Nicholas Hammond's Complete Seventies' TV Series 8 DVD Set
For the first time on the screen... the world's favorite adventure super-hero comes alive. In 1978, a pumped-up Nicholas Hammond starred in the brief weekly live-action TV adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man. He can cling to walls, and he has the proportional strength and agility of a human-sized arachnid.
This drama series about the famous web-slinger first aired on April 5, 1978 and starred Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spidey.
After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) develops super-powers and is able to climb vertical structures with ease, as well as perform other feats -- just what one needs to become a super crime fighter. He whips up a spider costume and decides to use his powers to fight crime and evil. He works as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper by night.
He constructs web-shooters, which he wears on his wrists (over the costume, in this version, and later on only one wrist) which allow him to swing from building to building and to catch crooks in a massive web. This version of the wall-crawler's exploits suffered from a low effects budget and long periods of hiatus between episodes. Still, it holds pride of place as the first live-action version of the web-head, and over the years has become a cult favorite.
The series remained true to the comic books, and the final few episodes were screened as specials.
Although Nicholas Hammond was officially cast in the dual role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, many shots of Spider-Man in the series were actually of Stunt-Man/Actor/Director Fred Waugh wearing the famous costume.
During Spider-Man's run, Fred carried out some spectacular stunts on Nicholas Hammond's behalf, such as scaling the Empire State Building in "A Matter Of State", swinging between buildings in "Spider-Man", swinging from a prison roof onto the roof of a car in "Con Caper" and dangling from a helicopter in "The Deadly Dust". In the latter stunt, Fred very nearly collided with the side of a building when the helicopter he was dangling from flew too low.
