Captain Lou Albano offered to change his name to Mario for the Super Mario Bros. Super Show role

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show was one hell of a wild ride. It featured some animated Mario and Zelda segments, which really fleshed out both worlds and actually put characters into situations you'd never expect to see. It also featured live-action segments with Mario and Luigi working at their plumbing business in New York. The two elements were combined into a Super Show, which made for 30 minutes of off-the-wall antics and more.

Captain Lou Albano ended up taking on the role of Mario for those live-action segments, which was quite different from his usual work. Albano was known for his character in the then WWF, appearing as a wrestler/manager. His jump to portraying Mario was a move into acting, and it's clear Albano took it very seriously.

In an interview with Polygon, John Grusd, a producer at DIC Entertainment, looked back on Albano's work with the character. While it may have been a goofy, short-lived show, Captain Lou gave the role everything he could. Albano wasn't known as an actor, but Grusd and the team just couldn't resist his charm. Along with that, Lou was willing to make quite a sacrifice to prove he was the man for the job.

"I kept going back to what a really nice guy he was. And he was just a fish out of water. He wasn’t an actor, but he was a personality. He actually offered to legally change his name to Mario.”

This is just one snippet from Polygon's massive feature on various Nintendo shows/cartoons over the years. There's little tidbits about The Wizard, Super Mario Bros. The Movie, Donkey Kong Country, and more. Check out the full feature here.