Spider-man: The Animated Series that aired on Fox from 1994-1998 was the best of all the animated Spider-man programs to date. Each episode actually consisted of a story and an attempt at character development.  As storytelling in live action television seems to have evolved over the years, many of these animated programs (not included the prime time ones) have de-evolved.  I feel as if the newer animated programs have really been dumbed-down and their target audience seems to be aimed at five year olds (which is fine if you’re a five year old). 

The animated “Justice League” was the last of the great animated superhero programs.  The storytelling and character arcs had a very adult feel to it.  Not to mention, it was part of a larger world.  It included the continuity of the Batman, Superman, and Batman Beyond animated series.  I don’t think continuity on this scope had ever been done before in the animated world.  In contrast, the newest Justice League feature length cartoon “Justice League: War” was a real step back.  I felt that it really spit in the face of its predecessor. 

Anyhow, to drive my point home, here is an excerpt from the Spider-man writer’s guide that I have posted below.

“If you write for this show, please don’t think of yourself as writing the ”cartoon”adventures of SPIDER-MAN. Yes, the stories will be animated, but we want you to think of them as big-budget cinema. We want all of the characters to be conceived, written and acted as if they were appearing in a live-action motion picture. We want the SPIDER-MAN world to be fully created, so that every inch of it carries a kind of cinematic “reality” that transcends the traditional animated artwork.”

I can almost guarantee that you are not going to find that paragraph in any of the current superhero cartoon writer’s guides.  That is how the Spider-man animated series felt – like an animated big budget feature version.  The stories were that big in scope.

So if you are an aspiring writer, you may find what I have posted here uniquely interesting – both the Writer’s guide (which serves as the bible to the show for anyone scripting an episode) and the script for the first aired episode for the 90’s Spider-man Animated Series.

I’ve also embedded the first episode in case you’d like to compare it to the script.  So in the words of Stan Lee… Excelsior! And for that, I can only reply… Gesundheit!

Click HERE to read the Writer’s Guide.

Click HERE to read the Script.

Watch the Episode