On our latest Shouts From the Back Row podcast about our favourite childhood TV shows, we were asked to pick one show that we loved as a child, but looks just awful when we watch it today. Amazingly, both TK and myself wound up selecting The Super Mario Bros. Super Show. At the time it aired, we were both at the age when ANYTHING associated with the Super Mario Bros. was going to seem awesome, but time, maturity and the miracle of Youtube has allowed us to look back and realize just how terrible this show really was. For starters, here’s a compilation someone put together of some the terribly sloppy animation mistakes this show had.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDL31NObAsc
Of course, I was a big fan of former wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano, so the idea of him playing a live-action version of Mario seemed cool to me at the time, though virtually everyone who watches clips of the show today makes a remark about how much Mario looks like Ron Jeremy. They usually would bring some neat guest stars onto the show, like Ernie Hudson (in a bizarre Super Mario Bros.–Ghostbusters crossover), Rowdy Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter, but the material they had to work with was absolutely terrible, even for a kids show. It appears the show thought that the best way to compensate for the awful jokes was by providing the most obnoxious, out-of-control canned laughter you’ve ever heard. Wow, I wish I could be as easily amused as the non-stop laugh track in the clip!