The Amazing Spider-Man is the first live-action TV series made to the popular comic book The Amazing Spider-Man and was shown in the U.S. between 1978-1979. It consisted of 15 episodes. Despite being produced by Columbia Pictures Television (and the modern Spider-Man movies being produced by Columbia Pictures), none of the episodes are available on DVD but some of them have been released on VHS.

The series aired on the CBS television network along with live action television series based on the comic book characters of the Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain America and Doctor Strange. The Amazing Spider-Man series had solid ratings throughout its run, but CBS was leery about being labeled the "superhero network" and fans were highly critical of the series for the changes made to the comic book storyline and the lack of any real "supervillains." The only characters besides Peter Parker to regularly appear in both the television series and comics were J. Jonah Jameson and Aunt May. Joe 'Robbie' Robertson (played by Hilly Hicks) also appeared but only in the pilot. To add insult to injury, Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee disliked the show, and was vocal about his dissatisfaction with it; he once said in an interview that he felt the series was "too juvenile."

In the mid 1980s and early 1990s two attempts were made to recreate an Amazing Spider-Man live action television series. The first one would have had the original cast team-up with the cast from the Incredible Hulk television series. This was part of a plan to have several television movies featuring the Incredible Hulk and various Marvel Comics characters. This attempt finally fell through when Bill Bixby died of cancer in 1993. A second attempt would have been entirely new series that died in preproduction because the networks wanted to make Spider-Man into a mutant.

From Wikipedia