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 (including WWE (then WWF) stars of the time); such guests included Nedra Volz, Norman Fell, Donna Douglas, Eve Plumb, Vanna White, Lyle Alzado and Magic Johnson. The second set of reruns was created for The Family Channel in 1994 as a programming package entitled Mario All Stars, inspired by the video game title Super Mario All-Stars that was released the previous year. The format of the rerun focused on primarily the cartoons featured in The Super Mario Bros. Alongside those from the Super Mario World series. Prior to being re-edited for this package, the network aired reruns of the program (artificially slowed down due to removing The Legend of Zelda previews) including the original live-action segments before they were discontinued to make way to the package’s layout.
Differences from the other series
The live-action segments are short skits that open and close each episode of the show. The original segments focus on Mario and Luigi, played by former wrestler Lou Albano and actor Danny Wells respectively as they go about their daily lives in their basement plumbing shop in Brooklyn, New York, where in each segment they would be joined by a guest star, typically a celebrity at the time, like Nicole Eggert or Shabba Doo. In 1990, these live-action segments were replaced with entirely new ones in a new form of the show called Club Mario, replacing Mario and Luigi with two Mario-obsessed teenagers called Tommy Treehugger and Co-MC, played by Chris Coombs and Michael Rawlins respectively.
Seasons
On Fridays, the show would air The Legend of Zelda cartoons based on the game of the same name. However, a Mario live-action segment would air with the Zelda episodes. Following the cartoon was the third portion of the episode, which continued the story that the live-action segment set up in the beginning. Towards the end, the second part of the live-action segment was interrupted with scenes from that week’s upcoming episode of The Legend of Zelda.
- In the United States and Australia, the series is currently airing via the Super Mario Bros.
- The package was rebroadcast by the USA Network from January 8 to June 6, 1997.
- From 1991 to 1993, Abbey Home Entertainment Distribution released six videos of the “Super Mario Bros. Super Show” with only the animated segmented episodes, the animated segmented intro and the live-action segment of “Do the Mario” in the closing credits.
- Like most 1980s cartoons, King Koopa would prolong the series’ run by escaping from his adversaries (which he did through the use of a Magical Potion), even though they could easily catch him.
- Live-action segments were aired alongside a The Legend of Zelda episode.
About the movie
The package was rebroadcast by the USA Network from January 8 to June 6, 1997. The theme song was the end credits theme of Super Mario World. The segment featured a one-to-two-minute viewing of Space Scout Theater/Spaced Out Theater hosted by Princess Centauri (Shanti Kahn), which was sourced and edited from the children’s science fiction television series Photon. In at least one episode, they harass Andy Heyward (playing himself) in the DiC offices.
United Kingdom
Maximum Entertainment (Under license from Fox Kids Europe/Jetix Europe) released 4 DVD sets of the series from 2004 to 2007. The first and fourth sets contained 6 episodes, the second contained 5 and the third set contained 3 episodes. From 1991 to 1993, Abbey Home Entertainment Distribution released six videos of the “Super Mario Bros. Super Show” with only the animated segmented episodes, the animated segmented intro and the live-action segment of “Do the Mario” in the closing credits. The first forty-one episodes also included covers of popular songs at the time, though all of the songs were later edited out due to copyright issues (except for the first part of Jungle Love from Jungle Fever most likely because DIC forgot to edit it out).
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! – watch online: streaming, buy or rent
The live-action sequences were co-produced with Saban Productions. The complete series is available to purchase on Google Play and the iTunes Store in the United Kingdom. In the US and Canada, only the first 26 episodes presented in production order are available.
The show aired from September 4, 1989-December 1, 1989. The live-action segment would be followed by a cartoon-based on the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 video games, where Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool (Peach), and Toad would battle against King Koopa (Bowser) throughout the many lands of the world, often in a book, movie or historical parody. Mouser, Tryclyde, Fryguy and a single, unnamed Koopa Troopa often worked closely with King Koopa, serving as his henchmen. Getting into the spirit of these parodies, King Koopa usually took on a varying alter ego. He had a different outfit for each one, and would take on a different alias to along with it. For example, in a riverboat-themed episode, King Koopa was “Captain Koopa”, while in one of the western-themed episodes, he went by “Billy the Koopa”.
In 2002, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a DVD titled Mario’s Greatest Movie Moments, which contained six episodes as well as two episodes of The Legend of Zelda. The VHS versions of the DVD, Mario’s Monster Madness and Action Adventures, includes the same episodes (three per tape, alongside one Zelda episode). None of those releases contained any live-action segments. According to Danny Wells, he and co-star Lou Albano recorded the show on a six days schedule, where they would first film the live-action segments and then drive to another studio in order to record voices for the animated segments. In Germany, there were six volume audio cassettes released by Karussell that contained the cartoon segments from the series. The Legend of Zelda series has been released separately from the Mario content multiple times, first by Kids Klassics, who released the series on two-episode tapes in four volumes; the gold color of the VHS slipcases matched that of the original NES games.
Now that they were rescued, the focus for the Mario Brothers was to return to Brooklyn, while stopping King Koopa’s tyranny whenever they could. Lou Albano and Danny Wells also voiced Mario and Luigi for the animated segment. It was never revealed whether their live action sequences were a prequel to the animated series or they successfully returned to Brooklyn and resumed their duties in the plumbing business.
In the UK, this series was featured as part of Jungle Fun on TV-am in 1991.[7] Later, only the cartoon segments aired on GMTV in 1993.[8] However, the series also aired as part of Parkin’s In on the former channel during holidays.[9]. From 2007 to 2009, NCircle Entertainment released several DVD sets of the series. The prints used on these releases were taken from the Shout! In 1994, Buena Vista Home Video under their DIC Toon-Time Video label released the VHS Super Mario Bros. The series was distributed by Viacom Enterprises and The Program Exchange in the US and Saban Entertainment in international territories, Currently the show is distributed by NCircle Entertainment, WildBrain[1] and FilmRise[2]. NCircle Entertainment also released them on DVD at GameStop along with Nintendo games.
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. Featured an animated serial of the Super Mario Bros.,[25][26] which both Albano and Wells voiced their respective characters. A total of 52 serials were aired under this schedule until November 16, 1989. For every subsequent Friday, the animated segments consisted of serials of The Legend of Zelda,[25] with scenes featuring during the live-action segments on the preceding Super Mario Bros. Episodes during the week, and then broadcast as sneak peeks.
The NCircle Entertainment DVDs of the show were also sold at more stores. There was initially an episode titled “Ali Koopa and His Forty Goombas” and a cover song in every episode including “Gimme Shelter”, “Love Potion Number Nine”, and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”.[12]Additionally, every episode without a cover song contains a unique piece of music suggesting that DIC replaced the last copyrighted songs with original ones. In another Super Mario related television series, King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons, framed portraits of The Super Mario Bros. Versions of Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool can be seen in various episodes. The Super Mario Bros. cartoon was shown on Mondays through Thursdays only.
In many episodes, King Koopa’s minions would often dress up in outfits as well, to go along with Koopa’s themed costumes. In some episodes, King Koopa would go without an alter ego nor wear a costume except for “Jungle Fever” and “Mario of the Apes”. The only episode where King Koopa does not appear is “Love ‘Em and Leave ‘Em”. From 1989 to 1991, Kid Klassics released NTSC VHS tapes of the show. These tapes contained two, one, or no live-action segments, and featured the cartoon segments with their original song covers intact. On these tapes, the Super Mario Bros. theme is not included before the cartoon segment.
TV starting in March 2004, with a new episode usually uploaded every week. It was taken down along with all DIC Entertainment cartoons on December 24, 2005. Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment released the series on two 4-disc DVD sets. Club Mario proved unpopular with viewers and was discontinued after one season. Further reruns of the show returned to the use of the original Albano and Wells live-action segments.
Live-action segments were aired alongside a The Legend of Zelda episode. Strong from its multiple animated shows based on pre-existing properties, DIC Entertainment approached Nintendo with an offer to make a cartoon based on the Super Mario franchise. Nintendo initially declined, but later signed a deal after DIC put together a creative team they liked.[11] Nintendo required DIC to pay extensive royalties, an unusual arrangement for children’s programming at the time. The Super Show was executive produced by Andy Heyward, directed by Dan Riba and produced by John Grusd, who also produced and directed the two subsequent Super Mario cartoons by DIC. Animation was provided by Sei Young Animation Co., Ltd.