWWE wrestlers like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter to guest on the show, as well as Cyndi Lauper (who Albano was managing at the time, and was good friends with).
This series was followed up in 1990 with The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, which was paired with the animated Captain N & The Game Masters instead of live-action segments, as was 1991's Super Mario World cartoon.
These sequel series recast the Mario Bros., and were much more faithful to the games they're based on...but they seem to lack that special something that the Super Show! had. (No disrespect to Walker Boone and Tony Rosato, but they're no Captain Lou and Danny Wells)
Though The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is fun at times, and I recommend checking it out, but steer clear of the Super Mario World cartoon. It's just painful to watch (aside from the finale, “Mama Luigi”, which despite having been memed to oblivion, is a surprisingly solid end to this cartoon trilogy)
The weirdest follow-up to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was King Koopa's Kool Kartoons, a variety show featuring a live-action version of King Koopa from this series hosting public domain cartoons to a live audience of children called his “Koopa Troopas”. Weird.
This is the least-strange image of Kool Kartoons I could find.
In 1994, the animated segments of the Super Show! were aired with episodes of DiC's Super Mario World cartoon in a package on The Family Channel known as Mario All Stars, which later moved to USA.
Ten years later, Yahooligans! TV (a free streaming site for kids run by Yahoo! containing various DiC programming) started uploading an episode every Friday for about a year.
My History With It
If I had to guess, I'd say that I first caught this show on the Mario All Stars block before school in the mornings when I was four.
I owned two VHS releases of it: Mario's Magic Carpet and Mario Meets Koop-Zilla
I was especially entertained by the Steppenwolf cover, and likely wore the tape out from rewatching it repeatedly. When I went in for ear surgery at the age of five, my mom called the local classic rock station and asked the DJ to play “Magic Carpet Ride” for me as we were driving to the hospital.
When I got back into the franchise at age seven or so, I recall digging the Koop-Zilla tape out and watching it a lot.
I was pretty stoked when Yahooligans! TV began running it in '04, since I got to see episodes I hadn't seen in what felt like forever, as well as ones I'd never seen, like most of the live-action segments, since All Stars didn't include them.
First episode I watched there was “On Her Majesty's Sewer Service”, where Mario and Luigi become secret agents to stop Koopfinger from robbing Fort Hard Knox.
I told my best friend about the episode a few days later, and the “No, N” thing became a running gag between us for the rest of our freshman year.
My high school graduation gift in '08 was Shout! Factory's first DVD volume of the series.
For my webcomic, I did a parody of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and based the Ghost of Christmas Present on Captain Lou Albano, because while I wasn't into pro wrestling, I did love this show.
...shortly afterwards, however, I did develop a big interest in 80s wrestling, with the Captain being by and far away my favorite. In an indirect way, I met Sgt. Slaughter and Jerry Lawler because of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, since it opened this up for me. Lawler even complimented my Captain Lou shirt.
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| "I guess we win by default!" "It's not my fault!" |
General Thoughts
Writer Perry Martin said that he rarely ever watched the show because the one time he did, he couldn't help but cringe at how the episode turned out. The show was absolutely riddled with animation errors, and bizarre choices, like the Indiana Jones parody not having a face. It was long believed that it was an animation error, but Martin suggested that it might've been done for legal reasons, since he wrote the character as being a caricature of Harrison Ford.
My personal favorite episode of the series is “King Mario of Cramalot”. I think the premise of doing a parody of Arthurian legend with these characters is interesting, and there's some genuinely funny stuff there, like Luigi faking labor pains to get out of doing something, pretty much everything Mervin the Magician says, Excalibur being a golden plumber's snake, the Sword in the Stone being a plunger stuck in a bathtub, King Koopa's conversation with a clueless Troopa:
“So, Mario thinks he's king of Cramalot. That impudent little faucet-fixer! How dare he! There's only one king of Cramalot! And who is that?”
“Ah, can ya give me a hint?”
“He's sitting right here on this throne!”
“Well gee, maybe ya better get off him.”
“I'm talking about ME, you know-nothing nincompoop!!”
“Count Koopula” is another good one, with King Koopa and his minions being reinterpreted as vampires that survive on tomato sauce. Also, zombie Goombas, Tweeter bats, Werewolf Koopa Troopas, Toad threatening a gargoyle with an impromptu nose job...what's not to love?
A good chunk of the fun is seeing what kind of kooky themed persona Koopa's going with in each episode.
“Brooklyn Bound” is oddly emotional for this kinda series, with Mario and Luigi having to decide between staying in the Mushroom Kingdom or going back home.
In this series, Fire Flowers and Stars have the same effect: they turn the character “Super”, which means that they can throw fireballs and, uh...fly by flapping their arms.
In one case, a Star turned Toad into a biker. No, really. He became “the Toad Warrior”.
Also, once Mario became a Super Mario by grabbing a star he saw after being bonked in the head. It's weird, but I love it, man.
While it may seem odd to a modern viewer that the princess isn't named “Peach”, it's important to note that up until Yoshi's Safari in 1993, she was always named “Princess Toadstool” outside of Japan.
- Bowser being renamed “King Koopa”, on the other hand is an odd choice, since “Koopa” is the character's name in Japan. Might've been done because he's known as "the King of the Koopa" in English?
While the idea of Mario and Luigi being plumbers was established back in the 1983 Mario Bros. arcade game (before they were Super), this cartoon is what firmly set the idea of it in the public consciousness (presumably to explain the Warp Pipes), and the show really leaned into it.
In fact, it was a running theme in the games of the 80s to depict Mario as a different blue collar profession almost every time he appeared: he was a construction worker in Donkey Kong, plumber in Mario Bros., worked demolition in Wrecking Crew, boxing referee in Punch-Out!!, and in various Game & Watch titles, he was a cement factory worker, circus ringmaster, American soldier serving in Vietnam, and an assembly line worker at a cake factory.
I was gonna mention “villain” as his occupation in Donkey Kong Jr., but I don't think there's many jobs that pay to be evil. At least not blue collar jobs. Maybe politics.
Also, this show seems to be the origin of Mario & Luigi originating from Brooklyn, New York. Presumably because New York has a very high concentration of Italian-Americans. This has never been reflected in the main games themselves, with 1995's Yoshi's Island showing that Mario and Luigi were born in the Mushroom Kingdom.
This bit of backstory made its way into the 1993 live-action movie, the Valiant Comics series, the Japanese strategy guide for Super Mario 64, a few educational spinoff games, with the general fandom assumption being that the events of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. took place in Brooklyn (at least until Super Mario Odyssey established the former as being in New Donk City).
Always thought Mario and Luigi's apartment was so cool
The live-action segments aren't quite as strong as the cartoons, and have even less connection to the source material aside from the characters of Mario and Luigi. But they're still fun, bite-sized sitcom shenanigans.
I also rather like the original characters in these segments, like the half alligator/half rodent Ratagator that the bros. keep as a pet, or Edison, their electrician roommate (he's got a cool design).
The guest stars are a lot of fun, too. I admit to some bias here when I say that Elvira's appearances are among my favorites (since I'm a big fan of hers), but I also really enjoyed the segment “Captain Lou is Missing” where Cyndi Lauper recruits Mario and Luigi to find her missing manager (funny how Captain Lou finally appears only AFTER Mario has left. Odd.)
DUDE. It's Elvira, teaming up with Mario, who is played by Captain Lou Albano! I swear I did not write this episode.
Due to this coming about so early in the franchise's history, there's a few things this show did first that, coincidentally, ended up in the games. Most notably, Luigi's characterization of being more fearful and timid than the other heroes started in these cartoons (though not in the live-action segments, oddly, where Luigi is more the straight man to his wackier brother). Mario's appetite (for Italian food in particular) in this series is later referenced in Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Luigi's Mansion 3. John Stocker's raspier voice for Toad in this series is somewhat similar for the voice used for the character in the games beginning in Super Mario Advance.
Another of my favorite episodes is “Do You, Princess Toadstool, Take This Koopa...” where, uh, Princess Toadstool is forced to marry King Koopa. This was later used as a premise for Super Paper Mario action RPG spinoff and most notably in Super Mario Odyssey.
Also, the original broadcast version of this used a cover of Billy Idol's "White Wedding"! AWESOME!
I'm not talking much about The Legend of Zelda cartoon because this is a Super Mario blog, but I rather like it. Not much of the games' mythology is present in that series because there were only two NES Zelda games to draw from at the time. But it's a pretty solid 80s fantasy adventure cartoon. Princess Zelda takes a more active role in the adventures, which is fun, and it's just a good time.
Also, Link's fairy companion, Spryte (who predates Navi by nine years) is pretty cute (not pictured here, unfortunately)
2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie seems to be taking some inspiration from this series, such as the first teaser trailer playing the opening notes of the theme song, the lyrics appearing on a poster, the Mario Bros.' origin being plumbers from a large city (maybe Brooklyn? Not sure yet) and Chris Pratt using a slight New York accent in his portrayal of Mario.
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| I used "Pasta Power!" as one of my taunt messages when I started playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl online, since I was binging this show when it was released. |
Conclusion
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is very important to this franchise, particularly in how it's perceived in the West (since Japan never got it, I believe). And yes, it's definitely flawed. Animation errors all over the place, the writing and acting can be hokey, there's unnecessary deviations away from the source material at times...but I think there's still a fun, enjoyable series there in spite of (or sometimes because of) that. I recommend it.
“Until next time, everybody...DO THE MARIO!”
-Mario, Luigi, and the live-action guest star
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