The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!


The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! is an American live-action/animated television series that aired from September 4 to December 1, 1989, in syndication. The series is based on the video games Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 by Nintendo, and is the first of three television series to be based upon the Mario video game series. The animation was provided by South Korean company Sei Young Animation.
Each episode consists of live-action segments starring WWE Hall of Fame wrestler/manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi alongside a special guest, either as themselves or a character for the segments. The remainder of the program is dedicated to animated stories of Super Mario Bros., starring the voices of Albano and Wells in their respective roles, which were exhibited Monday through Thursday. The Friday episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was instead accompanied by animated serials based on Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series.
A sequel series based on Super Mario Bros. 3 aired the following year, followed by another show based on Super Mario World the year after that.

Premise

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! revolves around Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American plumbers from Brooklyn. The live-action segments, a parody of contemporary sitcoms, are set in Brooklyn and deal with the peculiarities of running a plumbing business in the late 1980s.
The Super Mario Bros. animated segments feature Mario and Luigi after they accidentally warp into the Mushroom Kingdom while fixing a bathtub drain. Each episode begins with Mario reciting an entry into his "Plumber's Log", then teaming up with Luigi to assist Princess Toadstool and Toad in preventing King Koopa from taking over the Kingdom with a sinister plot, generally one parodying a book, film, or historical event. Each episode's plot features characters and situations based upon the NES games Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2, as well as several sound effects and musical cues from both games. Despite being based on the games, some episodes feature inconsistencies between the series and the video games. For example, in the animated series, Mario receives fire powers from a Super Star, whereas the star grants temporary invincibility in the game, with the Fire Flower granting pyrokinesis.
The Legend of Zelda animated segments follow the adventures of the hero Link and Princess Zelda as they defend the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon, who has somehow come into possession of the Triforce of Power. Most episodes consist of Ganon either attempting to capture the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda, kidnap Zelda, or conquer Hyrule. In some episodes, Link and Zelda are assisted and accompanied by a fairy-princess named Spryte, who dislikes Zelda as she considers her to be a competitor for Link's affections. Throughout the series, Link is a moaning, self-centered teenager who repeatedly fails to convince Zelda that he deserves a kiss for his heroic deeds. Although Zelda is sometimes the damsel in distress, she is a headstrong, self-sufficient princess who is Link's equal. Link frequently meets Zelda's angry remarks with his sarcastic catchphrase, "Well, excuse me, Princess!"

Cast

Albano also appears as himself in "Captain Lou Is Missing".

Production

History and development

Before the series was conceived, Andy Heyward, the then-CEO of DIC Enterprises, spent about a year trying to convince Nintendo to license the characters. In an interview with USA Today, Heyward said: "The Mario Bros. is such a unique property we had to do it in a different way...We wanted to do a cartoon but also do a show that extended beyond the cartoon". The project originated as Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, a one hour long animation block that would have featured series based on a number of intellectual properties. Concept art was produced for adaptations of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Double Dragon, and California Games. With the exception of Mario and Zelda, none of these additional adaptations were ultimately produced. Double Dragon would receive a later adaptation from DIC which aired from 1993 to 1994, but this did not make use of the 1980s concepts and was instead based on the SNES titles released in the interim.
The show premiered in September 1989. To promote the series, Lou Albano appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in May 1989 with his beard shaven. When the series first aired, it was distributed by Viacom Enterprises and was marketed by MTV. In addition, DiC planned to produce an animated film based on the series, to be released in the summer of 1990. The film was never produced, and a live-action adaptation was instead released in 1993.
In David Sheff's book Game Over, Bill White, the then-director of advertising and public relations for Nintendo, said that the purpose of the television series was to boost awareness of the characters.
The Legend of Zelda animation was only produced for one season. Writer Phil Harnage said that the reason it was cancelled was partly because it was tied to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! rather than being its own show. He also said that the show received some letters from children asking for it to not be cancelled but this positive feedback was not enough to keep the show in production.

Format

Each episode of the program consisted of two live action segments, one at the start and the other towards the end, dubbed Mario Bros. Plumbing, in which Lou Albano and Danny Wells portrayed the roles of Mario and Luigi respectively in comedic story accompanied by a laugh track. These segments involved a celebrity guest star joining the pair, either as themselves or as a character connected to the segment's plot, who were often a popular television star or professional athlete ; such guests included Nedra Volz, Norman Fell, Donna Douglas, Eve Plumb, Vanna White, Lyle Alzado and Magic Johnson.
Alongside guest stars, both Albano and Wells portrayed additional characters in a number of episodes related to Mario and Luigi. In one episode, Albano played as himself, but had to make the character of Mario absent for this to work, while in a number of episodes the pair were joined by Maurice LaMarche in the live-action role of the animated character Inspector Gadget, before his eventual role in voicing the character in Inspector Gadget's Last Case and Gadget & the Gadgetinis. In an interview for Shout! Factory's first DVD release of the show in 2006 – which exclude some episodes that involved Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, alongside Gadget's second appearance and a few other episodes – Albano stated that filming of the live-action segments involved mainly himself and Wells receiving a central plot and mostly improvising the dialogue as they went along. The live-action segments were directed by Steve Binder and were filmed before a studio audience.
The rest of the episode in-between these live-action segments were dedicated to animated serials. For the majority of episodes, between Monday and Thursday, each episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! featured an animated serial of the Super Mario Bros., which both Albano and Wells voiced their respective characters. A total of 52 serials were aired under this schedule until 16 November 1989. For every subsequent Friday, the animated segments consisted of serials of The Legend of Zelda, with scenes featuring during the live-action segments on the preceding Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episodes during the week, and then broadcast as sneak peeks. A total of 13 serials were aired under this schedule, and following 16 November, were repeated for the remaining episodes of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! until its eventual conclusion.