Super Mario Bros.’ Lost Live-Action Spinoff Was Pure Nightmare Fuel

Since the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, Nintendo has straddled the world like a powerful colossus. His theogony of video game characters has become even more ubiquitous and recognizable than Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse and his gang. Even now there are theme park areas and Nintendo movies, such as the animated film “Super Mario Bros. Movie.” The company also continues to go from strength to strength. The Nintendo Switch, introduced in 2017, soon became the third best-selling video game console of all time, behind Nintendo’s own DS and Sony’s PlayStation 2.

Aside from a few bugs (remember the Virtual Boy?), it’s always been that way for Nintendo. Thinking back to the 1980s, certain excited members of Generation Y might remember Nintendo cereal, Nintendo wall calendars and Nintendo-centric movies like “The Wizard.” (Raise your hand if you subscribed to Nintendo Power Magazine or, even further back, were a member of the Nintendo Fun Club.)

In 1989, Nintendo even hit the airwaves with “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show,” a strange live-action/animation hybrid show that, when you look at the numbers, was one of the most popular series of its kind. . The show had live-action comedy-like bookend sequences featuring “Captain” Lou Albano and Danny Wells as Mario and Luigi, a pair of New York plumbers who often hosted celebrity guests. These live-action sequences would later lead to a Mario Bros. animated segment in which Mario and Luigi had surreal “comic” adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. Every Friday, the animated sequence was themed to “The Legend of Zelda.”

Less well known, however, was the show that ran after “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.” Debuting on September 11, 1989, “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” was an old children’s show hosted by King Koopa. The show ran for 65 episodes over the course of its only season. No tapes of the series have survived; therefore, “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” is now considered a lost medium.

“King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” was presented by King Koopa. He would appear in a studio alongside a live audience of children, often making threatening comments and talking about how much he enjoyed being a villain. (King Koopa, for Nintendo neophytes, was a renamed version of Bowser, the central villain of the Mario universe.) Koopa would host puppet shows starring his pet rodent Ratso before the show transitioned into a very old cartoon in the public domain. The costume worn by the Koopa actors was a more refined version of a Super Mario Ice Capades show that was popular the previous year.

As pointed out in CBR Summary In the show’s history, Koopa’s first actor, Christopher Collins (credited as Chris Latta), was fired because he was being “inappropriate” to the staff and visiting children. Apparently not in a criminal way, but his jokes seemed too risqué for a young audience. He was replaced by Patrick Pinney.

Collins, by the way, might be best known as the voice of Cobra Commander in “GI Joe.” He also played the Decepticons’ second-in-command, Starscream, in “Transformers: The Movie.” Meanwhile, Pinney played Wolverine in “Pryde of the X-Men” and has been in dozens of Disney projects and the “SpongeBob SquarePants” cartoons.

There was a slight scandal with “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons”, as some parents thought Koopa was too bad. The show was clearly courting a very young audience (it was pretty safe for kindergarteners), so Koopa’s statements about killing the Mario brothers or being a villain worried some. The program received a lot of angry mail to this end. Koopa was also accused of being too scary, which is understandable. Koopa is a nightmare. And if Collins was making jokes about tracking down and killing children in their homes, then one could understand all those irritated letters.

Like all Mario-related media at the time, “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” was a hit. Its imprimatur from Nintendo was probably 100% responsible for the show’s success, although some audiences may have responded to its dated format. There was something completely innocent about “King Koopa,” which gave the show, as petty as it was, an innocent quality. It might have reminded some parents of “The Howdy Doody Show.” The children in the audience got involved in the action and Koopa even gave them prizes. At the end of several episodes, Koopa would admit to being a big softie who actually liked his Koopa Kids.

The show was supposedly number one in its time slot in 1989 and received many letters from children who were eager to hear King Koopa read them on the air. So why was “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” cancelled?

According to the YouTube channel. Thomas game documentsthe cancellation came at the behest of Disney CEO and “Beverly Hills Cop” mastermind Michael Eisner, of all people. “Koopa” aired from KTTV channel 11 in Los Angeles; the station was affiliated with Fox, but Eisner was still paying attention. The story goes that Eisner wrote a letter to Barry Diller, president of 20th Century Fox, complaining that Koopa’s villainous status was undermining the children’s moral center. Diller, in response, canceled the show entirely despite its popularity.

However, this story has not been substantiated and it does not seem entirely plausible that Diller canceled “King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons” just because a rival like Eisner asked him to. It’s especially unlikely given how small the broadcast area for “Kartoons” was; It wasn’t huge outside of California. It is more likely that “Koopa” was canceled for more practical reasons.

Unfortunately, the show was not well maintained and there are no full episodes available online. Some enterprising TV viewers have transferred clips from their old VHS tapes to YouTube, but as of this writing, the show has no official press releases or known archival copies. This dark nightmare, for better or worse, has faded.