The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! | 1989, 52 episodes and 13 specials
What’s it all about?
Part of a live American TV show - which also aired the Legend of Zelda cartoon - The Super Mario Bros Super Show! featured actual real people pretending to be Mario and Luigi (the former played by one-time wrestler Captain Lou Albano, who grew a moustache especially).
The cartoon followed the escapades of the dungaree-wearing duo, who find themselves flushed out in the Mushroom Kingdom after some kind of bizarre bathroom accident. Rather predictably, much of the brothers' time was spent rescuing Princess Toadstool (as she was known back then) from the clutches of King Koopa. Throughout the series she was captured a grand total of ten times. Seriously, how dumb can the girl be?
When they weren’t on perilous bint rescue missions, Mario and Luigi found themselves in a whole host of plotline parodies, including Mario and the Beanstalk, Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid, Count Koopula and - our favourite - On Her Majesty's Sewer Service. They also met some strangely familiar characters along the way, bumping into secret agent James Blonde, Elvin Parsley and Hooded Robin. See what they did there?
