The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Mario's First Starring Cartoon

Twenty years have passed since Mario, Nintendo's iconic plumber, became the star of his very own animated series. Entitled the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, the syndicated series was a combination of live action and animated segments featuring Mario and his friends. This was not actually the first animated series to feature Mario, as he had been a co-star in some Donkey Kong cartoons featured on CBS' Saturday Supercade from 1983-1985. However, by the time the Super Mario Bros. Super Show came along, Mario had become a star in his own right thanks to a pair of best-selling NES games. Let us take a look back at this classic cartoon that to this day is a somewhat silly, but still enjoyable, series.

In the cartoon, Mario, along with his brother Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad the Mushroom Retainer, found themselves exploring the Mushroom Kingdom and becoming involved in a variety of humorous adventures. These quests would often place them in parodies of popular movies, novels, fairy tales, and more. As in the games, their main nemesis was King Koopa (Bowser in the games), a turtle-like beast who wanted nothing less than to get rid of the heroic plumbers. He was aided by various sidekicks, most of whom were taken from Super Mario Bros. 2 and most of whom showed the typical stupidity that villainous sidekicks tend to have. Nevertheless, Koopa would try to make his nefarious schemes a success, and just like in the games, they would sometimes involve kidnapping the princess.

Helping out our heroes were power up items taken directly from the games. Fire flowers would give them the ability to shoot fire, while stars would make them super powerful for a while. Ultimately, they would triumph over Koopa, but the king would always escape before he could be apprehended. Other typical features included Mario's undying love for pasta and other Italian foods and Mario reciting a "plumber's log," likely inspired by the Captain's log from Star Trek. The classic Mario music was played throughout each episode, and in the initial airings, covers of popular songs were also featured. In later airings and in home video and DVD releases, these songs would be replaced by generic instrumental music.

The Mario cartoons-52 in all-would air on Mondays through Thursdays. Every Friday, a cartoon based on another famous video game series, The Legend of Zelda, would be shown instead. This cartoon took place in the land of Hyrule, which was being threatened by Ganon, the pig-like wizard, who had become powerful thanks to the Triforce of Power. However, he also wanted to swipe the Triforce of Wisdom because it is stated that anyone who possesses both Triforce pieces would rule Hyrule forever. The Triforce of Wisdom was protected by Princess Zelda, but she could not guard it alone. In order to ensure the Triforce's safety and to help restore peace to the land, she had a brave warrior named Link help to stop Ganon's evil plans.

As in the Zelda games, Link used his sword, which could shoot powerful beams of energy, and a variety of other weapons to help him deal with Ganon and his minions. These monsters, and the musical score, were mostly taken from the first Zelda game. Zelda herself would use her bow to aid in the fight, though she would sometimes be captured and had to be rescued by Link. The Triforce of Wisdom would also sometimes be stolen, but Link and Zelda would always retrieve it before Ganon could use it to conquer Hyrule. Unlike the Mario cartoons, there was a more dramatic feel to the Zelda adventures, with some light humor thrown in the mix.

A notable part of the cartoon was a somewhat more romantic relationship between Link and Zelda. Link would often ask Zelda for a kiss, but she would either refuse outright or, on the occasions that she did agree to kiss him, something would happen that would ruin the moment. The young hero was also much more of a jerk than he was in the games, and when the princess ticked him off, he would usually reply with "excuse me, princess!", which has become something of an Internet meme in recent years. Plenty of action, humor, and excitement were found in the thirteen episodes produced, and Link and Zelda would later guest star in some episodes of Captain N: The Game Master before continuing to star in video games for many more years to come.

Both animated cartoons were sandwiched in between live action segments of the Mario Brothers, which took place in their plumbing office in Brooklyn, New York. Mario, played by wrestler Captain Lou Albano, and Luigi, portrayed by actor Danny Wells (both of them also voiced their respected characters in the animated segments) would find themselves in a variety of silly occurrences, ranging from Mario switching bodies with a dog to trying out to become Elvis impersonators. Sometimes, guest stars such as Moon Zappa and Ernie Hudson would join in on the fun. The live action segment would be divided into two parts: the first part aired before the animated portion, while the second part was showed after the cartoon. In most episodes, a part of the second half would segue into a preview of that week's Zelda cartoon. The live action portion would end with the brothers and the guest stars reminding viewers to "do the Mario," and the end credits would feature Mario dancing to the Mario theme song.

It should be noted that later in its syndicated run, the format of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show would change somewhat. The live action segments of Mario and Luigi were dropped and replaced by a new segment called Club Mario. Here, Tommy and Tammy Treehugger would mess around doing random things. These segments had little to do with Mario, although there were still segues into the Zelda previews. They proved to be unpopular and have not been aired since, with DIC not even acknowledging their existence and making people think that the live action Mario segments were the only ones ever used. However, Club Mario segments have wound up online for old and new fans to see the insanity for themselves.

I was a huge fan of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show when I was five years old, and I always looked forward to checking out the latest adventures of Mario and Zelda. Looking back, the show was quite a bit silly, but it is still fun to watch for nostalgic purposes. The story lines, wacky as they were, turned out to be enjoyable, and I always get a kick out of hearing Link exclaim "excuse me, princess!" on account that it is so lame. The voice work was good, the use of the classic music was nice, and even the Mario and Luigi live action portions were neat in a cheesy sort of way. When the Club Mario segments came along, however, I knew that they just plain bad even as a kid. Watching those segments online has reminded me of why I did not like them so much...perhaps it is best that they remain virtually unknown. As a whole, however, this was quite a fun show, and remains that way to this very day.

Thanks to DVD and video releases, the Super Mario Bros. Super Show can still be enjoyed by old and new fans alike. It is a fun, if silly, cartoon featuring Mario, and would prove to be successful enough to inspire DIC to create two more animated cartoons-namely, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World-between 1990 and 1992. There are two box sets devoted to the Mario cartoons and one featuring the Zelda cartoons, as well as discs that each feature a smattering of episodes from either series, so fans have many ways to enjoy these classics. I would love to see more Mario and Zelda cartoons being made at some point, with elements taken from games released since the show's cancellation, but for now, we have the old cartoons to enjoy for many years to come. Having so many animated cartoons is quite an achievement for the legendary Mario.