Today, September 4th, 2009, marks the twenty year anniversary of the first airing of one of the most famous video game based television series of all time, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show may not have had the same quality as its video game counterparts, there were noticeable flaws in the animation in nearly every episode (why is the princess’ voice coming out of Luigi’s mouth?), they always seemed to manage to squeeze in some made-for-this-episode-character-that-doesn’t-really-fit-into-the-Mario-universe almost all the time (though the Fat Boys were admittedly awesome), and why King Koopa looked more like Wart then Bowser still baffles me! Yet, there’s still something endearing about the series. One may say it’s nostalgia and that is more then likely a part of it, but I think there’s more to it then that.

Could it be Pro-wrestling icon Captain Lou Albano’s portrayal of Mario? Those comical live action segments? The now underappreciated Toad? The Legend of Zelda Fridays? Or maybe just the fact that it was a cartoon based on Mario? It’s probably all of the above.

Whilst not the perfect Mario to animation transition (that has yet to happen), it still provides some good entertainment even to this day. And it paved the way for other video game based television series like Pokemon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country and many others, including two other Mario cartoon series (based on Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World). Unfortunately this trend has seemed to die down with the rest of Saturday morning cartoons…

The entire Super Mario Bros. Super Show is available on DVD, so why not pick up a copy (if you don’t already have it) and relive some memories from the gaming world’s better days…and that delightful Mario Rap!

Do the Mario!