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For any existing recordings of the show from VHS tapes, the end credits have an announcer who describes other NBC shows & movies.
The original air-dates of the show can usually be determined from these announcements or from commercials and other details during the show.
Please let us know if you have any episodes with these end credits, commercials from the episodes that pinpoint an air-date or any additional information.
 
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends premiered at 11:30 A.M. (EST), Saturday, September 12th, 1981 on the NBC television network.
The 13 episodes of this season originally aired with a "cold open" which means that Act 1 of the show aired BEFORE the show's intro.
The first episodes had some errors in the intro and different end credits than the one used as the standard.
These were corrected at some point, most likely before the original airing of "Seven Little Superheroes".
A re-run of that episode has the corrected intro while a re-run of "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" had the incorrect intro and alternate end credits.
(This intro with the errors was later accidentally used for the series MARVEL ACTION UNIVERSE which aired re-runs of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends did not air new episodes consecutively, week to week, and the episodes were NOT aired in direct production order.
Re-airings of episodes happened multiple times before all of the original episodes had been aired. Throughout this season, these episodes had no narrations.
Stan Lee's narrations were later created and added to most of these episodes for their re-airings in the second season.
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CURRENTLY DEDUCED AIR-DATES:
1981-09-12 "Triumph of the Green Goblin" (original airing of production # 6001)
1981-09-19 "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" (original airing of production # 6003)
[source: memory of three reliable sources; COMICS FEATURE #16 has no mention of Kraven airing]
1981-09-26 unknown
1981-10-03 unknown
1981-10-10 unknown
1981-10-17 unknown
1981-10-24 unknown
1981-10-31 unknown
1981-11-07 "The Vengeance of Loki" (original airing of production # 6010)
[source: end credits - Barbara Mandrell guests Conway Twitty/Patrick Duffy that night]
1981-11-14 "Triumph of the Green Goblin" (re-airing)
[source: end credits - The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid premieres the next day]
1981-11-21 unknown - Show moved to 10:30 A.M. (now before Space Stars; was after)
1981-11-28 unknown
1981-12-05 unknown
1981-12-12 "Videoman" (original airing of production # 6007)
[source: end credits - A Chipmunk Christmas premieres on Monday]
1981-12-19 unknown
1981-12-26 unknown
1982-01-02 "The Crime of All Centuries" (re-airing of production # 6002)
[source: two reliable memories]
1982-01-09 "Swarm" (re-airing of production # 6005)
[source: end credits description]
1982-01-16 "Knights & Demons" (original airing of production # 6011)
[source: end credits - The Electric Grandmother premieres the next day]
1982-01-23 "Seven Little Superheroes" (re-airing of production # 6006)
[source: end credits - Mandrell Sisters guests Ray Charles that night]
1982-01-30 unknown
1982-02-06 unknown
1982-02-13 unknown
1982-02-20 unknown
1982-02-27 unknown
1982-03-06 unknown
1982-03-13 unknown
1982-03-20 "The Fantastic Mr. Frump" (re-airing of production # 6003)
[source: end credits and a commercial date - One of the Boys description]
1982-03-27 unknown
1982-04-03 unknown
1982-04-10 unknown
1982-04-17 unknown
1982-04-24 unknown
1982-05-01 unknown
1982-05-08 unknown
1982-05-15 "The Prison Plot" (re-airing of production # 6008)
[source: end credits description]
1982-05-22 "The Quest of the Red Skull" (re-airing of production # 6013)
[source: end credits - Return of Maxwell Smart description]
1982-05-29 "Spidey Goes Hollywood" (re-airing of production # 6009)
[source: end credits description]
1982-06-05 unknown
1982-06-12 unknown
1982-06-19 unknown
1982-06-26 unknown
1982-07-03 DID NOT AIR - WIMBLEDON TENNIS began airing at 9am
1982-07-10 unknown
1982-07-17 unknown
1982-07-24 unknown
1982-07-31 unknown
1982-08-07 unknown
1982-08-14 unknown
1982-08-21 unknown
1982-08-28 unknown
1982-09-04 unknown
1982-09-11 "Videoman" (re-airing of production # 6007)
[source: memory]
 
The show had reached a point where it was the sixth highest rated children's program on air (approxiately 5 million viewers) which helped NBC decide to take on another Marvel property, The Incredible Hulk.
For the second season, a half hour of a new Hulk cartoon was paired with Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
and both were treated as a one hour show with one intro and dual billing called The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man. Both half hours were narrated by Stan Lee.
Only three episodes of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends were produced for the second season (The Incredible Hulk had 13 episodes produced.)
In addition to the three new episodes, re-airings of the first season episodes had Stan Lee narrations added to them. Due to the loss of the cold open and combining of the two shows, the commercial breaks for the first season episodes had to be moved to new spots during the episode.
There is currently no evidence that the episodes "The Vengeance of Loki" and "Videoman" were included in the rotation this season or that they ever had Stan Lee narrations added to them.
Interestly, the production numbers skipped from 6013 for the final episode of the first season to 6016 for the first episode of the second season then skipped again between the second and third season.
It is unknown if the reason is related but production had delays due to dealing with NBC's "standards & practices" about the death of Uncle Ben in the episode, "Along Came Spidey". Though Marvel comic book covers touted that The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man would begin airing on September 11th, 1982 it actually did not premiere until September 18th, 1982.
    
1982-09-18 "The Origin of The Iceman" (original airing of production # 6016)
1982-09-25 "A Fire-Star is Born" (original airing of production # 6018)
1982-10-02 "Along came Spidey" (original airing of production # 6017)
[source: end credits say season premiere of Diff'rent Strokes for that night]
1982-10-09 unknown
to unknown
1983-04-02 "The Fantastic Mr. Frump"/"Origin of The Hulk" (re-airing)
[source: end credits say Grandpa, Will You Run With Me? airs the next night]
to unknown
1983-09-10 unknown
 
For the third season, there was another title change. This time the characters' names would be reversed and the show was called, The Amazing Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. Eight new episodes of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends were created for this season combined with re-airings of the original 13 episodes of The Incredible Hulk that had aired in the second season. The third season premiered on September 17th, 1983.
    
1983-09-17 "Spider-Man Unmasked!" (original airing of production # 6024)
1983-09-24 "The Transylvanian Connection" (original airing of production # 6025)
1983-10-01 unknown
1983-10-08 unknown
1983-10-15 unknown
1983-10-22 unknown
1983-10-29 unknown
1983-11-05 unknown
1983-11-12 unknown
to unknown
1984-04-21 "Origin of the Spider-Friends"/"The Boy who saw Tomorrow" (re-airing)
[source: end credits say JENNIFER SLEPT HERE:"Do you take this Ghost?" airs that night]
to unknown
1984-06-23 [SM&HAF episode unknown]/"It Lives! It Grows! It Destroys!" (re-airing)
[source: end credits say DIFF'RENT STROKES:"Drummond's Lady" airs that night]
to unknown
1984-08-04 "Attack of the Arachnoid"/"Prisoner of the Monster" (re-airing)
[source: end credits say DIFF'RENT STROKES:"The Houseguest" airs that night]
onward unknown
The show continued to air for two following seasons despite not having any new episodes. All of the re-airings for NBC Saturday mornings from this point were edited by about two minutes to make more room for commercials. The title was changed back to Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends for the 1984 fall premiere only to revert back to The Amazing Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk a few months later. And then finally reverting back to Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends for the remainder of the 1984-85 season. It stayed that way in the 1985-86 season.
The cold open was seen again but the episodes were still edited by a couple of minutes. It was also seen at random times on some individual NBC affiliate stations such as an unedited airing of "The Quest of the Red Skull" on NBC WGAL in Chicago, IL.
One thing specific to all of the NBC airings is a title card of the Spider-Friends that would zoom in on Spidey's eye to reveal the episode's title.
(Shown below.) This title card has not been seen on any airing since the NBC years and is not on the current masters. The show's final airing on NBC was September 6, 1986.
THANKS TO THE KID'S BLOCK BLOG for info on the final NBC years.
ALL UPDATED 11/15/22.
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