Syndication Files 11.04.09: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
Posted by Porfirio Diaz on 11.04.2009
Hey Paisanos! It’s the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Nintendo’s famous mascot received its own live action/cartoon series back in the late 1980s, starring the late Captain Lou Albano as Mario! Do you remember how great this show was as a kid? Get ready to have your childhood memories vigorously crushed. So “Do the Mario”, and relive Mario and Luigi’s greatest (and most embarrassing) moments on the show on the next edition of the Syndication Files.
Almost 20 years later and I finally know what "Paisanos" means. That's a huge load off my mind.
I wanted to pay tribute for the late Captain Lou Albano by writing about this show earlier but I couldn't move column stuff around until after October. It's after October now, and here it is!
Now that I think about it, is this really a tribute to him or is it more along the lines of dancing on his grave? Let's find out.
Syndication Files #17
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
Do the Mario!
Rule #2 in American animated cartoons series: always make the introduction into a rapping theme song. Always!
Is it just me or is that theme song the cheesiest thing ever?! Talk about awful but we as kids ate it up. I'm only just scratching the surface here.
What's "Rule #1"? The law of physics does not compute normally in the animated world. Tis a cruel mistress.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is another in a long line of toy and video game based cartoon series that found its way to homes every Saturday morning during the golden age of cartoons in the 1980s. Nintendo was dominating the video game industry thanks to the Super Mario Bros. video game series and had released the bulky but lovable 8-bit handheld Game Boy device earlier in the same year that the cartoon show first appeared. DiC Entertainment and Viacom Enterprises got together with Nintendo with an idea to produce a cartoon series based on the popular Super Mario Bros. video game. If companies can whore out toy based cartoons to great success, then they figure the same thing could be done for video games. I don't know if this show was the first ever video game based cartoon series but you can't think of "video game cartoon show" without thinking of this one. The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! premised to casual and hardcore Nintendo fans everywhere on September 4, 1989.
I don't think I need to tell you how prominent Super Mario Bros. became. That one little 8-bit NES game managed to spawn a million sequels and spin-offs. However, nothing would compare to the hilariously embarrassing live action-cartoon crossover show.
Rule #24 – use of laugh track makes everything funnier (or extremely annoying)
Hey there's Sgt. Slaughter again. Was there any television show he wouldn't sell himself to? But I have to hand it to the guy. He knew when to use his wrestling persona to pursue other interests and at the same time further lengthen his fanbase.
The show featured two combination styles of production: a live action version and an animated version. The live action version featured the late Captain Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi. Both are plumbers who have their own business in Brooklyn called Mario Brothers Plumbing, duh. Mario and Luigi get involve in a bit of slapstick humor that usually involves plumbing, pipes, or food. Mario sure loves his pasta and its various kinds of sauce. Stretch to fill less than half an hour worth of time and its done. The "funny" obviously geared towards children but it was enjoyed by people of all ages. The show even brought in celebrities for more additional "funny". Besides Captain Lou's influence in bringing in wrestling stars such as Sgt. Slaughter and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the show also brought in other celebrities such as Nicole Eggert, Vanna White, Norman "Mr. Roper" Fell, and more.
Worst moment of Magic Johnson's career: "The Magic Hour" or this?
Rule #2…Always!
Now it's time for the animated portion of the program. I don't know why they felt the need to have another introduction within the show. I guess they needed extra filler since the animated portion of the show was short, usually lasting under 13 minutes.
So the cartoon version features all the main characters from Super Mario Bros.: Mario, Luigi, Toad, then-named Princess Toadstool, and King Koopa. Many other characters/sounds/music/power-ups from Super Mario Bros. and even from Super Mario Bros. 2 (Birdo!) make an appearance here as well. The show doesn't exactly establish any depth or character development. They mostly have a bunch of silly kiddy stories that usually has Mario saving the princess again. We were a bunch of stupid kids back then so of course we wouldn't care about boring stuff like character development. We wanted to see Mario shoot fireballs, Mario stomp on Goombas, and watch King Koopa being put in his place. Plus I will cut them some slack on the whole "Mario saving the princess" shindig since it was a fresh concept at the time.
Episode: Bad Rap (Part 1) – ALWAYS!
Episode: Bad Rap (Part 2) - Seriously, what is it with this show and rapping?
But the stories…oh man, the stories. Looking back on them, they're absolutely terrible. What were we thinking back then? While they never approach Super Mario Bros. movie bad, some of these episodes still move towards ridiculous levels. What the hell does King Koopa gaining street cred by kidnapping James Brown (well at least he's trying something new) and taking over Rapland (?!) have to do with the Mario series? Not to mention the fact that everyone's rapping skills here sucks super hard. I'm talking about below William Shatner levels here. Vanilla Ice thinks this is embarrassing to listen to. Vanilla Ice!
Ah, I feel better now.
There are more ludicrous stories like this in the series: Mario and Luigi help Mark Twang win a riverboat race, Koopa uses a flute to lure all the children of Pastaland into his castle, and Mario's group helps free the natives of the planet Quirk from being Koopa's slaves.
Episode: Stars in their Eyes (Part 1) – Planet Quirk? Huh?
Episode: Stars in their Eyes (Part 2) – Ladies and gentlemen, it does not make sense!
I will say for a kid's show, the stories are passable. Like I said before, kids don't care as long as Mario touches a Super Star and blitz rushes fools. Kids are not as cynical as most adults. Probably why it worked for them (and me).
The quality of animation is very sub-par and washy but I've seen worse. It definitely looks outdated now but that's expected of any cartoon from the 1980s. At least it's better looking than the infamous Zelda CD-i games.
So the show would start off with the live action skits before showing the animated portion of the program. Actually the live action stuff intermixed with the animated shorts. So you'll see the live action sequences at the beginning, middle, and end of each show with the animated portions mix into it. The live action parts are only about 5 minutes each episode, which seems like a good amount of time to spend on watching Captain Lou prancing around in a traditional Mario get-up.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! only lasted for one season but that one season consisted of 52 episodes. Not bad, not bad at all. The final episode was shown on December 1, 1989, but that wasn't the end of Mario on television. The Nintendo related television series would grace the airwaves once again with The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, which is loosely based on the SNES video game. The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 was originally shown alongside with Captain N: The Game Master, but that's for another column.
Despite my seemingly harsh attitude towards the show, I had a lot of fun reliving these moments. Sure it's embarrassing to watch now but in a "so bad, it's good" kind of way. Actually there are quite a bit of funny moments found here but you have to go through a lot of amazingly corny gags to get there. No doubt this is a great nostalgic trip for Nintendo fans. For others, it's a great way to see how pessimistic you've become since the show first aired. But hey, the show entertained millions of kids (plus one) worldwide and that's all that matters.
I cannot in good faith end without also showing the legendary "ending credits" now, can I?
You can bet he took this to his grave
I'm not going to remember Captain Lou Albano as the great wrestling manager. I'm going to remember him singing this song while awkwardly performing the "Mario dance".
Just like thaaaat!
Commercial Break
Bat-fail
Obama catching that fly with one hand thinks Ginobili showed tremendous skills swatting that bat. Unfortunately for Ginobili, he had to undergo rabies shots. He took five shots two days after that game and has to take seven to 10 more shots over the next month.
Hint of warning Ginobili: I have a feeling P.E.T.A. is going to send a nasty e-mail your way very soon.
Tweet or Ban!
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No offense to The Fresh Prince and Roseanne (she's done that plenty of times herself) but The Wonders Years Thanksgiving week column is the one I'm looking forward to the most.
Ending Credits
Did I actually hear War Machine call Brock Lesnar "gay"? Dude, Brock Lesnar is not gay but his boyfriend sure is!
I was ready to congratulate the Yankees on finally buying their World Series title, but Phillies denied them of that on Monday. Go Phillies!
In case the Yankees do win on Wednesday: congratulations on winning the World Series. To think, all it took was to spend more money than the U.S. economy is in debt. Congratulations indeed.
*quietly awaits "Derek Jeter caught using steroids" story to hit within the month*
And with that, I'm out of time. Out like the Packers' chance of revenge against Brett Favre.
Posted By: Deathpool (Guest) on November 03, 2009 at 10:17 PM
What? No clip of Turbo from breakin, teachin the Mario Bros to dance? You didn't even mention King Koopa's spin off show or Club Mario, basically the same show, but with 2 "surfers"
Posted By: sumo (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 12:51 AM
What about the Legend of Zelda cartoon which they aways played on fridays. You missed that part of the show. Well excuse me princess!
Posted By: Sneaky Ninja Jr (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 02:39 AM
I don't even know what the Magic Hour was, but nothing could be worse than that. Quite hilarious though.
Posted By: James (Registered) (Guest) on November 04, 2009 at 07:23 AM
