1989 – The Super Mario Brothers Super Show

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Hey, Pisano’s, it’s the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!” I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I must’ve shouted those words along with Captain Lou Albano in my living room growing up. Adventures of Nintendo’s famous Mario and Luigi, in cartoon form, swept me away to the Mushroom Kingdom and I never wanted to come back. But the show made us come back to reality, by beginning and ending every episode with live action featuring actors that your parents knew, and a lot of celebrity cameos.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show would take you through the various environments of the first two games, and featured music and sound effects from the games themselves. It was handled with the care that few other shows based on games would ever get. While others tried hard to change the lore of the games to fit television, the Super Show did its part to keep you immersed in Miyamoto’s world. I loved this show growing up, the live action segments taking place in their basement-apartment in Brooklyn New York, were some of my favorite moments in childhood history. Imagine being an 8 year old in the early 1990’s, when suddenly the wreslter Sergeant Slaughter shows up to talk to the Mario brothers. Wrestling, Video games, and even a little GI Joe, all rolled in to one mind-blowing moment.

After the first two seasons, consisting of 24 episodes each, were the episodes that stand out the mnost in my memories. When I bought many of the boxed-sets on DVD, certain dreams were dashed. Beginning with Super Mario Brothers 3, I was excited to see the new special items and power ups featured in the show, but dropping the live actors hurt the show big time. To fill the remaining time, nearly every episode had a rediculous chase scene coupled with a song that would repeat so many times I literally couldn’t even finish watching the DVDs. I can only imagine what I put my parents through. I didn’t even bother to buy the later Super Mario World episodes – although I distinctly remember watching those shows as well, introducing Yoshi and continuing the saga of the Koopa Kids.

Although it appears as though the DVDs are going to increase in rarity, the show is finally available digitally and can be streamed on Netflix and Amazon’s Instant Video. Enjoy them!