Games - Super Mario Bros. television series

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	Games - Super Mario Bros. television series

A number of television shows based on the Super Mario Bros. video game series exist. After making his animated debut alongside his old co-star Donkey Kong in 1983 and starring in a few anime specials released only in Japan, Mario starred in several American animated TV series, produced by DiC Entertainment. Three series were produced by DiC, each with a different title and based around a different game (or games).

Another point of interest is that the shows sometimes featured things that would happen in later games, presumably coincidentally, as none of the shows were actually aired in Japan. For example, Mario's appetite for Italian delicacies is mentioned in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.

Before DiC

Prior to having his own animated series, Mario starred as a regular character on the Donkey Kong-based segments of CBS's Saturday Supercade
. Voiced by Peter Cullen, he, along with his niece Pauline (who was actually his girlfriend in the game) was constantly on the trail of escaped circus gorilla Donkey Kong (who was actually his primary nemesis in the game).

Mario then starred in a 1986 theatrical anime movie, titled Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen ("The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach"). This film is very obscure, even in Japan where it was shown, and not much is known about it; even the video release of the movie has become hard to find. The video was produced by Japanese animation company Grouper Productions, and it marked the animated debut of Luigi, Princess Peach, and King Bowser. The plot, based off of the first Super Mario Bros. game, revolves around Mario and Luigi being sucked into their Famicom game and having to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. It was never translated into English.

An unrelated anime OVA trilogy was also released only in Japan. The trilogy was released on August 3, 1989, about a month before The Super Mario Bros. Super Show began airing. These three direct-to-video 15-minute films feature characters from Super Mario Bros. 3 retelling classic fairy tales - Momotaro, Issunboshi, and Shiroyukihime (Snow White
). Chronologically, these films would mark the actual animated debut of the Koopalings and several other enemies from Super Mario Bros. 3, excluding the Japanese commercial for the game. More information on Mario's anime appearances can be found and .

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was the only one of the three American Mario cartoons to air in syndication. The first part of each episode was live action and showed Mario (played by "Captain" Lou Albano) and Luigi (Danny Wells) living in Brooklyn, where they would often be visited by celebrity guest stars. Occasionally, the main actors would be playing guest stars themselves, forcing their regular characters to leave when it came time for their other characters to show up.

The second part of each episode was a cartoon based on the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 video games, where Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad battle against King Koopa, often in a movie parody. Getting into the spirit of these parodies, Bowser usually had a different outfit for each one. Interestingly, Wart, the main antagonist of the second game, was never in any of the episodes, yet most of his minions managed to appear. Like most 1980s cartoons, Bowser would prolong the series' run by escaping from his adversaries (which he did through the use of sub-space potions), despite the fact that they could easily catch him. The Super Mario Bros. cartoon was shown on Mondays through Thursdays only.

On Fridays, the show would air the Legend of Zelda cartoons based on the game of the same name, in which Link and Princess Zelda fight against the forces of Ganon. Scenes from the episode were shown during the live-action segments on the preceding days as sneak previews. (These preview clips are edited out of the episodes on Yahooligans! TV.)

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