You’d be forgiven for forgetting that there was a live-action Spider-Man on TV years before Tobey Maguire donned the red and blue on film, and you’d be forgiven again if you thought the first one was actor Nicholas Hammond in 1977’s Spider-Man TV series. But fans of a certain age will remember the true first live-action Spider-Man, a hero who didn’t have to speak a word as he fought the likes of Mr. Measles, Silly Willy, the Wall, and the Sandman. No, not Sandman. The Sandman. And not The Sandman either, but a burglar dressed as sleepwalker Wee Willie Winkie. The original live-action webcrawler, played by Danny Seagren, took part in skits, between three and five minutes each, called “Spider Super Stories” in the Children’s Television Workshop PBS series The Electric Company, a hero catching villains and teaching reading while he’s at it.
