Night of the Lizard
Encyclopedia
"Night of the Lizard" is the pilot episode
of the animated series Spider-Man
produced by Bob Richardson and John Semper based on the Marvel Comics
. It was originally broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company
on their kids block, "Fox Kids
", in the United States on November 19, 1994. This air was months before later episodes from season 1 as a special sneak preview. The pilot introduced the character of Spider-Man
as well as various of the shows other major characters, such as his first supervillain in the show, The Lizard
. During the episode, Spider-Man comments on how his missions often involve him entering the sewer, and he references the Fantastic Four
, Avengers
, Defenders
, and the Hulk
.
reports show mysterious disappearances throughout Manhattan
and rumours of a giant lizard. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson
(Edward Asner) subsequently offers a $1000 bonus to any photographer who can capture an image of the beast. Reporter Peter Parker
(Christopher Daniel Barnes
), despite originally considering the lizard rumours to be a hoax, plans to claim the reward in order to help pay off some of his Aunt May
(Linda Gary
)'s large debts. Peter subsequently makes his way to interview his science professor, Dr. Curt Connors
(Joseph Campanella
), a scientist who works with reptiles. Whilst paying him a visit, he and fellow science student Debra Whitman
(Liz Georges) witness the Lizard exiting their teacher's lavatory. Peter then recalls an experiment he and Dr. Connors worked on involving the ability to re-grow mammal limbs using reptilian DNA. Peter furthermore suspects that his science professor is the Lizard. After a confrontation with the beast as Spider-Man (his alter-ego), he confirms this prediction when Curt's wife, Margaret, informs him that her husband was transformed whilst attempting to use his scientific technology to re-grow his arm (which he lost during a war). Reporter Eddie Brock
(Hank Azaria
) eavesdrops on this conversation, leading to Spider-Man webbing him to a lamppost in order to prevent him from revealing the Lizard's identity to the Bugle. Dr. Connors then kidnaps his wife and takes her down into the sewer. He reveals his plan to use the Neogenic Recombinator to transform people of the city into creatures resembling himself. Spider-Man saves him from his condition, however, by shooting the doctor himself with the Recombinator. Once back at the Daily Bugle, Peter successfully claims the reward and gives the money to his aunt, whilst Eddie Brock is unable to prove that Dr. Connors is the Lizard.
animated series, "Night of the Sentinels". Coincidentally, the X-Men show ran somewhat alongside the Spider-Man show.
The episode is loosely based on The Amazing Spider-Man
issue # 6.
The episode was written by Gerry Conway
along with Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee
. Supervising producer and Director Bob Richardson, revealed that Conway's role in the production was lost following the pilot. John Semper
subsequently edited it suitable for the Fox Broadcasting Company
to air.
Peter Parker
's character design was originally intended to resemble that of his of the comics, which is similar to the clothing worn by the character of Dick Grayson
from Batman: The Animated Series
. This design, however, was switched towards the final production of the show to view Peter in a muscular, younger-looking form, wearing a short-sleeved rugby shirt.
, it was re-run by networks such as ABC Family
and, when the Walt Disney Company
bought the show, Toon Disney
. Broadcasters as such edited and opted out various scenes in the episode. On June 19, 2009, the episode was released on DVD
along with the rest of the first season as part of Volumes #1 and #2. The episode was re-adapted and published as the first issue of Spider-Man Adventures in 1994 following its broadcast. In 1995, Paul Patterson re-wrote a story based on the episode which includes 19 pages each with around three and seven lines of text per page and sound buttons. Regular Marvel artist Mike Wieringo
drew the illustrations. During a review, an editor commented that purchase of the book in new condition is rare. They also added that the books' novelty wore off eventually whilst reading it, however it being enjoyable for children. Karen Dolby also wrote a 57 page adaptation of the episode in 1995. Spider-Man film series fans have revealed that they would like the fourth film to be loosely based on the episode as it shows the hero conquering to save a different character other than Mary Jane
.
. A large amount of viewers have reviewed the episode's animation and music as the best quality from the series as well as other shows from the Marvel animated universe. More than one viewer have stated that they consider this episode the highlight of the series, and that it is a dark introduction to the characters of Spider-Man
and the Lizard
, albeit a likeable one. Furthermore, the Lizard's character is considered among the public as being wasted in later episodes with the exception of the pilot. The casting of Christopher Daniel Barnes
and Edward Asner became popular with fans. However, Peter Parker's design has been criticized.
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of the animated series Spider-Man
Spider-Man (1994 TV series)
Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated series starring the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. The producer/story editor was John Semper, Jr. and production company was Marvel Films...
produced by Bob Richardson and John Semper based on the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. It was originally broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on their kids block, "Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
", in the United States on November 19, 1994. This air was months before later episodes from season 1 as a special sneak preview. The pilot introduced the character of Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
as well as various of the shows other major characters, such as his first supervillain in the show, The Lizard
Lizard (comics)
The Lizard is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and enemy of Spider-Man. The Lizard first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 , and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko...
. During the episode, Spider-Man comments on how his missions often involve him entering the sewer, and he references the Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
, Avengers
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...
, Defenders
Defenders (comics)
The Defenders is the name of a number of Marvel Comics superhero groups which are usually presented as a "non-team" of individualistic "outsiders," each known for following their own agendas...
, and the Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
.
Plot
The episode opens with two subway repairmen in conversation. They are then attacked by an oversized lizard and one of them is kidnapped. Thus, Daily BugleDaily Bugle
The Daily Bugle is a fictional New York City newspaper that is a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe, most prominently in Spider-Man comic titles and their derivative media...
reports show mysterious disappearances throughout Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and rumours of a giant lizard. Publisher J. Jonah Jameson
J. Jonah Jameson
John Jonah Jameson Junior is a supporting character of Spider-Man in the .Jameson is usually the publisher or editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, a fictional New York newspaper and now serves as the mayor of New York City...
(Edward Asner) subsequently offers a $1000 bonus to any photographer who can capture an image of the beast. Reporter Peter Parker
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
(Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes , also known professionally as C.D. Barnes and C.B. Barnes, is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1990s Fox television series Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and for his portrayal of Greg Brady in the films The...
), despite originally considering the lizard rumours to be a hoax, plans to claim the reward in order to help pay off some of his Aunt May
Aunt May
May Reilly Parker-Jameson, commonly known as Aunt May, is a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared as May Parker in Amazing Fantasy #15...
(Linda Gary
Linda Gary
Linda Gary was an American voice actor and voice-over artist, who has worked on multiple animated projects.-Personal life:Linda Gary Dewoskin was born in California on November 4, 1944....
)'s large debts. Peter subsequently makes his way to interview his science professor, Dr. Curt Connors
Lizard (comics)
The Lizard is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and enemy of Spider-Man. The Lizard first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 , and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko...
(Joseph Campanella
Joseph Campanella
Joseph Campanella in Lewistown, Pennsylvania is an American character actor who has appeared in over 200 TV and film roles since 1955, including such shows as The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Road West, The Golden Girls and Mama's Family. He also had a role in...
), a scientist who works with reptiles. Whilst paying him a visit, he and fellow science student Debra Whitman
Debra Whitman
Debra "Deb" Whitman is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe, and was a brief love interest of Peter Parker in the Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man comic titles in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
(Liz Georges) witness the Lizard exiting their teacher's lavatory. Peter then recalls an experiment he and Dr. Connors worked on involving the ability to re-grow mammal limbs using reptilian DNA. Peter furthermore suspects that his science professor is the Lizard. After a confrontation with the beast as Spider-Man (his alter-ego), he confirms this prediction when Curt's wife, Margaret, informs him that her husband was transformed whilst attempting to use his scientific technology to re-grow his arm (which he lost during a war). Reporter Eddie Brock
Eddie Brock
Eddie Brock is a fictional character created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. A comic book supervillain, Brock's earliest appearance is a cameo in Web of Spider-Man #18 before making his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #299 as Venom...
(Hank Azaria
Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
) eavesdrops on this conversation, leading to Spider-Man webbing him to a lamppost in order to prevent him from revealing the Lizard's identity to the Bugle. Dr. Connors then kidnaps his wife and takes her down into the sewer. He reveals his plan to use the Neogenic Recombinator to transform people of the city into creatures resembling himself. Spider-Man saves him from his condition, however, by shooting the doctor himself with the Recombinator. Once back at the Daily Bugle, Peter successfully claims the reward and gives the money to his aunt, whilst Eddie Brock is unable to prove that Dr. Connors is the Lizard.
Production
The title "Night of the Lizard" bears a resemblance to the first episode of the X-MenX-Men (TV series)
X-Men, also known as X-Men: The Animated Series, is an American animated television series which debuted on October 31, 1992, in the United States on the Fox Network as part of its Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup...
animated series, "Night of the Sentinels". Coincidentally, the X-Men show ran somewhat alongside the Spider-Man show.
The episode is loosely based on The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
issue # 6.
The episode was written by Gerry Conway
Gerry Conway
Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante The Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man...
along with Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
. Supervising producer and Director Bob Richardson, revealed that Conway's role in the production was lost following the pilot. John Semper
John Semper
John Semper, Jr. is a screenwriter, producer and story editor with numerous credits in animation for television. He has worked for such diverse companies as Disney Studios, Warner Bros...
subsequently edited it suitable for the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
to air.
Peter Parker
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
's character design was originally intended to resemble that of his of the comics, which is similar to the clothing worn by the character of Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
from Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
. This design, however, was switched towards the final production of the show to view Peter in a muscular, younger-looking form, wearing a short-sleeved rugby shirt.
Media
Following the episode's original air on Fox KidsFox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
, it was re-run by networks such as ABC Family
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
and, when the Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
bought the show, Toon Disney
Toon Disney
Toon Disney was an American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company. A spinoff of Disney Channel, it mostly aired children's animated series and some live action programming. Its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and Nicktoons...
. Broadcasters as such edited and opted out various scenes in the episode. On June 19, 2009, the episode was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
along with the rest of the first season as part of Volumes #1 and #2. The episode was re-adapted and published as the first issue of Spider-Man Adventures in 1994 following its broadcast. In 1995, Paul Patterson re-wrote a story based on the episode which includes 19 pages each with around three and seven lines of text per page and sound buttons. Regular Marvel artist Mike Wieringo
Mike Wieringo
Michael Lance "Mike" Wieringo , who sometimes signed his work under the name Ringo, was an American comic book artist best known for his work on DC Comics' The Flash and Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four....
drew the illustrations. During a review, an editor commented that purchase of the book in new condition is rare. They also added that the books' novelty wore off eventually whilst reading it, however it being enjoyable for children. Karen Dolby also wrote a 57 page adaptation of the episode in 1995. Spider-Man film series fans have revealed that they would like the fourth film to be loosely based on the episode as it shows the hero conquering to save a different character other than Mary Jane
Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson, often shortened to MJ, is a fictional supporting character appearing, originally, in Marvel comic books and, later, in multiple spin-offs and dramatizations of the Spider-Man titles as the best friend, love interest, and one-time wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man...
.
Reception
The episode ranks as one of viewers' favourite episodes from both the series as well as the first season. It received mostly positive and few critical points in reviews. A review of the episode by an editor from Toon Zone described it to be a somewhat good-quality pilot. The review speculated that if production values had kept to the standard of the episode throughout the entire series, the show would have become as well-known as Batman: The Animated SeriesBatman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
. A large amount of viewers have reviewed the episode's animation and music as the best quality from the series as well as other shows from the Marvel animated universe. More than one viewer have stated that they consider this episode the highlight of the series, and that it is a dark introduction to the characters of Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
and the Lizard
Lizard (comics)
The Lizard is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe and enemy of Spider-Man. The Lizard first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 , and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko...
, albeit a likeable one. Furthermore, the Lizard's character is considered among the public as being wasted in later episodes with the exception of the pilot. The casting of Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes
Christopher Daniel Barnes , also known professionally as C.D. Barnes and C.B. Barnes, is an American actor. He is best known for providing the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the 1990s Fox television series Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and for his portrayal of Greg Brady in the films The...
and Edward Asner became popular with fans. However, Peter Parker's design has been criticized.
Trivia/Goofs
- At the end in the credits the year is listed as 1995, but the episode aired in 1994.
External links
- Night of the Lizard at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Night of the Lizard at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Night of the Lizard on Marvel Animated Universe Wiki, an external wiki