Once in a secure position, story editor John Semper made his first demand of the combined FOX-Marvel forces by making them buy him a complete collection of Spider-Man comics. FOX and Marvel had the idea that armed with six trade paperbacks, Semper was going to create a 65-episode series. However, he told them no, invest the money in the books and they could use them for reference. Semper got his comics and as '93 moved into '94 the story editor began researching more than 30 years of Spider-lore - building the foundation of this series.
The creative team decided not to use Gwen Stacy in this series because they did not want to use a character that was dead in the comics for over 20 years and long time fans would expect her to eventually die. Because of this decision, many of the stories were changed to the events happening to Felicia Hardy or Mary Jane Watson. However, Gwen would appear in the series finale.
Radioactivity and all uses of the word were removed and replaced on this show with a science called neogenics, including the spider that bites Peter to give him his powers. Ironically, though, Joe Perry's theme music uses the lyric "radioactive spider blood."