|
 On
Thursday, December 7, 1989, ABC presented an Ice Capades special on TV,
hosted by Alyssa Milano (of Who's The
Boss fame) and Jason Bateman (Silver Spoons;
Valerie,
Arrested Development). The show had many
famous and talented figure skaters, music numbers and comedy acts,
including segments featuring Barbie and the Super Mario Bros. This
happens to be the 50th Anniversary of the Ice Capades that they taped,
as
the programs that the
hosts and the audience had, with
the Mario Bros and
Barbie on the back. (The 50th Anniversary Ice Capades Barbie was
released at this time also.) When the segment begins, the hosts are
backstage when they spot some
random people playing Super Mario Bros. Alyssa mentions that she's
never played videogames before (*gasp*) and Jason brags to her that he
is a master of Nintendo, proclaiming himself to be the "Video Prince."
Then he tells her about the plot of Super Mario Bros.
[It's interesting to mention that Jason refers to King Koopa as
Bowser, because the entire show after this just calls him King Koopa.]
 As
they talk, they are interrupted when the
monitor starts
flickering and doing crazy stuff. Jason, who apparently know
everything about Nintendo, states that it's a computer virus, which
will, and I quote, "release all the evil forces stored up in the
computer." @_@ Um...OK, "Mr. Video Prince", whatever you say. Then, who
pops up? Yes, it's good ol'
King Koopa (NOT
Bowser!), played by the late 80's sitcom star Christopher Hewett, a.k.a.
Mr. Belvedere. Koopa has released the virus and threatens to take over
the world. His plan is very laughable at best, as it implies that a NES
can be used to infect computers with deadly viruses, which probably
can't happen. That, and he says he doesn't really want the world, but
does it anyway because he loves causing trouble. It's nice to have
hobbies, I guess.
The
Mario set is decent enough. It looks like
a 3-D version of the
8-bit SMB1, with pixelated clouds and trees in the background and a
castle in the middle. However, it looks way better than what Mr. Hewett had to wear.
His costume is very tacky and ugly. He doesn't even have anything
over his face, just
horribly applied green face paint around his moustache. His horns
looked like dangly jesters' bells and he's wearing horrible plaid pants
and a geeky red bow tie. On top of that, he's riding on a
moving castle. You know the forts at the end of each level of SMB1?
Yep, he's roving about on the ice on a castle. o.O
 Koopa
calls out his minions to destroy different computer parts that NES's
don't have, including 2 Green
Koopa Troopas, 2
miscolored white
Goombas, 1
Hammer Bro (two Troopas and only ONE Hammer Brother?), a Red
Paratroopa and a
Spiny. The baddies' costumes were based on their official Nintendo
designs, though they looked very non-threatening and
somewhat cuddly-looking.
The Goombas and the Spiny, about a meter or so tall, do seem to be
radio-controlled, or have skaters crouched or something inside them.
After this, Koopa pompously sings about how evil he is, with his baddies
dancing around him...wearing plaid pants...on a moving
castle...oooookaaay. Mr. Hewett had a very cultured, polite-sounding
British accent, not like Cartoon Koopa's voice at all. He sang pretty
well, but the lyrics were shallow and kinda childish. The song is short,
thankfully, and only proves that Koopa can create plans for world
domination much better than he can sing silly egotistical songs.
 After
this, we see the Princess Toadstool (can't call her Peach yet, as this
is still 1989, or all time and space will unravel around us and
disappear), who has a huge, horrid mascot-like head and a cliché Mae
West-ish Hollywood voice, off to the side with her subjects of plumber
pawns with her. Another note is that the Princess's costume is based on
the official Nintendo design; she has blond hair, instead of red/brown
from the cartoons. Princess Pea....Toadstool, helpless to stop
Koopa, then summons the Mario Bros., who for some reason
arrived from the sky with the help of their trusty support wires.
@_@ [Here's something I just noticed: In the scene when the Princess
talks to her people before she calls the Bros. from the heavens, you can
see
the Marios behind
her, with their backs turned to the audience. Sloppy editing.]
 After
being briefed on the situation by Princess, Mario and Luigi, with their
very stereotypical Italian accents and
oversized, misshapened
mascot heads, protect the Maiden in Distress from the horrible men
in Koopa Troopa suits. The Princess helps out by sending out carts
containing
kids from the
audience to assist the Bros. Koopa then scoffs at the Marios for
sending children to do a man's job. So, one by one,
Koopa sends out his legions of dumpy villains to defeat the Bros.
However, Luigi dons his airgun/cardboard box out of nowhere and
mercilessly kills each bad guy with sparkler blasts that are later
added in. The effect of the baddies dying is just crude and leaves one
to think how it'll work without the superimposed TV special effects of
them just fading away and disappearing to low-budget heaven.
Koopa, realizing that his army of extras is failing him, decides to
attack the Bros. himself on his mobile fortress with his Spiny. The
Marios and the children in the carts surround Koopa, totally ignoring
Spiny altogether from the onslaught of death and sparkly insanity. After
Mario spouts a remarkably bland joke/pun,
the children vanquish the
Koopa King with their big foam wrenches and dirty plungers in a blast of sparklers.
Cheesey fanfare music plays afterwards, proclaiming the death of the
Koopa King, as the children are returned back to the audience, without
getting any complementary gift for being a part in the show.
In the end, the Princess, who now just looks like
a giant, mutated blow-up doll, congratulates the Marios by giving
them the
"Purple Plunger for
Bravery" or "The Incredibly Cheap Cardboard Hero Prize.". Then, the
Bros. have a disgraceful squabble about bragging rights. Note that in
all this, Mario does absolutely NOTHING to help out. Luigi killed all
the minor foes and commanded the children to kill Koopa. Lazy, lazy
Mario... Backstage, the monitor that the hosts were watching all this
goes back to normal, then for no reason, Alyssa announces that she wins
the game by default, although she doesn't even play it at all, leaving
"Jason the Video Prince" in a stupor.
THE END!
[NEW INFO: 7-15-05] New information from my forum topic about
this has led me to a site belonging to a
Mr.
Michael Baroto, a costume designer who made these all the characters
for the show, including the baddies, the Bros. and Peach. Apparently, he
had only 3 months to make three sets of ten costumes, as well as two
other costumes for another show. Seeing that he had to make 30 costumes
in the short a time span, this would explain why the Marios and Peach
looked so rushed. They don't do his talents justice, however, as his
other works, including puppets, dolls and marionettes, are very creative
and well-made. There are production photos of the Mario costumes in the
previous link. If you ever get to read this, Mr. Baroto, please don't
take my negative comments personally. ^^;;;;;;
 Here's
something I just noticed after watching this over again. Apparently,
they deviated from what they'd usually do at a live show and made it
extra special for the TV show by adding those "special" effects and
camera angles. Also, they taped this when the audience wasn't present,
as the seating couldn't been seen at all. They do show some stock
footage of people watching all this and laughing at the bad puns, and of
the kids getting out of the carts when the show was over, never getting
compensated with gifts and whatnot for killing off the "mighty" King
Koopa.
However, doing this just made the show worse, as there were obvious
editing mistakes. For example, you can see
enemies that were killed
off later hanging about off to the side when the children return to
the audience. In another instance, right at the end, you can see a lone
boy sitting on the ice in the background playing with a wrench behind
Princess Toadstool before she hands out the awards. Then he disappears
in the next shot. And let's not forget the earlier example of the Marios
already on stage before they arrive from the sky. Very very
sloppy, even for late 80's television. Of course, this was a time when
little kids wouldn't care less if the show was crappy or not. It had
Mario, and that's all that mattered.
And, yes, I took these pics by taking photos of my TV with my digital
camera, as I don't have the hardware to make the video into a movie file
on the computer. Hehehe. ^.^;
BONUS!:
Mario Ice Capades - Full-Length Video (.mov - 15MB)
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