Written by Joshua Tyler and Jacob Vangundy | Updated
Decades before Iron Man launched the MCU, there were plans to create a different Marvel universe, which would culminate in an Avengers team-up. It started on the CBS television network and has produced several superhero films.
The network has created an entire handful of heroes and made plans for crossovers. If CBS makes it marvel The world of superheroes, could have launched the live-action comic book trend 30 years ago. Here's what went wrong.
Spider-Man Spider-Man does everything a spider can In the seventies
Network TV version of MCU It started with the 1977 TV movie, Spider-Man. This led to an ongoing series on CBS called Amazing Spider-Man.
Starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker, the show was a hit, but was very popular with children. That limited age popularity concerns the network. So Spider-Man was recast to be more appealing to adults in its second season.
This did not change the series' demographics, and so, CBS pulled the plug on its first Marvel show in 1979.
The muscles weren't particularly impressive and they made the impressive hulk work
Following the same release formula as Spider-Man, The amazing structure It began as a television movie released in November of 1977. It served as a backdoor pilot for the television series that would soon follow, which aired on CBS.
Starring Lou Ferrigno as the green, muscled Hulk version of the character, and Bill Bixby as the puny Banner. The amazing structure It was by far the most successful CBS Marvel show, running for five seasons. It was such a hit, that even after the show's fourth season finished airing, the show returned for two more made-for-TV movies, some of which were cobbled together from old episodes.
Unlike almost every other superhero endeavor Marvel has made in this era, The amazing structure He has persisted in popular culture, and the MCU even references him in his current state My neighbor He appears. Against all odds, The Incredible Hulk was a true success.
It's a miracle that it worked, as both CBS and showrunner Kenneth Johnson wanted to make it as closely similar to the Hulk from the comics as possible. There was strong pressure by Johnson to make the structure red instead of green.
He said that green is not the color of anger. The color of anger is red. The model said he called Stan Lee to get permission to change the Hulk's skin color to red, but that was a bridge too far for the humanoid monster's co-creator.
now, The amazing structure They are the only early Marvel efforts to remain in the popular culture consciousness. That hasn't been forgotten, and if their other efforts had been successful, we might have gotten an MCU decades earlier.
It wasn't for lack of trying, because then The structure is incredibleThey were made Doctor Strange.
Doctor Strange is getting a TV movie
It was CBS' next attempt at a Marvel adaptation Doctor Strangeanother TV movie designed to be a backdoor pilot. It was released the year after the backdoor pilot for The amazing structureGiven the success of this show, CBS likely has high hopes.
Starring Peter Hooten as Stephen Strange, and Jessica Walters as the villainous Morgan le Fay, the film did not perform well enough to warrant a series. Despite its poor ratings Doctor Strange It's the closest thing to a comically accurate take on a character from that era. This may be in part because Stan Lee actually served as a consultant on the show.
Because of Lee's interference, it feels like an older, low-budget version of a modern MCU film. Assuming you can overlook the bad special effects.
Early motorcycle-riding Captain America movies first appeared on television
Unaffected by failure Doctor StrangeCBS has moved forward with its attempts to turn the Marvel universe into a television phenomenon. Their biggest attempt at adapting a Marvel character came with two Captain America made-for-TV movies released in 1979.
The first was titled Captain America The second was titled Captain America 2: Death Too Soon. Captain America Released in January of 1979 and Captain America 2: Death Too Soon It was first shown on television in November of the same year. They floundered.
Both films starred Reb Brown as Captain America and changed his origin story and characterization significantly, making the character seem generic. Nobody liked them.
Their failure could have been the final nail in the coffin for CBS' version of the MCU, however The amazing structure It was a success, and while it was on the air, hope remained that there might be more.
Thor awkwardly uses his hammer on Team Hulk
After a long time The amazing structure It ended its run, and the television network brought it back for the 1988 TV movie The return of the Incredible Hulk. The real purpose of this movie was a last-ditch attempt to make another Marvel character work on television. The return of the Incredible Hulk It was a backdoor pilot for the Thor series.
It saw Lou Ferrigno's Hulk teaming up with Thor, played by Eric Kramer. The goal of Thor's appearance was to get fans excited enough that the character would warrant his own show. But the Thor they showed on screen was terrible and terrible.
It failed and network television abandoned Marvel.
Further attempts to form the Avengers
CBS' attempt to create its own Marvel TV Universe failed, but Marvel kept trying through other deals.
In 1990, Canon Group, a group of famous filmmakers, attempted to release a theatrical version of Captain America. The film was never released in the United States, although it was briefly shown in theaters in the United Kingdom. However, it became something of a fan favorite as a direct-to-video entry appearing on the bottom shelves of local Hollywood video stores.
Marvel kept trying, even though it meant they had failed to make a Captain America movie worth watching, three times over by then. In 1994, they gave another low-budget director, Roger Corman, a chance to make a feature Fantastic Four film. If you're wondering why you've never heard of or seen it before, it's because the film was never released.
Why it was never released is debatable. Corman claims that he never intended it to be released and that the film only exists as a way to hold onto the rights to the Fantastic Four movie. Others claim it was so bad that Corman was embarrassed to release it.
Leaked versions of Corman's Fantastic Four are now available online, and thanks to cameos and cheap armor, they end up looking like the first few episodes of Corman's series. Power Rangers.
There was also an attempt at a live-action Iron Man movie around the same time. There was even a script, but the project stopped there. This is probably for the best, given how terrible the Iron Man suit is.
Why were the TV Avengers of the 70s and 80s never formed?
It's CBS that has really pulled out all the stops in trying to make the live-action Marvel universe a complete success. They were ready to form their own Avengersif they were able to do anything besides the structure. They just needed other famous heroes to join him.
Plans for crossover episodes between The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man were made early on, but concerns about Spider-Man's young fanbase prevented an MCU-style team-up. After both series ended, actors Bill Bixby and Nicholas Hammond made a Hulk/Spider-Man TV movie, and while more Hulk TV movies were made, they never brought Hammond's Spider-Man back.
If the crossovers happen, it could easily evolve into Doctor Strange and Captain America joining a 1970s TV event. Inconsistent ratings were a hurdle for CBS as it attempted its TV version of the MCU, but it also faced two major company problems.
One was that CBS was nervous about becoming synonymous with superheroes, which at the time were thought to be only for kids. This is at least part of the reason why Spider-Man was cancelled, despite its ratings success.
The other was that Marvel itself was increasingly dissatisfied with CBS and was concerned about the network creating new characters of its own, spun off shows that were indebted to Marvel. It was paranoia that led Marvel to create She Hulk, in an attempt to prevent CBS from having the idea of a female Hulk.
The interconnected universe has been a big part of Marvel comics since the 1960s, and CBS almost brought that to the small screen nearly 50 years ago. While the style of CBS productions may have prevented MCU-level popularity, a universe complete with The Incredible Hulk's influence could have changed the entire genre.
Although the idea seems very modern, shared superhero universes could have easily become a mainstream trend in the 1980s, even if one of the CBS projects alongside the Hulk had taken off. It didn't happen. The world was not ready.
This is probably for the best, because if any of Marvel's plans worked in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, they would never have worked as well as what we have now. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark was worth the wait.
