I’ve been riding a wave of nostalgia recently, renting DVDs of old ‘80s cartoons I watched as a kid. Maybe it’s got something to do with my eager anticipation of getting to play old Nintendo games on the new Wii’s Virtual Console, but I picked up The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Vol. 2 on DVD this past week. The Super Show! ran in syndication on weekday afternoons for the 1989-’90 television season. This is a show I remember devotedly watching after school as a kid. Honestly there wasn’t a whole lot other than the fact I liked the show that I remembered about it, but once the familiar theme song started playing on the first episode of the first disc, I was instantly transported back in time.
While there’s definitely an upside to the nostalgic revisiting of shows one enjoyed as a kid, there’s also a nasty snag that can develop if/when the show in question doesn’t quite stack up to how you remembered it.
Honestly, watching The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! now with adult eyes, I don’t know what the heck I was thinking as a kid. I don’t know what the heck the writers were thinking either. I actually managed to wrangle my wife into watching a few episodes with me and we found ourselves frequently turning with perplexed and bewildered expressions toward each other before breaking into befuddled laughter throughout each episode.
But before I get into specifics of the bizarre dreadfulness of the show itself, let me first tout some of the pleasant nostalgic memories watching the Super Show! reawakened for me. The moment the theme song began it was like a long-lost record had been unearthed in my brain and suddenly started playing as I realized I remembered every goofy lyric. Watching the show again after all these years took me back to vacations I spent with my family at a beachfront hotel we stayed at annually. I can distinctly remember coming back into our room after spending essentially the whole day playing in the sand and ocean, and I’d dry off wrapped in a big, warm towel, watching afternoon cartoons like the Super Show! with the smell of sunscreen and beach bonfires heavy in the air. It’s funny how these kinds of welcome memories can be instantly triggered in just a few seconds of watching an old cartoon show like this one.
Every episode of the Super Show! features a “preview” of the Legend of Zelda cartoon I had completely forgotten about. I suddenly remembered the Mario Bros. show ran only Monday through Thursday with the Zelda cartoon taking up its time slot every Friday. As soon as the first preview began I also recalled how much I despised the Zelda episodes for taking away my Mario Bros. cartoons every Friday.
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