Super Friends

This article is about the Hanna-Barbera television series. For the Powerpuff Girls episode, see Super Friends (Powerpuff Girls episode).

The title card for the first Super Friends series.

Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

Series

Over the years, the show was featured under several titles, they are the following;

• Super Friends (1973)
• The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977)
• Challenge of the Super Friends (1978)
• The World’s Greatest Super Friends (1979)
• Super Friends (1980-1983; this show had 3 different short cartoons that starred at least two or three different superheroes dealing with different crises)
• Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984)
• The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)

History

When animation company Hanna-Barbera licensed the animation rights to the DC Comics characters and adapted the Justice League of America comic book for television, it made several changes in the transition, not the least of which was the change of name to Super Friends. In part, it was feared that the name Justice League of America would have seemed too jingoistic during the Vietnam War and post-Vietnam War Era. Nevertheless, team members sometimes referred to themselves as the Justice League on the show. The violence common in superhero comics was toned down for a younger audience, as well as to fit with the restrictive broadcast standards regarding violence in 1970s children’s television.

1973-1974 series

Super Friends first aired on ABC on September 8 1973 , featuring the well known DC characters Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Superman, Batman and Aquaman had each previously appeared in their own animated series produced by Filmation. Shortly before the Super Friends series was developed, Superman and Wonder Woman also guest-starred in two episodes of The Brady Kids, while Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

In addition to the superheroes, a trio of sidekicks were introduced, who were new characters not drawn from the comic books. These were Wendy Harris (voiced by Sherri Alberoni) and Marvin White (voiced by Frank Welker) and their dog Wonderdog, none of whom had any special abilities (save the dog’s unexplained ability to reason and “talk”). Inspired by the Scooby-Doo gang, the trio--or at least its human members--were depicted as detectives and/or superheroes in training.

This first run of Super Friends, consisting of sixteen one hour episodes that were rerun several times, concluded on August 24, 1974. These initial episodes were later rebroadcast in the middle of the following season from February 7, 1976 to September 3, 1977 .

The All-New Super Friends Hour

On September 10, 1977, a second season of Super Friends began, featuring a new name (The All-New Super Friends Hour) and some generally well received cast changes. Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog were replaced by pointy-eared shapeshifting extraterrestrials Zan and Jayna, the “Wonder Twins,” and their “space monkey” Gleek. Perhaps self-consciously, the twins bore a marked visual resemblance to the then popular pair of Donny and Marie Osmond, as well as Star Trek's alien character, Mr. Spock. Depictions of their home planet recall similar designs from the original Star Wars movies. Another possible source of inspiration would be the three sidekicks from Space Ghost.

One-hour and half-hour episodes

Initially, during the Wendy and Marvin years, each episode was a single one-hour story, and the villains (mostly original creations not in the comics) were often misguided, rather than evil. Subsequent seasons were a mix of one-hour and half-hour episodes, the one-hour episodes sometimes featuring two or more short stories in each hour, and made use of established villains from the DC comics. The Challenge of the Superfriends season introduced the Legion of Doom, a team of 13 recurring foes comprised of the Super Friends’ worst enemies. They used a swamp-based, mechanical, flying headquarters, the Hall of Doom (which suspiciously resembled the helmet of Darth Vader), as a suitable contrast with the Super Friends’ gleaming Hall of Justice. Often during this season, the Superfriends would triumph by inventing a new super power for that episode that would never again be manifested -- for instance the episode when Batman discovered that the Bat-radio had a 'certain frequency' that would cause the water monster they were fighting to cease to exist or the episode when Superman was able to merely 'fly' to the year 70million B.C. to rescue Aquaman and Apache Chief.

Experimenting with team composition

Hanna-Barbera’s writers experimented with team composition as well. Earlier seasons occasionally introduced other superheroes as guest stars, including The Flash, Plastic Man, and Green Arrow. Challenge of the Superfriends kept the teen sidekicks, but they were not directly involved with the super-villain stories. It also added Hawkman, Green Lantern, and The Flash as well as three characters without previous comic-book antecedents: Black Vulcan (who appears to have been based on DC character, Black Lightning; see Trivia below), Apache Chief and Samurai. These last three were intended to be international heroes and were created in order to encourage racial and cultural diversity. Critics felt that these attempts were, at best, awkward and, at worst, very stereotypical and somewhat offensive. Subsequent versions of the show resulted in a fourth “diversity” hero, El Dorado, and guest stars who had also appeared in DC comics, including Rima the Jungle Girl (a Tarzan-like character similar to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Marvel Comics’ Shanna the She-Devil), Hawkgirl and the Atom.

During Challenge of the Superfriends season, sixteen more episodes were made. These episodes were shown during the original run of the show (and possibly again during the 1980s in syndicated re-runs) but were not shown when Cartoon Network aired the show. These episodes (which is where the Wonder Twins were active this season) have been released on DVD as SuperFriends: Volume Two.

Super Powers

The final two seasons, Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, (the “Super Powers” tag reflected a marketing tie-in with a toyline of the same name produced by Kenner) made further refinements to the roster, adding teen members Firestorm and Cyborg, each with a comics history. For the Legendary Super Powers season, the Wonder Twins and Gleek returned to the cast.

The tone of these last two seasons, in particular the Galactic Guardians version, was notably more serious than Super Friends had been in the past (possibly due to the success NBC was having with their own Saturday morning cartoon series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends). This was reflected with the introduction of Darkseid and his minions on Apokolips as recurring villains in these episodes. The series in these last two seasons ceased trying to be so much a “kid-friendly” version of the DC characters and mythos, and began targeting a slightly older audience with more of an emphasis on action as opposed to morality lessons in the guise of superhero stories. In particular, the Galactic Guardians series featured a notable first: in the episode “The Fear,” Batman’s origin is told for the first time outside of the actual comics.

Characters

The Super Friends

While different smaller incarnations have appeared, eleven heroes made up the Super Friends during the Challenge of the Super Friends season. They were:

Superman Batman Wonder Woman Aquaman Robin The Flash

Green Lantern Hawkman Black Vulcan Apache Chief Samurai

Additional members included:

• Rima the Jungle Girl (1977 and 1980)
• El Dorado (1982–1985)
• Hawkgirl (1977, 1980 and 1983)
• Atom (1977, 1980–1983)
• Firestorm (1984–1985)
• Cyborg (1985)

One-shot appearances were made by:

• Green Arrow (1973–1974)
• Plastic Man (1973–1974)
• Superboy (1979, 1982)

The teen sidekicks and their pets:

• Wendy Harris (1973–1975)
• Marvin White (1973–1975)
• Wonderdog (1973–1975)
• Zan (1977–1984)
• Jayna (1977–1984)
• Gleek (1977–1984)

Legion of Doom

Thirteen villains comprised the Legion of Doom during the Challenge of the Super Friends season. They were:

Lex Luthor Solomon Grundy Sinestro Black Manta Cheetah Giganta The Scarecrow

Toyman The Riddler Bizarro Brainiac Captain Cold Gorilla Grodd

• Doctor Natas — a one-time member briefly mentioned in “Superfriends, Rest in Peace” as the inventor of the Noxium crystal, which had the power to kill any Super Friend. He never actually appeared on screen, not even in a flashback or a photograph.

Other DC Comics villains

Batzarro and other clones. Darkseid Desaad Kalibak The Parademons Gentleman Ghost

The Joker The Royal Flush Gang Mirror Master Mr. Mxyzptlk The Penguin Felix Faust The Phantom Zone Villains

Villains appearing independently from the Legion of Doom:

Lex Luthor The Scarecrow The Riddler

Toyman Brainiac Bizarro

Villains appearing in the show but not in DC comics:

• Rock and Roll Space Bandits

The fifth season of the animated series Justice League Unlimited has shown Gorilla Grodd forming a massive Legion of villains. While not called "The Legion of Doom" on the show, their headquarters is a craft similar to the Hall of Doom, located in a swamp.

Comics

Super Friends

DC Comics published a comic book version of the Super Friends in the 1970s. The Super Friends comic was written to a higher standard than the television show, and Zan and Jayna were given backstories and secret identities as a pair of blond-haired high school kids; they were more competent heroes in general than their cartoon counterparts.

• While the cartoons were not canon with DC Comics, writer E. Nelson Bridwell would try to make it into canon by footnotes. Though, many fans would address the matter in letter columns by addressing the SF stories on Earth-1A.[1] An example of trying to fit Super Friends into the DC Universe:
  • Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog are the only ones active at the Hall of Justice because the Justice League are in the 30th Century with the Justice Society as shown in Justice League of America #147-148. Robin is busy helping the Titans in Teen Titans #50-52.

While the show never explained the departure of Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog, the story is found in Super Friends #6-9.

Extreme Justice

The Wonder Twins were members of the short-lived JLI offshoot, Extreme Justice.

Super Buddies

The lighthearted nature of the show was partially spoofed in the 2000s with two DC miniseries, Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League! (although these series were more direct take-offs on the 1980s Blue Beetle/Booster Gold-era Justice League). In these miniseries, the group is known as the “Super Buddies,” and consists of a team of various ex-Justice League members. Writer Keith Giffen has stated that his original proposal was titled 1-800-SUPERFRIENDS.

Teen Titans

In #34 (2006), Wendy and Marvin are now part of DC continuity. They are now fraternal twins (a possible nod to their Super Friends successors, the Wonder Twins), engineering geniuses (apparently having graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at sixteen), and are employed at Titans Tower as maintenance crew and all-around mechanical troubleshooters. They were responsible for restoring Titans member Cyborg to full functions after he sustained damage to his artificial body parts during the events of the Infinite Crisis mini-series and publishing event.

Wizard Magazine

An issue parodied the Super Friends, in which the JLA is sent through a dimensional rift and meets some members of the Super Friends. After Martian Manhunter simply uses his Martian vision to melt the villain and his machine, much to Green Lantern’s dismay (“You have to trick him into leaving, or shutting off his machine, NOT direct physical violence!”) the Super Friends decided to send the JLAers back to their own dimension. The Wonder Twins turned into water and a bug and paddling, Green Lantern shone his ring on them, Flash ran around them a lot, and Aquaman stood around until water could be introduced in a convienent manner. Despite the fact that their plan made no sense scientifically, it worked and restored the JLAers to their proper world.

Alex Ross

Noted painter Alex Ross is an avowed fan of the show and has worked it into his various projects.

• Kingdom Come—The United Nations building resembles the Hall of Justice while the Gulag is obviously designed on the Hall of Doom. Marvin can also be spotted in a brief cameo in that book.
• Justice—A current 12-issue miniseries series in which a new and improved Legion of Doom clashes with the JLA.

Bumpers

Cartoon Network produced three commercials lampooning the Super Friends.

• One dealt with the idiosyncratic nature of the Legion of Doom and Brainiac’s odd manner of dress (Brainiac: “Look, I just want some pants...a decent pair of pants!” Solomon Grundy: “Solomon Grundy want pants, too!”).
• The second dealt with the Wonder Twins’ uselessness in battle (Zan: “I could get beaten by a sponge! It doesn’t even have to be an evil sponge!”).
• The third, co-starring The Powerpuff Girls, dealt with Aquaman’s useless powers (Aquaman: “My ability to talk to fish is of no use to us, Wonder Woman!”) as well as the level of violence compared to today’s cartoons, as Wonder Woman and Aquaman look away while the Powerpuff Girls beat up the Legion of Doom, going so far as to set the Scarecrow on fire.
• A 4th bumper was produced for Adult Swim. This bumper was a clip from the episode “The Time Trap,” and edited some beeping in to give the appearance of profanity. Many other Hanna Barbera toons had the same thing done.

There was a 5th bumper produced that lampooned the manner in which the Superfriends described every action before completing it (I need to reach my utility belt so that I may free myself). In this commercial, the heroes go to a movie and struggle to find money for popcorn.

Parody

Justice Friends

Various episodes of Dexter's Laboratory had a super hero team made up of Major Glory, Val Halen, and Krunk. This team was an obvious parody of the Super Friends as well as other parts of the super hero universe.

Superfriends Wassup!

An internet viral spoof of the Budweiser "Whassup" commercial featuring re-edited footage of Hanna-Barbera's, Super Friends.

Earthworm Jim Special Edition

At the end of the game’s Easy Mode ending, Doug TenNapel proclaims, “Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, Superman, Batman and Jan and Zayna, uh—the Wonder Twins. They’ve...pronounced that it’s the end. We’re not kidding. Uhh...really!”

That ’70s Show

Super Friends was spoofed in an episode with a dream sequence where the “Super Pals” made fun of Eric’s Superman because Donna’s Wonder Woman had given him a ring as a gift. “I got it at the mall!” she exclaims. The episode features Eric Forman as Superman, Donna as Wonder Woman, Kelso as Batman, Fez as Aquaman and Hyde & Jackie as the Wonder Twins. Red is also featured as their nemesis, “Dr. Bald.", wearing the Lex Luthor suit.

Maritess vs the Super Friends

Filipino comedian Rex Navarrete gave a satirized depiction of the Super Friends in his comedy routine about Maritess, a Filipina immigrant who worked as the Super Friends’ maid at the Hall of Justice. This was made into a short Macromedia Flash animation by Dino Ignacio. [2]

Justice League

In Secret Origins, Part 3, when Superman proposes the idea of a team, Flash responds “What, you mean like a bunch of...super friends?”

Justice League Unlimited

A first season episode of the Cartoon Network television series featured the Ultimen, a group of superheroes that are a pastiche of heroes unique to the Super Friends. The members were Long Shadow (based on Apache Chief), Wind Dragon (Samurai), Juice (Black Vulcan), Downpour (Zan of the Wonder Twins), and Shifter (Jayna of the Wonder Twins). The headquarters of the Ultimen, although on top of a skyscraper, resembled the Super Friends’ Hall of Justice. Of note also is that the JLU heroes featured in this episode was the line up of the original Super Friends, save for Robin as the concurrent Teen Titans cartoon series meant that no Bat-heroes beyond Batman himself could be used in the JLU.

The Fairly Oddparents

In the episode “Power Pals,” Timmy wishes for bigger, better, super friends. As a result, he gets a team of superheroes—the Power Pals—as “friends.” The four characters parody Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Aquaman, and come with their own narrator. Various aspects of Super Friends were parodied, such as randomly pressing beeping buttons (that flash in an equally random pattern) on any computer module, invisible vehicles (somehow, the Power Pals are able to recognize a dent in the invisible rocket, and can be seen from the outside as only the rocket is invisible), the uselessness of Aquaman’s (Wet Willy’s) ability to talk to fish and powerlessness outside of water, and near-instantaneous travel to distant galaxies.

South Park

The episode, "Super Best Friends", is a spoof on this series and depicts religious figures such as Jesus, Krishna and so on as a team of superheroes. The only member of “The Super Best Friends” who is not a religious figure is “Seaman” (who people continuiously mispronounced as "semen"), a spoof on Aquaman whose power is to talk to fish (referring to the fact that fans have viewed Aquaman, as seen in Super Friends, as a joke).

Additionally, the episode, "Krazy Kripples", features a Legion of Doom featuring Christopher Reeve as the leader.

Superficial Friends

An ongoing animated series featuring controversial celebrities Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, and The Olsen Twins in the roles of tasteless superheroes, created in 2006 by Heavy.com. Both the setting and the some of the girls’ superpowers are plays on elements from the Super Friends.

Trivia

• The commanding voice of the Narrator was provided by actor Ted Knight during the early hour-long episodes. His signature line was, “Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice!” William Woodson took over once they dropped the original format.
• Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog were inspired by the Scooby Doo gang. The voice of both Marvin and Wonder Dog were both performed by Frank Welker who also did the voice of the Scooby Doo gang’s Fred.
• The Hall of Justice from the Super Friends can be seen in the Teen Titans animated series. It appears behind the Titans Tower in the opening sequence and uses of the same shot in the show.
• In Lois and Clark, the term “Hall of Justice” was regularly used to refer to the city’s police headquarters. The building appeared, as the focus of a criminal plot, in the fourth season episode, “Lethal Weapon.” As the criminal, Mr. Gadget, attempted to level the building using a sonic weapon, the name “Hall of Justice” clearly appeared on its façade. It bore little resemblance to the Super Friends Hall of Justice, but rather was of the faux Greco-Roman design typical of many pre-World War II United States public buildings.
• The opening credits of Challenge of the Super Friends names the Super Friends as the Justice League of America. In addition to the appearance of a JLA emblem on a communicator and a reference to a mission to repair the Justice League satellite, the Super Friends are often linked with the JLA.
• In that mission, the Justice League satellite under repair is clearly the same design as the Justice League Satellite that appeared in the comics at the time, but was shown to be substantially smaller than its comic book counterpart, and thus uninhabitable.
• The Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode “MC Pee Pants” uses backgrounds taken from the Challenge of the Superfriends episode “Monolith of Evil” for the location of Hell.
• “The Hall of Justice” as often seen in the cartoon, seems to have a striking resemblance to the Union Terminal building in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once a train station, it is now a museum. It seems likely that the animators copied the design from this or a similar building.
• In No Meals on Wheels, an episode of the cult favorite TV series Family Guy, Peter makes a reference to the Mexican Superfriends, and a non-sequitor shows many Mexican versions of superheroes, including "Mexican Superman" and "Mexican Batman".
• Adam West, best known for portraying the Caped Crusader in the Batman TV series, provided the voice for Batman in the Super-Powers shows.
• In "The Batman" the season finale of season 4 introduces a form of the Justice League. When their space station headquarters is shown fully it resembles the Super Friend's Hall of Justice vey closely.

External links

• Super Friends at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Will's Ultimate Super Friends Episode Guide!
• Superfriends Model Sheets at Legions of Gotham!