Hey Pisanos!! It’s a super CHEESY CARTOONS look at the Super Mario Bros Super Show!!

Hey J1 fans, it’s back!! Cheesy Cartoons returns with a new title graphic and biweekly postings!! Yup, I, Devildriver1313, will be taking on this magic carpet ride through your childhood twice a month! So let’s kick things off with a cheesy look at one of the best dang video game shows ever!

After the video game industry was saved from the Crash of 1983 by Nintendo, the Japanese company’s 8-bit system quickly became the hottest sought after gift since its release in 1985. The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, has given us some of the most memorable characters in gaming and turned their mascot, Mario, into a global giant. The Super Mario Bros Super Show debuted on September 24, 1989 and starred wrestling manager “Captain” Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi. The show featured live action comedy sequences with Albano and Wells portraying the Mario Brothers lives in Brooklyn as they help solve the problems of various people and an animated cartoon depicting their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom as they battle the evil King Koopa and his Koopa Troopas.

CHEESE FACTOR!!: The live sequences with Lou Albano and Danny Wells played up the slap stick comedy such as Luigi being hit with a purse by their Aunt Marianne (also portrayed by Lou Albano) and hokey puppetry effects such as cardboard cutouts of boots attached to sticks used to depict Mario and Luigi walking outside, foam rubber stair that bounced whenever someone entered their shop and their mutant pet the Ratigator, which played up one of many New York urban legends about alligators and giant rats in the sewers. And the Italian delicacy references and phrases were the running gag of the animated shorts which Mario and Luigi used in every situation. Not much time passed from one spaghetti phase to the next pasta quote. They even had a routine whenever they were in danger. Mario and Luigi would say “Patty-cake, Patty-cake, Pasta-Man! Gimme Pasta power as quick as you can!” then everything becomes possible.

Danny Wells (as Luigi) and Lou Albano (as Mario)

WHY WE WATCHED!! For all the reasons above. Yes, the gags and jokes in the live sequences were hokey but any one of those 5 minute segments was better than the “Super Mario Bros” movie as a whole. At the least the actors portraying Mario and Luigi were closer in age and Lou Albano was actually Italian, unlike in the movie where the brothers not only were different in age range but also of different ethnic backgrounds. Also, the remixed music from the games. Depending on which world Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool were in, you would hear a remixed version of that world’s theme, be it the desert, in the clouds or underground. A remixed version of the King Koopa battle theme would play when the gang was in danger. Honestly, a soundtrack should be released. And Legend of Zelda! Two classic games airing together! Could that be any better?!

The Super Mario Bros Super Show continued to air after its initial run in the Fall of 1989. In the earlier 1990’s, it returned under the name “Club Mario” and featured two Marion obsessed teens rather instead of Lou Albano and Danny Wells. The “Super Show” was succeeded with two additional series, “The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3” and “Super Mario World”, both of which were paired with “Captain N: The Game Master” which also featured Nintendo characters. The series still remains popular amongst the cult following of Mario fans who recall the good times they had watching this series with their friends and playing the games related to them.

And that Princess Toadstool was a red head.

Super Mario Bros Super Show gets a cheesy rating of: