Super Friends – Nostalgia Central

1 9 7 3 – 1 9 7 5 (USA)
16 x 60 minute episodes

“In the great hall of the Justice League, there are assembled the world’s four greatest heroes, created from the cosmic legends of the universe: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, and those three junior Super Friends, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. Their mission – To fight injustice; to right that which is wrong; and to serve all mankind!”

This opening narration would attract fans to Saturday mornings on ABC for 13 years, through nine different incarnations of the show, and as many different titles – The longest-running animated superhero series ever.

The superheroes from DC Comics had always been well represented on Saturday morning television, with Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman on CBS from September 1966 to September 1967, followed by The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure from September 1967 to September 1968, and The Batman/Superman Hour from September 1968 to September 1969.

As the 1970s dawned, “moral watchdog” groups like Action for Children’s Television (ACT) effectively wiped out all traces of superheroes from Saturday morning cartoons.

When Fred Silverman moved from CBS to ABC he commissioned Hanna-Barbera to bring back DC superheroes in a friendlier, less threatening way with storylines that were moralistic and nonviolent.

Hanna-Barbera chose five of DC Comics’ top heroes to headline the series: Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman and Robin. Joining the team (alternately called the “Justice League” or the “SuperFriends”) were teen sidekicks Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog.

Super Friends debuted on 8 September 1973, with an adventure in which the heroes had to stop energy thieves who came from a resource-depleted planet.

It was typical of most of the stories that followed: the “bad guys” weren’t super-villains but often misunderstood scientists trying to save mankind with some out-of-control scheme, and heavy-handed moralising was often delivered by Batman and Robin.

The (heavily padded) 60-minute series soon became one of the top-rated shows on Saturday morning. Despite this, the show was dropped in August 1975, after its second season (containing all reruns).

Replacing it was Filmation’s short-lived Uncle Croc’s Block, but in February 1976, reruns of Super Friends were brought back to the schedule as a mid-season replacement for that failed series, lasting until 11 September, when it was replaced by the Krofft Supershow series.

From December 1976 to September 1977, ABC brought back Super Friends one final time, this time chopping the hour-long stories into half-hour edited versions and removing most of the “filler.”

Hanna-Barbera finally sold ABC on a new hour-long version of the show in 1977, titled The All-New Super Friends Hour, which featured two half-hour stories (22 minutes plus commercials) in each episode, interspersed with short segments with the characters speaking directly to viewers with safety tips, three-part Decoder Clues games or short magic tricks.

Narrator
Ted Knight
Superman
Danny Dark
Batman
Olan Soule
Robin
Casey Kasem
Aquaman
Norman Alden
Wonder Woman
Shannon Farnon
Wendy
Sherry Alberoni
Marvin/Wonder Dog
Frank Welker
Colonel Wilcox
John Stephenson