THE SUPER FRIENDS TOUR

In the latter half of the 20th century, Saturday morning television was aimed solely at children.  They didn't have to go to school or church, and had a few hours of television produced just for them! In the fall of 1973, kids who read DC Comic books waited anxiously for Saturday, September 8th, 9:00am to finally arrive!  These kids (myself included) had been teased for weeks about a new cartoon that would debut that day.  It was a cartoon that would team Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman!!  The producers may not have called this cartoon "Justice League", but for many of us kids, that's still what it represented!

This new cartoon was called Super Friends, and it became a huge success.  So much so that over the next 12 years it would become a franchise with 7 different versions produced and aired on the ABC network. 

I think it's time to take a deep dive into all the various iterations of Super Friends.  If this sounds like something that might interest you too, strap in and join along in this tour!

SUPER FRIENDS

When Super Friends made its debut, Batman (and Robin), Superman, and Aquaman had each previously had their own animated Saturday morning series.  Wonder Woman on the other hand, had only had a singular appearance, as a guest character in one episode of The Brady Kids cartoon, in 1972.  Super Friends would be her first opportunity to appear as an ongoing character.  

The Super Friends had a unique headquarters called The Hall of Justice (inspired by the Union Terminal building in Cincinnati, Ohio) and they were accompanied by two young "heroes in training" named Wendy and Marvin, neither of whom had any super powers or enhanced abilities.  Wendy and Marvin also had a dog who wore a cape (as did Marvin) and was named Wonder Dog.  Obviously these junior friends were intended to be characters that young viewers could relate to.  They also served as characters that the actual Super Friends could teach.  This was important because in the original season of Super Friends, most of the adventures were morality stories intended to teach viewers (or ie Wendy and Marvin) important lessons about selfishness, environmentalism, overpopulation, ecology, etc.

The voice actors for our core five superheroes were supplied by Norman Alden (Aquaman), Olan Soule (Batman), Casey Kasem (Robin), Shannon Farnon (Wonder Woman) and Danny Dark (Superman).  Only Kasem and Dark would voice their respective characters in all seven incarnations of the Super Friends franchise.

Season one of Super Friends consisted of 16 one-hour episodes that originally aired between September 1973 and September 1974.  After a year hiatus, these 16 episodes were included in the 1975/1976 Saturday morning line up (this time at 10:00am rather than 9:00am) and were rerun once again for a year. 

This original season of Super Friends included three guest star superheroes.  Episode #3 (Professor Goodellow's G.E.E.C.) featured Plastic Man, episode #7 (Too Hot to Handle) featured Flash, and episode #14 (Gulliver's Gigantic Goof) had our heroes get a helping hand from Green Arrow. 

This marked the first animated appearances for Plastic Man and Green Arrow.  It was also the only appearance for both characters throughout the Super Friends lengthy franchise. 

Following the Super Friends debut in September of 1973, it would take four years for Hanna-Barbera Productions to create some new adventures.

ALL-NEW SUPER FRIENDS HOUR

The All-New Super Friends Hour debuted at 8:00am on Saturday, September 10, 1977.  Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were gone with no explanation and replaced by the Wonder Twins and Gleek.  

The Wonder Twins are two alien siblings from the planet Exor (sometimes Exxor) who are being trained by the adult heroes.  Unlike Wendy and Marvin, the Wonder Twins had super powers.  Zan can transform his body into any variation of water (steam, ice, etc.).  His sister Jayna is able to transform into any animal form (real, mythological, Earthborn, or extraterrestrial).  The two require physical touch with each other to initiate their powers.  They would typically bump fists and shout, "Wonder Twin powers activate" and then announce what transformation they intended to make.  Their pet is a "space monkey" who had a prehensile tail that could stretch.  

The format of the show changed as well.  Rather than one hour-long story, the show was broken up into four segments.  The first segment would team two of the core heroes in a short adventure. (It should be noted that Batman and Robin were always treated as one hero in team-up stories.)  The second segment would feature the Wonder Twins.  This segment was where the moral lessons prevalent in season one would be continued.  Typically Zan and Jayna would help teenagers who ended up in trouble because they chose to engage in misbehavior (hitchhiking, petty theft, etc.).  The third segment would be the primary adventure of the week and featured all the core heroes along with the Wonder Twins.  The show would close with another team-up story.  But in this fourth segment, the pairing would be one of the core Super Friends heroes and a guest hero.

The guest heroes were an eclectic mix.  Some were existing DC superheroes (Atom, Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman and Hawkgirl), others were created by Hanna-Barbera (Apache Chief, Samurai, and Black Vulcan), and one, Rima the jungle girl, was from a 1904 novel by W.H. Hudson.  (Like Batman and Robin, Hawkman and Hawkgirl were counted as "one" hero in these team-up tales.)  Each of the guest heroes was featured in two episodes throughout the season, with the exception of Flash who only appeared once.
 

Apache Chief, Rima, Samurai, Black Vulcan, and Hawkgirl were intended to diversify the cast by providing some heroes who weren't all White and mostly male.  Apache Chief is a Native American and able to grow to a giant size.  Black Vulcan is an African-American and can create electrical blasts and convert his body into energy.  Rima is Venezuelan and skilled in tracking and share an empathetic bond with animals.  Samurai is Japanese and has several powers including control of wind and fire, turning invisible, and creating illusions.  

This second version of Super Friends had a total of 15 episodes.  It proved to be much more popular with children than the original season, and it led to another incarnation of the show the following year


CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER FRIENDS

Challenge of the Super Friends debuted on September 9, 1978 at 9:00am.  This incarnation is focused much more on super heroics. The moral lessons that were commonplace in the first two seasons are pretty much gone. 

Each hour-long episode is divided into two segments.  The first segment focuses on the core five heroes and the Wonder Twins. The second segment features an expanded team that is officially referred to as the Justice League of America.  Black Vulcan, Flash, Hawkman, Samurai, Apache Chief, and Green Lantern are added as  full time members of the team in these segments.  The Justice League faces off against a cadre of DC villains that include Lex Luthor, Toyman, Giganta, Captain Cold, Sinestro, Gorilla Grodd, Bizarro, Scarecrow, Brainiac, Cheetah, Riddler, and Black Manta.  All of the villains in the second Justice League Challenge segment were costumed super villains from the pages of DC Comics.  The villains are part of a group known as The Legion of Doom, an organization bent on world domination!  The Legion of Doom has their own headquarters called the Hall of Doom which is located in a murky swamp.  Prior to this season, the overwhelming majority of villains the first two years were all created for the show.

Challenge of the Super Friends was the first season where one of the voice actors for the core five heroes was recast.  William "Bill" Callaway replaced Norman Alden as the voice of Aquaman.  Bill voiced the character throughout the remaining years of the Super Friends many incarnations.  

Challenge of the Super Friends consisted of 16 episodes that aired from 1978 through 1979.  With ratings still very strong, yet another new interpretation of the team would debut in the fall of 1978.


THE WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER FRIENDS

The World's Greatest Super Friends debuted on ABC's Saturday morning line up on September 22, 1979 at 8:00am.  Episodes of this version of Super Friends were only 30 minutes long and featured just one story per week.

This season of Super Friends consisted of just 8 new episodes.  Most of the stories are "borrowed" from classic fairy tales and folklore.  All the extra heroes were stripped away, and the cast returned to its core five heroes along with the Wonder Twins (though the Wonder Twins are often simply relegated to brief appearances at the beginning and end of several stories.).

This season is generally regarded as a low point in the Super Friends collection of series.


SUPER FRIENDS
 
The fifth version of Super Friends returns the title to its original name.  This version of the show had three distinct seasons.  The first aired from September 1980 to 1981 with 8 new episodes.  The second aired from September 1981 to 1982 with 6 new episodes.  The third aired from September 1983 to 1984 with 8 new episodes.

The original five primary heroes, along with the Wonder Twins, are occasionally joined by one or more of the additional heroes featured in the second incarnation (The All-New Super Friends Hour) and the third (Challenge of the Super Friends).  Among them are Flash, Atom, Green Lantern, Rima, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Samurai.  

Many of the Legion of Doom villains also appear sporadically in this run of Super Friends as well.  

The format was changed yet again for this particular run.  There were no half-hour stories, instead each episode consisted of 3 seven-minute adventures.  When this series was aired, the new 3 seven-minute shorts would be followed by another 30-minute story from the previous six years of the show... thus making it an hour Super Friends block on the Saturday mornings of 1980 through 1984. 

During the second of the three seasons of this particular version of Super Friends (1981-82), another new Hanna-Barbera created hero was added to the roster of guest characters.  His name was El Derado and he was from Mexico.  His powers weren't very well defined but they included teleportation, a limited degree of telepathy, and the ability to create illusions that included sound.  He also had enhanced strength and stamina. 

SUPER FRIENDS: THE LEGENDARY SUPER POWERS SHOW

In 1984, the Super Powers Collection was a joint venture between DC Comics and Kenner Products.  It revolved around a large collection of DC related action figures that also included DC comic books tied into the line.  Another product that was woven into the Collection was the most recent version of Super Friends.  Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show debuted on the ABC network on September 8, 1984 at 8:00am.  

This time around, the show consisted of two 11-minute stories for each new 30-minute episode.  Again, older episodes from years past would be aired following the new Super Powers stories to ensure a full hour of Super Friends entertainment each Saturday morning.

To further tie into the Super Powers Collection, the villain Darkseid and his minions Kalibak and DeSaad became recurring villains on this version of Super Friends.  They are joined by several of the previous Legion of Doom villains.  Lex Luthor and Brainiac got updated appearances to better tie into their new action figures.

In an interesting twist, the Hanna-Barbera-created character of Samurai was given an action figure in the DC Super Powers Collection.

For the first time in Super Friends history, one of the original core heroes is not in the team's new lineup.  Though featured in the opening credits, Aquaman does not appear in a single episode of this version of the show.  The team for Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show consists of Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai, El Dorado, the Wonder Twins, and a brand new member... Firestorm.

At the time, Firestorm was a fairly new character in DC Comics.  He debuted in 1978 and proved to be quite popular.  In 1980 he was extended a membership in the Justice League of America monthly DC comic book.  High School student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Stein were victims of a nuclear accident that fused them into the single entity of Firestorm.  Firestorm can rearrange non-sentient molecular structures and also has the power of transmutation. 

On a certain level Firestorm replaced the Wonder Twins as the teen character for young viewers to identify with.  The Wonder Twins continued to be included in the series, but their days were becoming numbered.

The loss of Bill Callaway voicing Aquaman was one of three changes to the vocal talent of the team's core characters. Shannon Farnon lost her role as Wonder Woman to Connie Cawfield.  Cawfield just happened to be dating the Voice Director of this version of Super Friends!  And, while Alan Soule would provide the voice for the Martin Stein half of Firestorm, he was replaced by Adam West as the voice of Batman.  West of course had been TV's first actor to play Batman back in the campy 1966 TV series.

Super Friends: The Legendary Super Heroes Show had one more interesting change from past versions of the show.  Wonder Woman's costume.  In 1982, DC Comics changed Wonder Woman's apparel by removing the golden eagle chest plate she had worn since her first comic appearance (1941) and replacing it with a double-W emblem.  This change was made so Wonder Woman would have her own unique chest emblem that could be used for marketing purposes.  The new Wonder Woman emblem made its animated debut during this iteration of Super Friends and carried over to the next (final) version of the show.

THE SUPER POWERS TEAM: GALACTIC GUARDIANS

The final incarnation of Super Friends debuted on September 7, 1985 at 10:30am.  Episodes of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians were 30 minutes long with most episodes consisting of one story.  Classic DC villains continued to be utilized, including Darkseid, Lex Luthor, and Scarecrow.  Also notable this season is that Joker and Penguin each make their first and only Super Friends appearances.  

Aquaman was back but not utilized much, an the Wonder Twins were jettisoned with no mention.  The tone of the show was much more serious than previous incarnations.  The primary team consists of the core 5 heroes along with Firestorm and new member Cyborg.  In the DC comics, Cyborg was a member of the New Teen Titans, but for television, he was added as a member of this season's team.  Cyborg is a young man who lost a large portion of his body in an accident, and his scientist father created cybernetic limbs for him.  Cyborg's mechanics provide an array of enhanced abilities, though power blasts are used most on the show.

Flash, Green Lantern, Samurai, El Dorado, and Hawkman made occasional appearances, or sometimes simply served as background filler characters.  

The team was given a new Hall of Justice for no apparent reason. This building looked a little like a futuristic Pentagon.

Wonder Woman became the first of the primary core five heroes to have three different actors provide her voice.  Adam West stuck around to voice Batman one more season, but Connie Cawfield was replaced by the prolific voice actor B.J. Ward as Wonder Woman.

This season of Super Friends was made up of just 8 episodes, but some are highly regarded, including an episode that told Batman's origin for the first time in television history. 

With The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics ended their 12-year Super Friends collaboration.  This show introduced a generation of kids to a huge swath of DC characters, both heroic and villainous!  And thanks to the ever-expanding variety of streaming platforms, these shows will live on for generations to come!

Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, and Aquaman, and all related characters, names, and elements and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of DC Comics, Inc. 

Super Friends an all related characters, names, and elements and the distinctive likenesses thereof are the property of Warner Brothers.