Saturday, January 30, 2010

Groove's Faves: Spidey Meets The Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Players

In 1978, both Spider-Man and Saturday Night Live were still extremely cool. In a move that would make headlines today, but then only got a notice on the Bullpen Bulletins page, Marvel worked out a deal with NBC to make this wild and crazy team-up happen. (Was it due to some behind-the-scenes effort on the parts of Marvel EiC Jim Shooter and SNL producer/creator Lorne Michaels? Inquiring minds would like to know!) If the idea of Spider-Man teaming with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman to battle Silver Samurai weren't wacky enough, writer Chris Claremont and artists Bob Hall and Marie Severin tossed in Stan Lee as SNL's guest-host and Rick Jones as musical guest. As a story, it's definitely a groovy diversion. As a peek into what was far-out in 1978 in general (well, sans disco, take that as you will) and SNL in particular, it's a must-read, baby! So here's the rarely-seen Marvel Team-Up #74 (July 1978)..."Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!"
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4 comments:

  1. Simon B January 30, 2010 at 9:30 AM

    Nice to see Statler and Waldorf putting in an appearance!

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  2. The Groovy AgentJanuary 30, 2010 at 9:56 AM

    Gives a whole new meaning to "Mupets Live!", doesn't it? ;D

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  3. M W GallaherJanuary 30, 2010 at 4:14 PM

    I haven't read my copy of this in decades...man, Claremont was NOT good at comedy, was he? Those "gags" were painful. And it's probably just the perspective of now having decades of familiarity with the actors, but he didn't seem to capture their voices at all--can anyone picture Garrett Morris using the word "gunsels"?

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  4. The Groovy AgentJanuary 31, 2010 at 1:45 PM

    Yeah, this is proof as to why Claremont won us over with his angsty X-Men work instead of Crazy magazine. Still, it's wonky fun!

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