The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! was an American television show based onSuper Mario Bros. andSuper Mario Bros. 2. There were two segments to the show, a live-action sequence starring WWF/E Hall of Fame wrestler-turned-manager, the late Capt.Lou Albano asMario and the lateDanny Wells asLuigi. Then there was an animated sequence in which Mario, Luigi,Toad, andPrincess Toadstool would battleKing Bowser Koopa representing an alter-ego in a parody of a book, movie or real-life historical event. Every fifth episode (which would air on a Friday) featuredLink,Zelda, andGanon in aLegend of Zelda animated adventure.
The show ran in1989 from September 4 through December 1 with a total of 65 episodes. 52 of the episodes had Mario characters in the animated segments while the other 13 hadZelda characters. The live-action segments with Albano and Wells appeared in all 65 episodes.
In the first three episodes, Toad has a different color scheme (red hat with white spots [which resembles the modern colors of the Super Mushroom], white vest, red pants, white shoes) than what is used in all later episodes and the intro sequences (white hat with red spots, red vest, white pants, purple shoes). His first color scheme later made a reappearance as his Super Toad form in "The Fire of Hercufleas".
King Koopa's appearance is based on Bowser's sprite fromSuper Mario Bros., he has green skin, two armbands, no hair and wears a gold crown, resemblingWart fromSuper Mario Bros. 2.
Princess Toadstool's appearance is based on her sprite from the originalSuper Mario Bros., she is depicted as a redhead instead of a blonde and lacks gloves or jewels on her crown, resembling her sprite fromSuper Mario Bros. 2.
Mario uses his original outfit from his debut in the originalDonkey Kong and on the international cover ofSuper Mario Bros. as well as his appearance inSuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and his artwork on the cover ofSuper Mario Bros. 2, sporting a blue shirt with red overalls, which resembles his sprite from theSuper Mario All-Stars version ofSuper Mario Bros.. Luigi uses the same outfit fromSuper Mario Bros: The Lost Levels and hisSuper Mario Bros. 2 artwork, wearing a blue shirt with green overalls (later used for his sprites in theSuper Mario All-Stars andDeluxe versions ofSuper Mario Bros.). Also, Mario and Luigi both have black hair rather than brown and Luigi has green eyes instead of blue while Mario's eyes are still blue.
Mario and Luigi's super forms are based on Fire Mario's sprites and Luigi's regular sprites fromSuper Mario Bros. This resembles their current fire form color schemes fromSuper Mario World onward, but with the shirt and overall colors reversed, which resembles their fire form sprites from theSuper Mario All-Stars version ofSuper Mario Bros.
Mario's color scheme in the show later appears as an alternate costume forWario inMario Golf,Super Smash Bros. Brawl,Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS,Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, andSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, and as the Classic Suit for Mario inSuper Mario Odyssey as well as the skins pack for Mario and Luigi in theMario Bros. Tour ofMario Kart Tour and Luigi's color scheme in the show also later appears as the skins pack for Mario and Luigi in theMario Bros. Tour ofMario Kart Tour. Additionally, King Koopa's color scheme also appears as an alternate costume for Bowser inMario Golf,Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS /Wii U, andSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate and Princess Toadstool's design in the show also appears as an alternate costume for Daisy inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
When Mario transforms into Super Mario, his color scheme from his artwork inMario Bros. can be seen during the transformation.
When Luigi transforms into a Super Luigi, a green shirt and blue overalls (which would later become his current color scheme, starting withSuper Mario Bros. 3) can be seen during the transformation.
A series ofView-Master reels based on the episode "The Bird! The Bird!" were produced, which depicted scenes from the episode recreated using stock artwork from the games, including Wart appearing in place of King Koopa, despite the captions still referring to the latter character.
When the series was shown on the Family Channel, the episodes all had theLegend of Zelda preview segments removed, they were slowed down to bring them back to their original length, and the commercial breaks typically came at different points in the animated segments rather than where they were originally placed. For whatever reason (likely due to the episode's original master having gone missing), the Family Channel cut of the episode "King Mario of Cramalot" has been used on all subsequent DVD, digital, and streaming releases as well as later digital and streaming releases.
In July 1990, the show was retooled asClub Mario, where the Mario and Luigi live-action segments were replaced by two Mario-crazy teen fans named Co M.C. and Tommy Treehugger. It is often stated that, due to negative reception, theClub Mario tapes were destroyed after 1991. However, the digital and streaming releases of the episode "The Unzappables", for some reason, have its live-action segment, "George Washington Slept Here", inexplicably replaced with aClub Mario segment, making it the onlyClub Mario episode to be commercially available. It is unknown what happened to the master copy of "George Washington Slept Here".
The plumber's log in every episode is a reference to the Captain's log inStar Trek.
Luigi's Italian food-based outbursts is a reference to Robin's Holy's from the 1966 Live-ActionBatman TV series.
This is the onlyMario cartoon to have a live-action section and it is also the onlyMario cartoon to not feature theKoopalings.
The music for this cartoon was supervised byKoji Kondo, who served as a mentor to the composers of this cartoon.
The show's theme song was reused for the Mario Bros.' commercial inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, performed by Ali Dee.
When the episodes were uploaded by WildBrain from 2014 to 2020,The Legend of Zelda cartoon preview segments were removed, even though the scene wheres Mario and Luigi introduce said previews were left intact. Then when the episodes were uploaded on theSuper Show!-exclusive channel in 2018 (and later on WildBrain's other channels in 2022),The Legend of Zelda cartoon previews were restored (except forKing Mario of Cramalot due to it using the Family Channel version).
